John Bamber

Opening the doors of higher education to working class adults: a case study

This paper, which is situated within a discourse of inclusivity, is concerned with Higher Educations response to the needs of groups, such as working class adults with negative experiences of school, who are currently excluded from higher education throughout Europe. It argues, using illustrations from a case study, that there are a variety of organizational and pedagogical implications that must be addressed if participation is to be widened which relate to both individual ability and attitude and to institutional and situational barriers. It concludes that all universities have conceptions of equity which reflect ideological positions and influence the practice that is seen as acceptable. The dilemma facing those committed to social inclusion is that too much emphasis on the structural can imply that the efforts of individual students are of little consequence in determining success or failure. It is argued that a counter-balancing position is needed in which, whilst acknowledging the contribution of t...

Youth Work: The Possibilities for Critical Practice

ABSTRACT Critical youth-work practice is crucial at a time when the changing policy context presents significant opportunities for looking at and engaging with old problems in new ways. Critical practice accords with emergent directions in social policy which seek to breathe new life into the democratic process. The potential for critical practice is inherent in many aspects of youth work but workers need to be clearer about concepts such as power, purpose and learning, and forms of social action which connect the personal to the political. Because there can be no critical practice without critical practitioners, workers need a strong theoretical framework to underpin their work. In the end it is a question of ‘know-how’ where critical purpose is both clear and embodied in the processes of youth work itself.

Widening Participation and Meta-Learning: Risking Less in He

Issues of structure, exclusion and ‘choice’ mean that participation in HE is an inherently more risky, costly and uncertain exercise for working-class groups and there is a need to consider how educational cultures and practices themselves might create and perpetuate disadvantage. Active engagement in the teaching and learning process is more likely to occur when course content, tasks, activities, and vehicles for assessment systematically encourage and support meta-learning. The contention is illustrated with reference to the learning experiences of students in a course that sought to elicit and challenge taken-for-granted, often tacit, conceptions of self, work, education and the process of learning itself. The study suggests that attention to curriculum is central to the real achievement of widening access.

Critical Reflection and Readiness for University in Non-traditional Students: Implications for Informal Educators

Within the context of increasing pressures to widen participation, this article is based on small-scale qualitative research into the pre-course experiences of some non-traditional students undertaking a BA in Community Education. The central idea is that developing the capacity for critical reflection (Brookfield, 2000), through participation in informal learning activities, is significant in enabling the ‘readiness’ of non-traditional students for university. If this is the case, it follows that there are pedagogical implications for the work of informal educators in assisting adult learners to develop this capacity. In some ways the article can be read as a response to Preece et als (1998, p 7) call for further research into ‘how curriculum content and teaching and learning styles’ can sustain and widen participation. The article concludes by suggesting that the development of this capacity could form a crucial bridge between informal modes of learning and the learning required in HE.