John Holford

Critical Communicative Methodology: including vulnerable voices in research through dialogue

This article describes how Critical Communicative Methodology (CCM) has been used successfully to analyse educational inequalities in ways that generate real transformation towards social justice. We begin by arguing that educational research today should employ new methodological approaches that can ensure the inclusion of different voices in social science research and the production of knowledge that transforms social exclusion. We then analyse the main epistemological positions of CCM, based on Habermas’ communicative action theory, and explain how it was implemented in the European Union-funded INCLUD-ED project. Finally, we illustrate how INCLUD-ED has had a social and political impact and we argue that research with vulnerable groups, based on the principles of CCM, can generate social and educational transformation.

Citizenship, learning and education: themes and issues

The explosion of sociological, political and legal literature on citizenship over the past decade has been paralleled in many countries by policy initiatives to develop and extend citizenship educa...

Why do adults learn? Developing a motivational typology across 12 European countries

Participation in adult education is today generally considered an individual responsibility. However, participation is the result of a complex bounded agency between individuals, educational institutions and regulating governments. This paper explores the motives of 12,000 European adult learners in formal adult education in 12 European countries. Analysis shows consistent patterns comparable to welfare state typologies. Further exploration demonstrates that motives to participate in adult education courses can be interpreted in relation to the labour market, education and social policy in the country of participation.

Hard Measures for Soft Stuff: Citizenship Indicators and Educational Policy under the Lisbon Strategy.

How far is the European Union a vehicle for inclusion and empowerment of a new range of policy actors in education? This article explores the role of actors in policy formation through a case study. It examines European Union attempts since 2000 to develop indicators of ‘active citizenship’ and ‘education and training for active citizenship’. It is based on two main sources: policy documents on the development of indicators and benchmarks; and a case study of an exercise (2005–07) to develop such indicators, initiated by the European Commissions Directorate General for Education and Culture. It shows that policy actors have attempted to take advantage of the Open Method of Coordination, often seen as a neo-liberal control mechanism, to ensure that citizenship remains on the policy agenda.

Adult and lifelong education: the European Union, its member states and the world

For two decades, the European Union has been at the forefront of international policy-making on lifelong learning. From the European Commission’s white papers on Growth, Competitiveness, Employment (Commission of the European Communities [CEC], 1993), and Teaching and Learning: Towards a Learning Society (CEC, 1995), and its adoption of 1996 as the ‘European Year of Lifelong Learning’, the EU has developed lifelong learning as an important policy tool. When a major world power—albeit not a nation-state as such—espouses adult and lifelong education as a vehicle for its political, economic and social aims, we should expect scholars of adult education, of education more generally, and indeed of social policy in general, to take note. Perhaps (as Holford & Mlezcko, 2013 suggest) a little belatedly, they have. A little unevenly too: the development has been noticed more by educational than by social policy researchers. But although ‘lifelong learning’ has been more and more present in EU policy language since the mid-1990s, what the term has meant has been far from static. It has also varied both between countries—EU member states and others —and within them, and not always in exactly the same ways. Even within a single state, its policy significance can vary by sector, or between jurisdictions—as it

The Role of Lifelong Learning in Building Citizenship: European Union Approaches in the Light of British and Colonial Experience.

This article considers European Union measures to strengthen ‘citizenship’ through the use of lifelong learning in the light of two twentieth‐century British initiatives. European citizenship is discussed, and current EU initiatives to harness lifelong learning to the development of citizenship are briefly outlined. Aspects of British and colonial experienced are then explored. The particular cases studied are: attempts to develop enhanced citizenship in 1940s Britain; and community dvelopment for citizenship learning in the British colonial empire after 1945. EU policies share a ‘thick’ conception of citizenship with both these historical cases; ‘thick’ conceptions may be necessary in order to mobilise educational movements. In the historical cases examined, this approach was constantly challenged by demands for economic efficiency, and proved insufficiently strongly‐embedded in official thinking. In the contemporary EU, comparable tensions exist; though the outcome remains unclear.

The lost honour of the Social Dimension: Bologna, exports and the idea of the university

In important respects, European ideas of the university have spread across the world. The principal ‘philosophical’ statements on which this idea of the university is based (Humboldt and Newman) assumed the people inhabiting universities—as students—would come from the youth of a social elite. The outward-facing elements of the Bologna Process, and the European Higher Education Area, aiming mainly at promoting higher education as an export business, focus on students of similar age and social status; its internal mobility dimensions have a similar effect within Europe. The social dimension of Bologna, in contrast, aimed to open higher education more across the social spectrum—though still assuming that the principal groups enrolling would be young. Bologna’s social dimension was strongly influenced by EU debates and policy approaches: while it arguably owed its origins to this fact, the social dimension’s limited success (and more recent displacement from policy, if not rhetoric) can be put down in large part to the difficulties in encapsulating complex and contested social priorities in internationally acceptable indicators, and to the EU’s valorisation of competitiveness in the Lisbon Process (particularly after the onset of recession in 2008).

Widening participation, social mobility and the role of universities in a globalized world

A university education has long been seen as the gateway to upward social mobility for individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds in countries the world over, and a well-educated working population is presented as a pathway to national prosperity for both developed and developing nations alike (e.g. Leitch, 2006). Given the higher number of socially advantaged young people who have traditionally entered university then, which in many developed nations has effectively been at saturation point, any expansion in numbers of higher education students must be achieved by broadening the social base of the undergraduate population, or ‘widening participation’ as it is usually known. The so-called ‘widening participation agenda’ has been driven by the twin objectives of social justice for the individual and greater economic prosperity for the wider society, objectives that are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Political rhetoric and media discourse have supported and reinforced these notions, and government policy in the developed world has, at least until relatively recently in the last half century or so, sought to ensure the expansion of higher education (e.g. Dearing, 1997; Robbins, 1963). At the heart of this policy is the need to reach out to people from social groups not traditionally associated with university study (Milburn, 2009; National Audit Office [NAO], 2002). This social justice project continues to be supported by recent national and international initiatives since the financial crash of 2008. The 2011 UK Government White Paper Students at the Heart of the System, (BIS, 2011) for instance, suggested that ‘... widening participation for students of all backgrounds remains a key strategic objective for all higher education institutions’. Whilst in Europe, the position is also similar, the Bucharest Communique (European Higher Education Area [EHEA], 2012) suggesting that ‘(T)he student body entering and graduating from higher education institutions should reflect the diversity of Europe’s populations’. Readers of this journal will have their own interpretations of what such laudable declarations may mean in practice (e.g. see Holford’s article in this issue) and that will vary from not just regional, national or continental perspectives, but also in terms of other ‘demographic’ factors impacting upon groups of individuals, including gender, ethnicity, dis/ability, social class, religion, sexuality, rural/urban locality and, perhaps most pertinently in the pages of IJLE, age.

Effectiveness, inequality and ethos in three English schools

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the nature of effective schools serving socially disadvantaged communities, and to point to an overlooked feature in the literature on school effectiveness in relation to social inclusion.Design/methodology/approach – As part of a trans‐European project, three English schools are investigated. A qualitative case study approach is utilised. The schools selected have high proportions of ethnic minority students with low socio‐economic status backgrounds, yet demonstrate successful results.Findings – The data show the importance of high expectations, and the development of classroom and school‐wide systems to translate these into practice. This reflects areas highlighted by earlier research on schools in disadvantaged communities. The data also point to important conclusions about school ethos.Research limitations/implications – The findings are based on a sample of three schools. Though purposively selected (as successful in challenging circumstances), further research i...

Vocationalism Varies (A Lot): A 12-Country Multivariate Analysis of Participation in Formal Adult Learning.

To encourage adult participation in education and training, contemporary policy makers typically encourage education and training provision to have a strongly vocational (employment-related) character, while also stressing individuals’ responsibility for developing their own learning. Adults’ motivation to learn is not, however, purely vocational—it varies substantially, not only between individuals but between populations. This article uses regression analysis to explain motivation among 12,000 learners in formal education and training in 12 European countries. Although vocational motivation is influenced by individual-level characteristics (such as age, gender, education, occupation), it turns out that the country in which the participation takes place is a far stronger explanatory variable. For example, although men’s vocational motivation to participate is higher than women’s in all countries, Eastern European women have significantly higher levels of vocational motivation than men in Western Europe. This supports other research which suggests that, despite globalization, national institutional structures (social, economic) have continuing policy significance.