Search Results for
"education"

The contemporary efflorescence of lifelong learning discourse in education and social planning is argued here to be, substantially, the product of economic determinism. That discourse is evaluated from the perspective of three progressive sentiments that have informed lifelong learning advocacy: the individual, the democratic and the adaptive. Each progressive sentiment is seen as expressing a central programmatic purpose for educational reform and as capturing its ethical thrust. Contemporary lifelong learning discourse is found to be only superficially expressive of these informing sentiments. The progressive, ethical, liberatory nature of each sentiment is marginalized or excluded from the discourse, which may best be seen, accordingly, as seriously regressive, counter-ethical and non-liberatory. It is substantially lacking in critical concern, social vision, and any commitment to social justice and equity. It constructs education as a commodified private good, for which individuals should pay. It focuses strongly on individual interests and on vocational skills development. That education which is funded by the state, is focused increasingly on the development of basic life and vocational skills in the interests of engagement in and service to the global economy. Educational engagement is increasingly seen as desirably embedded in the economically productive activities that are its desired outcomes, further limiting any opportunity for socially progressive learning. It is suggested that if the prevailing lifelong learning discourse is to be made more culturally progressive- in both its educational activities and its learning outcomes- it cannot be through a return to traditional progressive ideologies. Rather, it must accept prevailing epistemology in refocusing that discourse. Paradoxically, although non-compliant educationists are now largely marginalized and ineffectual in their influence on the nature of the contemporary lifelong learning agenda, their vocation and their increasing suffusion throughout contemporary cultural formations places them in a potentially strong position to lead cultural and educational change in directions that are more culturally progressive. © 2000 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The design and delivery of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in the United Kingdom have suffered from both conceptual operational problems. This article identifies two ways of dealing with these problems that are based on wider research findings. The first approach is to move from a narrow model of quality control to a Total Quality Management approach. The European Quality Foundation model for Total Quality Management is suggested as an appropriate approach. This model is then analysed against the current approaches to assessment verification of NVQs. The approach of developing ‘situated learning in communities of practice’ is used to focus on the weaknesses of the existing system. The specific issues of simulation and sampling analysed are covered in some depth, with improved approaches suggested. Finally, the article explores the implications of the adoption of radically different quality criteria, with built-in continuing professional development based on collaborative and situated learning. These implications include substantial modernisation of existing policy and practice, and allocation of appropriate resources, as well as the development of an approach to the implementation of change consistent with these findings. © 2000 Journal of Vocational education and Trainin. All rights reserved.

Research findings on graduate employment in the UK continue to highlight the importance that employers attach to the general knowledge, attitudes and social skills that graduates possess in addition to specific disciplinary knowledge and expertise. Additionally, work based learning is increasingly being viewed as an important vehicle by which undergraduates can develop personal and social skills, as well as gaining knowledge of how organisations work. In this paper I will argue that although developments in undergraduate work based learning do raise a number of issues for higher education institutions and for employers, such developments have much to offer the broader education policy of lifelong learning. © 2000, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

The paper Addresses one aspect of the ‘New Realities’ of higher education: the employer-higher education interface. It explores the development of the ‘employability’ agenda in higher education, examines the nature and implication of organisational change for graduates and assesses what attributes graduates will need in the next decade. Flexible organisations need flexible, and increasingly empowered employees; that in turn calls for transformative and empowering learning. The way that higher education might Address this, particularly in the context of lifelong learning, is explored. © 2000, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Over the last decade, a competency-based approach to education and training has become widely used in a broad range of education and training contexts, most particularly, vocational education and training (VET). Among other things, this approach emphasizes the importance of knowledge and skill that is portable, visible and expressible. Various products have been developed (e.g. competencies, competency standards, Training Packages) to enable access to this knowledge and skill and secure its foundational role. Other knowledge and skill - that is, knowledge and skill that is situated and not easily visible and expressible - is seemingly rendered redundant. This paper discusses the role and significance of situated practises in competency-based training (CBT), most particularly embodied knowledge and tacit skills. Using empirical material collected in the course of a recent research project on CBT, the argument is made that the body, as currently constituted in VET products, is understood more as a symbolic/informational than material/physical entity. This understanding gives rise to a ‘thin’ conception of vocational competence and, sometimes, a thin practise of developing this competence. More broadly, the body is a critical site of contestation between radically different goals (e.g. industrial/educational, global/local). Bodily specificity (e.g. tacit skills, experienced judgement) can be mobilized to challenge the universalizing impulses of CBT. Indeed, this specificity completes or is necessary to these impulses. It plays a constitutive role in the practice of vocational education and training and could, with profit, be more fully recognized and supported in its policy. © 2000 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.