Adult literacy practitioners and employability skills: resisting neo-liberalism?

We draw on theories of policy enactment to explore the ways in which the situated, material and external contexts and professional cultures in adult literacy in the UK have influenced practitioners. Our analysis of the transnational (OECD, EU) and UK external policy contexts found that skills-related education is prioritised, with a focus on economic growth through increased productivity and accountability. This can lead to a narrow conceptualisation of literacy as a set of information processing skills needed for employment that limits the curriculum so that the knowledge of the participants is ignored. However, our findings show that there is not a one-way flow from the transnational to the local. Instead, literacy practitioners translate and enact policy texts based on their situated contexts and professional cultures leading to approaches to teaching and learning that keep learners and their goals at the centre of the curriculum. We conclude that shared understandings of good practice and an underpinning value system, along with creative ways of delivering pre-set outcomes, allow practitioners to resist to some extent the neoliberal discourse whilst meeting the requirements of policy and funding. However, how feasible delivering this alternative curriculum is over the longer term remains to be seen.     

Improved academic performance and enhanced employability? The potential double benefit of proactivity for business graduates

This study contributes to proactivity theory and debate on how universities meet competing stakeholder demands in an increasingly marketized higher education environment. We explore how the interplay between the stable facet of proactive personality and the situated behaviour of personal initiative influence academic performance. We hypothesized and found that students high on both these facets of proactivity achieve better academic grades than those low on both, or high in just one. Unexpectedly, high proactive personality with low personal initiative behaviour was the worst combination. Proactivity can be a valuable employability asset, which alongside academic grades is important to some employers as well as students and universities. We argue that nurturing student proactivity can therefore produce multiple benefits but with focus on the more trainable dimension of personal initiative behaviour. To this end we provide practical guidance for university curriculum design to simultaneously enhance graduate employability and academic performance.     

No ‘self’ left behind? Part-time distance learning university graduates: social class,graduate identity and employability

Higher education (HE) is regarded as a pathway to upward social mobility for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Social mobility is itself seen as important both for individual and national prosperity and is a key driver of government funding for HE. While access to HE has substantially increased over the past number of years, the evidence suggests that social inequalities continue to be reproduced, with working-class students more frequently accessing lower status institutions and courses. This in turn can impact negatively on their labour market outcomes. This paper offers a critical appraisal on the employability discourse. Drawing on a survey of 268 distance graduates from an Irish university, together with 5 individual interviews, findings indicate that distance graduates are likely to be from lower socio-economic backgrounds and have delayed participation in university education for reasons relating to social class. Although mostly in employment, they are motivated to participate in HE by their concerns regarding their long-term employability. The literature identifies that our employability is something we negotiate with others. This paper posits that, for distance graduates, in addition to this process of convincing others, the graduate must also convince themselves of the value of their own achievement. Transitioning to graduate employment, and developing a graduate identity, can therefore be a slow internal and external process of negotiation.     

Employing discourse: universities and graduate ‘employability’

What constitutes graduate employability is discursively framed. In this paper we argue that whilst universities in the UK have long had an involvement in producing useful and productive citizens, the ongoing neoliberalisation of higher education has engendered a discursive shift in definitions of employability. Traditionally, universities regarded graduate employment as an aspect of institutions’ relationship with the labour market, and one where they enjoyed a significant degree of discretion. Now, employability is a performative function of universities, shaped and directed by the state, which is seeking to supplant labour markets. We argue that this has three profound implications. First, state intervention in labour markets adjusts power balances in favour of employers. Second, contrary to the legitimising rationale of enhancing social justice, pursuit of employability agendas may well be creating two tiers of universities – those that produce docile employees and those that produce employers/leaders. And third, employability discourses may be adversely affecting pedagogies and curricula, to the disbenefit of students, institutions, employers, social justice and civil society.     

The correspondence of public perceptions of graduates’ life chances and university departmental funding

Very little prior research has examined public perceptions of research funding and the life chances associated with various fields of study. In the present task, 315 members of the Austrian general public rated 34 higher-education courses in terms of funding cuts or increases, and the perceived life chances of graduates, respectively. The results showed a high degree of correspondence in the ratings of both questionnaires. Overall, professional and biological stream courses were rated the most favourably, whereas arts and humanities courses were rated the least favourably. Participants’ demographic variables had little influence on their decisions. The implications of these findings for the way higher education is managed and organised are discussed.     

SST (Successful Strategic Teaching): Enhancing Adult Learners’ Motivation and Achievement

Enhancing motivation in adult learners is often a difficult task in today’s college classroom. Significant reforms in America’s educational system have directed the initiative to adopt Common Core Standards in Language Arts by all 50 states. With the focus on increased rigor and depth of understanding in learning, the hope is to prepare students throughout the K–12 sequence for college and careers. This new instructional model requires moving students from passive recipients to active learners. Although the arrival of an expanding population is encouraging for college communities, the issue of underprepared college students must be addressed. Instructional methods designed to cultivate active learning and critical thinking through more contextualized, hands-on teaching activities produced initial evidence of improved reading achievement.     

The purpose of education: pedagogues’ and teachers’ negotiations in Danish primary schools*

In 2014, the Danish primary school system went through a major reform. One main change is the greater participation of pedagogues in school. This is a dramatic change both for teachers and for pedagogues, a distinct profession, traditionally working outside school and representing a creative and social approach to learning and wellbeing. This article examines how teachers and pedagogues in an action research project negotiate their new common work and which understandings of good pedagogical practice these negotiations express. The article shows that international educational rationales about learnification and attainment that are found in the Danish reform, affect the professionals’ understandings of professionalism and educational practices, and that this marginalises some traditional pedagogical practices. However, the article also shows that both pedagogues and teachers critique dominant educational policy rationales and explore what space for action exists in the reform.     

Enculturation and Understanding: some differences between sixth formers’ and graduates’ conceptions of understanding in History and Science

Abstract

Understanding is often a highly valued learning outcome in higher education. If new students’ conceptions of understanding are inappropriate or are different to the conceptions of those who teach them, the quality of the students’ learning may suffer. This study compared aspects of sixth formers’ and graduates’ conceptions of understanding in History and Science. It was found that some new students are likely to begin higher education with conceptions that could point them towards a kind of learning that is not what is expected. For instance, in both history and science, there may be a tendency to emphasise the acquisition of factual information. Perhaps less obvious would be students who tend to over‐simplify events in History and those who undervalue simplification and idealisation of a situation in Science. Aspects of the conceptions of understanding that such new students may bring to their courses are described. Some strategies for developing students’ subject‐specific conceptions are also outlined.     

Parents’ Negative Relational Disclosures and Young Adult Children’s Perceptions of Appropriateness and Feelings of Being Caught

This study tested the degree to which the perceived appropriateness of parents’ negative relational disclosures moderated the association between such disclosures and young adult children’s feelings of being caught between their parents. Participants included 241 young adult children who completed online surveys. Whereas negative relational disclosures received from both mother and father positively predicted children feeling caught, the perceived appropriateness of those disclosures inversely predicted their feelings of being caught. After controlling for divorce status, the positive association between negative relational disclosures and feelings of being caught depended upon the perceived appropriateness of the disclosures for fathers but not for mothers.     

European graduates’ level of satisfaction with higher education

In this paper we investigate satisfaction rates among young European higher education graduates with their tertiary level study. Ordered choice models are used to parse out those factors that influence study satisfaction, such as environmental factors, field of study, usefulness of study and other individual-specific characteristics. Results show that those graduates who were most satisfied with their course of study scored course content and social aspects very highly, while opportunity to participate in research projects and poor supply of teaching materials were among the main reasons for dissatisfaction with higher education studies.     

Stories of family in working-class graduates’ early careers

How do young graduates view the role of immediate families in influencing/supporting them as they start their working lives and how do those reflections affect how they think of themselves as graduates? Social, political and economic changes have led to many young people being dependent on family for longer, but how does this play out in their reflections? This article addresses these questions by reporting upon findings from qualitative research with 14 young people from working-class backgrounds, who were part of a larger study of recent graduates. Figured Worlds theory illuminates data, with a consideration of the role that family plays in the ‘space of authoring’ and understanding of ‘positionality’. Findings capture vivid stories of the enabling but also limiting role of family. In our analysis of data, we borrow the words ‘salience’ from Holland and her co-authors and ‘distinction’ from Bourdieu, which help capture different depictions of family. Both articulations of ‘salience’ and a search for ‘distinction’ emerge in how graduates’ stories respond to family. We argue for a greater appreciation of the differing family resources of working-class graduates, and reject an emphasis on what they may lack, compared to their peers, which has tended to be the case in some media and policy commentary. There are implications for educators to foster student reflexivity about family sensitively, and to be aware of how family backgrounds may influence graduate career paths and students’ awareness of wider inequalities.     

Where to now for early childhood care and education (ECCE) graduates? A study of the experiences of Irish BA ECCE degree graduates

International definitions of early childhood locate the field with the care and education of children between birth and six years. In Ireland, this definition applies to both pre-school and the infant classes of primary school. While primary school teachers in Ireland must hold a Bachelor of Education degree, there is no minimum training requirement for those working within the early childhood care and education (ECCE) sectors in crèches, pre-schools and so on. Consequently, the ECCE sector is characterised by a mix of trained, semi-trained and unqualified teachers. Many third-level Colleges, Universities and Institutes of Technology offer a degree programme in ECCE. One such college is Mary Immaculate College, offering a BA degree in ECCE since 2003. Drawing upon a BA ECCE Graduate Occupational Profile Survey, distributed to all graduates from the programme between 2007 and 2010, this paper explores a graduate's experiences with regard to their experiences of working within the ECCE sector. Although the majority of respondents were gainfully employed within the sector, the overarching finding across all graduate cohorts from 2007 to 2010 was that in Ireland, ‘ECCE is an undervalued under-appreciated profession’ (2009 graduate).     

Academics’ and employers’ perceptions about responsibilities for employability and their initiatives towards its development

This paper reports the results of preliminary research into how Portuguese academics and employers perceive the responsibility of different higher education stakeholders—students, teaching staff, higher education institutions, employers, and policy-makers—for developing graduate employability. The study was conducted 8 years after the implementation of the Bologna Process, the reform that placed employability firmly on the agenda of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Portugal. This paper aims to assess the extent to which higher education is held responsible for developing employability, and to characterize the activities undertaken by the two actors to achieve that end. In particular, with respect to academics, we characterize curricular and other changes to study programmes, and, with respect to employers, their participation in activities undertaken by HEIs meant to ease the transition of students to the labour market. The data comes from a survey responded to by 684 Portuguese academics and 64 employers. Academics and employers alike were found to attribute high responsibility for developing employability to higher education, suggesting that the political message of the Bologna Process regarding the relation between higher education and the labour market has been assimilated. However, the activities reported by both types of respondents indicate only an average commitment to developing employability. Here, the low participation of employers in internal institutional activities is noteworthy, suggesting that the recognition of employers as stakeholders in higher education, as advocated by policy-makers, has yet to happen in Portugal.     

‘That extra sparkle’: students’ experiences of volunteering and the impact on satisfaction and employability in higher education

Research suggests that students entering Higher Education are doing so with greater expectations around their graduate employability. Students’ volunteering activities have been of interest to academics, but the impact of these activities on learning, employability and student satisfaction has been neglected. The current study investigated whether students who volunteered felt it benefited them, whether they felt they were more employable and whether they perceived their course as satisfying in combination with their volunteering. This small-scale qualitative study used a sample of psychology undergraduate students in focus groups (n = 11), and also a number of psychology graduate interviews (n = 6) from one UK university. Thematic analysis produced several key themes including students’ motivations to begin volunteering, which were mainly career-oriented; their motivations to continue, which included rewarding feelings and personal development; the impact of volunteering on their psychology degree, which included situated learning; and their perceptions of their volunteering and its impact on their employability. The findings indicated many reasons for both starting and continuing with volunteering activities with a clear narrative among this sample that volunteering enhanced their employment and postgraduate prospects. Findings are discussed in line with the current context of Higher Education and the implications for both students and Higher Education Institutions.     

Lower income students and the ‘double deficit’ of part-time work: undergraduate experiences of finance,studying and employability

This paper explores how the various pressures of finance, employability and part-time work are experienced by undergraduates studying in an English Red Brick University. Drawing on the results of a 3-year qualitative study that followed 40 students throughout their 3 years of studies (n? = 40, n? = 40, n? = 38, n_total = 118), the paper details three dimensions by which students understood their part-time employment experiences: the characteristics of employment types; motivations for employment and the challenges of shaping their employment experiences around their studies. It is argued that the current shortfalls in the student budget and the pressures of the employability agenda may actually serve to further disadvantage the lower income groups in the form of a ‘double deficit’. Not only are discrepancies between income and expenditure likely to mean that additional monies are necessary to study for a degree, the resulting need for part-time employment is also likely to constrain both degree outcome and capacity to enhance skills necessary for ‘employability’.     

‘The degree is not enough’: students’ perceptions of the role of higher education credentials for graduate work and employability

The UK Government is calling upon higher education students to see their learning as an investment that will give them direct benefits in the labour market. At the same time, the relationship between educational credentials and their returns in labour market has been changing in recent times. Based on a qualitative study with 53 final‐year undergraduate students in a pre‐1992 university, this article examines the way higher education students understand the role of their educational credentials in relation to their future employability. It shows that students perceive their academic qualifications as having a declining role in shaping their employment outcomes in what is perceived to be a congested and competitive graduate labour market. While academic credentials are still seen as a significant dimension of their employability, students increasingly see the need to add value to them in order to gain an advantage in the labour market.     

Lesbian,Gay and Bisexual teachers’ negotiations of civil partnership and schools: ambivalent attachments to religion and secularism

As legal structures for same-sex relationships are introduced in many contexts, the politics of sexuality are negotiated along religious/secular lines. Religious and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBT-Q) rights are pitted against one another such that LGBT-Q lives often assumed to be secular. Schools are crucibles of intermingling religious, secular and equality discourses and this complexity is carefully negotiated by LGBT-Q teachers in their everyday lives. Drawing on a study with LGB teachers as they entered into a Civil Partnership in Ireland (a legal structure in place for five years prior to enactment of Marriage Equality in 2015), this paper captures a ‘structure of feeling’ – new cultural work done as sexuality norms were in a state of flux. The teachers’ accounts unravel the religious/secular binary and provide insight of universal interest into the ambivalent, messy ways in which the politics of sexuality are (re)negotiated across the overlapping social fields of religion and education.