A service,a ‘way of working’, or a profession? A discourse analysis of community education/community learning and development in Scotland

Community-based informal education, like other practices, is fundamentally shaped by the discourses under which it is constituted. In Scotland, since 1975, the practice has been formally established by government policy as an amalgam of youth work, adult education and community development under a discourse of informal education. This combination carries its own internal tensions alongside the continually contested relationship between the field of practice and the State. This study analyses key documents in order to chart the shifts in discourse around the constitution of Community Education/Community Learning and Development since 1975. The analysis reveals the force of managerialist discourses which transformed understandings of the practice from post-war welfare state discourses as a service, to its reshaping as technique under New Labour. Current discursive work is directed to its reconstitution (still somewhat ambivalently) as a profession. This ‘re-professionalisation’ connects with similar movements in medicine, social work, parole and teaching which are attempting to reduce the costs of actuarial disciplinary techniques (in record-keeping, reporting and the generation of outcome data) by returning professional trust and judgement to practitioners.     

Diversity,adult education and the future: a tentative exploration

Diversity in its many guises is strongly championed in the adult education literature. To conceive a future for adult education that is not diverse and does not try to address the needs of diverse learners seems absurd. Yet, diversity is not a unitary concept, having many definitions and paradoxical effects. Questions arise about its future in a globalizing world. It is not obvious that all facets of diversity in adult education can thrive into the future. This paper attempts to explore the future of diversity in adult education. It applies two methodologies used in futures research to do so. One, causal layered analysis (CLA), enables the present to be analysed critically in order to explore possible futures. In this paper CLA is used to identify possible effects of globalization on diversity in adult education. The other methodology used is visioning. The adult education literature is examined for its visions of diversity. Four different visions are identified. Each theorizes diversity differently. One aims for individual personal development within an accommodating, non‐critical context. A second emphasizes personal development but within a context that is critical, striving for a more just society. A third envisions social learning facilitating change towards a critical, more just society. A fourth focuses on social learning but within an accommodating, non‐critical context. CLA and visioning enable some tentative statements to be made about the future of diversity in adult education. Chief among them is that diversity, when valued in the market place, will prosper, while diversity that is intended to act as an agent for social change will not.     

The vocational turn of adult education in Denmark – an analysis of adult education policy from the late 1990s

ABSTRACT

Denmark has a strong and versatile tradition of adult education. Over a long historical period, adult education for public enlightenment and leisure, for continuing study and for vocational and professional competence have been developed, been made part of state policy and been used by citizens. But in recent years the public and political presence of Danish adult education has changed. While education policy issues generally abound in public and political debates, adult education is given much less attention than earlier. In this article, we trace the causes of this and conclude that it reflects a turn towards focusing on vocational types of adult education and a relocation of adult education policy to networks linking the state and the social partners. Drawing on theories of policy streams, policy networks and the competition state, we provide a historical analysis of Danish adult education reforms during the past two decades and document how the vocational turn has manifested itself.     

Steps towards participation: the social support of learning trajectories

In this paper we argue that interventions aimed at preventing social exclusion need to be informed by detailed analysis of the formation, disruption, reformation and support of trajectories of participation in the opportunities for action provided. We draw on evidence we gathered on the lives of two women who used an inner city drop‐in centre to discuss how resilience and trajectories of inclusion are built slowly over time in relationship with others. Using concepts derived from sociocultural psychology and activity theory, we interrogate the evidence to first ask whether there is a pattern of changes in participation over time and to then explore how the identity shifts these changes represent are supported. The analysis reveals that there is a pattern, but it is a pattern of using and giving support which suggests that such trajectories are likely to be recursive. This using and giving of support we term relational agency and argue that a capacity for relational agency, as both the supported and the supporter, is a crucial factor in the development of purposive identities and the building of resilience. We also suggest that it is likely to be encouraged in settings which can foster trust and reciprocity as flexible and open learning zones.     

An approach to understanding school attendance difficulties: pupils' perceptions of parental behaviour in response to their requests to be absent from school

The UK government has encouraged schools and local authorities to promote school attendance because of its associations with academic attainment and antisocial behaviour. Legislation makes school attendance a parental responsibility. This small‐scale study collected data on parent–child interaction immediately prior to school absence to examine how such interaction influenced the development of attendance difficulties. Good and poor school attenders, of 12–13 years of age, were compared on quantifiable measures of their self‐reported requests to be absent from school, their perceived parents' responses, self‐reported whole‐day and lesson truancy, and expected parental reaction to truancy. School absence requests were significantly more frequent among the poor attenders, who gained more absence and whose parents were inconsistent in their responses to the requests. Education social work/welfare services and school pastoral staff need well‐formulated methods, backed by empirical research, if they are to work effectively with parents and young people and substantially raise their low attendance.     

Management,Entrepreneurship and Private Service Orientation: A Framework for Undergraduate Veterinary Education

Abstract

The changing nature of livestock outreach service delivery, manpower requirements and opportunities in the private sector provide both push and pull dynamics for veterinary graduates to engage in managerial, entrepreneurial, public and private service activities. The veterinary schools should support this transition by integrating Managerial, Entrepreneurship and Service (MES) orientation in the curriculum. This transition is a quite challenging task, as the core content of the Veterinary Council of India curriculum consists of basic, productive, para-clinical and clinical subjects with little emphasis on MES aspects. Merely introducing a one-off intervention such as a semester course may not be sufficient. What is proposed with 730 class hours is a two- pronged integrative approach: i) introduce the functional management disciplines into the veterinary undergraduate curriculum; and ii) integrate the entrepreneurial, public and private service philosophy into each of the production, para-clinical and clinical courses with a curriculum for public and private service as electives. This integrative approach is expected to produce graduates as job givers rather than job seekers by mastering both the science of veterinary and animal husbandry and the art of management and entrepreneurship.     

Using Technology to Help Teachers Meet the Needs of Language‐minority Students in the USA

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to meet the challenges of increasingly diverse school populations and increased limitations on methods of instruction for pre‐service teachers, the Bilingual Training, Development, and Improvement Project at the University of Houston has developed five interactive video modules for linguistic‐minority students. Commercial videodiscs were repurposed using HyperCard, and the modules were field‐tested on fourth and fifth graders in inner‐city schools. Results from content and language measures indicated that students showed significant gains after viewing the modules. Students also responded favorably to the technology on attitude surveys. An interactive video program designed to inform pre‐service teachers of the needs of linguistic‐minority students was also developed.     

“Localism”; in Chinese media context: An examination of a closed circuit community cable system

The ongoing reforms in the Chinese media system have offered greater latitude for the development and operation of closed circuit community cable television. This research describes the structure and program content of one community system. Although similar to the national media model, the addition of a community channel offers a functional alternative. Local newscasts contain themes and production values similar to China Central Television (CCTV). Feature entertainment and music video request programs provide alternatives to the national and regional television channels. Increased access available through such systems has the capacity to expand the ideological range possible in Chinese life and exert pressure for further structural, operational, and ideological reform at the national level.     

Reflections on healing: framing strategies utilized by acquaintance rape survivors

This study examines the stories acquaintance rape victims tell through semi-structured interviews. Acquaintance rape, viewed here as a particularly paradoxical crime, creates a need for women to resolve the inconsistency of their experience. By conducting interviews with victims and analyzing their verbal communication, this project explores how victims frame their rape experience. Framing strategies used by victims of sexual harassment served as a guide for the initial identification of framing strategies for victims of acquaintance rape. Women in this study utilized strategies of paradox management to assess blame, define, and reframe their experiences. Recognition of these management strategies can assist social support networks and law enforcement professionals in identifying the communicative strategies of female victims of varying types of violence.