Family Homework: Final Report

This report is an independent evaluation of the Family Homework (FH) programme, which is run by five primary schools from the Stepney Partnership (SP) in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Producing credible evidence and relevant evaluations: Integrating skills and practices in the study of adult literacy and numeracy policies and programmes

In this integrative paper I identify my contribution to the production of credible and relevant evidence in the fields of adult education in general and adult literacy and numeracy in particular. By ‘credible evidence’ I refer to evidence that can be believed (Schwandt, 2009). By ‘relevant evidence’ I refer to evidence that is useful to policymakers and programme staff. In describing my work, I draw on and extend Berriet-Solliec et al.’s (2014) typology of three types of evidence that may be generated by research: • Type 1: Evidence of presence, e.g. of a problem such as low literacy skills in adults. Publications 1-3 in my submission focus on this type of evidence. • Type 2: Evidence of impact, e.g. the impacts of adult literacy programmes or policies on adults’ skills or other outcomes. Publications 4-5 focus on Type 2 evidence. • Type 3: Evidence of mechanisms, e.g. the causal processes through which adult literacy programmes may generate impact. Such mechanisms, in the form of literacy and numeracy practices, are discussed in Publication 6, as well as Publication 5. In this paper, I analyse the complex relationships amongst these three types of evidence. In doing so, I show how the proliferation of Type 1 evidence on literacy and numeracy skills, such as that produced by international surveys such as the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), leads to greater policy emphasis on the generation of credible and relevant Type 2 evidence, particularly in the form of evaluations of programmes’ impacts on those skills. I argue that while there has been increased emphasis on Types 1 and 2 evidence, a lack of policy focus on Type 3 evidence of key mechanisms (especially literacy and numeracy practices) through which adults may improve their literacy and numeracy skills leads to theoretically misinformed programme specifications and evaluations, with the latter producing Type 2 evidence that is at best insufficiently relevant and is at worst non-credible. I then offer a strategy for producing evidence that is more credible, and more useful to policymakers and programme staff

Impact of poor English and maths skills on employers: literature review

This literature review synthesises evidence from qualitative and quantitative studies that shed light on the costs to employers of poor English and maths skills. It also addresses the benefits of, and the barriers to, workplace training, with a focus on employer perceptions of the need for and efficacy of workplace training in English and maths. The review also considers and summarises key theoretical and methodological issues

Between life course research and social history: new approaches to qualitative data in the British birth cohort studies

This article discusses a new interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach to using data from the first British Birth Cohort Study, the National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD, 1946). It emerges from a collaboration between two historians of postwar Britain and a mixed-methods life course studies researcher. Our approach brings together cohort-level quantitative data with less well-known qualitative data from a sample of 150 participants’ original NSHD interview questionnaires to generate new perspectives on how macro processes of social change were experienced at an individual level and varied across the life course. The NSHD school-age and early adulthood sweeps included a series of open-ended questions relating to education, work, and social identities, which offer a sense of how participants responded to and understood the social transformations of the postwar decades within their everyday lives. This article explains our methodological rationale, before focussing on the wider analytical possibilities of our approach in relation to social mobility

Lifetime poverty and attitudes to retirement among a cohort born in 1958

This report explores attitudes to, and plans for, retirement among a large cohort of British men and women born in 1958, with a particular focus on those who have experienced poverty during their working lives. This cohort, part of the so-called “Baby Boomer” generation, is now in its late 50s, and can expect a longer life expectancy than previous generations. There has been increasing awareness within policy and research circles that with increased longevity comes the need either to save more money over the life course or work longer in order to finance retirement. The 1958 cohort has therefore been subject to significant pension and employment policy reforms designed to encourage longer working lives. In this report, we use the uniquely rich data available in a birth cohort study to explore the lifelong and current factors that impact on retirement plans and expectations. In doing so, we focus in particular on the attitudes, experiences, plans and expectations of cohort members experiencing low family income, poverty and/or worklessness in their adult lives. This mixed methods research project draws on quantitative and qualitative data from the 1958 birth cohort study (also known as the National Child Development Study, or NCDS). Quantitative data have been collected from study members throughout their lives, most recently at the age of 55 in 2013 when 9,137 individuals took part. By using this rich longitudinal data, we are able to explore how experiences throughout the working life are associated with retirement attitudes, aspirations, plans and expectations. The qualitative interviews were conducted specifically for this research project

Understanding and supporting the long-term effects of COVID-19: A report from the Qualitative Long COVID Research Network in the United Kingdom

This report provides a timely summary about fast-evolving qualitative inquiries into Long COVID (LC) in the UK. Based on a survey conducted within a national qualitative LC (QLC) research network comprising 14 teams from across the UK, we aim to explore how the novel public health challenge of LC is being examined and supported across various care settings and how it is experienced among different demographic groups. Evident in the survey findings is the diverse research foci, participant sampling and methodological approaches in response to the complex and pervasive challenges presented by LC. Whilst the multifaceted impacts, diversified lived experiences and health inequalities of LC have been increasingly illuminated by the studies included in our survey, we have also identified a range of knowledge gaps for future research to address, for example carer and healthcare professionals’ experiences, regional disparity in LC responses and international comparison. Ultimately, on behalf of our research network, we aim to enhance QLC research by pooling our findings and expertise to produce further collaborative research outputs on this topic

Guidance and Orientation for Adult Learners (GOAL): Final cross-country evaluation report

The “Guidance and Orientation for Adult Learners” Project (GOAL) was a collaboration between six partner countries: Belgium (Flanders), the Czech Republic, Iceland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Slovenia. The hypothesis underpinning GOAL was that an independent one-stop guidance service putting the specific needs of low-educated adults at its centre could help to increase the participation of this target group in adult education. To this end, each of the six countries piloted new guidance models to specific target groups within the low-educated adult population. The GOAL evaluation was carried out by the UCL Institute of Education (IOE), London, working with local evaluation teams in the participating countries. The evaluation drew on Realist Evaluation principles and had three overarching aims. The first was developmental: to support programme development across the six countries by providing evidence during the life of the pilot on programme processes and adaptations. The second was summative: to assess the impacts of GOAL on service users and other programme stakeholders. The third aim focused on knowledge cumulation: to support future policy and programme development in the field of adult education guidance. Five research questions underpinned the evaluation: 1. To what degree did programmes achieve their implementation aims across the five intervention objectives, and what factors at programme and policy level appeared to influence the achievement of implementation aims? 2. What service user outcomes were achieved, for what groups, and to what degree? 3. What programme-level factors were associated with the achievement of positive service user outcomes? 4. What policy-level factors were associated with the achievement of those outcomes? 5. To what degree were programme expectations met