Really useful qualifications and learning? Exploring the policy effects of new sub-bachelors degree qualifications

The symposium paper addresses the conference theme of the relationship between policy, practice and research by critically examining policy discourse in lifelong learning and the role of research in understanding policy effects. Empirical and theoretical research on the rationale and practice of examples of short cycle HE including sub-bachelors degree level qualifications, such as Higher National Certificates and Diplomas and Foundation Degrees are the focus

“An inseparable aspect of citizenship”: marking a centenary in “universal and lifelong” adult education

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Forty years of the International Journal of Lifelong Education: reflections on a changing field

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Learning cities and implications for adult education research

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Data, artificial intelligence and policy-making: hubris, hype and hope

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Gender, foundation degrees and the knowledge economy

This article questions the concept of ‘education for employment’, which constructs a discourse of individual and societal benefit in a knowledge‐driven economy. Recent policy emphasis in the European Union promotes the expansion of higher education and short‐cycle vocational awards such as the intermediate two‐year Foundation Degree recently introduced into England and Wales. Studies of vocational education and training (VET) and the knowledge economy have focused largely on the governance of education and on the development and drift of policy. Many VET programmes have also been considered for their classed, raced and gendered take‐up and subsequent effect on employment. This article builds on both fields of study to engage with the finer cross‐analyses of gender, social class, poverty, race and citizenship. In its analysis of policy texts the article argues that in spite of a discourse of inclusivity, an expanded higher education system has generated new inequalities, deepening social stratification. Drawing on early analyses of national quantitative data sets, it identifies emerging gendered, classed and raced patterns and considers these in relation to occupationally and hierarchically stratified labour markets, both within and without the knowledge economy

A Collaborative Model for Implementing State Common Core School Standards

In this early part of the 21st century, education leaders are increasingly challenged to improve P-12 teaching and learning to increase student achievement and to prepare all students for college and career success. Education reforms such as the adoption of the Common Core Standards within existing policies and practices of state department, district and school bureaucracies requires the repurposing and refocusing of existing resources and structures. This article describes the efforts in one state to employ collaboration to meet the requirements of legislated mandates for implementation of the Common Core Standards in English language arts and mathematics and the implications of the legislated mandates for postsecondary education. Three education entities (a university, schools, and a state agency) collaborated to design and implement professional development to inform K-12 teachers, state agency personnel, and university faculty about legislated mandates for K-12 education (e.g., state implementation of the Common Core Standards for college- and career-readiness, increase in high school graduation rates, etc.). As the state was the first to adopt the Common Core Standards and the first to assess K-12 student learning in this education reform context, this early adopter model of professional development will be useful and informative for others embarking on such efforts