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Since 2010, government policy in England has positioned further education almost exclusively as employment-orientated training for school leavers whilst also imposing severe budget cuts. During this period, values-based pedagogies that foreground social justice for students, many of whom come from low-income households, have been undermined. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there is evidence that the mental health and well-being of further education students has suffered but little is known about the pandemic's effects on teachers.This paper presents analysis of primary research data drawn from interviews with a small sample of further education teachers and managers in the English West Midlands about their mental health and well-being during the pandemic. The paper frames the research data by acknowledging that both mental health nursing and further education teaching are currently riven by contradictions with an epistemological basis anchored in meritocratic and neoliberal policy. Using Lefebvrian theory, our analysis suggests that for further education staff, the pandemic has sharpened the tensions experienced in an already precarious professional role. Key findings were that the further education funding regime drove a 'business as usual' management attitude during the pandemic, and an intensification of work and the erosion of pedagogical practice negatively affected staff's mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At first glance, the physical design of a setting ostensibly seems routine and neutral. However, it tends to powerfully govern who goes where and who can access certain places. Much of the literature on exclusion within education settings often overlook this significance. This paper therefore seeks to rectify this by examining exclusion by design and allocation of physical space at The Site, a fictional name used for the large general further education (FE) college in England's East Region. Adopting a case study approach over two academic years (2013–2015), qualitative research was undertaken with seven tutors and twenty-six so-called NEET and disengaged youth. Drawing on Wacquant's theoretical concept of the ghetto, my key findings demonstrated territorial exclusion by design: this employability course was delivered in Q-Block, a temporary prefabricated building positioned out of sight and primarily used to deliver programmes for disabled, mature and disengaged youth on the fringes of education. This article concludes that, whilst existing research on policy and outcomes is useful in understanding the negative educational outcomes of stigmatised youth, a sharper focus is needed on wider social processes and exclusionary continuities in seeking to elucidate how governance processes contribute to their social and spatial marginalisation in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The month in which we are born affects our experience of and progress through the education system and is known as the relative age effect. This study reports on a project in which the author conducted mixed methods research into the impact of different birth months on enrolment patterns and participant experiences within further education in England, a neglected sector for this research area. This paper challenges the current view that the negative impact of being born later in an academic year cohort dissipates with age. Analysis of the findings shows that enrolment patterns are skewed towards the summer months for those entering the further education college in the study and that the month of May should be included in the definition of summer months. Summer-born study participants were aware of their relative age at a social and physical level, but made no connection to their academic progress. This paper argues that relative age is a significant driver for enrolment to and, therefore, subsequent performance within further education, which should be monitored alongside other better known disadvantage factors, with the aim to reduce and eliminate this systemic disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a qualitative, longitudinal case study conducted in England that explored the transition experiences of autistic students with intellectual disabilities (ID) as they left special school to go to colleges of further education (FE). Sequential interviews with six young people, their parents/carers and educators were developed to address an important knowledge gap in relation to progression to post-16 education for differently abled learners. Transition is theorised through both the lens of the social model of disability and the three typologies of induction, development and becoming. Combining these enables a focus on flexible systems and adaptive environments as well as an openness to the variability of autistic students. While the research found evidence of transition planning, it also identified gaps in critical processes, limited understanding of autistic students' capacity to manage change and normative expectations around independence. Parents reported a largely 'tick-box' approach to transition that was further reflected in a lack of preparation for social transition. The paper highlights responsibilities of institutions to make adaptations to transition processes in order to enable autistic students to better navigate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the evolving and diverse nature of post-16 computing curricula within England, this papers' primary objective was to identify the factors which influence the decision-making processes for education providers when choosing computing curricula. As a main provider of the vast array of post-16 qualifications, and due to their neglect both politically and in research, further education colleges were chosen as the subject of inquiry. Due to the focus on understanding employee perspectives, a qualitative research method was employed where semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirty-two employees from across thirteen colleges within England. These employees included computing lecturers, heads of departments, and members of senior leadership. Findings indicate the extent of the range of post-16 computing qualifications offered by colleges, in addition to identifying who the key players are for computing curricula decisions. Additionally, ten factors were identified as pivotal to influencing curricula choice, and from these factors, a model has been created classifying four central areas that should be considered regarding curriculum choice: labour market information, qualification relevance to industry needs, qualification attractiveness, and current college resources. This model should help inform education providers in making more informed computing curricula decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving mathematical skills is a priority in England, and a series of policy levers and government change projects have focused on improving mathematical outcomes in further education (FE) in recent years. Yet little is known about the mathematics teacher workforce that supports these students on vocational and technical programmes. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by examining important features of the mathematics teacher workforce in colleges and the implications for recruitment, initial training and ongoing professional development. We report findings from a national survey targeted at all mathematics teachers in around one-sixth (N = 31) of England's general FE colleges. Teachers have transitioned into FE from three main areas: another career, curriculum area, or educational context. We discuss the varied assets and training needs of these three subgroups and argue that the mathematics teacher cohort in FE should be seen as distinct from that in either primary or secondary education. We highlight the bimodal distribution of mathematics qualifications amongst this workforce; those having level 2 mathematics qualifications being more likely to be teaching functional skills mathematics courses than GCSEs. The rapid expansion of the mathematics teacher workforce that followed the changes to the condition of funding in 2014 has come disproportionately from teachers who were previously working in schools. This, together with a trend of funnelling increasing numbers of FE students into academic mathematics rather than functional skills courses, raises important questions about the nature of mathematical education for learners on vocational and technical programmes, and the teachers thereof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It would be easy to assume that social trust is a normatively good value to promote within institutions. Trust encourages cooperation between actors, and thus normalises policies, practices and behaviours that tend to work towards collective social good. To assume this would also be to assume that trust should be a central aspiration for policy design. However, this conceptual paper argues that the competitive landscape of the English Further Education sector does not lend itself to such values. The extent to which competition has become normalised makes concerns over financial health commonplace around the boardroom in FE Colleges. In this context, perhaps the benefits associated with building and maintaining trust in this context are problematic. Perhaps it is important to consider whether in fact, distrust is fundamental to institutional survival? This paper offers three theoretical concepts from the trust literature which conceptualise how the FE policy environment enlists organisations and individual actors towards objectives which are linked to competition, centrally devised standards and institutional survival. In this way, I suggest that strategies based upon distrust may be put to greater use in the design of institutional policy, as the need to establish control takes primacy over cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years the 'geography/ies of education' has emerged as a more coherent and defined area of research. Education in this context has been primarily interpreted as either compulsory or higher education and figured around the geographies of school and university. Other education sectors and spaces - both formal and informal - have been less visible. This paper gives a geographical reading of an area of further education that has been hitherto overlooked by geographers by focusing on mothers' participation in family learning. Drawing on the notion of belonging, and mothers' aspirations to belong, it explores how the immediate site of family learning is tied to multiple and concurrent geographies that work through a range of spaces, scales and subjectivities. Focusing on these aspirations, this paper argues that thinking through the 'geographies of learning' recognises the multiple spaces and scales through which education is conceived and translated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, local education authorities (LEAs) lost control of further education in England. Now, after spending almost two decades out in the cold, from 2010, local authorities are set to become re-involved in the further education system. Given this, this paper takes the opportunity to look back on the end of LEA control and reflect upon why further education colleges were removed from local authorities in the first place. It is acknowledged that the ideological stance of government was clearly an important factor in ending LEA control, and that the perceived need to make cost savings in the early 1990s also contributed to both the form and haste with which colleges were 'incorporated'. However, arguably the end of LEA control was as much a process as a single event. This paper traces the path that, it is argued, made up that long goodbye. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the changing forms of governance currently being applied to the English further education sector - changes that emphasise the importance of locality. The paper sets the sector within its socio-economic and policy context, examining current policy changes that intend to alter the way in which the sector is managed. It relates these changes to their contextual location and to a set of conceptual notions that derive from a particular understanding of systems theory and what has been described as the new localism. It concludes that whilst these changing forms of governance are in continuity with earlier policies that had a regional dimension, they remain set on the terrain of performativity and new public sector management. Nevertheless, there remains a residual potential to develop more democratic forms of engagement in these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the role of higher education in a system of high participation is becoming more important to providers and policymakers internationally. In this system, whereby increasingly higher education is taking place in vocational institutions, there has been renewed focus on the distinct nature of this provision, and the benefits it may hold for participants. This paper explores the experiences of mature students participating in higher education in a vocational institution in England. Using data from a multiple case study, four narratives are presented to illustrate the conceptualisation of employability by those students and the notion of academic capital and graduate identities is used to frame them. Reconsidering employability in this way challenges a competency-based model of employability reflected in skills-centred policy discourses. In doing so, the paper argues that HIVE is distinct and holds benefits for its participants, but for in different ways than those purported by policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political importance of mathematics in post-16 education is clear. Far less clear is how mathematics does and should relate to vocational education. Successive mathematics curricula (e.g. core skills, key skills) have been developed in England with vocational learners in mind. Meanwhile, general mathematics qualifications remain largely disconnected from vocational learning. Following a brief historical survey of mathematics within vocational education, the paper presents findings from a nested case study of student groups in three large Further Education colleges in England. The primary unit of analysis herein is student groups learning Functional Mathematics in two vocational areas: construction and hairdressing. We show how approaches to organising teaching, developing connected curricula and classroom pedagogy tend toisolateorintegratemathematics from/with the vocational experience.Integratedapproaches are shown to impact positively on student engagement and attitudes to learning mathematics. The paper concludes by discussing the potential impact of academic qualifications displacing vocationally relevant mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws upon two research projects to evaluate a decade of reform concerning the professionalisation of further education teachers, and discusses future prospects under the new coalition government. It suggests that policy initiatives to regulate further education (FE) teachers have taken place within an industrial or occupational paradigm of the past that keeps FE separate from the more professional frameworks of schools and higher education. Drawing upon research, the paper also shows that after a decade of reform, successive standards and regulatory frameworks have not brought about national coherence. Rather, it has fragmented the system even further and diverted attention away from addressing more fundamental weaknesses such as developing stronger mentoring and workplace support. In conclusion, the analysis looks to the future, arguing that the threatened revocation of the 2007 regulations, combined with the present economic situation facing colleges, will lead to the marketisation of FE initial teacher training. This has profound implications for the quality of provision and the professional status of FE teachers, who seem to be returning to their voluntarist past. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focusing on vocational learning in the English further education (FE) sector and situating it within its social, political and historical context, this paper provides an overview of English attitudes towards the vocational and its subordinate status in relation to ‘academic’ education. It outlines the development of FE in England, describing its peculiarly working-class heritage, and discusses how the nature of the sector has changed against the backdrop of increasing global competition and the restructuring of the UK economy since the 1970s. The paper goes on to outline particular forms of vocationalism found in FE in England and considers some of the limitations of ‘progressive’ vocationalism and of competence based education and training. Following this, there is a discussion of emerging themes for vocational education and training, and the FE sector in particular, under the UK Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government elected in 2010. Continuities and fractures with established practice are considered. The paper concludes by highlighting the social and epistemological limitations of current approaches to vocational education and training in England. Whilst vocational education in England – within the FE sector at least – is once again on the verge of organisational and regulatory reform, there is little prospect that sociocultural attitudes to the vocational will change significantly, despite global transformations impacting on knowledge production and transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines recent development in Apprenticeship training in England. Since the introduction of Modern Apprenticeships in the mid-1990s this form of training has been subject to much analysis and reform. This paper summarises the current situation and highlights some of the challenges and opportunities which face Apprenticeship over the short to medium term as it seeks to establish itself as a main alternative to the academic pathway through further education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on findings from a three-year longitudinal study in England called the Teacher Study which aimed to provide an analytical description of who Skills for Life (SfL) teachers are and what they do in their working lives. The main focus of the paper is teachers' career pathways and the possibilities of making a career in basic-skills education in the post-16 learning and skills sector between 2004 and 2007, and it highlights the connection between career progression and the lack of availability of full-time posts. The research found that the ability to make a career is contingent on the organisation or sector the teacher works in. Although many teachers enjoy working part-time on shorter term contracts, over a quarter of teachers were dissatisfied with their career prospects, and a sizeable proportion of them, particularly younger teachers, felt constrained in their future career plans by the lack of full-time posts, a scarcity of permanent contracts, low numbers of available teaching hours and a lack of managerial opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial education has failed to attract the attention of educational historians. The principal institutions that provided such education for over seventy years, the colleges of commerce, were a significant alternative to the universities. This paper is an exploratory study of the history of one such institution, the Birmingham College of Commerce, from the late 1890s to its demise in 1970. The paper discusses the problems of definition that underlie any attempt at discussing commercial education and the colleges of commerce and outlines the main strands of the history of the college. There are five main themes of its history: the professionalisation of clerical and retail workers; expansion of non-academic work; increasing focus on higher level studies; lack of space; developing identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty-six per cent of 18–19-year-old sixth-form and further education college leavers in the UK currently go on to university. A majority of the remaining 64% apparently go into work or work-related training. Yet, for this latter group, as with the former, 16–19 education was supposed by the Department for Education and Employment to equip them with the skills applicable in the workplace, where a student’s ability to apply skills and knowledge in a variety of contexts—i.e. creativity—is as important as having a qualification. Creative skills, according to the Construction Industry Training Board, are key requisite skills in the workplace and also key to job and business success. This paper examines the extent to which assessment objectives in the 16–19 education curriculum in England require students to demonstrate creative skills in their work, be it class assessment or external examinations. It finds that all but two subject specifications and syllabuses (in one discipline) explicitly state creativity as an assessment objective, although a few other subject specifications (in other disciplines) required candidates to demonstrate some creative skills in their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the need to think differently about educational partnerships in a changing and turbulent post-compulsory policy environment in England. The policy and institutional contexts in which universities and colleges currently operate seem to be fuelling performativity at the expense of educational values. There appears to be a sharp interruption in the steady increase in educational partnerships as a vehicle for increasing and widening participation in higher education. We are witnessing a marked change in university/college relationships that appears to be a consequence of government calling a halt to increased participation in higher education, creating an increasingly competitive market for a more limited pool of student places. The implication that educational policy at the national level determines a particular pattern or mode of leadership decision making throughout an institution should, however, be resisted. Policy developments that challenge the moral precepts of education should not be allowed to determine how a leader acts; rather, they should prompt actions that are truly educational, rooted in morality and attached to identifiable educational values. Educational leaders have agency to resist restricted discourses in favour of ethical and principled change strategies that are a precondition for sustainable transformative partnerships in post-compulsory education. University leaders in particular are called upon to use their considerable influence to resist narrow policy or managerial instrumentalism or performativity and embrace alternatives that both are educationally worthwhile and can enhance institutional resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the attitudes of learning professionals towards New Public Management (NPM). In a survey of the UK further education sector (n = 433), NPM beliefs were found to be positively associated with both affective and normative organisational commitment. However, as expected, NPM beliefs were not found to be related to continuance organisational commitment. The results also show that although perceived organisational support mediates the relationship between NPM beliefs and affective organisational comment, it is only a partial mediator of the relationship between NPM beliefs and normative organisational commitment. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings, and potential directions for future research, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By 2010 all educators in the English lifelong learning sector were expected to embed ‘education for sustainable development’ to support their learners in becoming sustainable citizens. The teacher training team at a college in southwest England used a ‘cooperative inquiry’ approach to develop themselves and their curriculum, to support their trainee teachers in achieving this. The participative nature of a cooperative inquiry made it an authentic methodology for a values-driven research project. It encouraged a sense of community within the team that extended into their practice as they engaged trainee teachers with this subject. Highlighting key aspects of the cooperative inquiry process, this paper provides an account of the team’s journey, considering challenges such as time/institutional restructuring and successes, where students began to embrace education for sustainable development. Actively reflecting upon and sharing these experiences served to empower the team, leading to informed changes in their practice and behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dearing Report advocated that the traditionally separate post-compulsory education sectors of English higher education (HE) and further education (FE) should bring together the academic and vocational in a working partnership. This has led to significant changes in the working practices of colleges, lecturers and support staff. Drawing on the experiences of a sample of HE lecturers in colleges in south west England and a synthesis of relevant literature, this paper begins to examine the practice styles of HE lecturers working in FE institutions and the opportunities they are presented to engage with scholarship. The research acknowledges the issues involved in positioning HE in FE by considering the traditional roles of FE and HE lecturers, the competing demands of HE and FE and the necessary re-conceptualisation of the HE in FE lecturer as a teacher, a researcher and a scholar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws from the Literacies for Learning in Further Education research project, funded through the Teaching and Learning Research Programme. Drawing on the empirical study of literacy practices in eight childcare courses in Scotland and England, we seek to demonstrate that, integral to the learning careers of students are literacy careers through which their learning is mediated. In the process, by drawing upon the lens of literacy, we also challenge some of the common-sense understandings of learning in childcare. In particular, we suggest that the literacy practices of lower level courses can be more diverse than those of higher level courses, producing potentially confusing literacy careers for the students involved. We also highlight the complexity of the range of literacy practices in childcare, which can go unrecognised as requiring explicit tuition, and unacknowledged even when students use them appropriately. Courses in childcare are textually mediated in many different ways, which vary depending on the level of study. A greater acknowledgement of this multiplicity and diversity could lead to more appropriate forms of assessment, and more relevant ways of interpreting the curriculum. We argue that students on vocational courses have more complex literacy careers than is often assumed and that a literacies approach to learning helps to reveal this complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study draws on mixed methods research with further education middle managers across England in order to explore whether there are gendered differences in management. There remain debates about whether there are gender differences in management or leadership. The study adds to this debate with results that reveal that women and men are behaviourally flexible, employing a repertoire of knowledge, competencies and skills, which are not necessarily gendered, in order to manage change in an increasing neoliberal further education working environment. We therefore propose a novel theoretical contribution of neo-androgynous management, which suggests 'undoing gender' in management in an education sector that has seen increase in women's employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we examine the role of the Principal within Further Education colleges in England and explore the often neglected issue of succession planning in the sector. To provide background and context to the current situation, key policies and developments over the past 30 years are reviewed and challenges identified. Interviews with serving Principals designed to explore the role, what leadership development was in place and whether succession planning was used have been carried out. The findings demonstrate that succession planning within colleges is underdeveloped, something particularly concerning when linked to the fact that the role is often a short term one with the turnover of people at the top of the organisation being a major concern. Whilst in some cases individual organisations took steps to identify and support those who wanted to progress this was limited and impacted by the sector environment. The participants' responses reinforced findings from literature that the importance of succession planning was often paramount to the success of an organisation and included some suggestions as how to increase the pool of potential future leaders for the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the views and perceptions of lecturers delivering Higher Education Business Programmes (HEBPs) in Further Education Colleges (FECs) about whether they desire to undertake research, thus enabling them to both become and be viewed as specialists in their subjects. The methodology employed took an interpretivist perspective, seeking to understand how lecturers interpret research and whether they see it as part of their role. A total of 26 in-depth interviews were conducted throughout the Yorkshire and Humber region in the United Kingdom (UK). A key finding was that although some lecturers would like to undertake research in order to specialise further in their subject area, they felt that they had neither the time nor the support of their individual institution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The introduction of applied diplomas for 14-19-year-olds from September 2008 in England is leading to increased numbers of young people of current school age (14-16) attending further education (FE) colleges, where aspects of these new qualifications are taught. Although students aged 14 and 15 have previously attended FE, the numbers involved are now set to be larger. However, traditionally, initial teacher training (ITT) for FE has focused on adult learning and prepared trainees to work with more mature students. This article draws upon existing literature as well as empirical data from small-scale research into the circumstances and perceptions of staff and 14- and 15-year-old students at college. Deriving from this, it makes some tentative suggestions for how teacher trainers can respond to younger students in FE and so better prepare their trainees. However, any such response and the impact it may have is constrained by the political and social context for FE in England and specifically by the tight control the government maintains over teacher training in FE. This current strategy ignores the complexity of FE, so this article argues for a more radical transformation of ITT, based upon the concept of learning cultures, to enable and encourage new teachers to make professional judgements relevant to the particular circumstances of their own students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike their counterparts on school-based Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes, 'newly qualified' teachers in further education in England do not have the entitlement to support conferred by Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) status. Yet there is an expectation that ITE providers support former trainees' progress in employment, with little recognition of the complexity of the sector or the influence of the workplace on their professional development. This article reports on a study investigating what former in-service trainees learn in the workplace in their first year after qualifying, with a view to better supporting this process. Learning is theorised as 'participation' in a socio-cultural practise, using a framework developed from Lave and Wenger. But the tacit, informal nature of much workplace learning makes it inherently difficult to operationalise, often going unrecognised by participants. The focus of this article is methodological, considering one strategy for addressing this issue, specifically the use of the Pictor technique. The contribution and limitations of this Visual Elicitation Method are evaluated using a small amount of interview data. The article concludes that this method has a valuable role to play in 'capturing' the learning of former trainees and in the study of workplace practises more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 25 years since Incorporation, when further education (FE) colleges were taken out of local government control, FE in England has been shaped by processes of marketisation to become a competitive national sector that has increasingly diverged from the more 'collaborative system logic' of the other three countries of the UK. However, following recent government reforms, FE in England appears to have reached a crossroads with the opportunity to participate in a more collaborative skills-based landscape at the local and sub-regional levels. This article brings together evidence from historical and international comparative system analysis, a series of UK-wide seminars and in-depth research on the Area-Based Review of FE colleges to assess the strategic direction of FE in England at this critical juncture. We argue that English FE providers can take advantage of these trends to make a transition from a reactive, competitive national sector towards a more collaborative, regional and sub-regional system focused on inclusive economic and skills development. The article concludes that the potential for cross-UK policy learning depends on whether FE in England gradually transitions towards a more collaborative future that could bring it closer to FE and skills systems in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship between the identities and engagement in literacy practices across the home and college domains through case studies of two contrasting students studying on a childcare course at a further education (FE) college in the United Kingdom. The data are drawn from classroom observations, analysis of artefacts and semi structured interviews with the students and their teacher. Findings show that there are specific literacy practices associated with specific identities and that aspects of these are utilised, and engaged with, by students in the college classroom to support their learning. It has also shown that identity is a fundamental part of, and an influencing factor upon, the literacy practice itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article concerns further education (FE) as a post-16 destination for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) young people. It addresses: (1) the size and characteristics of the DHH population within the FE sector; (2) the perceived functions of FE for DHH young people; (3) the trends, progress, and achievements of DHH learners within FE provision. A narrative literature review drawing on international sources is combined with a specific analysis of two official government data sets in England, the National Pupil Database and the Individualized Learner Record, in order to establish some baseline data on the DHH, FE population in England. The analysis includes data on 6758 DHH students aged 16 to 19. Results demonstrate that DHH learners are far more likely than their hearing peers to leave school at 16 and to progress to FE colleges. FE is regarded as a suitable destination for DHH young people both to enable social maturity and to improve educational attainment. Within FE in England, DHH young people are more likely to be on part-time courses and more than double the number drop out of FE provision in comparison with the wider population. DHH learners with no additional needs significantly underperform in comparison with hearing learners with no additional needs within the FE setting. Nearly one-quarter (23.2 per cent) of young people recorded in the data sets analysed showed no recognized qualification on leaving FE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits the three decades following the end of World War Two – a time when, following the 1944 Education Act, local education authorities (LEAs) were the key agencies responsible for running the education system across England. For the first time, there was a statutory requirement for LEAs to secure adequate facilities for further education (FE), and the post-war era is generally remembered as a period when they dominated FE. Yet this is not the full story of FE in post-war England: it is often forgotten that a significant amount of FE existed outside the municipal framework. This article returns to the post-war decades and begins to uncover the largely forgotten history of FE outside local authority control at that time. It highlights how voluntary and private organisations offered various forms of post-compulsory education outside the municipal framework, and how they contributed to the eclectic and diverse nature of FE across England. This, I argue, not only reflected the expedience, compromise and inertia that characterised FE in post-war England but was rooted in a capture of educational policy more generally by a privileged elite intent on maintaining a social order characterised by social, economic and cultural divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Skills for Life (SfL) initiative followed the Moser Report (1999) and incarnated a Third Way agenda that sought to address England's perceived adult skills deficit. SfL marked a large investment in adult education but also a distinct shift to a more focused, instrumentalist role for Further Education (FE) in England. A new structure of teacher standards and qualifications underpinned this development with its own, newly devised and matriculated knowledge base. Teachers emerged from these new programmes with subject specialisms in Literacy, Numeracy and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). The landscape that these ‘new professionals' have entered is one that suggests the autonomy of colleges within a competitive market, but this disguises a funding methodology that facilitates ongoing centralised policy intervention. In the last two years policy makers have used this funding methodology to shift monies decisively towards 14-19 provision and away from adult education. This article draws on qualitative data from a study into the experiences of pre and in-service SfL teachers in the final stages of qualification. The data explore the impact of these latest movements in the FE market on these student teachers who are qualifying in some of the newest subjects in FE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How young people make career/occupational choices and why they enter particular careers/occupations are questions to which the answers are complex. One hundred and ninety seven-students drawn from two non-selective comprehensive schools and two further education (FE) colleges in the North of England took part in a questionnaire survey relating to their perceptions of education and training. Forty-seven of these students were subsequently interviewed. The data, collected during 2005 and 2006, suggests a level of student uncertainty that may arise from being attuned to the ambivalent status surrounding vocational education and associated careers. There were indications that perceptions of earning capacity were a key factor in shaping ideas about careers, and that students aspired to courses that they believed offered the highest potential for future earnings. The uncertainty evident in young people’s responses to questions about vocational courses may suggest that schools had failed to adequately inform them about vocationally related-qualifications, though there are, it is contended, socially embedded values and attitudes that simultaneously both shape and cloud their thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this article is to examine the role taken by the Institute for Learning (IfL) in England to promote the nature of professionalism in the lifelong learning sector. It raises the possibility that the decisions taken by the IfL, since its inception in 2002, are leading to the de-professionalisation of teachers. It is argued that what is now needed is a new professionalism that is driven by the practice of phronesis: wise practical reasoning, based on judgement and wisdom, and that accords with the centrality of context and the reflective nature of the activity of teaching. It will be informed by values that enable practitioners to mediate the confrontational forces of managerialism which might otherwise threaten to undermine their professionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines what both in-service and pre-service trainee teachers learn from their early experience of teaching in further education (FE) colleges in England. Despite differences between in-service and pre-service trainees, that early experience is often characterised by isolation and lack of control over practice for both groups. Although trainee teachers may develop as a result of this experience of working in FE, a discourse that emphasises their growing confidence obscures how these trainees may not be enhancing their professional practice, but rather learning to cope with difficult circumstances. This article draws on data gathered between 2005 and 2009 from two separate projects, one that focused on pre-service, the other on in-service teacher education in FE colleges. It problematises the effect of this early experience and applies the Marxist concept of alienation to analyse the development of trainee teachers in relation to coping rather than learning to teach. As a partial counterbalance to the paucity of the early experience of many trainee teachers, the article concludes by arguing that teacher education for the FE sector should be directed towards increasing the autonomy of teachers and be constructed around a body of professional knowledge rather than the long list of statutory professional standards that shapes current provision in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Learning to Learn in Further Education Research Project (L2L) is coordinated by the Campaign for Learning and run by researchers at Newcastle and Glasgow Universities. The project involves teachers at two further education (FE) colleges, Lewisham and Northumberland, using practitioner enquiry methodologies to explore and share what works in learning and teaching in their context. This article uses data collected as part of the larger project to explore how the combination of societal, political and economic forces that have shaped provision in this sector impact on students’ and teachers’ views of learning when compared with the compulsory sector. The authors sought to establish whether factors such as an ethos of performativity and instrumentalisation of the curriculum were indeed at play in shaping understandings of teaching and learning, and what it means to learn in an FE context. Telephone interviews with 16 teachers provided evidence that such pressures were impacting on teaching despite the ambitions of the teachers that their practice be responsive to student need rather than curricular imperatives. Involvement with the university and the L2L project was seen by many as a way of countering perceived constraints on their freedom to exercise professional judgement. Face-to-face mediated interviews with 64 learners drawn from a number of qualification routes revealed a simplistic model for learning based around listening and the practising of skills. The authors discuss the extent to which students appear to understand this as building the necessary foundations for later, more sophisticated learning rather than as requirements of their courses per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article originates in a networking project that facilitated the coming together of a group of Skills for Life (SfL) teachers from different Further Education (FE) contexts across the West Midlands region of England. The original impetus was to explore and develop a model of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) that was shaped by the needs of SfL teachers. The project created a forum in which the participants were empowered to share their experiences outside their college settings. Through this discursive process a textured picture emerged of similar experiences and common concerns. The congruence of these experiences suggested that, in certain respects, there was a degree of commonality across the various FE institutions the participants were working in, at least in the way that SfL provision was taking place. Furthermore, the data yielded specific insights into the meaning of professionalism for SfL practitioners. Foremost amongst these findings was the sense that the participants felt marginalised and perceived their professional identity as situated on the bottom rung in a hierarchy of subject specialisms. Another important outcome that related to CPD was that through participation in the network project, these teachers reported feeling that despite the managerialised nature of their workplaces, their agency was re-energised and their sense of themselves as teachers affirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent reforms of initial teacher education (ITE) in the learning and skills sector (LSS) in England are standards based and emphasise subject specialism. The reforms are underpinned by objectivist epistemological assumptions which are incompatible with socio-cultural theories of professional knowledge, and ignore the diverse teaching roles and contexts in the sector and wider systemic issues. A qualitative scoping study found that LSS in-service trainee teachers drew on three types of knowledge resources, or clusters of 'rules' for practice, in their teaching: these were related to their subject/vocational area, generic teaching and learning processes and specific learners and groups. Trainees generated knowledge resources through participation in their workplace, ITE course and other social contexts, and from embedded and encoded workplace knowledge. Trainees' beliefs, values and prior experiences were both a knowledge resource and influenced their engagement with knowledge generation activities. It is argued that using a knowledge resources perspective, which recognises how trainees generate knowledge and seeks to bridge gaps in their access to knowledge resources, would be more effective in supporting trainees' development than the current reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the development of teacher training for teachers in technical and further education in England through the memories of the staff of Bolton Technical Teachers College, one of the first national centres set up for this purpose. After a brief account of the origins and the development of the college up to its merger with the Bolton Institute in 1982, the article summarises data obtained through interviews with former staff. These sections consider the staff's perceptions of their work; the organisation and content of teacher training; and the culture of the institution. The article then considers these data in the light of the changing context of teacher training and of the work of further education colleges in England during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the growth of practitioner research in England through the creation of the Learning and Skills Research Network (LSRN) and identifies its effect on subsequent developments in what is generally known as the Lifelong Learning Sector (LLS). It offers an analysis of this development as a case study in developing practitioner research. Staff in further education (FE) and adult and community learning (ACL) are normally expected to focus on teaching and training rather than undertake research, in contrast with their counterparts in higher education (HE) where, particularly in the more traditional universities, staff are expected to undertake research as primary focus. The increasing focus on evidence-based policy making by government provides a growing impetus to foster research capability within the LLS. The large organisational structures that comprise the LLS today demand strong management of resources, human, capital and financial. For any government targets to be met, the sector needs to be galvanised into appropriate and effective action. To best achieve this requires research and development and the practitioners could benefit from this need to develop their own research skills in the creation of, and use of, research findings. The author argues that research in the LLS needs to be designed appropriately but also needs to be undertaken where the intervention and origination of targets and goals is not a political but a sector-led endeavour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The professional status of further education lecturers has been widely debated and contested within the published literature. This article presents the results of a series of semi-structured interviews undertaken with a small sample of college lecturers working within a partner college network in south-west England. Regardless of the level of the higher/further education teaching the lecturers identities remain strongly rooted in their role as teachers and commitment to supporting learners attain their educational ambitions. The lecturers' identities were in a state of flux due to the dual demands of their employer (the college) and collaborating institution (the university). Their shifting identities may only be mediated through wider recognition being afforded to the role of a higher education lecturer working in a further education college from their managers, universities and supporting bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Further education (FE) colleges have long been regarded as the 'Cinderella service' of English education. From their origins in the technical institutes of the nineteenth century, through the years of haphazard growth in the early twentieth century, and for most of the era of local authority control from 1944 until the early 1990s, FE tended to be underfunded, marginalised and overlooked by the state. This has changed dramatically over the last twenty years. Successive waves of policy and 'reform' have been imposed upon colleges, which are now forced to compete in a highly marketised and intensely performative environment. However, there was a brief, but now largely forgotten, moment when a radically different future for FE seemed possible. This article revisits the Macfarlane Report of 1980 and argues that, had its initial recommendations been accepted, the system of post-compulsory education in England could have been transformed. It is argued that the rejection of the proposal made in Macfarlane's first draft - that a national system of tertiary colleges be established - represents a key lost moment for FE. Had this been accepted, post-compulsory education in England could, potentially, have been re-formed according to the principles of comprehensive education; institutional collaboration rather than competition would have been encouraged; an enhanced service for both students and the wider community could have been created; and opportunities to break down, or at least reduce, the entrenched, long-standing and class-based barriers between academic education and vocational training would have been opened up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores English policy on widening participation in higher education (HE), drawing on insights from a research study into higher education transitions and 'dual sector' institutions. Although further and higher education in England are divided into two sectors, it is possible for one institution to offer both further and higher education. This article examines the nature of transitions in such 'dual sector' institutions, and explores the shaping and structuring of HE transitions, as well as students' experience of such transitions. The article draws on empirical research from a two-year study which investigates the changing shape and experience of HE in England, and students' experience of moving between different levels of study. The study includes four case-study 'dual sector' institutions, and this article considers one of these institutions in more detail. The article discusses a number of different forms of transition which arise out of the analysis of the data - institutions in transition, transitions in institutions, and individual student transitions - and draws on Bourdieu's theoretical ideas to argue that the work that transition is doing in the case-study institutions might be seen as involving processes of 'positioning', whereby institutions and individuals work at defining their place within higher education. Since such positioning both highlights and helps to create a differentiated and stratified system, the article concludes by pointing to the unsettling and complex issues this raises in relation to social justice and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the different types, and effectiveness, of collaboration used by providers to widen participation in further education and training in England between 2001 and 2003. The first section, an introduction, sets a scene for the study and definitions are offered for the main terminology - collaboration and widening participation. The political, economic and policy contexts for the study are also briefly introduced. A review of relevant literature, pertaining to collaboration is carried out in the second section to set a context and establish a rationale for the study. A case-study approach employing multiple methods of data collection is used to answer the questions in the third section. The case-study locations are described in the fourth section. Conclusions from analysing the data suggest that collaborative practices can be effectively used to recruit members of ethnic minority communities (as defined by the Learning and Skills Council - see Tables 7-10) and the long-term unemployed onto further education and training programmes. The evidence is, however, less conclusive regarding the contribution of collaborative approaches to enabling members of these communities to achieve their learning aims. A number of recommendations are made for improving collaborative practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]