| 1 |
Front Matter |
|
|
Abstract
|
| 2 |
|
|
|
Abstract
|
| 3 |
Introduction |
Marion Bowl |
|
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the impacts of neoliberalism on the field of adult education: the drastic reduction in government funding in favour of user payment for provision; the shift away from adult education for a broad range of purposes in favour of a focus on employability and ‘skills for work’; and the growing emphasis on credentialised adult education for individual advancement, rather than the social good. It introduces the aim of the book: to explore how adult educators – their values, their work and the expectations laid upon them – are being affected by this changed climate. The chapter discusses the definition and scope of adult education as a field of professional practice and the contested philosophical underpinnings of adult educators work, before going on to summarise the book’s contents.
|
| 4 |
From Adult Education to Lifelong Learning: A Changing Global Landscape |
Marion Bowl |
|
Abstract
This chapter presents an overview of the changing landscape of adult education and lifelong learning. It discusses the role of UNESCO, the OECD, the European Union and the World Bank in shifting the international focus from broadly based adult education for a range of purposes to lifelong learning for more narrowly economic ends. It briefly sketches the various socio-political and economic shifts which have influenced conceptions of the purpose of adult education and the impact of international lifelong learning policy development on adult education practice globally.
|
| 5 |
England and New Zealand: Two National Contexts for Adult Education |
Marion Bowl |
|
Abstract
This chapter describes the development and current context for adult education in two case study countries – England and Aotearoa New Zealand. While the impact of neoliberalism has been powerful in both countries, the specifics of demography, history and culture have also shaped the possibilities for action, suggesting differences as well as convergences in education policy and practice. The chapter begins with a description of the demographic and historical contexts for adult education in both countries. It then goes on to discuss the development of policy around adult education in recent times and considers how policy changes are being played out in practice
|
| 6 |
Professionalism, Professionalisation and Continuing Professional Development in the Adult Education |
Marion Bowl |
|
Abstract
This chapter describes how different forms of ‘professionalism’ have been defined, refined, developed and applied to formal education. It compares how policies on professionalisation have been played out in relation to adult educators in England and New Zealand. In England the focus has been on the imposition of a prescriptive form of governmental professionalism across the whole post-compulsory education sector, including adult and community-based education. In New Zealand, the focus has been on introducing a ‘softer’ form of professionalism, ‘owned’ by the sector itself, which promotes professional development as a means of enforcing greater coordination and standardisation across the ACE sector. In both countries policy pronouncements around professionalism have been utilised as a way of increasing government control by holding out the promise of improved status and conditions for adult educators which has not been delivered.
|
| 7 |
|
|
|
Abstract
|
| 8 |
Researching Perspectives on Adult Education Policy and Practice |
Marion Bowl |
|
Abstract
This chapter explains the rationale for taking a narrative and comparative approach to researching adult educators’ careers, their professional identities and their practice in England and New Zealand. It outlines how the research was conducted with the participation of 62 adult educators and how data were collected, analysed and presented.
|
| 9 |
A ‘Non-career’: Occupational Identities and Career Trajectories |
Marion Bowl |
|
Abstract
This chapter explores what it means to have a career in adult education through the narratives of six adult educators in England and New Zealand who are at different stages in their work lives. Their stories exemplify some of the challenges to the notion of a career in adult education – the haphazard nature of entry into the field, the opportunities and difficulties of portfolio or contingent working and the uncertainty and disillusion faced by adult educators as they contemplate the future.
|
| 10 |
Adult Educator Philosophies and Values |
Marion Bowl |
|
Abstract
This chapter presents data about adult educators’ value orientations, their relationship to theory and the extent to which they saw theory as influencing their practice. It begins by defining the various philosophical and value orientations suggested in the literature. From an analysis of the data, a more complex picture emerges in which biography, ideology and experience combine to shape the adult educators’ perspective on the purpose of their work. Adult educators described their practice as being informed by personal and professional experience, rather than explicitly underpinned by theory. While it might be argued that practitioners working on a daily basis are bound to take a pragmatic approach to their work, it raises the question of how the adult educators manage conflicting perspectives and what happens when policy shifts marginalise socially oriented perspectives and promote more individual instrumentalist ends.
|
| 11 |
Confronting the Dilemmas: Accommodation and Resistance |
Marion Bowl |
|
Abstract
This chapter explores the ways in which adult educators saw themselves as exercising agency, working with or against the thrust of policies and practices which they felt were not consistent with their values as professionals. Through the stories of four long-standing adult educators it describes responses of accommodation or resistance and discusses how these different responses were linked to practitioners’ past experience, their philosophical theoretical underpinnings, their assessment of the possibilities for manoeuvre within their work context and their view of the future. It suggests that the line between accommodation and resistance is not always easy to discern and that micro-resistances are likely to be difficult to police, particularly for those who are newer to the field or whose practice is not firmly underpinned by theory.
|
| 12 |
The Bigger Picture: Strategy and Advocacy |
Marion Bowl |
|
Abstract
This chapter discusses some of the social implications of policies circulating nationally and globally and the strategies adult educators and their organisations adopted in response. Three distinct, but not mutually exclusive, types of strategic response were apparent. The first was a kind of fatalism which suggested that the possibilities for influencing the direction of policy were so limited that the best strategy was simply to wait until the policy tide turned. The second involved exploiting the potential for developing adult education in ways which aligned with, or levered off funding from government, corporate or philanthropic sources – including the development of social enterprises. Third were the advocacy and campaigning responses. I discuss the strengths and limitations of each of these different strategies with reference to adult educators’ views and the literature of international development campaigning.
|
| 13 |
Lessons for Neoliberal Times |
Marion Bowl |
|
Abstract
This chapter summarises the reasons why adult education has not been able to hold its ground as a field of practice: its historical marginalisation; its diversion into debates around professionalism; and adult educators’ reluctance to engage with theoretical and political questions. The chapter calls for the reinvigoration of a theoretically informed and critical analysis of how adult education is employed to sustain unequal economic and power relations. It argues for the importance of challenging neoliberal conceptions of adult education and suggests some of the strategies which might be adopted by those committed to education as a public and social good, and as a part of wider movements for equality and democracy.
|
| 14 |
Back Matter |
|
|
Abstract
|
发表于 2025-3-21 19:05:42
