The research reported here is a study of learning support in a further education college in the South of England. It arose, firstly, from the researcher’s personal experience as a learning support tutor at the college and as someone with disabilities, who has an extensive experience as a student and tutor in the education system, including herself receiving learning support. It also arose from the broader context of widening participation in post-compulsory education, as well as the important role the further education sector plays in that process and the extent to which it has included many students with disabilities and other disadvantages, which may lead to the need for support. Key questions addressed are the experience of learning support and positive and negative evaluations of that experience in one FE college from the perspectives of supported students, support tutors, and mainstream tutors. Issues of equity and fairness and the idea of a ‘level playing field’ were addressed both through the literature and in the data from the participants. The applicability and value of the ‘post-social’ model of disability was also considered. A wide range of literature has been considered including different arguments about effective approaches to provision, different models of equity and fairness, literature dealing with the social and post-social models and empirical studies of support provision in FE and HE. Data was gathered in one college by means of interviews and questionnaires completed by supported students, support tutors and mainstream tutors. There was also a small scale survey of provision in other colleges to set the context for the detailed study. In general, all three groups were positive about support at the college although many concerns and criticisms also emerged. A general consensus was found in favour of all students having some form of support and has gained ground from the idea of support only being available for assessed/screened learners. The data comparison yielded a fruitful debate concerning the nature and limits of support and how to level the playing field. Mainstream and support tutors and supported students were all concerned about supported learners becoming too dependent. Mainstream and support tutors were concerned about the dividing line between supported and non-supported students and mainstream tutors expressed concerns over coursework and examination concessions being loaded in favour of supported learners. The supported students found coursework support helpful in empowering them with the appropriate skills to enable them to become independent learners and they praised their support tutors and support provision, but were critical of the examination service for failing to make reasonable adjustments for examination concessions. Support tutors raised concerns over testing and targets at the expense of differentiation and individual learning needs. Whilst the remedial/medical model has been replaced by the social/environmental model within learning support provision and practice, there has been a further paradigmatic shift in that, whilst the social/environmental model is still useful for pointing out barriers and how practice may be improved, it has been superseded within support practice by the post-social/individual model which looks at the complexity of individuals’ learning needs and empowers them to provide for their needs in a manner most appropriate for them. Keywords: adjustments, concessions, differentiation, disability, empowerment, equality, fairness, further education, higher education, inclusion, independent learning, learning support, specific learning needs, special educational needs, study skills support, widening participation.

Wellbeing is an emerging science. However, there are a number of differing views regarding how to define it as a concept, whether it is able to be measured and the potential for enhancing it at an individual level. The aim of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of a pastoral intervention programme designed to enhance the wellbeing of Further Education (FE) students. The mixed methods evaluation study reported here selected a sample of (N = 244) FE students who undertook a ten-week pastoral intervention programme delivered by their tutors that aimed to highlight the strategies they could employ to increase their personal resource bank. The Wellbeing in Further Education Students Survey (WFESS) was used to measure the students’ perception of how resourced and challenged they felt in ten life areas, alongside the impact of challenges they faced and the level of strategies they used to deal with the challenges. This measure was taken before and after the intervention. The results highlight a significant increase in the perception of feeling resourced following the intervention. Feedback from the delivery team of tutors highlighted a number of aspects of the intervention programme that received positive feedback from the students. The tutors also noted that the intervention had some positive effects in terms of enhancing their own wellbeing. A number of limitations occurred during the research. Access both to the students and the tutors involved in the programme was restricted. However, this research offers a significant step towards the use of intervention programmes with FE to enhance the wellbeing of students and staff, through the increase of awareness of personal resource strategies that can be employed to counteract the challenges they face in life.

This thesis concentrates on elementary and adult working-class education and illiteracy in Leicester between 1780 and 1870. The need for a literate workforce for the town's economic viability is also examined. The introductory chapters argue that economic and social change had had an adverse effect on education. Moreover an educated working class was perceived to be a threat to the existing social order, although the necessity for working-class education became increasingly apparent. Contemporaneously, members of the working class - particularly among the artisans - sought self-improvement, and appreciated the value of education in their desire for political and social reform. A variety of sources were used to trace the development of schools and Sunday schools in Leicester - the majority of which were founded in response to middle-class philanthropy and/or denominational rivalry - but with few exceptions voluntary provision failed to reach the poorest children. The need for more schools, sectarian conflict, and the quality of education were among issues that the Leicester School Board had to resolve. Indeed the effect of education upon illiteracy - measured by the ability to sign the Anglican marriage registers some 15 years later - had become most noticeable by 1890. Evidence for working-class interest in adult education can be seen in an attempt to establish a Mechanics' Institute in Leicester. However this was eventually inaugurated by the middle class to provide scientific and technical education for the working class. Numerous other institutions were founded by philanthropic middle-class reformers, but - with exception of the Working Men's College, and science schools - these tended to concentrate on 'rational recreation'. The study concludes that although Leicester's economy expanded in the second half of the nineteenth century, it was not until about 1881 that the need for a technically-educated literate workforce came to be considered as crucial if Leicester was to compete in foreign markets.

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This thesis examines the different types of collaboration used by providers to widen participation in further education and training in England, between 2001 and 2003. The first chapter, 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 widening participation and collaboration is carried out in chapters two and three to set a context and establish a rationale for the study. The methodology, which is a case-study approach employing multiple methods of data collection, is adopted and rationalised in chapter four. The casestudy sites are described in chapter five. A justification is also offered for the choice of case-study boroughs and institutions in the same chapter. The data are reviewed and described, using interviews, questionnaires, statistical and documentary analysis, in chapter six. The findings from this chapter are used to answer the research questions in the final chapter. Conclusions from analysing the data suggest that collaborative practices can be effectively used to recruit members of ethnic minority communities 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.

Colleges of further education in England are independent institutions and determine their own mission and strategy. As publically funded bodies affected by government policy, colleges respond differently to requirements placed on them. A range of factors that determine how the colleges develop strategy, including their approach to policy interpretation, are identified. The research examined the messages for colleges in the policies of New Labour from 2005 particularly focusing on policy relating to colleges serving their community. A theoretical framework of Ball's (1994) policy cycle, policy sedimentation and subsequent development of theories relating to policy narrative (Keep 2009) and policy levers (Steer et al 2007) were used to illuminate the data. A model of strategic planning for private sector companies (Johnson and Scholes 1993) became a tool for analysing the strategic choices made by colleges. Following desk research into the strategic approach of 60 colleges, three college case study sites were chosen; a sixth-form college, a general further education college and a specialist college. The research included an analysis of strategic planning documents and interviews with staff, governors and government officers. It identified that the three colleges had complex but different approaches to policy interpretation in planning. Policy levers, especially funding and inspection, had a significant influence on strategic choices combined with a hierarchy of other factors such as history, specialism and other provision locally. The majority of government officers interviewed were frustrated by their lack of ability to affect college strategies, especially when the provision on offer failed to match the perceived local need. The thesis proposes that whilst colleges do not share the range of strategic choices that truly independent organisations have, their individual institutional approach to policy interpretation varies. Three approaches are identified; a single focus with consolidation of the core mission, an entrepreneurial approach and a pragmatic one.

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Controlling the Imagination is an exploration of the tensions embedded in the notion of quality when it is used in relation to the teaching and managing of Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy, with specific relation to 'Skills for Life' — New Labour's policy attempt, instigated in 1999, to improve the basic skills of adults living in England. The thesis offers an analysis that charts the development of discourses around quality from the vague and attractive transcendental quality of the 18th C artisan to its object like textualisation in the Common Inspection Framework. Through critical discourse analysis and interview data with teachers and managers in further and adult education colleges graded as good or outstanding in their most recent ALI / OfSTED inspection, the text traces the contours along which practitioners experience the tension between quality-as-professional-aspiration in contrast to quality-as-demanded by policy. This axis, wrenched apart in several directions, is further complicated by the tension between quality-as-abstract and quality as embodied in day-to-day experience. I argue that practitioners talk about quality in ways that journey through these competing and contrasting meanings. In considering the implications of these ideas about quality, the thesis explores the research, policy and practice nexus. Research can inform policy and practice, but it can also lead to uncomfortable and unsettling conclusions that to some extent also unframe professional practice.

No description available.

No description available.