an article by Vicky Duckworth and Matthew Cochrane (Edge Hill University, Ormskirk) published in Education + Training Volume 54 Issue 7 (2012)
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the choices learners have in steering their way through the educational system in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on data from two studies, one conducted in a state secondary school and the other in a Further Education College, both based in the north-west of England. Both used interviews (either individual or focus-group) to collect data, which were then analysed using a grounded approach.
Findings
In linking the two studies the authors highlight how the impact of symbolic violence and the relations between groups and classes at school continue into the “choices” the learners make during adulthood and also into the learner’s working life, and that these “choices” are often a large-scale consequence of many “micro-choices” arising from day-to-day situations. The acts of symbolic violence described in the college group are not of themselves very different from those described by the school group, though the consequences for the school group cannot yet be known.
Research limitations/implications
The participants in the two groups are unconnected in that they attend different institutions and are at very different stages of their education. However the authors contend that there is a connection in terms of the participants’ experience of symbolic violence.
Originality/value
The paper draws attention to the existence of symbolic violence in everyday school life, and highlights how these instances can have significant impact.
Thursday, 27 September 2012
The role of universities in higher apprenticeship development
an article by Adrian Anderson (UVAC and University of Bolton), Darryll Bravenboer (Institute for Work Based Learning, Middlesex University) and David Hemsworth, (Haywards Heath, UK) published in Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning Volume 2 Issue 3 (2012)
Abstract
Purpose
To date, few universities have been involved in the Government-funded drive to expand higher apprenticeships across England. Universities have a track record of expertise and innovation in professional and work-based learning that can significantly contribute to the higher-level skills agenda and could have a pivotal role in the rapidly growing initiative to develop higher apprenticeship programmes. The purpose of this paper is to outline the potential contribution universities could make to higher apprenticeship and the potential barriers to university engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides an analysis of skills and higher education policy, initiatives and related research in England as the context for university involvement in higher apprenticeship. A case study is used to illustrate the benefits of and barriers to university involvement, including an uneven funding policy playing field for universities and misconceptions regarding professional competence and practice-based higher-level learning.
Findings
The paper illustrates the potential benefits university involvement in higher apprenticeship could deliver for employers and learners by supporting individual career progression and social mobility, and by providing employers and employees with clear and cost effective work-based pathways to management roles. It concludes that the current barriers to university involvement may result in a missed opportunity to maximise value from public investment in the workforce development expertise of universities, redeployed to realise higher apprenticeship innovation.
Originality/value
The authors believe this paper is the only academic analysis of the value of and barriers to university involvement in the current Westminster Government flagship Higher Apprenticeship programme. The case study included has not featured in any other academic journal.
Abstract
Purpose
To date, few universities have been involved in the Government-funded drive to expand higher apprenticeships across England. Universities have a track record of expertise and innovation in professional and work-based learning that can significantly contribute to the higher-level skills agenda and could have a pivotal role in the rapidly growing initiative to develop higher apprenticeship programmes. The purpose of this paper is to outline the potential contribution universities could make to higher apprenticeship and the potential barriers to university engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides an analysis of skills and higher education policy, initiatives and related research in England as the context for university involvement in higher apprenticeship. A case study is used to illustrate the benefits of and barriers to university involvement, including an uneven funding policy playing field for universities and misconceptions regarding professional competence and practice-based higher-level learning.
Findings
The paper illustrates the potential benefits university involvement in higher apprenticeship could deliver for employers and learners by supporting individual career progression and social mobility, and by providing employers and employees with clear and cost effective work-based pathways to management roles. It concludes that the current barriers to university involvement may result in a missed opportunity to maximise value from public investment in the workforce development expertise of universities, redeployed to realise higher apprenticeship innovation.
Originality/value
The authors believe this paper is the only academic analysis of the value of and barriers to university involvement in the current Westminster Government flagship Higher Apprenticeship programme. The case study included has not featured in any other academic journal.
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
A long division: closing the attainment gap in England's secondary schools
a research paper by Jonathan Clifton and Will Cook (IPPR) published by Institute for Public Policy Research (September 2012)
Introduction
This paper investigates the role schools can play in ensuring all children get a fair start in life. The issue of social mobility has risen up the political agenda in recent years, amid concerns that the opportunities provided by over a decade of economic growth have been too narrowly concentrated among a few groups in society. A series of reports has highlighted Britain’s low levels of social mobility, showing how children from poorer backgrounds struggle to gain access to university, enter professional jobs and earn decent wages (see Milburn 2012, Sutton Trust 2011, Blanden et al 2005). This in turn means disadvantage can become entrenched across the generations.
Low levels of social mobility are rooted in wider changes to the British economy since the 1970s, following the loss of decent jobs at the bottom of the labour market, the professionalisation of jobs at the top of the labour market, and an increase in income inequality, which have all combined to make it harder for people to climb the ladder of opportunity (Duncan and Murnane 2011). A concerted effort will be required in a number of policy areas to address this problem, but education can play a crucial role. A high level of education has become more important for getting a decent job over the past 30 years, meaning those families which are unable to invest in education are left further behind (Lindley and Machin 2012). Education can provide access to many opportunities later in life, and schools can help to create a level playing field for young people as they start out.
The government, in particular, has turned to schools to try and solve this problem, producing a social mobility strategy that focuses heavily on the academic performance of poorer pupils (Clegg 2012). It has introduced a number of policies designed to raise the achievement of pupils from deprived areas, including converting failing schools into academies, reforming the accountability system to put more pressure on weaker schools to improve, and allocating an additional sum of money, known as the ‘pupil premium’, to schools that teach children from poorer homes. Government ministers have expressed a desire to close the ‘stubborn’ gap in achievement at GCSE level that exists between children from deprived areas and their wealthier peers (Gove 2012).
This paper uses original analysis of the latest data available from the National Pupil Database to assess the challenge the government has set itself. It explores the role that schools can play in tackling the link between educational achievement and family income. The first half of the paper sets out the scale of the challenge, and puts the issue in context by comparing how the achievement gap – or, as it is often known, the attainment gap in England has changed over time and in relation to other countries. The second half of the paper examines the nature of the gap in achievement, and argues for the use of targeted interventions as well as wider ‘school improvement’ policies. The paper concludes by modelling the impact that the government’s flagship policy in this area, the pupil premium, might have on the achievement gap, and sets out what it would take to reach the government’s aim of closing it for good.
This paper is concerned with the specific question of what official data sources can reveal about the size and nature of the achievement gap, and how this can inform the design of current government policies. A more comprehensive book, in which leading academics will propose new policy ideas to break the link between poverty and educational achievement, will be published by IPPR later in the year.
Full text (PDF 50pp)
Introduction
This paper investigates the role schools can play in ensuring all children get a fair start in life. The issue of social mobility has risen up the political agenda in recent years, amid concerns that the opportunities provided by over a decade of economic growth have been too narrowly concentrated among a few groups in society. A series of reports has highlighted Britain’s low levels of social mobility, showing how children from poorer backgrounds struggle to gain access to university, enter professional jobs and earn decent wages (see Milburn 2012, Sutton Trust 2011, Blanden et al 2005). This in turn means disadvantage can become entrenched across the generations.
Low levels of social mobility are rooted in wider changes to the British economy since the 1970s, following the loss of decent jobs at the bottom of the labour market, the professionalisation of jobs at the top of the labour market, and an increase in income inequality, which have all combined to make it harder for people to climb the ladder of opportunity (Duncan and Murnane 2011). A concerted effort will be required in a number of policy areas to address this problem, but education can play a crucial role. A high level of education has become more important for getting a decent job over the past 30 years, meaning those families which are unable to invest in education are left further behind (Lindley and Machin 2012). Education can provide access to many opportunities later in life, and schools can help to create a level playing field for young people as they start out.
The government, in particular, has turned to schools to try and solve this problem, producing a social mobility strategy that focuses heavily on the academic performance of poorer pupils (Clegg 2012). It has introduced a number of policies designed to raise the achievement of pupils from deprived areas, including converting failing schools into academies, reforming the accountability system to put more pressure on weaker schools to improve, and allocating an additional sum of money, known as the ‘pupil premium’, to schools that teach children from poorer homes. Government ministers have expressed a desire to close the ‘stubborn’ gap in achievement at GCSE level that exists between children from deprived areas and their wealthier peers (Gove 2012).
This paper uses original analysis of the latest data available from the National Pupil Database to assess the challenge the government has set itself. It explores the role that schools can play in tackling the link between educational achievement and family income. The first half of the paper sets out the scale of the challenge, and puts the issue in context by comparing how the achievement gap – or, as it is often known, the attainment gap in England has changed over time and in relation to other countries. The second half of the paper examines the nature of the gap in achievement, and argues for the use of targeted interventions as well as wider ‘school improvement’ policies. The paper concludes by modelling the impact that the government’s flagship policy in this area, the pupil premium, might have on the achievement gap, and sets out what it would take to reach the government’s aim of closing it for good.
This paper is concerned with the specific question of what official data sources can reveal about the size and nature of the achievement gap, and how this can inform the design of current government policies. A more comprehensive book, in which leading academics will propose new policy ideas to break the link between poverty and educational achievement, will be published by IPPR later in the year.
Full text (PDF 50pp)
Earning Not Learning? An Assessment of Young People in the Jobs Without Training (JWT) Group
an article by Sue Maguire (University of Warwick) and Thomas Spielhofer and Sarah Golden (National Foundation for Educational Research) published in Sociological Research Online Volume 17 Number 3 (2012)
Abstract
In recent years, mass participation in post-16 education and training in England has led to a diminishing understanding about young people who leave education at the end of compulsory schooling to enter “jobs without training” (JWT).
Drawing on data from three recent studies, this article argues that the JWT group is not homogeneous in its composition. Similar findings led to the development of a common typology across all three studies to define young people’s position in the labour market, their motivations and aspirations, and their access to training and development.
It concludes with a series of recommendations for addressing the deficit in knowledge about the composition of the JWT group, and the learning and training needs of young workers.
This discussion is set in the context of the implementation of the Raising of the Participation Age (RPA) in England for all 17-year olds from 2013 and for all 18-year olds from 2015, although within the Coalition Government’s current proposals, its delivery will lack any form of immediate enforcement. Therefore, unless young workers and their employers are committed to the acquisition of accredited qualifications, RPA delivery will be seriously undermined and intervention to support school to work transitions among the JWT group will remain negligible.
Full text (HTML)
Abstract
In recent years, mass participation in post-16 education and training in England has led to a diminishing understanding about young people who leave education at the end of compulsory schooling to enter “jobs without training” (JWT).
Drawing on data from three recent studies, this article argues that the JWT group is not homogeneous in its composition. Similar findings led to the development of a common typology across all three studies to define young people’s position in the labour market, their motivations and aspirations, and their access to training and development.
It concludes with a series of recommendations for addressing the deficit in knowledge about the composition of the JWT group, and the learning and training needs of young workers.
This discussion is set in the context of the implementation of the Raising of the Participation Age (RPA) in England for all 17-year olds from 2013 and for all 18-year olds from 2015, although within the Coalition Government’s current proposals, its delivery will lack any form of immediate enforcement. Therefore, unless young workers and their employers are committed to the acquisition of accredited qualifications, RPA delivery will be seriously undermined and intervention to support school to work transitions among the JWT group will remain negligible.
Full text (HTML)
Student awareness of the costs and benefits of higher education
an article (CEPCP376) by Martin McGuigan, Sandra McNally and Gill Wyness published in CentrePiece - The Magazine for Economic Performance (September 2012)
What impact did media reporting of the near trebling of tuition fees have on school students’ understanding of the costs and benefits of university?
A CEP experiment run by Sandra McNally and colleagues sheds light on this question as well as on broader issues about the importance of clear information about the value of higher education.
Full article (PDF 7pp)
This article summarises Student Awareness of Costs and Benefits of Educational Decisions: Effects of an Information Campaign (PDF 57pp) by Martin McGuigan, Sandra McNally and Gill Wyness, Centre for the Economics of Education Discussion Paper No.139, August 2012
What impact did media reporting of the near trebling of tuition fees have on school students’ understanding of the costs and benefits of university?
A CEP experiment run by Sandra McNally and colleagues sheds light on this question as well as on broader issues about the importance of clear information about the value of higher education.
Full article (PDF 7pp)
This article summarises Student Awareness of Costs and Benefits of Educational Decisions: Effects of an Information Campaign (PDF 57pp) by Martin McGuigan, Sandra McNally and Gill Wyness, Centre for the Economics of Education Discussion Paper No.139, August 2012
The impacts of demographic change: Young workers, older workers and the consequences for education, skills and employment
an article by John Goodwin and Henrietta O’Connor (Centre for Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester) published in Education + Training volume 54 Issue 7 (2012)
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the key themes in the area of the impact of demographic change on young workers and older workers in relation to education, skills and employment, as discussed in the papers included in this section. The authors have also drawn upon data from their project “From Young Workers to Older Workers” as a context for the papers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws out the main themes from the papers contained within this section and presents original data from interviews with 97 older workers who were interviewed at two points in time – labour market entry and labour market exit.
Findings
The selection of papers in this section is outlined, as well as offering some findings from the authors’ research on older workers.
Originality/value
The papers in this section, including this paper, offer an overview of some of the key debates in relation to the impact of demographic change on both young workers and older workers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the key themes in the area of the impact of demographic change on young workers and older workers in relation to education, skills and employment, as discussed in the papers included in this section. The authors have also drawn upon data from their project “From Young Workers to Older Workers” as a context for the papers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws out the main themes from the papers contained within this section and presents original data from interviews with 97 older workers who were interviewed at two points in time – labour market entry and labour market exit.
Findings
The selection of papers in this section is outlined, as well as offering some findings from the authors’ research on older workers.
Originality/value
The papers in this section, including this paper, offer an overview of some of the key debates in relation to the impact of demographic change on both young workers and older workers.
Bad evidence: the curious case of the government-commissioned review of elective home education in England and how parents exposed its weaknesses
an article by Bruce Stafford (affiliation(s) not provided) published in Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice Volume 8 Number 3 (August 2012)
Abstract
Governments in the United Kingdom have been contracting out policy reviews to individuals.
One such review, of elective home education in England, reveals serious shortcomings to this practice.
This paper explores the shortcomings – methodological and presentational – with the review, and highlights the fact that there was no governmental mechanism or code against which a commissioned review can be held accountable.
Although a select committee held an inquiry, it was home educators using the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and social media who identified weaknesses in the review.
The review’s recommendations were not implemented, but this was only because a general election was called.
Hazel’s comment:
I include this item here not because of its inherent subject matter but because of the lack of accountability apparent in this specific case. Had it not been for some very determined people we, the general public, would never have known what was happening.
How many other policies are based on dubious evidence?
My cynical core tends to ask about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but should perhaps be concentrating on the evidence for the demise of Connexions services.
Abstract
Governments in the United Kingdom have been contracting out policy reviews to individuals.
One such review, of elective home education in England, reveals serious shortcomings to this practice.
This paper explores the shortcomings – methodological and presentational – with the review, and highlights the fact that there was no governmental mechanism or code against which a commissioned review can be held accountable.
Although a select committee held an inquiry, it was home educators using the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and social media who identified weaknesses in the review.
The review’s recommendations were not implemented, but this was only because a general election was called.
Hazel’s comment:
I include this item here not because of its inherent subject matter but because of the lack of accountability apparent in this specific case. Had it not been for some very determined people we, the general public, would never have known what was happening.
How many other policies are based on dubious evidence?
My cynical core tends to ask about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but should perhaps be concentrating on the evidence for the demise of Connexions services.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
