News_archive......

2007

Recent publication

Goodson, I.F.(2007) All the lonely people: the struggle for private meaning and oublic purpose in education, Critical Studies in Education, 48(1),1-18.

This paper argues that the 'new world order' achieved at the end of the cold war is in crisis, not generated from the threat of 'war' between Christian and Islamic worlds but from within western societies, specifically from the growing commercialisation and 'privatisation' of social and community life which has uncoupled the systems and activities of society from the collective and individual purposes of people who comprise that society. Drawing on interview data (life and work histories) from three cohorts (1950s-1960s, 1970s-1980s, 1990s to present) of US and Canadian teachers, the paper identifies evidence of this crisis in the fields of culture, education and public service (e.g. in the turning away from public and towards private pursuits as the motivation for one's 'life's work' or 'passion'). It also looks to these fields in the search for answers to what motivates people and sponsors their meaning-making, specifically whether privatisation should be our only route to human meaning. The paper concludes that the personal 'missions' that people bring to their employment may be accommodated in some parts of the business world where people are given freedom to pursue their own 'projects', but these are largely frustrated in the micro-managed and re-regulated regimes of the public sector. Indeed, without invoking some 'golden age', the sense of vocation, public duty and 'caring professionalism' that characterised the 'top end' and 'backbone' of the public sector is diminishing as large numbers begin to withdraw their 'hearts and minds' while implementing the mandates and missions of others.

Learning and Skills Research Network (LSRN)  Conference was held at The Exchange, Bridgwater on 12 July 2007. Michael Tedder presented a paper entitled 'The Person That I Was Intended To Be’: Learning From Change And Transition In The Lifecourse.

Phil Hodkinson gave an invited keynote at the biennial JVET Conference in Oxford (6th -8th July).  His theme was the need for a longitudunaldimension in the field of Vocational Education and Training.  He drew on Learning Lives research data to show that people's vocational learning continues throughout their working lives, and is interwoven with learning and experiences from their lives outside work.

SCUTREA is the main annual conference for researchers in the education of adults. For the first time, the 2007 event took place in Belfast, with an audience of researchers from 14 countries, as well as large contingents from across Ireland and Britain. Heather Lynch and John Field gave a well-attended presentation exploring an apparent mismatch between conventional policies aimed at promoting learner progression and transition on the one hand, and the actual learning behaviours of people in our sample. In particular, we suggested that people taking vocational qualifications usually do so for a very limited purpose; once achieved, they do not see themselves as continuing lifelong learners. The discussion challenged our definition of provider partnerships; we had taken the policy makers' perspective - in this case, the Scottish Executive and its agencies - and some discussants suggested that we should also collect learner perspectives. There was also a useful exchange on learner identities and the extent to which 'educational refusers' were exercising greater agency than some participants.

ESREA Working Life and Learning Network Conference, Northern College, Wentworth Castle, Barnsley, June 26-28 2007

This was a small but international conference. There were representatives from the UK, Denmark, Canada and Japan. Phil and Heather Hodkinson gave a progress report on the Learning Lives Project, followed by a paper presentation relating workplace learning to learning throughout the lifecourse, illustrated by a case study. This was paralleled by a progress report and paper by Peter Sawchuk on the Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL) project based at OISE, University of Toronto, Canada.  There was discussion of the links between these two projects and work taking place at Roskilde University in Denmark. Learning Lives was thus making a significant contribution to international collaboration across three countries.   It was agreed that there was scope for future cooperation to use the data sets from all three projects.

Please follow the link for full paper 'The place of workplace learning in learning lives: a case study' by Phil Hodkinson, Heather Hodkinson, Geoff Ford & Ruth Hawthorn

Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning (CRLL) Annual Conference was held on 22-24th June 2007: The Project Team presented a symposium entitled 'Transitions and Learning in the Lifecourse: insights from the Learning Lives Project'.

Phil Hodkinson presented a separate paper entitled 'Learning Careers Revisited'.

University of Exeter

The Annual Staff Student Research Conference was held on 12th May 2007. The Exeter Team presented a paper entitled 'Pathways and context of adult learning across the life course'.

A Seminar Presentation entitled 'Combining Methodogies to Study Learning in the Life Course: Insights from the Learning Lives Project' on 08 May 2007 (Please follow link to Powerpoint presentation)

Dr Flora Macleod and Dr Paul Lambe's presented a paper 'Evidence from a cohort of 1997 initial phase leavers in England' at the AERA Conference held in April 2007.

March 2007

TLRP Seminar: The Impact of Context on Adolescent and Adult Life was held on 23 March 2007. Phil Hodkinson, Flora Macleod and Paul Lambe presented papers.

2006