Deliberative policy analysis: adult literacy assessment and the politics of change

Abstract

Approximately 85,000 part-time teaching staff working in further education (FE) and adult and community learning (ACL) are often seen as 'a problem'. The intrinsic 'part-timeness' of these staff tends to marginalise them, and often they remain under-recognised and largely unsupported. Yet this picture is over-simplified. This article examines how part-time staff make creative use of professional autonomy and agency to mitigate problematic 'casual employment' conditions, reporting on results from Learning and Skills Development Agency-sponsored research (2002-2006) with 700 part-time staff in the learning and skills sector. The question of agency was reported as a key factor in part-time employment. Change is necessary for the professional agency of part-timers to be harnessed as the sector responds to ambitious sectoral 'improvement' agendas following the Foster Report and FE White Paper. Enhanced professionalisation for part-time staff needs greater recognition and inclusion in change agendas. \u

Practitioners’ perception of the impact of the vision of policy‐makers on practice: the example of the recommendations of the Moser Commission

“…It is plausible to argue that there is a link to the model of competence-based training which is also consumed by the provision of measurable evidence, and that the model generated through the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) Hamilton and Hillier (2007) which originated in the 1980s appears to be the template for this obsession with paper evidence. This in itself is hardly surprising, considering that skills and employment are some of the major influential themes in the development of the SfL strategy (Fowler 2005;Hamilton and Hillier 2006;Ade-Ojo 2008).…”

The changing faces of adult literacy, language and numeracy: literacy policy and implementation in the UK

“…DPA can articulate the ambiguities and uncertainties that exist in the field of ALLN and uncover its 'taken-for-granted' practices. Hamilton and Hillier (2007) approached the history of ALLN paying attention to the conflicts, tensions and actions of the people involved and affected in the field using DPA as their framework of analysis. This approach to policy focuses on everyday lives, practices and interactions where people create meaning out of their behavioural dispositions by participating in practices (Holland and Lave 2001).…”

Challenging Representations: Constructing the Adult Literacy Learner Over 30 Years of Policy and Practice in the United Kingdom

“…We map the documentary trail across this field of action over three decades to identify and contextualize the key documents for textual analysis. This situates the two documents we analyze within a set of practices and policy discourses experiencing constant realignment (see Coffield, Edward, Finlay, & Hodgson, ; Hamilton & Hillier, , ; Hodgson, Edward, & Gregson, ). It also establishes their key significance at pivotal moments in the construction of the field.…”