Listening to the voices of learners: Intended and unintended policy outcomes

Listening to the voices of learners:Intended and unintended policy outcomes Iain Jones, University of Salford, i.r.jones@salford.ac.uk. ECE Conference September 2007

My purpose and stance Context Use of particular experiences as a practitioner researcher to ask research questions about • The analysis of specific policy texts • The voices of learners as participants in the construction of these policies • Insider research

Research questions and policy texts Research Questions • Relate to different dimensions of the policy process • Designed to explore how social relations structure knowledge My argument • Role of adult learners minimised in the specific policy texts analysed • Either marginal or represented as homogeneous group; passive recipients of given good

Example: Policy Text HEFCE Prospectus: Foundation Degrees(2000) Learners defined • In terms of ‘ student supply’ • As ‘evidence of marketing opportunities’ Policy actors defined as • HEIs • Colleges • Employers

Analysis of policy texts • Ozga (2000: 94-95) Policy texts significant in messages they convey – or seek to convey - in relation to sources scope patterns of policy • I argue policy texts not neutral.

Policy Texts : Critical Social Science Ozga (2000) argues that If policy is understood as the closed preserve of the formal government apparatus of policy making, then it follows that the social science project will make little impact. If, however, we understand policy as involving negotiation, contestation and a struggle between competing groups, as a process rather than output, then we can see that the social science project may indeed act as a resource (2000:42)

Focus groups and the identities and purposes of learners Focus groups conducted between May 2002 and November 2003. Explored implications of 1. Why learners joined Foundation Degree and associated peer mentoring project 2. Their experiences of it/ them 3. Whether, and if so how, their experiences of being a learner made them ‘ more active’ as a citizen • Relationships between Foundation Degree and work given that overall focus of Foundation Degree was on community governance and learners were either employees of local authorities and/or community activists

Contributions of learners as participants in theconstruction of policies Life history research has tended to connect agency and structure at an individual level. My research follows Merrill (2002:5) in extending this “ to a group/collective level” where the mutual benefit for learners and research is that “ Life history reflection can foster the dialectic between the personal and social aspects of learning”. Focus groups explored implications of learners participation in those groups as part of their collective learning.

Objective and subjective dimensions of ‘learning careers’ Following analysis uses notion of the ‘learning career’ to explore conflicts of expectation and experience for these adult learners and how the ambiguities and volatilities of these experiences (Merrill et al, 2001), at a particular point of time, are shaping their ‘learning careers’ • Objective: Career progression • Subjective: Changing experiences and identities

Objective dimension of learning career It is because of the Foundation Degree that I have got a secondment…would not have got it without the course (6 month secondment investigating the opportunities and barriers into work for adults with disabilities). The course may be a deciding factor in keeping me with the Council.

Subjective dimension of learning career Iwanted to start using my brain. I was pleased to have the opportunity… I went with it…. I deliberately did not have too many expectations…too many expectations can be limiting. I wanted a little more confidence…. achievements for myself .I wanted to be stimulated and challenged…. my job was not giving me that

Subjective dimension of learning career It makes you more critical. It gives you more ammunition to make judgements… concrete reasons. It gives me lot more credence… more confidence…challenging people. I have learnt more in the last 6-9 months than in the last 10 years at work…. it has made me think differently about work and myself. There have been changes in my negotiating, listening, and management.

Martin’s discourses of citizenship : Economistic and political discourses of citizenship • Tensions between economistic and political discourses of citizenship • ‘Useful knowledge’ and an economistic discourse? Learners as workers and consumers • ‘Really useful knowledge’ and a political discourse ? Learners as social actors

Emerging experiences and interpreting a policy in which they are participants 1: From ‘useful knowledge’ to ‘ really useful knowledge’? • Learners expectation in joining the Foundation Degree were located in the economistic discourse of worker/ producer or consumer • Emerging experiences suggest moving beyond an understanding of ‘ how ’ and ‘ what’ of useful knowledge to ‘ why’ of ‘ really useful knowledge’, within political discourse of political agent/social actor. • Complexity of dynamics in relationship between local authority and voluntary sector and own active roles in processes as local authority employee or voluntary sector representative.

Conclusion Combined Ozga’s work on policy texts to suggest that the language of specific policy texts constructed a narrow emphasis on individual employability Merrill’s work on learning careers and Martin’s notion of the discourses of citizenship Analysis of focus groups with adult learners on a Foundation Degree to trace tensions between intended and unintended policy outcomes

Listening to the voices of learners: Intended and unintended policy outcomes