Learning for Life
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LEARNING FOR LIFE Politics and Progress in Recurrent Education Edited by Frank Molyneux, George Low and Gerry Fowler ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: EDUCATION ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: EDUCATION LEARNING FOR LIFE LEARNING FOR LIFE Politics and Progress in Recurrent Education Edited by FRANK MOLYNEUX, GEORGE LOW AND GERRY FOWLER Volume 49 Routledge Taylor &. Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK First published in 1988 This edition first published in 2012 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1988 F. Molyneux, G. Low and G. Fowler All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 13: 978-0-415-61517-4 (Set) eISBN 13: 978-0-203-81617-2 (Set) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-67561-1 (Volume 49) eISBN 13: 978-0-203-80856-6 (Volume 49) Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace. Learning for Life Politics and Progress in Recurrent Education Edited by Frank Molyneux, George Low and Gerry Fowler CROOM HELM London • New York • Sydney © 1988 F. Molyneux, G. Low and G. Fowler Croom Helm Ltd, Provident House, Burrell Row, Beckenham, Kent, BR3 1AT Croom Helm Australia, 44-50 Waterloo Road, North Ryde, 2113, New South Wales Published in the USA by Croom Helm in association with Methuen, Inc. 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Learning for life: politics and progress in recurrent education. 1. Continuing education I. Molyneux, F.H. II. Low, George III. Fowler, Gerry 374 LC5215 ISBN 0-7099-4646-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Learning for life. (Radical forum on adult education series) 1. Continuing education — Great Britain. 2. Adult education — Great Britain. 3. Great Britain — Social conditions — 1945- . I. Molyneux, Frank, 1932- II. Low, George, 1940- . III. Fowler, Gerry. IV. Series. LC5256.G7L35 1987 374'.941 87-9173 ISBN 0-7099-4646-5 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn CONTENTS Preface Foreword by John Alderson, former Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Abbreviations Section 1: Ten Years of Change 1. Education, Economics and Social Change 3 Michael D. Stephens 2. Towards Recurrent and Continuing Education 15 - Education Cycles of Failure T.R.P. Brighouse 3. The Continuing Education of Adults: 25 Tradition and Change Alan Charnley and Arthur Stock 4. Adult and Continuing Education: 42 National Advisory Council and All John Taylor 5. Broadcasting and Recurrent Education 54 Naomi Sargant Mcintosh 6. What Workers, What Leave? Changing Patterns 63 of Employment and the Prospects for Paid Educational Leave John Field 7. Economic and Financial Implications of 76 Recurrent and Continuing Education Maurpen Woodhall Contents 8. Recurrent Education and Social Welfare Policy 90 Colin Griffin Section 2: The Politicians and Recurrent Education 9. Continuing Education - Conservative Achievement 107 Keith Hampson, MP 10. Continuing Education and the Labour Party 125 Andrew Bennett, MP 11. The Priority of Recurrent Education: A Social 134 Democratic Party (SDP) View Anne Sofer 12. On the Nature of Political Progress 144 Gerry Fowler Section 3: Recurrent Education in Practice 13. Improving Secondary Schooling: 163 Starting from Where We Are Roger Mercer 14. 16-19: The Critical Stage for Recurrent 171 Education Ray Morgan and Frank Molyneux 15. The Changing Curriculum at 16+ 178 - a Working View of CPVE Phil Hodkinson 16. FEU Support for Recurrent Education 189 Philip Barnard 17. The Interface Between Education and Training 194 Carol Dalglish 18. The MSC and Adult Education and Training 201 Geoffrey Holland 19. Recurrent Education and Industry 211 Allan Ainsworth 20. A View from the Workplace 218 Mike Cunningham Contents 21. Educational Guidance Services in Action 227 Dorothy Eagleson and Mabel McGowan 22. Education for Adults: 241 a Multi-Cultural Dimension Jean Jackson 23. Recurrent Education and Adult Basic 250 Education: A Practitioner's View Amanda McMahon 24. Second Chance Programmes 257 Linden West 25. The Open University: Retrospect and 269 Prospect in Recurrent Education Nick Small 26. University Adult Education: What Prospects? 279 Brian Groombridge 27. The Third Age 287 David Wood 28. The Development of Recurrent Education 292 in Sweden Karl-Axel Nilsson 29. Renewing the Agenda in Australia 302 Chris Duke Biographical Notes on Authors and Editors 310 Index 315 PREFACE by the Association for Recurrent Education In 1974 the embryonic Association (ARE) colla- borated with Ward Lock Educational to produce 'Recurrent Education - A Plea for Lifelong Learn- ing'. In their editorial introduction Vincent Houghton and Ken Richardson argued that Recurrent Education was much more than a convenient shorthand for various approaches to the expansion and elabo- ration of traditional adult education in face of changing circumstances. They noted that, even then, continuing education was used to describe developments primarily related to the retraining or 'topping up' of adults needing or wishing to find new occupations. They stressed that the twelve contributors had only a broadly convergent approach but that they all believed that the 70s and 80s would be a watershed in Britain's educational development. They predicted a crisis in education but saw in it more than the problems of quantity and organisation which would accompany falling rolls, rising unemployment, severe inflation and continued economic underperformance. They talked of a 'crisis of paradigm', arguing the need for a 'new way of seeing', for radically different per- ceptions of and attitudes towards the provision of education and training which would have 'conse- quences not only for adult education but for the whole education system'. Thus their seminal work on recurrent education, which formed a philosophi- cal cornerstone for ARE's first decade, attempted a theoretical underpinning of this paradigm shift. It also launched the Association's continuing cam- paign to convince practitioners, politicians and public that, in a painful period of adjustment in education, Britain simply could not afford 'tinker- ing with what exists by those who have no clear idea of what might ideally exist'. Preface In many respects it might be said that what follows in this ARE sponsored review of thought and practice in recurrent education during the 1980s bears out that warning from Gerry Fowler in 1974. However, in one vital respect our position in com- missioning this book in 1986 was radically differ- ent. Then, while insisting that the concept repre- sented 'an inherent optimism about the future of mankind, invested in the growth and availability of knowledge resources and in the liberation of human potentiality', we feared a fatal dichotomy in the debate between those who felt the situation to be hopeless in the face of political indifference and those with faith and optimism about the changes needed. In the 1980s, as several contributors demonstrate, circumstances nationally have forced a series of shifts towards a situation in which pub- licly financed opportunities for learning beyond the compulsory school are increasing - some drama- tically. It is precisely because we still await a rational articulation in political terms of an alternative recurrent based model that this book could also be seminal. It goes far beyond repetition of familiar semantic argument. Nor is it dominated by state- ments of faith and hope and pleas for government charity. In 1984 ARE chose to deploy its limited funds but considerable collective energies to mounting a public party-political debate on the prospects for recurrent education. Its annual conference brought Peter Brooke, the then Conserva- tive Minister of State for Higher Education, to Sheffield as keynote speaker. Andrew Bennett, MP and Anne Sofer put the Labour and SDP views. Mr Brooke, who has since departed from his responsi- bilities at the DES, did not consider his Sheffield paper an appropriate representation of the Conser- vative Party view. Thus, this is expounded at some length by Keith Hampson, MP, alongside the original papers. Since these were written the 1987 general election has brought the future of education into sharper political focus and both Labour and the Alliance have amplified their views. The Labour Party policy document Investing in People puts the emphasis on education and training for young adults. There is also a commitment to require employers to release workers for off-the- job training and education without loss of pay. In a previous policy statement the Labour Party promised to expand higher education and provide Preface student grants for all those over 16 who want to take further education or training. The SDP are advocating increased part-time and modular study with credit transfer and accumulation. The Liberal Party has made a pledge to open up the Open Univer- sity again by doubling the number of places and providing study grants for OU students. On the Conservative side the new Secretary of State, Mr Kenneth Baker, quietly buried Sir Keith Joseph's cuts programme for higher education and has firmly declared that it is now government policy that as many young people as possible should continue their education after 16 and in later life.