Telling the story: exploring lifelong learning policies for young adults through a narrative approach

Abstract

The chapter presents and discusses insights from comparative case study research. The multi-method and multi-level analysis of the case studies focused on the intersections between institutional, individual and structural aspects of the policy-making process and allowed exploration of the interactions between structural and biographical dimensions, the different stakeholders’ points of view as well as consideration of the relations between the different levels of LLL policy design and implementation — from local/regional to transnational. The comparative case studies adopted a storytelling approach that aims at grasping the complex interrelations among the different actors in the field of LLL policy-making. The chapter starts by briefly presenting and discussing the operationalisation of case study analysis in YOUNG_ADULLLT with particular attention to the narrative strategy adopted for the case presentations. Next, the chapter discusses distinct narrative strategies to telling the story while attending to various perspectives of the policy-making process, the varying entry points as well as relational aspects. The chapter deliberates on how policy analysis as storytelling can help us advance from case to knowledge, for instance, by overcoming a one-sided perspective of policy-making to include addressees’ standpoints in understanding policy-making while accounting for the complexity that characterises policy-making on the ground.