Abstract
Over the past decade, adult education and Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the UK context have been strongly affected by the implications of unstable political, social and economic situations, specifically in relation to social and economic inclusion of vulnerable young adults. This paper argues, that the development of policy transfer and policy learning in adult education has been characterised by its multidimensional nature and has been influenced by the implications of contemporary global challenges, country-specific priorities and the European agenda on inclusion. The notion of policy learning in adult education highlights the complex interdependencies between policies and practices. We will endeavour to consider how the complex interplays between country-specific priorities, global discourses and the European agenda on active citizenship (AC) contribute to national policies and practices for social inclusion of young adults in the UK context. Selected case studies will demonstrate the ways this policy agenda transfers into specific programmes for vulnerable young adults.
Highlights
The paper considers the complex interplay between policy and practice in relation to adult education and social inclusion in the context of United Kingdom (UK), considering the role and influence of international discourses on the landscape of adult education
We endeavour to answer the question: how does the interplay between country-specific priorities, global discourses and the European agenda on Active Citizenship (AC) contribute to and shape national policies and practices for social inclusion of vulnerable young adults in the UK context? The ways educational policies are developed are complex, and there is some overlap in the literature, between some key processes of policy development such as policy borrowing (e.g. Phillips and Ochs, 2003), policy learning (e.g. Raffe, 2011a), policy transfer (e.g. Crossley, 2019) and policy referencing (e.g. Forestier et al, 2016)
As Raffe makes a point in his later work (Raffe, 2011b), the distinction between the concepts of policy borrowing and policy learning, is that policy borrowing involves searching the international experience for transferable ‘best practice’ while policy learning uses this experience for a wider range of purposes, including understanding one’s own system better, identifying common trends and pressures that affect all systems, and identifying issues raised by some strategies
Summary
The paper considers the complex interplay between policy and practice in relation to adult education and social inclusion in the context of UK, considering the role and influence of international discourses on the landscape of adult education. The concept of Active Citizenship (AC) has been increasingly promoted as a means to contribute to social and economic inclusion through lifelong learning and social participation (Field and Schemmann, 2017) Both the impact of some global challenges and European AC policies have, in many ways, shaped the national policy and practice responses in relation to inclusion strategies through adult education. The paper will further consider some important national responses such as policies and strategies to facilitate the inclusion, engagement and employability of young adults, often driven by learning from past experiences and policies, both national and international (Raffe and Spours, 2007) Embedding these policies and agendas into specific adult education contexts will be illustrated through two respective cases from England and Scotland. The paper will conclude with a summary and discussion on the main findings concerning the interplay between policy and practice, suggesting some directions for future research
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