Lifelong Learning, Young Adults and the Challenges of Disadvantage in Europe

John Holford, Pepka Boyadjieva, Sharon Clancy, Günter Hefler, Ivana Studená (Herausgeber)

Buch | Softcover

XXXVIII, 467 Seiten

2023
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-031-14111-9 (ISBN)

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This open access book challenges international policy 'groupthink' about lifelong learning. Adult learning - too long a servant of business competitiveness - should be reimagined as central to democratic society. Young adults, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds, engage more in education and training, and learn more day-to-day at work, if provision is democratically organised and based on enduring and inclusive institutional networks, and when jobs encourage and reward the acquisition of skills. Using innovative qualitative and quantitative methods, the contributors develop a critical perspective on dominant policies, investigating - across the European Union and Australia - how 'vulnerable' young adults experience programmes designed to improve their 'employability', and how 'skills for jobs' policies squeeze out wider - and wiser - ideas of what education and training should do. Chapters show why some provision works for those with poor educational backgrounds, why labour market and educational institutions matter so much, how adult education can empower and expand people's agency, and the challenges of using artificial intelligence in lifelong learning policy-making. Several investigate the pivotal role of workplace learning in organisational life, and in learning during 'emerging adulthood'. Important comparative studies of workplace learning in the metals, retail and adult education sectors show the role of management, trade unions and social movements in young adults' learning.

John Holford is Robert Peers Professor of Adult Education at the University of Nottingham, UK and Co-ordinator of the Enliven project. Pepka Boyadjieva is Professor of Sociology in the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham, UK. Sharon Clancy is Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham, UK, and was Senior Research Fellow on the Enliven project 2016-2019. Gunter Hefler is Senior Researcher and Project Manager at 3s (www.3s.co.at), Austria. Ivana Studena is a Researcher at the Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Part I Lifelong Learning for an Inclusive and Vibrant Europe.- Lifelong Learning, the European Union, and the Social Inclusion of Young Adults: Rethinking Policy.- Bounded Agency in Policy and Action: Empowerment, Agency and Belonging.- Part II Policies, Programmes and Participation.- Vulnerability in European Lifelong Learning Policies 1992-2018: Seeing Young People as a Problem to be Fixed?.- Participation in Adult Learning: System Characteristics and Individuals' Experiences.- Participation of Vulnerable Young Labour Market Groups in Job-Related Training: The Effect of Macro-Structural and Institutional Characteristics.- Gender Gaps in Participation in Adult Education in Europe: Examining Factors and Barriers.- Adult Education as a Pathway to Empowerment: Challenges and Possibilities.- Governing Adult Learning through Influencing Public Debate: How the Media use PIAAC Data in Denmark, Italy and the United Kingdom.- Policy, Practice and Praxis: Computer-Aided Decision Support to Enable Policy Making in Lifelong Learning.- Part III Young Adults' Learning in the Workplace and Beyond.- The Interplay of Organisational and Individual Bounded Agency in Workplace Learning: A Framework Approach.- Working and Learning in the Retail Sector: A Cross-Country Comparative View.- Organisational and Individual Agency in Workplace Learning in the European Metal Sector.- Work and Learning in the Adult Education Sector: A Cross Country Comparative View.- Speaking Up: How Early Career Workers Engage in Fighting for Better Working Conditions by Joining Youth-Led Social Movement Organisations.- Early Career Workers' Agency in the Workplace: Learning And Beyond in Cross-Country Comparative Perspective.- Part IV Conclusion.- Adult Education, Learning Citizens, andthe Lessons of Enliven.

This detailed and compassionate publication undoubtedly puts things into perspective. The authors have superbly synthesised this mammoth project, sharing with us the injustices and discriminations that permeate society, offering much to consider about the changes necessary to existing systems of support. It is indeed a persuasive publication that I am sure will speak to much of the growing literature on embedding employability skills in the curriculum . (Kristyna Campbell, British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 72 (4), 2024)

This volume deserves a diverse and wide-ranging readership. Full of impressive methodological tools, creative solutions, and compelling evidence, this book can serve as an important source of inspiration for innovative approaches and combining complementary methods. (Anna Gruszczynska-Thompson, Educational Research and Evaluation, Vol. 28 (1-3), 2023)

This book is a powerful and stimulating engagement with the myriad ways in which the positive aspirations of policymakers are altered by the exigencies of local political, social and organisational context. (Alan Tuckett, International Review of Education, Vol. 69 (4), 2023)

“This book is a powerful and stimulating engagement with the myriad ways in which the positive aspirations of policymakers are altered by the exigencies of local political, social and organisational context.” (Alan Tuckett, International Review of Education, Vol. 69 (4), 2023)

Erscheinungsdatum	18.03.2023
Reihe/Serie	Palgrave Studies in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning
Zusatzinfo	XXXVIII, 467 p. 27 illus.
Verlagsort	Cham
Sprache	englisch
Maße	148 x 210 mm
Gewicht	658 g
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Erwachsenenbildung
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
Schlagworte	Adult Education • adult education policy • Europe and lifelong learning • Lifelong Learning • open access • vulnerable adults and education • workplace learning
ISBN-10	3-031-14111-3 / 3031141113
ISBN-13	978-3-031-14111-9 / 9783031141119
Zustand	Neuware