ERIC Number: EJ863102
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Nov
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0268-0939
EISSN: N/A
The Development of Adult and Community Education Policy in New Zealand: Insights from Popper
Slater, Gloria
Journal of Education Policy, v24 n6 p697-716 Nov 2009
This paper examines the process by which all post-compulsory education in New Zealand has become integrated under one administrative structure, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), with the intention of developing a single coordinated system of tertiary education. In particular, adult and community education (ACE), the least formal and organised sector, is required to develop programmes that align with an externally conceived set of priorities, which themselves arise from the Tertiary Education Strategies. Using Popper's concepts of "holistic" versus "piecemeal" change, it is argued that such large-scale change is potentially dangerous as there are likely to be unintended, damaging consequences of such policies; consequences which are difficult to fix in modern, complex societies. In particular, ACE which is built on an insider, community-focus ethos, able itself to identify and respond to community-learning opportunities, is likely to be changed fundamentally so that the very characteristics that have made ACE effective in the past will be lost in the process. (Contains 7 notes.)
Descriptors: Postsecondary Education, Community Education, Foreign Countries, Educational Policy, Policy Analysis, Politics of Education, Educational Change, Educational Strategies, Holistic Approach, Educational Practices, Adult Education, Organizational Change
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Adult Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New Zealand
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A