Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a major issue in post-compulsory education at the start of the twenty-first century. This paper reports the results of a recent survey of accountancy members which explored attitudes towards CPD in relation to employability, career success and professional identity. Attitudes to CPD are chiefly…

A common outcome of entering post-compulsory education as a mature aged learner appears to be development and growth of the self. However, this is often only viewed as an outcome or considered an added benefit, rather than an integral part of the academic process itself. This paper explores the relationship between academic growth and personal…

The usefulness of the feedback received on assessments undertaken by accounting students during their degree programme is an area about which little has been written. Given the increasing significance of transparency in the academic process, as evidenced through the development of explicit programme and module learning outcomes, it seems anomalous…

This paper provides a critique of the current policy orthodoxy of using markets to organise and structure education provision in England, focusing in particular on Further Education (FE) provision. Starting from the context of New Labour's so-called Third Way, it sets out research findings that indicate that marketisation not only produces…

This article reports on the outcomes from an initial study to explore the job satisfaction of academics in the light of changes in higher education in the UK. The study is placed in relation to attendant concerns that the job satisfaction, motivation and morale of academic staff may be being tested. A questionnaire and semi-structured interviews…

This paper presents some results from a review of evidence on the barriers to participation in further and higher education in England, organised around the life-course of an individual from birth to the decision to participate in FE/HE at the traditional age. It is clear that inequalities between socioeconomic groups appear early in life and…

This study explores whether the anticipation of a graded (merit, pass, fail) test outcome rather than a binary (pass, fail) form of feedback influenced the motivation of learners taking a vocationally related test. Ninety-four students currently taking a vocationally related qualification were divided into control and experimental groups. Each…

This paper describes a project aimed at helping children and their families achieve their potential. It is based in an area of high social disadvantage. The authors explain how parenting classes held at a community college (a comprehensive school with provision for adult education), have led to the development of a suite of courses leading to…

This article enquires about why some countries have specialised their further education provision more than others, focusing on three types of specialisation: by subject, by geographical area and by age group. The article proposes an analytical framework to understand the drivers for further education provider specialisation, based on four…

This paper examines the role of culture in the development of higher education institution (HEI) policy on widening participation. The study involved documentary research and interviews with senior and middle managers. It suggests that a culture of widening participation is often not embedded throughout institutions. Therefore, widening…

The influence of disciplinary identity remains significant in understanding academic practice, although its nature and extent has been debated. A framework of organisational, cognitive and social perspectives is commonly used as a means of structuring investigation. A limited amount of empirical research on academic roles, attitudes, beliefs and…

This research paper shows the ways in which survivors of domestic abuse can move on with their lives and take action to prevent their re-victimisation by returning to education. The primary aim was to explore the role of education as an agent of change, effecting positive and empowering changes to survivors' lives, thereby enhancing their life…

A critical discourse analysis of the Adult Numeracy Core Curriculum is used to expose and challenge the underlying assumptions of the Skills for Life strategy, and to examine the way in which the text constructs subject positions for adult numeracy teachers and learners. The analysis finds that presuppositions include the unproblematic transfer of…

Work-based learning's preoccupation with developing award-bearing programmes has affected the scope and style of work-based research. While offering development opportunities for work-based research, the emphasis of work-based learning programmes on the individual learner has curtailed the use of collaborative research. This article explores how…

Studies in creativity most often neglect the aspect of place, of the artist's situated practices in the studio. One reason for this is that the artist's studio is one of the most difficult workplaces in which to gain entry and conduct research. This article is based on grounded research into the studio workplace of the sculptor Oswald Stimm,…