Robin Simmons

University of Huddersfield · School of Education and Professional Development

This paper focuses on the colleges and institutes of higher education (CIHEs), major providers of HE, almost sixty of which existed in England and Wales between the 1970s and the early twenty-first century. Its central argument is that a failure to develop the CIHEs as specialist institutions of advanced professional learning along the lines of the...

The introduction locates the origins of the book in the editors’ personal histories, growing up in former coalfield communities, the social and cultural changes they have witnessed, and some of the conundrums now facing such locales—especially in relation to education and work. It provides an intellectual framework for the text; it discusses the pe...

This chapter highlights some of the key lessons to be learned from the book. It focuses not only on the conceptual and theoretical contribution made by each chapter but raises questions about how the legacy of coal is played out in the classroom, and at the institutional and systemic level. We draw on the notion of social haunting raised in the boo...

This paper examines the intergenerational effects of deindustrialisation on the processes and experiences of education at ‘Lillydown Primary’, a state primary school in a former mining community in the north of England. Complicating Avery Gordon’s notion of ‘haunting’, and drawing on conceptualisations of affect and community ‘being-ness’, it highl...

This paper focuses on the Colleges of Advanced Technology (CATs), specialist providers of advance science and technology which existed in England and Wales for ten years after the 1956 White Paper Technical Education. Its central argument is that recasting the CATs as broader-based universities following the 1963 Robbins Report was a significant er...

This paper uses the work of Pierre Bourdieu to understand the lives of a set of young White working-class men living in a deprived urban locale in the north of England. All participants were classified as NEET (not in education, employment or training) throughout the research and had spent lengthy periods of time outside education and work before t...

This paper focuses on the historical experiences of a set of former vocational students, all of whom undertook a course of liberal studies whilst attending an English college of further education at some point between the mid-1960s and the late-1980s. It is set against the backdrop of Tom Sharpe’s novel, Wilt, which both lampooned the antics of the...

This chapter provides the backdrop and sets the tone for the book. It begins by scoping out some of the challenges and injustices facing working-class youth, and by highlighting some of the mismatches between the structures and processes of education and the lives of many working-class young people. It then goes on to develop an alternative agenda...

This chapter locates the classed nature of education within a critical socio-historical framework, and considers how questions of social class are played out not only in the classroom but also at the institutional and the systemic level. Historical and contemporary debates about the nature and purpose of education are used to challenge the status q...

This book provides an inclusive and incisive analysis of the experiences of working-class young people in education. While there is an established literature on education and the working class stretching back decades, comparatively there has been something of a neglect of class-based inequality – with questions of gender, ‘race’ and other forms of...

This paper revisits the liberal studies movement – an important if under-researched episode in the history of education. It examines the lived experience of a set of former vocational students, the great majority of whom eventually went on to teach in further and higher vocational education. All participants had undertaken a course of liberal studi...

This paper revisits the abolition of the colleges of education in England and Wales, specialist providers of teacher training which were effectively eradicated in the years after Margaret Thatcher’s 1972 White Paper Education: A Framework for Expansion. Its central argument is that the way in which change was enacted thereafter represented a signif...

This paper draws on research into the experiences of young people classified as NEET (not in education, employment or training) on an employability programme in the north of England, and uses Basil Bernstein’s work on pedagogic discourses to explore how the creative arts can be used to re-engage them in work-related learning. Whilst creating demand...

This paper revisits the liberal studies movement, a significant feature of the English further education (FE) sector from the 1950s until the beginning of the 1980s. Its central argument is that liberal and general studies (LS/GS) and similar provision offered a vehicle where, at least in some circumstances, certain politically-motivated FE teacher...

This paper uses the Habermasian concept of legitimation crisis to critique the relationship between post-compulsory education and training and the chronic levels of youth unemployment and under-employment which now characterise post-industrial Western economies, such as the UK. It draws on data from an ethnographic study of the lives of young peopl...

This research was undertaken as part of the Aiming Higher project, an employer engagement and mentoring programme funded by the BIG Lottery Fund NI. To build on the work of Aiming Higher and other Northern Ireland initiatives to support care leavers, Business in the Community and Include Youth commissioned a report on the feasibility of offering 10...

This paper uses Basil Bernstein’s work on pedagogic discourses to examine a largely neglected facet of the history of vocational education - the liberal studies movement in English further education colleges. Initially, the paper discusses some of the competing conceptions of education, work and society which underpinned the rise and fall of the li...

Drawing on a longitudinal study of the lives of NEET young people, this book looks beyond dominant discourses on youth unemployment to provide a rich, detailed account of young people's experiences of participation and non-participation on the margins of education and employment, highlighting the policy implications of this research. © Robin Simmon...

This paper is based on findings from a longitudinal study of 20 young people who have spent significant periods of time categorised as NEET (not in education, employment or training). Drawing on 3 years of ethnographic research conducted across two local authorities in the north of England, it focuses on the lived experience of a set of young peopl...

Being outside education, employment and training for significant periods of time during youth and early adulthood can have serious consequences, and the so-called scarring effects of exclusion at this crucial stage in life are well documented. Young people from poorer backgrounds are particularly at risk, and the intergenerational persistence of di...

This article revisits the three decades following the end of World War Two – a time when, following the 1944 Education Act, local education authorities (LEAs) were the key agencies responsible for running the education system across England. For the first time, there was a statutory requirement for LEAs to secure adequate facilities for further edu...

This paper reports on the first two years of a longitudinal ethnographic study of 20 young people in northern England who have been officially classified as not in education, employment or training (NEET). Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's conceptualisation of space as perceived, conceived and lived, this paper analyses how young people comprehend, use a...

In this book we have tried to provide some insight into the lives of marginalized young people and the challenges they face in a post-industrial liberal economy such as the UK. The fieldwork upon which the book is based allowed us to explore the participants’ lives in a way which is not possible in most research projects, and to observe how young p...

Education in advanced Western economies such as the UK can be conceived in various ways. Some focus on education’s emancipatory possibilities and its power to transform the lives of individuals and groups. For John Dewey (1966), the main functions of schooling can be summarized as providing social stability and integration; promoting moral and pers...

Saheera, who lived with her parents, her brother and four sisters in Gadley, was one of the first young people to join the research project when she began taking part in the study in late 2010. She was introduced to us, along with her friend Shabina, whilst in Year 11 of an all-girls high school, after both were identified by the school as ‘vulnera...

Isla was 18 years old when she began taking part in our research in February 2011. We first met her through an employability programme run by Fernside Council’s Looked After Children (LAC) team when Lisa was observing Cayden — a young man whose story we recounted earlier. Like Cayden, Isla had spent time in foster care but the biographies of these...

This chapter examines some of the methodological issues connected with the research. It first locates our work within the ethnographic tradition, particularly in relation to questions raised by working across multiple sites using individual young people as the unit of analysis, and the need for a critical ethnography to fully illuminate the lives o...

In later chapters, we describe some of the young people in our research as living in poverty, or as being affected by poverty in various ways that reduce their ability to participate in work or education. To people accustomed to thinking about poverty as a lack of material resources, this might seem an exaggerated way of expressing the circumstance...

The last 50 years have seen profound changes in how young people experience early adulthood, reflecting more fundamental alterations in economy and society. For three decades after the end of World War II, the majority of young people left school and entered full-time work at the first opportunity, and youth transitions were perhaps at their most c...

As we have seen, normative patterns of youth transition have extended during the last 40 years, and for most young people leaving home and acquiring the traditional signifiers of adult life have been considerably delayed. However, young people leaving care are exceptions to this trend, and accelerated transitions to adulthood are more likely for th...

During the 1970s, authors such as Paul Willis (1977) in Learning t? Labou? and Bowles and Gintis (1976) in Schooling in Capitalist Americ? problematized in different ways the role of educational processes in maintaining class differences and preparing young working-class people for a future of blue collar jobs. Whilst Bowles and Gintis developed a...

As we have seen earlier in this book, young people’s participation in education, training or employment is related in complex ways to their individual circumstances and their location within broader social structures. Whilst educational achievement is a central factor in intergenerational patterns of advantage and disadvantage, young people’s exper...

Angela McRobbie (2004) suggests that the increasing feminization of the workforce, the weakening of traditional family roles and greater opportunities for the construction of individualized female identities have initiated new forms of class distinction and differentiation, so that the representation and inscription of social divisions has itself b...

A frequent criticism of research into youth transitions is that it has tended to concentrate on the more extreme and sensational at the expense of the mundane and the average (Roberts 2011; 2012). To some extent this is understandable, and for academics and policymakers concerned with those most at risk, it is natural to concentrate on young people...

This report investigates the initial labour market experiences of two young people working in multinational, private sector companies, and the role of employers and support services. Both young people had previously been NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) for significant periods. It aims to understand the factors influencing their tran...

This paper uses Raymond Boudon’s model of educational expansion to examine the relationship between education and social mobility, paying particular attention to post-compulsory education – an important site of social differentiation in England. The paper shows how Boudon focuses explicitly on the consequences of educational expansion, and argues t...

This paper focuses on the changing terrain of initial teacher training (ITT) for the lifelong learning sector in England. Drawing on research with teachers and teacher educators at four different lifelong learning sites, it explores the ‘relative value’ of different forms of ITT, validated by higher education institutions (HEIs) and alternative awa...

This paper is based on findings from a longitudinal study of twenty young people who have spent significant periods of time categorised as NEET (not in education, employment or training). Drawing on three years of ethnographic research conducted across two local authorities in the north of England, it focuses on the lived experience of a set of you...

This paper introduces a Special Issue of Research in Post-Compulsory Education on young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). The Special Issue brings together 12 papers from seven nations, providing critical perspectives on young people outside education and employment from Eastern Europe, Australasia and South Africa, as well as...

This paper focuses on Initial Teacher Training (ITT) for the Lifelong Learning Sector (LLS) in England. Based on research with teachers and Teacher Educators at four different Lifelong Learning sites, it explores the relative value of different forms of ITT, offered by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and alternative awarding bodies. It shows t...

This paper is based on an ethnographic study of young people engaged in work-based learning programmes in two neighbouring local authorities in the north of England. The research took place during 2008-9, and was conducted in four learning sites offering training programmes for young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), or at ris...

This paper discusses the findings from a one-year ethnographic study of young people attending Entry to Employment (E2E) programmes in two local authorities in the north of England. The paper locates E2E within the broader context of provision for low-achieving young people and of UK government policy on reducing the proportion of young people who...

Official discourse in the United Kingdom and many other OECD countries emphasises education and training as a vehicle for social inclusion and economic growth. Accordingly, those who do not participate are seen to be at risk of long-term exclusion. However, interventions aimed at re-engaging young people not in education, employment or training (NE...

This report provides a summary of findings from an ethnographic study of work‐based learning provision for 16–18‐year‐olds who would otherwise fall into the UK Government category of not in education, employment or training (NEET). The research project took place in the north of England during 2008–2009, and investigated the biographies, experience...

Purpose This paper problematises the experience of trainee teachers in further education (FE) colleges in England. It focuses on colleges as employers and developers of their own teaching staff, 90 per cent of whom are trained “in‐service”, while in paid employment. The paper aims to explore how a shift towards more expansive workplace practices co...

This book examines the experiences of a group of young people in the post-industrial north of England attending Entry to Employment, a work-based learning programme for those who have been NEET (not in education, employment or training) or risk becoming so in the future. It critically appraises the discourse on NEET young people and its social, eco...

Further education (FE) has traditionally been a rather unspectacular activity. Lacking the visibility of schools or the prestige of universities, for the vast majority of its existence FE has had a relatively low profile on the margins of English education. Over recent years this situation has altered significantly and further education has undergo...

Transitions of young people from school to employment, further education or training have been a focus of government policy in the UK for at least the last three decades. Since the late 1990s, numerous policy initiatives have been introduced by New Labour in an attempt to reduce social exclusion through the increased participation of young people i...

Since 2001 there has been a statutory requirement for teachers in English further education (FE) colleges to gain teaching qualifications. However, in marked distinction from other sectors of education, around 90% of FE teachers are employed untrained, and complete their initial teacher training on a part‐time in‐service basis. Traditionally, this...

Following the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, local education authorities (LEAs) lost control of further education in England. Now, after spending almost two decades out in the cold, from 2010, local authorities are set to become re‐involved in the further education system. Given this, this paper takes the opportunity to look back on the end...

Further education (FE) colleges have long been regarded as the ‘Cinderella service’ of English education. From their origins in the technical institutes of the nineteenth century, through the years of haphazard growth in the early twentieth century, and for most of the era of local authority control from 1944 until the early 1990s, FE tended to be...

Entry to Employment (E2E) is a work‐based learning programme aimed at 16–19 year‐olds in England deemed not yet ready for employment, an apprenticeship or further education and training. Taking into account educational, social and personal circumstances which are often severely disadvantaged, it aspires to provide these young people with training e...

Fifteen years ago further education (FE) colleges in England were removed from local education authority (LEA) control and re‐formed as ‘FE corporations’. Now, it is proposed that, from 2010, local authorities will become re‐involved in the running of FE. Given such a prospect, this article takes the opportunity to look back at colleges under LEA c...

This paper problematises the official discourse of economic competitiveness and social inclusion used by the 2007 Education and Skills Bill to justify the proposal to extend compulsory participation in education and training in England to the age of 18. Comparisons are drawn between this attempt to raise the age of compulsion and previous attempts,...

This article examines the circumstances affecting creative teaching and learning within the specific context of English further education (FE)—a sector which has proved to be particularly fertile ground for performativity. Beginning with an analysis of notions of creativity in education and a description of the peculiar history and policy context o...

English further education (FE) has traditionally been dominated by men. For decades FE, with its emphasis upon vocational education and training, was characterised by a preponderance of male staff and students and a somewhat masculine culture. However, the past two decades have seen a significant numerical and cultural feminisation of FE. Whilst th...

This paper examines the current proposal to raise the age of compulsory participation in education or training in England. It compares and contrasts the intentions of the 2007 Education and Skills Bill with previous, often overlooked, attempts to ensure young people continue to participate in education or training until the age of 18. The paper out...

Recent research on post‐compulsory teacher educators in England suggests that there is a high degree of feminisation of this workforce, particularly where further and higher education partnerships are concerned. This process of feminisation has taken place against a background in which English post‐compulsory education has increasingly been brought...

Initial teacher training for post‐compulsory education in England is currently undergoing profound change in terms of central direction of curricula and the provision of financial support for trainees. Within a discourse of the ‘professionalisation’ of teaching in the sector, unprecedented control of the detailed structure and content of training c...