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Beyond the 'learning society': what have we learnt from widening participation research?
Ist Teil von
International journal of lifelong education, 2006-11, Vol.25 (6), p.575-594
Ort / Verlag
Routledge
Erscheinungsjahr
2006
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Taylor & Francis Journals Auto-Holdings Collection
Beschreibungen/Notizen
This article emerges from a recent review of evidence, conducted by the authors and others, on the lifelong barriers to widening participation in higher education in England. This has led us to a consideration of the quality and relevance of the research activity in this large field of endeavour, and to the creation of a typology of the kinds of widespread problems we then encountered. These include pseudo-research, poor quality reporting of research, deficiencies in datasets, analytical errors, a lack of suitable comparators, obfuscation, a lack of scepticism in general, and the regular misattribution of causal links in particular. The article discusses each of these, and illustrates them using generally high-profile research studies and publications. We found a substantial proportion of non-empirical pieces. Of the remainder, we found a substantial proportion that did not report sufficiently well their methods or their findings. Of the remainder that were empirical and did explain their methods and findings sufficiently, we found a substantial proportion in which the findings could not support the conclusions drawn from them. The article ends with a plea for a great deal more 'learning' and openness to new ideas among those engaged, lifelong, in researching lifelong learning.