23
1 ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL Malcolm Lobban and Catherine Forrest – Christies Beach High School Adult & Community Education Centre, South Australia ABSTRACT November 2010 -“We don’t have the luxury anymore of accepting mature age students into our normal schooling system” – SA State Treasurer ‘If education is the great social leveler, the State Labor Government seems to have traded conscience for cash by axing funding for adult re-entry… ‘ Christies Beach High School ACE Centre (Winner of 2009 Best Education Category - SA of Year Awards) had doggedly kept its LLN focus for highly disadvantaged adult learners despite shifts in government policy. This paper will highlight the ‘community of practice’ approach recently developed in partnership with four local Community Centres and TAFESA. Collaboration, dedicated LLN practitioners and programs from experiential at Community Centres to more rigorous and structured pre-SACE at CBHS ACE Centre offer adult learners new paths to SACE or TAFE. The bumpy terrain for disenfranchised adult learners is bolstered using dynamic pedagogy and andragogy, and the ‘blurring’ of lines between school, community and the adult learner . A COMFORTABLE, SOFT BED TO OURSELVES Over the past twenty five years adults have been able to access a second chance at educational success through a network of adult re-entry schools and colleges in South Australia. Seven schools have developed as the major players: Para West Adult Campus 30 kilometres to the north of Adelaide, Christies Beach High School 30 kilometres to the south of Adelaide, Marden Senior College 5 kilometres to the east of Adelaide, Thebarton Senior College 5 kilometres west of Adelaide’s CBD, Hamilton Senior College 10 kilometres to the southwest, Marden Open Access College catering for rural and remote, and distance education students, and the School of Languages catering for students who wish to study specific international languages not offered in other mainstream secondary schools. Regionally adults can access mainstream secondary schools however the numbers are small and usually this is organised via a private arrangement between the student and the school. The AR-E schools offer adult re-entry courses to a cohort of slightly over 7000 adults, most of whom are part-time students. Over the past twenty-five years these AR-E schools have evolved, largely unhindered by any DECS AR-E policy, free to develop a suite of course offerings and become entrepreneurial entities. Many of the AR-E schools have also become Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), offering highly specialised Vocational Education and Training (VET) certificate courses to adult learners across the state. Most of the AR-E schools continue to offer foundation courses in Literacy and Numeracy, VET and SACE completion courses, skills development courses in ICT, Technology, Visual Arts, Food and Hospitality, and a small number of high quality courses that have made individual AR-E schools well recognised for their quality of curriculum development and pedagogy. These AR-E schools have maintained active communities around each site that see many adult ‘Second Chance’ Learners returning year after year to quench their thirst for learning. Historically adult learners have developed an affinity with the local AR-E school; as ‘these senior colleges relax requirements for students to conform to traditional school structures regarding attendance, forms of address, uniforms, personal grooming, smoking and so on..’ (Bradley & Goldman, 1996).

ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

  • Upload
    others

  • View
    4

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

1

ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL

Malcolm Lobban and Catherine Forrest – Christies Beach High School Adult & Community Education Centre, South Australia

ABSTRACT

November 2010 -“We don’t have the luxury anymore of accepting mature age students into our normal schooling system” – SA State Treasurer

‘If education is the great social leveler, the State Labor Government seems to have traded conscience for cash by axing funding for adult re-entry… ‘

Christies Beach High School ACE Centre (Winner of 2009 Best Education Category - SA of Year Awards) had doggedly kept its LLN focus for highly disadvantaged adult learners despite shifts in government policy. This paper will highlight the ‘community of practice’ approach recently developed in partnership with four local Community Centres and TAFESA. Collaboration, dedicated LLN practitioners and programs from experiential at Community Centres to more rigorous and structured pre-SACE at CBHS ACE Centre offer adult learners new paths to SACE or TAFE.

The bumpy terrain for disenfranchised adult learners is bolstered using dynamic pedagogy and andragogy, and the ‘blurring’ of lines between school, community and the adult learner.

A COMFORTABLE, SOFT BED TO OURSELVES

Over the past twenty five years adults have been able to access a second chance at educational success through a network of adult re-entry schools and colleges in South Australia. Seven schools have developed as the major players: Para West Adult Campus 30 kilometres to the north of Adelaide, Christies Beach High School 30 kilometres to the south of Adelaide, Marden Senior College 5 kilometres to the east of Adelaide, Thebarton Senior College 5 kilometres west of Adelaide’s CBD, Hamilton Senior College 10 kilometres to the southwest, Marden Open Access College catering for rural and remote, and distance education students, and the School of Languages catering for students who wish to study specific international languages not offered in other mainstream secondary schools. Regionally adults can access mainstream secondary schools however the numbers are small and usually this is organised via a private arrangement between the student and the school.

The AR-E schools offer adult re-entry courses to a cohort of slightly over 7000 adults, most of whom are part-time students. Over the past twenty-five years these AR-E schools have evolved, largely unhindered by any DECS AR-E policy, free to develop a suite of course offerings and become entrepreneurial entities. Many of the AR-E schools have also become Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), offering highly specialised Vocational Education and Training (VET) certificate courses to adult learners across the state. Most of the AR-E schools continue to offer foundation courses in Literacy and Numeracy, VET and SACE completion courses, skills development courses in ICT, Technology, Visual Arts, Food and Hospitality, and a small number of high quality courses that have made individual AR-E schools well recognised for their quality of curriculum development and pedagogy. These AR-E schools have maintained active communities around each site that see many adult ‘Second Chance’ Learners returning year after year to quench their thirst for learning. Historically adult learners have developed an affinity with the local AR-E school; as ‘these senior colleges relax requirements for students to conform to traditional school structures regarding attendance, forms of address, uniforms, personal grooming, smoking and so on..’ (Bradley & Goldman, 1996).

Page 2: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

2

Most AR-E schools now see themselves as sites of life-long learning, social justice, equity and opportunity, reflected in the schools’ various mottos and values statements: Christies Beach High School’s “Education for All’, and “Tolerance, Respect, Understanding and Excellence”,(DECS 2010a), Thebarton Senior College’s “Excellence, Innovation, Respect”,(DECS 2010b), Hamilton Senior College’s “Enhance your life through learning” and “People, Skills, Ideas”(DECS 2010c), and Para West Adult Campus’ “Expanding your Horizons”(DECS 2010d).

The AR-E schools are situated across Adelaide, and have all evolved from traditional secondary schools, and a number have now become ‘adult only’ campuses. Each AR-E school has secured a niche part of the educational market: Para West Adult Campus serving the needs of adult learners in the outer Northern suburbs where there are high levels of disadvantage, Marden Senior College serving the Eastern suburbs, and offering top-up courses for mainstream secondary schools in the area that fail to offer the range of year 12 subjects, Marden Open Access College fulfilling the needs of country adult learners and those not able to access a campus for reasons such as health or disability. Thebarton Senior College has built up a reputation for assisting migrants, securing the federal government’s New Arrivals Program contract, assisting refugees with their first taste of the South Australian education system.

Thebarton Senior College also assists local mainstream students from the western suburbs with top-up subjects for Year 12 when students are not able to access subjects at their own school. The idea of studying at an ‘adult only’ college is often very appealing for mainstream year 12 students, mostly 18 years old, who relish the opportunity to complete schooling under a relaxed set of school rules.

Two schools: Christies Beach High School and Hamilton Senior College continue to offer both mainstream secondary and adult re-entry programs on the same campus, whereby both young people aged 12-17 and adults attend selected classes together in the same learning space. This is usually in the areas of SACE Stage 1 (year 11), SACE Stage 2 (year 12) and some VET courses.

The AR-E schools have developed individually, without significant interference from DECS over the past two decades. All sites are unique, some offering evening classes for adult re-entry students who work full-time (Hamilton, Thebarton and Marden Senior Colleges), and others catering for a more diverse and disadvantaged adult student population-(Christies Beach High School and Para West Adult Campus). All AR-E schools have been self-regulated and autonomous using existing DECS policies developed for schools involving young people, as a trade-off for freedom and entrepreneurship. This practice of ‘policy borrowing’ (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010), adopting existing policies from DECS instead of formulating adult specific ones has resulted in a lack of policy direction for adult learners and a focus on aspects that tend to push students away from school: attendance, assessment, behaviour management, and participation in the SACE. These policies fall silent when acknowledging adult learners, the only exception being the SACE Board Block Status provisions (not issued by DECS), which provide specific detail regarding SACE credit calculations.

Christies Beach High School and Southern Vocational College (CBHS) is located 30 kilometres south of Adelaide at the gateway to the Fleurieu Peninsula. CBHS opened as a duel campus secondary school in 1967; the West Campus being the home of Years 11, 12 and Adult Re-entry students, and the East Campus housing Years 8, 9 and 10, with the Adelaide to Noarlunga railway line separating the two. CBHS was built to meet the needs of a growing south, as at the time, most students attended Willunga High School some 20 kms further south. At its peak CBHS had over 2500 on campus students in the 1970s.

Page 3: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

3

CBHS has been offering adult re-entry programs since 1986 when a decision was made to offer a range of secretarial and commercial courses suitable for people who wished to learn about the emerging field of ICT. This was at a time when enrolments in senior secondary schools were falling. After a $6M upgrade in 1998, the school relocated to the East Campus, from which it currently operates, and the West Campus closed. In 1999 CBHS became the lead school in the Southern Vocational College (SVC), a collaboration of local secondary schools to provide VET, and in 2007 the SVC was extended when CBHS became the lead school for the Southern Adelaide and Fleurieu Trades School, incorporating 12 schools on the Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island. Today CBHS is a large, complex, outer metropolitan secondary school with about 1184 FTE students (1422 people), 105 teaching staff, and 49 ancillary staff. CBHS has a motto of ‘Education for All’, and is a Category 2 of disadvantage school, the second highest category of disadvantage, meeting the needs of a diverse range of students. Approximately 70% of students’ families are supported by SA Government’s school card scheme, earning less than $30K PA, with 8% of student population being Indigenous, 5% of students coming from non- English speaking backgrounds, and approximately 20% of students operating with Negotiated Education Plans, due to a disability or learning difficulty. In 2009 the school won the ‘South Australian of the Year Award for Education’ for the excellent work done in the ‘Learner Outreach Program’, involving nine off-campus programs for young learners as well as the Adult Re-entry program based at CBHS. The Learner Outreach Program involves some 700 students: 400 young people aged 12-21, and 300 adult students aged 17-80, with some crossovers in definition, depending on the type of program young people wish to be involved in. For all of these students the traditional model of education has not worked, and this new “Flexible Learning Options” (FLO) model with generous funding from the state government’s Social Inclusion Board (nearly $7000 per student) and Innovative Community Action Network (ICAN) provides a unique way for young people to complete their secondary education and prepare for the world of work.

Adult Re-entry Education does not receive FLO funding; the ICAN funding policy applying only to learners under 21 years of age. Those adult re-entry students aged between 17 and 21 wishing to study in a mainstream program are automatically FLO funded, however the majority of adult students do not meet these criteria as they are over the maximum age.

These ‘Second Chance’ learners must fund their education through alternative means, usually through the SA State government ‘School Card’ scheme; for families with a household incomes below financial limits - usually well below the poverty line. For these students the AR-E school collects an amount of resourcing for each student, and the gap between the school fee and State government funding is the responsibility of the student to pay, however at CBHS most students are not able to fund even this small amount.

Page 4: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

4

OUR SIDE OF THE BED

For the duration of adult re-entry at Christies Beach High School, adult learners have been able to enrol in a variety of foundation courses including furniture construction, cooking, art, photography and a range of pre-SACE subjects – English, Science, Maths, History and Geography. The practical subjects have been highly popular and students often enrolled for several years. However, absenteeism has been a perennial problem, with many students finding that education is frequently interrupted by life. Likewise, the population is aging, with many students at CBHS being over the age of 55. This has resulted in issues relating to low levels of literacy and numeracy being compounded. Many students enrolled in the pre-SACE classes but rapidly withdrew from these courses without explanation. Teachers were becoming increasingly frustrated with the stagnation and lack of progress in adult learning. In addition, it was clear that students were withdrawing from courses because they were reluctant to complete assignments due to very low levels of literacy. This became even more apparent when the school moved to end of term reports for all students, which now included the adult re-entry students. Prior to this, adult learners had been presented with a certificate at the conclusion of their course, regardless of outcomes or attendance.

Adults are autonomous and self-directed Adults have accumulated a foundation of life experiences and knowledge Adults are goal-oriented Adults are relevancy-oriented Adults are practical Adults, as do all learners, need to be shown respect (Tough, A. 1996)

With reference to the principles of adult education as listed above, it was becoming increasingly obvious that students at CBHS Adult and Community Education Centre would benefit from some changes to the provision of education. One such change was the introduction of the Supportive Adult Independent Learning (SAIL) Program in 2009. This program allows students to undertake SACE in an adult-only class run four mornings a week.

In 2010 another initiative at CBHS ACE was the introduction of the Meaningful Adult Schooling Transitions (MAST) class, which has at its core an intensive and dedicated literacy and numeracy and life skills program. This program is run over three days for four hours each morning, based on a literacy block used at primary schools. It was agreed that students who enrolled would be literacy tested and those who were at the very lowest level, who could not cope in any other classes, would enter the MAST class. Due to lack of resources and staffing, it was decided to use the Westwood Spelling Test, although staff members were very aware of its limitations and the fact that it is designed for children.

As each new student and each continuing student sat the spelling test, it became evident that the one class of literacy and numeracy was not adequate for the adult learners – over 10% of the current 227 students have a reading age of less than 8, more than 30% have a reading age under 10, approximately half have a reading age of less than 13, and less than a quarter have a reading age of over 15 years and 6 months, the cut-off point of the test. Regardless, with the philosophy of ‘from small things big things grow’, much campaigning and convincing of other teachers, leadership, and those who hold the purse-strings was undertaken, until, finally with the backing of the Principal, the MAST class had approval to begin, with an budget of $4000 and a class of 28 students. 23 nationalities including indigenous were represented in that initial class, with other students experiencing such barriers to learning as mental health issues, physical disability, aging, drug and alcohol addictions, dyslexia, learning difficulties, family dysfunction, child protection abuse and ESL

Page 5: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

5

barriers. The first term was spent teaching the group to get along and to gain confidence in the staff and each other. Three teaching practitioners entered the class from three different mindsets – one from general teaching, one from special education and one from EFL and LLN, and all three from different levels of remuneration to complicate issues.

IVEC, Introductory Vocation and Education Certificate I is used as a basis in MAST and the budget allowed for the purchase of some valuable resources – calculators, abacus, a globe, appropriate dictionaries and thesaurus, and a series of adult readers with comprehension tasks and activities. Students are taught basic ICT skills once a week. MAST grew and developed and mistakes minimised, in line with the results of the OECD studies on adult literacy and numeracy. It was felt that greater practitioner expertise was required so one member applied for and won a DWEER scholarship to study the Cert IV LLN. Attendance in the MAST class has been exceptionally high and the aim was to develop a more appropriate grouping of students to maximise their chances of learning.

THE BED BUCKLES AND STUDENTS FALL OUT

‘Education and Children’s Services will deliver savings of $145.7 million over four years, including $59.6 million in 2013-14, or around 2 per cent of its total budget in 2013-14. More efficient departmental service delivery models will deliver savings of $22.9 million over four years. Savings of $20.3 million over three years from 2012 will be achieved by focussing adult re-entry schools on supporting young adults under 21 who want to complete their SACE or gain SACE credits before going on to TAFE or other training institutions. Adults over 21 will be able to access their education needs from TAFE or alternative providers’. (Foley, 2010)

‘The SACE Board makes provisions for adult re-entry students to be awarded status (up to a maximum of 110 SACE credits at Stage 1), which includes the compulsory Stage 1 Personal Learning Plan.

To gain the maximum number of credits, adult re-entry students must demonstrate that they have met the literacy and numeracy requirements of the SACE. These students are also provided with an additional option to demonstrate that they have completed the literacy and/or numeracy requirements: a folio or folios of evidence derived from a range of sources verified by the principal.

To complete the SACE, adult re-entry students must also gain:

• 10 credits: through the Stage 2 Research project, achieving a C grade or better • 60 credits: through completing Stage 2 Board-accredited subjects at C grade or

better, or through the equivalent of a ‘satisfactory achievement’ in board-recognised courses

• 20 credits: through further Board-accredited subjects or Board-recognised courses at Stage 1 or Stage 2. These credits can be gained for achievement of an E grade or better in Board-accredited subjects or the equivalent of ‘satisfactory achievement’ level in Board-recognised courses.’

(SACE Board, 2010)

Page 6: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

6

The 2010 SA budget tabled on Thursday16th September would leave almost 7000 SA adult students with no ongoing study option, and would prevent anyone over the age of 21 from completing the SACE as ‘Second Chance’ learners in DECS schools.

An embryonic Adult Re-entry Policy drastically was sculpted into shape and Treasurer Kevin Foley’s (Foley, 2010) budget speech rapidly developed into a living document, constantly shaping over a three month period until the release of a DECS draft in December. The budget announcement set the process into action: to eventually reach a point where DECS could promulgate the document to all staff in AR-E schools. This process involved passionate discussion, political argument and contestation striking at the core of the debate relating to ‘Second Chance’ learning. Following the budget announcement, meetings were hurriedly convened, protest rallies organised, media interviews arranged and political factions aligned.

THE PRESS JUMPS ONTO THE BED The Southern Times Messenger joined the policy debate on 11 October, 2010 with the article ‘Adult education put out of reach’. Education Minister Weatherill continued the government line of a government under financial pressure to make savings, by reducing duplication and public ‘waste’.

‘Education Minister Jay Weatherill said the Government wanted to re-focus school education on young people seeking a second chance.

“The original purpose of adult re-entry schools was to provide a second chance to people who missed out on finishing school the first time around,” Mr Weatherill said.

“There are many adults now using adult re-entry for purposes other than completing their schooling and doing courses that are available through organisations like WEA.” At least 10,000 students from other adult schools, including Marden Senior College, Para-West Adult Campus and Hamilton Secondary College, will be affected. (Garvis, 2010a)

Messenger Press launched the ‘right to learn’ campaign on 21st October 2010, across all suburban newspapers and the Internet. Dozens of interviews with disgruntled adult re-entry students were posted on You-Tube (Day, 2010). The Education Minister visited all AR-E schools, holding meetings with school leadership and affected staff. After a meeting at CBHS on 21st Oct 2010, Minister Weatherill was interviewed regarding the government AR-E Policy: a transcript is shown below. By this date it became evident that he was bowing to public pressure to review the hard line announcement of the budget. The interview below was conducted between Minister Weatherill and Sara Garvis from Messenger Press.

Garvis: What is the criteria for students who will be allowed to continue studying at adult re-entry schools from 2012? Minister: We’re working that through with the adult re-entry campuses because the point of the adult re-entry campuses is to allow people to finish high school. Over the years, as more people have stayed on at high school, fewer and fewer are actually using the adult re-entry campuses for that purpose. So, because the numbers that are seeking to finish high school are so small, we think we’ll be able to accommodate nearly almost all of those people that are seeking to complete high school. I suppose, there’s another group of people that are really using the courses in the nature of a WEA (Workers’ Educational Association) course. That’s not really what adult re-entry campuses are for, but we don’t want to leave those people without anything. It’s just that a really high-cost high school model might not be the appropriate model. These people come here for foundation skills for literacy and

Page 7: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

7

numeracy so they can go to TAFE but they don’t feel prepared enough to go straight into TAFE. Garvis: What will happen to these people? Minister: We think those people will be able to be picked up by the extra funding we’ve put into the Skills For All program an extra $194 million which really is very much directed at people who are trying to go into vocational training but need financial support to do that. It’s also for those who need a bit of financial support to get basic foundation skills to allow them to take that step. We think that might still be something capable of being done at the adult re-entry colleges. Garvis: Is the State Government concerned about the social welfare of those who will no longer be able to access adult re-entry? Minister: I think they’re the group we need to think about. It’s generally accepted by all of the adult re-entry campuses that having a high school model, which is for people completing high school, isn’t necessarily the right model for those people. It’s a really expensive way of actually giving people some interest and social interaction in their life. We need to find a way of looking after those people at lower cost. This is a place that a lot of people love and as far as possible we still want to give people the opportunity to come to a place like this where they’ve built up some relationships. The uncertainty was further expanded in the following ABC News story of 13th October 2010 involving SACOSS chief Ross Womersley’s views on the government decision to cut adult re-entry education.

‘Ross Womersley from SACOSS says it raises questions about the future of adult re-entry schools, where some of the state's most disadvantaged people are able to study. "It's not clear from the budget announcements exactly what's going to happen, but we assume that what this means is that those campuses will actually be converted or closed or converted to use in another way," he said. People over 21 will have to enrol at TAFE colleges instead, but Mr Womersley says TAFE fees are on the rise. "Having a basic education is a pathway to being able to both access tertiary study of some sort but it's also a pathway to employment so we remain worried for anything that interrupts that pathway," he said.

(ABC, 2010)

The article concluded with a reference to the neo-liberal economic rationalist view that education is the key to employment (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010) and these changes will prevent those disadvantaged people from accessing employment. As most of these people who are affected by the cuts to adult re-entry education are not currently participating in the employment sector of the labour market, Ross Womersley’s text had significant power. This view was expanded further in the following article from the AEU which also appeared on 13 October, 2010.

“By eliminating the chance of anyone over 21 gaining their Year 12 Certificate of Education (SACE), and the chance of a Tertiary Entrance Ranking (TER) allowing them to pursue the higher education of their choice, this government is undercutting opportunities for thousands of South Australians,” said SACOSS Executive Director Ross Womersley.

“SACOSS is particularly concerned at the impact on disadvantaged and low-income South Australians who will not be able to afford TAFE fees (which have increased in this state budget), and those in rural and remote areas who currently can enrol through the Open Access College adult re-entry program.” Womersley said.

Page 8: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

8

“TAFE, VET, and University study are different. Stating that adults who want to finish their high school education will now attend TAFE for re-education, as Kevin Foley did on State Budget day, is ill-informed and cuts across all concepts of access and opportunity.” said Womersley.

“For many students a school environment is far less daunting than a TAFE or University, especially if they have been away from the education system, and most likely under emotional and/or financial duress, for some years.” said Womersley.

“These are critical issues of access and equity, which will directly translate to a workforce without the knowledge and skills that they themselves want — mature-age students are recognised as being highly motivated — and that this state needs.” Womersley said.

“The Council of Australian Governments (CoAG) target is for 90 per cent of 20- to 24-year-olds to have a Year 12 or equivalent attainment rate by 2015.”

“The Rann government itself states that it ‘places a premium on knowledge and education at all levels’ in order to achieve social cohesion and economic competitiveness”. (South Australia’s Strategic Plan Objective 6).

“Thinker in Residence Baroness Susan Greenfield has stressed, in specific relation to South Australia’s Strategic Plan, that our society is shifting from the manufacturing industry into the knowledge economy.”

“SACOSS fails to see how these proposed changes will help achieve the Rann government’s own laudable goals of social cohesion, prosperity, and an economically competitive state.”

(AEU, 2010)

The AEU article concluded with reference to the state’s obsession with global competitiveness, citing the neo-liberal tools for globalisation (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010); the State Strategic Plan, the Thinker in Residence, the knowledge economy, CoAG’s goals for year 12 completion and so on. These are framed in an international context of the OECD’s goals for year 12 completion and the need for Australia to lift its game to become more competitive against the 30 other OECD countries in the area of education. Being placed low on the list against other OECD countries is seen as not acceptable by the federal government; translating to the state government and then to schools (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010). The AEU used SACOSS boss Ross Womersley to acknowledge that education has to be about access and equity, social cohesion and addressing problems of mental health and social well-being, whilst also meeting neo-liberal targets, building the knowledge economy, components of the globalised world in which we live, reducing the problem to a gross simplification about social justice for older adult re-entry students, yet ignoring the government’s need to make savings. Certain ‘not negotiables’ exist in the draft policy; namely that (1) all AR-E schools will participate in this process and savings must be realised that equal $20.3M over three years, and (2) adult re-entry education is available for all students regardless of age as long as they are enrolled in the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE). The length of time that adult students can be enrolled in the SACE was one point that AR-E schools could contest and negotiate - with many opting from between four to five years.

Page 9: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

9

After the initial shock and outrage from AR-E students, staff, the Australian Education Union and the community, this situation was modified to allow anyone of any age to complete SACE; however the majority of adult students will no longer be allowed to continue, in order to meet the savings targets outlined by government. The question needs to be asked - is education really for all? What happened to life-long learning? Where does this leave the adult students at Christies Beach High School? Over two thirds of the current adult student population at CBHS will be required to move on...to what and where?

PUSHING OUT THE SECOND CHANCE LEARNER

‘Second Chance’ learners are students who choose to return to study after an absence from formal education, individuals (usually adults) who choose to return to secondary school, although it is acknowledged there a range of other learning environments exist, including community centres, TAFE and university, which adults also choose. The period of absence away from formal schooling may be only a short time; six months, or a year, for others however, it may be many years. The SACE Board of South Australia describes an adult re-entry student as ‘an adult re-entry student is a student who is at least 18 years old by 1 January of his or her final year of Stage 2 study and who has left school for at least one continuous year’(SACE 2010). Usually ‘Second Chance’ learners are people who have experienced disruption to their learning, many leaving school early without completing secondary education, gaining the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE), or not gaining academic results sufficient to facilitate entry to further study or career pathways. Reasons for leaving or non-completion are various; teenage pregnancy, low literacy, lack of financial resources, family caring responsibilities, disability and mental health disorders, social phobias and dysfunction, bullying, harassment and negative social experiences of school, a general lack of interest in school, chronic truancy and behavioural issues, to mention a few.

‘Second Chance’ Learners are usually adult students who have spent time away from school, joining the workforce or seeking work without success, gaining valuable life experiences. They often have an epiphany, and decide to return to school to gain new skills, complete secondary schooling and move on with their lives.

Many of these adults have also been involved raising children and find that they have missed a generation of new skills, using ICT for example, and need to re-skill to become competitive in the job market. Their time away from the workforce has been a period where formal qualifications have become mandatory, a period where ‘qualification inflation’ (Tooley, 1996) has occurred, often highlighting previous levels of achievement inadequate for the modern job market.

For others the return to school has been forced upon them through retrenchment, factory closures or work related injuries, uncovering a pressing need to up-skill to facilitate finding any form of interesting future employment. Many of these adults have worked in specific industries for many years, joining at a time when formal qualifications were not necessary. Another group of older citizens return to school to equip themselves with skills necessary to keep pace with technology, discovering new literacies and keeping the mind active in retirement (Pousada, 2009), as well as combating the negative effects of social isolation, loneliness and associated mental health disorders. School offers opportunities for networking, new friendships; an active community and social hub for people of all ages and stages in life (Larson, 2009).

Page 10: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

10

For many ‘Second Chance’ learners, the decision to return to secondary schooling is one made after careful consideration and personal reflection, resulting in a focussed individual with a mission in mind: to learn new skills, such as ICT or pre-requisite skills for Year 12 completion, to upgrade previously unsuccessful TER (ATAR) scores for university entrance, or to access TAFE or university for the first time. All reasons point to increased competitiveness for employment in a ‘skills focussed’ neo-liberal economic rationalist society, where many believe (Warhurst, 2008) that success can only be possible through building the ‘knowledge economy’.

Another group of ‘Second Chance’ learners returns to school for financial reasons. This group, it can be argued, use a return to study as a way of avoiding the government’s policy of mutual obligation (Davidson, 2002; Croft, 2004). These Centrelink recipients, described by Michelle Fine as the ‘others’ (Fine, 1994) include; (1)‘the unemployed’ who are paid NewStart Allowance, and are not required to seek employment if engaged in full time study,(2) ‘single mothers’ and parents of young children, who are paid Parenting Payment, and, once the youngest child reaches six years of age, are required to seek employment, and can also avoid this obligation by engaging in study, and (3) ‘the disabled’, people receiving a disability pension from the government, who can earn extra benefits by attending school. These welfare recipients are able to make significant financial gains (up to $4000 per year) through enrolling in an approved course of study, and secondary school, private RTOs, TAFE and university are the only courses that qualify. A cynical view holds that secondary school is by far the cheapest option as an approved course, often the course chosen by these welfare recipients, as these individuals are motivated more by a way to increase personal fortnightly income rather than educational goals to increase employability.

Nevertheless, despite the best of intentions motivating a return to education, many ‘Second Chance’ learners experience significant barriers, which prevent them from achieving academic success at school: disability, mental health disorders, social phobias, low levels of literacy and numeracy, extremely negative experiences from their first attempts at schooling, ‘emotional baggage’ (Bradley & Goldman, 1996), poverty and numerous other forms of social disadvantage. For many, the decision to return to school is often mixed with emotions, fear of failure, fear of a system that did not work for them in their first attempt, embarrassment at not being able to read or use a computer, fear of public ridicule and not being able to succeed.

No policies have been promulgated by DECS on behalf of all AR-E schools in the past twenty five years. The individual AR-E schools have been free to develop their own policies, which are at best, local arrangements and do not provide consistency across all AR-E sites. Until now...

VET courses are extremely popular with a wide range of students, including adults, often leading to higher level TAFE and private RTO training, providing access to trade apprenticeships and traineeships. From 2011 VET courses can also comprise a large part of the SACE. As Lilly(2008,2009) demonstrated ,VET courses are part of a global push for increased participation in the trades, to remedy national skill shortages and provide employment pathways for those students who may be less academically inclined than students wanting to access university. Whilst many AR-E schools are RTOs and can provide access to VET training for adult students, the reality for many adult learners is that access to apprenticeships and traineeships is limited to young learners, or if available, the remuneration being offered whilst undergoing training does not make it possible for adult students to survive financially. In addition, school based apprenticeships or ‘VET in Schools’ programs are not offered to adult learners. One could argue that these examples highlight a lack of policy direction in regard to adult learners, and also provides a mechanism to keep

Page 11: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

11

disengaged young people at school, out of the government unemployment statistics, and within the Year 12 completion statistics or school retention statistics long enough to make a difference in Australia’s standing within the OECD and PISA (Business Council of Australia, 2007; Rizvi & Lingard, 2010).

Adult ‘Second Chance’ learners are more often than not excluded from this ‘skills’ agenda, despite this being the very priority for returning to school; to gain the necessary skills to re-engage with the employment market. The Australian Government’s obsession with employability skills (Patrickson, 2008) and key competencies (Mayer, 1992) is inextricably linked to matters of globalisation, international competitiveness and Australia’s standing educationally within the 30 nations of the OECD, and rather than examining the ‘capabilities’ (Kuklys, 2006) that individuals need to succeed in life, priority is given to the neo-liberal economic rationalist agenda of key competencies for work. Given that the SACE, VET sector and aspects of the SACSA framework from Birth to Year 12 is framed within the Key competencies, it is hardly surprising that adult ‘Second Chance’ Learners should also want to have access to skills courses to gain these key competencies. "Key Competencies are competencies essential for effective participation in the emerging patterns of work and organisation. They focus on the capacity to apply knowledge and skills in an integrated way in work situations". (Mayer, 1992) Once again the priority is about work and being a competitive worker in the knowledge economy.

Currently South Australian schools measure their performance using a range of neo-liberal, economic rationalist benchmarks such as the MySchool website, performance against NAPLAN and the SACE Board’s like schools data for year 12 completion. These measures link to Australian data which in turn link to international data for the OECD and PISA (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010). Given the lack of adult re-entry policy present in DECS, measurement of success becomes a qualitative argument for these ‘Second Chance’ learners, limited to anecdotal comments, often lost in time.

Year 12 completions can be counted, but what about the adult student learning to read for the first time at 65? Or the woman, who at 42 can now do her shopping for the first time as she has learned how to use the ATM and compile a weekly budget? What of the elderly retired couple who can now use a computer, sending emails to their grandchildren who live overseas, learning to access their internet banking and join a social networking site to keep in touch with old friends who live in remote corners of the world? What of the homeless man who now regularly attends school, has re-united with his family and now has stable accommodation and a part time job, thanks mainly to the efforts of a dedicated teacher at his AR-E school. These examples are only a few from an AR-E school where tailored curricula have met the adult students at their level and have engaged students in relevant learning - what Malcolm Knowles would describe as ‘Andragogy’ (Tough, 1985).

The National Skills Shortage may be a real problem for governments, and schools may ‘sing the hymns’ (Sellar, 2005) of equipping students with the skills to mesh with the international job market, however many adults need to build a range of life skills first, not employability skills, before they are ready for SACE, VET or any other form of formalised learning. These ‘Second Chance’ learners need carefully tailored curricula and pedagogy to succeed at school, learn to learn, to discover how they may change and develop skills for employment.

Will this be compatible with the views of economic rationalist governments of the day?

Can the Education Revolution include the most disadvantaged adults in our community or is this another case of hiding the data, which the Howard Government employed when moving the most disadvantaged unemployed onto disability pensions in the early 21st century?

Page 12: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

12

Despite the espoused CBHS motto of ‘Education for all’ within a values framework of ‘Tolerance, Respect, Understanding and Excellence (TRUE) ’, the school is ranked second in a national category of educational disadvantage – first being the most disadvantaged schools in the Aboriginal Lands. Not ‘all’ students are represented at CBHS – only those who are greatly disadvantaged: students at the school have an attendance rate at least ten percent lower than the national average, tend to perform at a much lower rate than the national average on the NAPLAN, is over represented by families who receive the SA government ‘School Card’ for those on low incomes. Education is not valued highly by our community either, and many of the students have not had the benefit of a lifetime of implicit instruction in the codes and rules of the cultures of power (Delpit, 1993, p. 122). Many students are allowed to truant school with the full knowledge of their parents - as if the community accepts ‘their lot in life’ and does not have the will or desire to rise above their current situation, seeing some occupations as ‘not for them’. Unfortunately the factory jobs, once occupied by these students after leaving school, as was the case previously for their parents, are no longer available. ‘Manufacturing’ left Australia’s shores for establishment in China some time ago. Globalisation has taken this sector away from the CBHS community - leaving students without hope for the future, unless they realise the benefit of education. However this situation has not translated into a passion for education. Bourdieu & Champagne (1999) reinforce this point ‘the simple, clearly identifiable hierarchy of stages of learning, and especially the stark distinction drawn between primary and secondary education, maintained a close, homogulous relationship with the social hierarchy. The resulting state of affairs contributed more than a little to convincing those who felt unsuited for school that they were unsuited for the positions that an education opens up (and closes off) - that is, white collar jobs and, especially, managerial positions within these occupations’. At the time of constructing the school, there were many opportunities for low skilled labouring jobs; the local Mobil oil refinery, factory work at Chrysler, and later the Mitsubishi plant- many students would leave school at age fifteen to fill these positions. The remaining students would work towards more white-collar jobs, with a few opting to complete year 12 and enter university. Now in 2011 the factories and oil refinery are closed, and it is expected that all students remain at school until age 17, to complete the SACE. The SACE has been redesigned to include many pathways including university, TAFE and apprenticeships, keeping students engaged, keen to become more globally competitive. Or is this merely DECS spin to support the rhetoric of globalisation? (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010). The SACE adopts policy in line with the OECD, PISA and a range of international benchmarks, and performance indicators. School principals are judged on their effective performance, by numbers of year 12 completions, ATAR scores and, despite using ‘like schools’ data are placed in an uncomfortable position by league tables, such as the ‘MySchool’ website (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010). Performativity as described by Ball (2003) drives principals to meet targets which distract from the core business of education for disadvantaged students. As Bourdieu and Champagne (1999) highlight ‘a growing number of positions in the job market are customarily reserved for, and are in fact held by, ever growing numbers of degree-holders’, and in the South Australian scenario this relates to the SACE. Bourdieu and Champagne (1999) also reinforce international attitudes concerning educating the disadvantaged; feelings not dissimilar to the situation in Australia. The ‘problem’ of educating ‘Second Chance’ learners for a globalised world has grown in urgency to cope with issues of becoming competitive for employment. Eleven years earlier these concerns were

Page 13: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

13

raised by Bourdieu and Champagne (1999) who saw similarities to the situation we now experience in 2011: ‘After an extended school career, which often entails considerable sacrifice, the most culturally disadvantaged run the risk of ending up with a devalued degree. If, as is more likely, they fail, they are relegated to what is undoubtedly a stigmatizing and total exclusion even more absolute than in the past. The exclusion is more disgraceful in the sense that they seem to have "had their chance" and because social identity tends more and more to be defined by the school system. This explains why, even in the lower classes, people see failure at school as catastrophic. So, to families as well as to students, the school system increasingly seems like a mirage, the source of an immense, collective disappointment, a promised land which, like the horizon, recedes as one moves toward it. At a Socio-cultural level, the text reads as something fitting into a global neo-liberal, economic rationalist genre, with ties to the state’s AAA credit rating, the government’s ability to remain globally competitive, keeping South Australia economically viable into the long term future (at least until the next election in four years’ time) by correcting the ‘problem’ of financial inefficiency and re-focussing efforts in education that must have ‘gone astray’ in the past. The text implies that education has been allowed to wander away from the core business, with the government, as a firm and efficient, supportive operator bringing this portfolio back on track. This of course is in line with international agendas in education, financial efficiency, global competitiveness and a range of other neo-liberal ideals. The ‘solution’ stated in this text was a change in leadership (Thomas, 2008), the Education Minister being forced to sack the CE (which he did), paving the way for new, fresh approaches, which will solve all of the problems within education. The Education Minister is painted as a ‘white knight’, offering hope to school principals from an uncaring Head Office. In this way Jay Weatherill is portrayed by the media in more favourable light (given his left wing affiliations in the Labor party, compared with Treasurer Foley’s membership of the right faction of the same party). This is an oversimplification of the problem as Minister Weatherill must introduce systematic change in DECS, making savings, yet appearing to be sympathetic to the needs of local schools and parents who are also voters, whilst complying with the party line being promoted through the Cabinet. Jay Weatherill must show his ability to be tough and make hard decisions, as a Minister of the Government, keeping his options open to be the next possible candidate for Premier of SA, whilst at the same time keeping his affable characteristics to impress voters at the local level. As an ironic afterword, Jay Weatherill will now become SA Premier when Mike Rann steps down as demanded by the Labor Party.

To meet the budgetary restrictions, a reduction of 1100 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) students is required. This equates to roughly 3500 students. This policy will also impact on staff. Staffing will be significantly reduced, affecting - up to 150 staff. Three or four teaching positions may no longer be required at CBHS and the job losses may be shared across DECS or at specific AR-E sites. If DECS uses a policy of natural attrition, then AR-E staff may be relocated to other DECS sites, involving upheaval to teachers and their families.

Those students who may be without a placement are also those highlighted by (Kamler, 1998) who are part of the ‘ubiquitous Literacy Crisis’ (p136). These students are victims of a government policy that sees them as ‘the other’ (Fine 1994) being shifted to another portfolio and gone from view by DECS. And for these students, after many years of being part of the AR-E scene, a subsequent second order effect will be these students losing financially. They will feel the impact of this policy by losing Centrelink payments between

Page 14: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

14

$2000 and $4000 per year, and for those significantly disadvantaged learners this will have a major impact on their quality of life. Many have assumed that these payments would continue forever.

The new DECS AR-E policy heralds a new discourse in adult education. The Discourse of the new SACE, with the implied value of SACE completion being the only way that adults can enrol at a DECS secondary school. Foucault ,1977 cited in(Ball, 1993) and (Comber, 1997) describe this process ‘thus we need to appreciate the way in which policy ensembles, collections of related policies exercise power through a production of ‘truth’, and ‘knowledge’ as discourses. Discourses are practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak…Discourses are not about objects: they do not identify objects, they constitute them and in the practice of doing so conceal their own invention.” (p14).

A NEW BED

One of the national goals for education in Australia is increased literacy for all Australians (DEST, 1998). Given that literacy is the thread connecting all of the issues facing adult ‘Second Chance’ learners, it stands to reason that a continuum of learning, where literacy is the main agenda item underpinning curricula and pedagogy, is required to meet the diverse needs of adult ‘Second Chance’ learners. Whilst the neo-liberal economic rationalist imaginary described in ‘Globalising Educational Policy’ (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010) suits the needs of the globalised world, meeting employment targets and satisfying skills shortages, a new imaginary is needed to meet the needs of ‘Second Chance’ learners.

This new imaginary relates to changing the paradigm of disadvantage in our communities to meet the needs of local issues. Why are we importing labour from overseas, for example, to meet the needs of skills shortages in Aged Care, Transport and Nursing, when we have large numbers of adults receiving welfare support as they cannot find work? Why do we have large numbers of people on Disability Support Pensions (DSP), many in their late twenties and early thirties, who could work in these industries if they were given training, provided with case management support and funding to complete the training? The cost may be intensive in the short term; however this must be weighed up against the cost of a lifetime of welfare support. Current federal government statistics show that ‘there has been a 43.5 per cent increase in the DSP population from 1997 to 2009’ (Yeend ,2010). In 2009 there were 757,118 people in Australia receiving the Disability Support pension, and over 80% of the 370 adult students enrolled at Christies Beach High School stated that they received the DSP. If this situation is extrapolated over the population of AR-E students attending all AR-E schools in South Australia, given that those attending Para West Adult Campus would have similar levels of DSP recipients in their community, based on data from the Federal Government, and the other AR-E schools may have less, then the scenario is alarming. If this large number of DSP recipients is no longer able to access AR-E schools, then a new imaginary needs to be developed to assist these folk to re-engage with the world of work. This new imaginary should be funded by the Commonwealth, and literacy could be the link between all levels of government and services to make this re-engagement a reality.

Page 15: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

15

FUNDING – WRESTLING FOR BEDSPACE

With the changes to Policy and funding for adult re-entry students there has been a necessary realignment of roles and responsibilities – which Agency has the appropriate box into which adult student can be placed?

Into the arena must be added Neighbourhood/Community Centres. Community educational services available for adults are funded by three levels of government in Australia. Community Centres are co-ordinated by local council staff and receive state government funding from Department for Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology (DFEEST), AR-E schools are funded by Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS) and TAFE colleges (funded by DFESST) and universities who receive federal government funding.

Funding of programs for adults with low level literacy is sporadic. Having applied for a Grant in 2009 for Multiliteracies the CBHS ACE team knew that money for further resources and support for correct literacy and numeracy testing procedures would be hard to access. DECS had effectively cut off all channels of support and funding, and the ‘Skills For All’ funding from DFEEST is not due to begin until July 2012. DFEEST had now accepted the responsibility for funding adult learning from DECS, but what are the new parameters? Which learners are able to access learning in the new scheme? The DECS backflip has allowed adult students to enrol for 2012 in SACE subjects, but with low literacy and numeracy levels, which students will move successfully from adult foundation courses to SACE Stages 1 and 2 in 2012 and beyond?

CBHS was required to drop from an entitlement of 170 FTE to 90 FTE, which meant that some 80 full-time students (it is likely to be more) would be denied access to CBHS from 2012 to meet the funding costs demanded by the State Government. On the penultimate day of the 2010 school year, the school leadership had found that there were not enough rooms available for the usual amount of cooking and art classes for adult students. CBHS ACE Centre had to send out a letter to all adult students in the school holidays to inform them of the loss of these 5 classes, which traditionally had 15 – 20 students in each class. Rather than enrol in other courses, nearly 90 of the 370 adult students had left CBHS by the beginning of 2011. When addressing who these learners were, a common theme occurred – many of these students were in the lower literacy levels, with over 70 having a reading age of 13 or less (more than half had a reading age of 10 or less) and it was obvious that they were unwilling to commit to more rigorous courses at school. Many second-chance learners are resistant to seeking literacy and numeracy support and due to the loss of cooking and art classes, these students felt that they had already lost their right to education at CBHS. These students had also been very resistant to accessing emails, the central form of communication at CBHS ACE from 2010, echoing the sentiment expressed in Frank Levy’s paper ‘How Technology Changes Demands For Human Skills’, OECD Education Working Paper No 45, in preparation for the OECD’s programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), that understanding and use of technology has become an essential literacy:

44. The PIAAC Literacy Framework is designed to capture …variety. In the Literacy Assessment, individuals will be asked to process information from different media (eg printed text, hyper-linked web-based text), information in different formats (continuous text, outlines), information serving different purposes (argumentative, narrative, instructions), information that includes graphics as well as text, and information that arises in different settings including the workplace and home. The processing assignments will include identifying specific information, understanding

Page 16: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

16

and integrating relationships among different parts of a text, and evaluating and reflecting on a text’s content. It is easy to be put off by the assessment’s complexity until one remembers that literacy in today’s society involves all of these situations. (p12)

IT literacy has bypassed an entire generation of people who may have been unemployed or who were not retrained in IT skills, may not have had the resources to buy or learn about computers, or may have become averse to learning IT skills due to an inability to grasp fundamentals due to their already-restricting low levels of literacy and numeracy. Schools may have 1:1 laptops, but in the case of CBHS, no provision has been made for adult students to access these laptops. PEAS UNDER THE MATTRESS Now, in mid-2011, staff at CBHS ACE had to nominate which 80 of the remaining 280 students would have their enrolment at CBHS terminated from the end of 2011. To add to the stressful situation for staff and students alike, CBHS leadership moved to on-line enrolment for students wishing to attend CBHS in 2012, and set the deadline to the end of August 2011. In a comedy of errors, the on-line enrolment rolled all adult students automatically into Stage 2, forced them to enrol in full-time study and automatically enrolled them into courses which would not even be offered in 2012. Added to this fiasco, many of the adult re-entry students, due to their resistance to accessing technology, did not receive the email advising them of their responsibility to enrol, nor were those who attempted to enrol able to access the enrolment, due to low level literacy and numeracy issues that already exist. Regardless, there are now approximately 85 adult students enrolled in SACE for 2012, with an anticipated additional 100 by the commencement of the school year in January 2012. What of the other 80 or more students who wish to re-enter or continue their life-long learning path at CBHS, but can no longer do so? These students have become extremely stressed and those in the MAST class have been hardest hit. While once the attendance record of this class was second to none, the uncertainty and sense of displacement has resulted in low attendance, bickering about why some may and others may not enter SACE, personal issues entering the arena, and mental health issues becoming increasingly significant where once they were well under control. Funding has allowed for the purchase of a Smartboard and many on-line resources are available, but these issues are sidetracking these students from the essential task of learning.

Page 17: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

17

ENTER A NEW BED PARTNER Whilst there have been many cuts and rationalisations to adult re-entry policy, to date there have been no solutions offered by either DECS or DFEEST. With a cohort of highly needy and very low level literacy, numeracy and life skills students, CBHS ACE staff were prompted to urgently seek solutions of their own making. At the same time, Community/Neighbourhood Centres have been propelled towards accepting a new focus on learning via the Foundation Skills program. Used to deciding who their clients are and what they will be offered, based upon an intimate understanding of their local community, the Community/Neighbourhood Centres were resistant to becoming the ‘4th tier of education’. However, in a fortuitous meeting in mid-2011, the germs of a new, mutually beneficial partnership were sown. The Community Development Officer (CDO) of a local Neighbourhood Centre approached CBHS ACE Centre with a retrospectively-approved Foundation Skills Grant and proposed that the funding be used in partnership with CBHS ACE to teach introductory ICT skills to adult learners. Whilst initially the classes were held at the Neighbourhood Centre, low numbers caused by a combination of factors led to the classes being moved to CBHS ACE in evening mode. This has led to a steady stream of adult learners, generally aged between 45 and 70, to undertake initial training in basic computing courses. From this rapidly-devised partnership grew another rapidly-prepared Foundation Skills Grant application for 2011/12 funding from DFEEST. Not only was the initial Neighbourhood Centre involved, but partnered with a fellow Community Centre, and brought on board two further Neighbourhood/Community Centres. CBHS ACE could not be a recipient of the funding, but could enter into an auspicing arrangement with the Neighbourhood Centres to provide trainers and venues. It was hoped that these Grants would provide the students who could no longer attend school a chance to continue their education, and would alleviate some of the excessive pressure on the Centres to provide Foundation Skills programs. Success! One Grant for $100,000 and one for $68,200 have been secured, and a suite of programs will begin on the 17th October 2011. CBHS ACE students are being counselled into courses and encouraged to consider attending Neighbourhood/Community Centres to continue their education. It is interesting that the most common complaint from these students is the pervading sense that they are no longer going to learn because they will not be ‘at school’. Providing properly-trained DECS teachers and tutors has gone some way towards alleviating this fear, as has explaining that a school can be in many venues. The main issue is that many of these people, having faced and acknowledged publicly their lack of literacy and numeracy skills, now perceive that they have lost what they see as their only way out of a vicious cycle of low or unemployment and continued sense of ‘missing out’ on a formal education. However, with the assistance of a Flinders University Social Work students, the Adult Manager of CBHS ACE, and the Project Officer for the Grants, these second-chance learners are beginning to see that they can in fact continue their education and indeed benefit more from the smaller and more suitable classes to both explicitly and implicitly improve their literacy and numeracy skills. The ultimate aim of the Onkaparinga Adult Learning Partnership is now to bring all 8 Neighbourhood/Community Centres in the local City of Onkaparinga on-board and link adult re-entry with both these Centres and TAFESA. This will provide the seamless provision of courses from experiential at the Centres, through SACE at CBHS, or further study at TAFE. This would provide a continuum of literacy and numeracy from basic to accredited learning, and pathways from disadvantage to working, volunteering or further study, which is at the heart of government policy for an aging population such as that which Australia faces. The

Page 18: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

18

following statements from OECD working papers which anticipate the release in 2013 of results indicates that literacy and numeracy are of major concern to all countries involved in the research, and that Australia needs to heed the messages. 4 PIAAC’s overarching goals (OECD, 2006) are … to identify and measure differences

within and across countries in “literacy competencies for the information age – the interest, attitude, and ability of individuals to access, manage, integrate, and evaluate information, construct new knowledge, and communicate with others in order to participate effectively in the information age”…

9 a Numeracy is essential for adults and for the societies in which they live

b Public Policy in most countries includes separate investments in literacy and numeracy c The policy and program responses are different for numeracy than for literacy

d Numeracy skills are not measured well by literacy measures (PIAAC Numeracy: A conceptual Framework, pp 7-9) 14 Literacy is understanding, evaluating, using and engaging with written texts to

participate in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential. (PIAAC Literacy: A Conceptual Framework - OECD Education Working Paper No 34, p 8)

It is appropriate that this Partnership has at its core the understanding that there needs to be a whole-of-community approach to tackling poverty through literacy and numeracy, and that it become culturally acceptable that everybody needs to be literate. Just as child protection has moved from being the precinct of schools to being the responsibility of the whole community, so too has the issue of life-long learning and responsibility moved to the community as a whole – it is now not only a child that the village needs to raise, but the whole person. SMOOTHING THE BEDCOVERS Whilst the establishment of the new Partnership has not been without its drama, problems with communication, and the need for numerous meetings to campaign and convince leadership and organisations to accept the new ideas, it is now on-task and ready to proceed. Each enrolling student in the Foundation Skills programs will have an initial meeting with the Training and Assessment Officer, and will have a further meeting at the conclusion of their course. Students will be continually monitored to ensure success, and will be guided and supported in their choice of further study or their move into work or volunteering. Each course has at its core a discrete IVEC Cert I module, with the overall curriculum covering several other IVEC modules that will not be assessed. ACSF assessment will be used to ensure students enrol in appropriate classes. DECS teachers have re-addressed their focus – whilst teaching their courses as usual, they have also embraced the underlying main goal of improving literacy and numeracy for each participant. CDOs of each Neighbourhood/Community Centre have had to adjust their concepts of adult education to a degree, and there have been moments of tension about redefined roles. However, at the core of all negotiations and decisions is the very real passion of practitioners to enable the motto of “Education For All”.

Page 19: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

19

References

ABC. (2010). "Adult learning changes under fire ", from http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/13/3036799.htm

AEU. (2010). "SACOSS opposes cuts to adult reentry education,." Retrieved 13 October,

2010, from http://www.aeusa.asn.au/713980_713980_14.html. Australian Industry Group (2006). World Class Skills for World Class Industries:Emploters

Perspectives on Skilling Australia. Australian Iindustry Group. Andrews, K. (2005). Workforce Tomorrow: Adapting to a More Diverse Australian Labour

Market,. DEWR. Canberra, Commonwealth of Australia. Apple, M. (2009). "Can critical education interrupt the right?" Discourse: Studies in the

culutral politics of education 30(3): 239-251. Ball, S., J (1993). "What is policy? Texts, Trajectories and Toolboxes." Discourse: the

Australian Journal of Educational Studies 13(2): 10-17. Ball, S., J (2003). "The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity." Journal of Education

Policy 18(2): 215-228. Business Council of Australia (2007). Engaging Our Potential - The Economic and Social

Necessity of Increasing Workforce Participation. Business Council of Australia. Bourdieu, P. and P. Champagne (1999). Outcasts on the inside. The weight of the world:

social suffering in contemporary society. Oxford, Polity: 421-426. Bradley, G. L. and D. G. Goldman (1996). "Educational provider's views of students who

return to school." Journal of Educational Administration. Armidale 34(2): 65. Cocklin, B. (1990). "'The adult student at secondary school: a New Zealand case study'."

Studies in the Education of Adults 22(2): 195-210. Cocklin, B. and B. Walther (1994). "'The adult student at secondary school: the re-cycling

expericne'." International Journal of Lifelong Learning 13(4): 301-320. Comber, B. (1997). "Managerial Discourses: tracking the local effects on teachers' and

students' work in literacy lessons." Discourse: Studies in the culutral politics of education 18(3): 389-407.

Croft, K. E. (2004). Mutual obligation : contribution through contrition and compliance.

Adelaide, University of South Australia. Davidson, P. (2002). The Obligation is mutual : new directions for employment assistance in

Australia. 2002, Strawberry Hills, NSW Day, C. (2010). "Right to learn campaign." from http://southern-times-

messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/campaign-adult-students-right-to-learn/. DECS. (2010a). "Christies Beach High School Context Statement." Retrieved 19 Dec 2010,

2010, from http://www.cbhs.sa.edu.au/.

Page 20: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

20

DECS. (2010b). "Hamilton Senior College Context Statement." Retrieved 19 Dec 2010,

2010, from http://www.hamcoll.sa.edu.au/. DECS. (2010c). "Para West Adult Campus Context Statement." Retrieved 19 Dec 2010,

2010, from http://www.parawest.sa.edu.au/. DECS. (2010d). "Thebarton Senior College Context Statement." Retrieved 19 Dec 2010,

2010, from http://www.tsc.sa.edu.au/. Delpit, L. D. (1993). The silenced dialogue: power and pedagogy in educating other people's

children. Beyond silenced voices: class, race, and gender in United States schools. L. W. a. M. Fine. Albany, New York, State University of New York Press: pp.119-139, 372-374.

DEST (1998). Literacy for all: The Challenge for Australian Schools. Canberra, Deaprtment of

Education Sciene and Training. Fine, M. (1994). Dis-stance and other stances: negotiations of power inside feminist

research. Power and method: political activism and educational research A. D. Gitlin. New York, Routledge: pp.13-35.

Foley, K. (2010). 2010-11 Budget Speech: Budget Paper 2, Presented by the Honorable

Kevin Foley MP, Deputy Premier and Treasurer on the Occasion of the budget for 2010-11, 16 September, 2010. . Treasury. Adelaide, SA Government.

Forster, F. (2010). No Second Chance. The Independent Wekkly. Adelaide. Franks, T. (2010) "Speech to protest rally against cuts to adult re-entry education,

Parliament House Steps, North Terrace, Adelaide ,13 October 2010." Garvis, S. (2010a). Don’t shut us out: Students angry at college cutbacks. Southern Times.

Adelaide, Messenger Press. Garvis, S. (2010b). Education put out of reach. Southern times Adelaide, Messenger Press. Gee, J., P and C. Lankshear (1995). "The New Work Order: critical langugae awareness and

'fast capitalism' texts." Discourse: Studies in the culutral politics of education 16(1): 5-19.

Holst, J. (2006). "Paulo Freire in Chile, 1964-1969: Pedagogy of the Oppressed in Its

Sociopolitical Economic Context." Harvard educational review 76(2). Hood, L. & Kelton,G. (2010, September 21, 2010). "Chris Robinson axed as education chief

as part of 'reform' agenda,." The Advertiser, from http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/education-chief-axed/story-e6frea83-1225926996516.

Hudson (2004). The Ageing Population – Implications for the Australian Workforce. Hudson

20:20 Series.

Page 21: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

21

Janks, H. (1997). "Critical Discourse Analysis as a Research Tool." Discourse: Studies in the culutral politics of education 18(3): 329-342.

Kamler, B. (1998). Cricitical Literacy and teacher's work:New Discourses for New Times

[Keynote address to the Joint National Conference ALEA and AATE 5-7 July 1998, Canberra] Literacy for all: Proceedings Joint National Conference, ALEA & AATE, Australian Literacy Educator's Association, Australian Association for the Teaching of English, 5-7 July, The Canberra: 136-145.

Kuklys, W. (2006). Amartya Sen's capability approach : theoretical insights and empirical

applications, Springer Verlag. Larson, E. (2009). "Engaging the Adult Learner Generational Mix." Journal of adult education

38(1). Lilly, M. (2008). Globalisation and the world of work Lilly, M. (2009) "Getting the skills Australia needs:Melbourne Institute Public Economics

Forum, 19 March 2009. ." Martinez-Cosio, M. (2010). "Parents’ Roles in Mediating and Buffering the Implementation of

an Urban School Reform." Education and urban society 42(3). Mayer, E. (1992). Employment-related key competencies: a proposal for consultation.

Melbourne. OECD. (2011) “PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adultr

Competencies)” from http://www.oecd.org/piacc Patrickson, M. (2008). "The new covenant of employability." Employee relations 30(2). Pousada, M. (2009). "ICT and Older People: Beyond Usability " Educational gerontology 35(3). Rizvi, F. Lingard, B (2010). Globalizing Education Policy New York, Routledge. SACE Board of SA. (2010). "Defintion of Adult Re-entry Student." Retrieved 21 Dec 2010,

2010, from http://www.sace.sa.edu.au/the-sace/students-families/international-and-returning-students.

Sellar, S. (2005). "SACSA Framework: unsettled policy for unsettled times " Curriculum Perspectives 25(3): 26-36. Southcott, A. (2010). Speech to the House - Adjournment - Adult Education. H. o.

Representatives. Canberra, AGPS. Thomas, S. (2008). "Leading for quality: questions about quality and leadership in

Australia." Journal of Education Policy 23(3): 323-334. Thompson, G. (2010). Meeting with Gay Thomppson. MP, Member for Reynell. M. Lobban.

Adelaide. Tooley, J. (1996). "Qualification Inflation." Economic Affairs 16(5): 49.

Page 22: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

22

Tough, A. (1985). "Andragogy in Action: Applying Modern Principles of Adult Learning", by Malcolm S. Knowles and Associates (Book Review)." The Journal of higher education (Columbus) 56(6).

Warhurst, C. (2008). "The knowledge economy, skills and government labour market

intervention." Policy Studies 29(1): 71-85. Weininger, E. (2003). "Translating Bourdieu into the American context: the question of

social class and family-school relations." Poetics (Amsterdam) 31(5-6): 375-402. White, J. (2002). "Adult Women in Community Colleges." The Catalyst 31(2). Yeend, P. (2010). "Budget 2010-11 Welfare: Disability Support Pension." 2010, from

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CD8QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aph.gov.au%2Flibrary%2Fpubs%2Frp%2FBudgetReview2010-11%2FWelfareDSP.htm&rct=j&q=number%20of%20disability%20support%20pension%20recipients%20in%20Australia&ei=YdYTTczmMIGiuQOD__XIDQ&usg=AFQjCNGQYOyfhspmI4_DMTygTpDQsozHcQ&sig2=dXgXCdWSs4PEyZTMqPgNLA&cad=rja.

Page 23: ADULT LLN ON THE LEVEL – BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN

23

BIOGRAPHIES

Malcolm Lobban is a qualified Developmental Educator, Special Education/LOTE teacher and Career Development Practitioner and has worked in both private and public sectors over 30 years, currently working as Adult Manager at Christies Beach High School, a highly disadvantaged school. Malcolm manages the 250 students of the Adult Community Education Centre as part of the Learner Outreach Program. He holds 5 university qualifications with Degrees in Disability Studies, Special Education, Modern Languages and Career Development, currently completing the Doctor of Education program at UniSA, his research focussing on his work at CBHS. Malcolm holds Professional Membership of CDAA and of the Australian Association of Special Education, the Australasian Association of Disability Professionals and South Australian Council for Adult Literacy. Catherine Forrest has arrived at the ACAL Conference via employment in media, retail, administration, hospitality, education and self-employment, completing a BA (Hons) and CELTA qualifications along the way. A DEEWR scholarship winner in 2010, Cath is now gaining formal qualifications and experience in LLN. Cath has strength in imparting enthusiasm for literacy and breaking through learning difficulties of highly disadvantaged adult learners. Through the new Foundation Skills Partnership between local Community Centres, school and TAFE, Cath is utilising her skills in assessment and training and creation of programs to reach a wide range of disenfranchised adult learners in the wider community.