The Adult Learner is the Irish journal for adult and community education ThThee IIrriisshh JJoouurrnnaall ooff AAdduulltt founded in the mid 1980s and is published by AONTAS. aanndd CCoommmmuunniittyy EEdduuccaattiioonn Its aim is to serve the needs of the adult education and lifelong learning community both in Ireland and internationally by providing a forum for critical discussion and reflection. The journal seeks to make new knowledge easily Th accessible to the widest possible audience through emphasising the importance of e I describing and critiquing practice and through publishing the results of research. r is h The journal gives priority to subject matter that addresses issues of community, J o citizenship and learning and which focus on disadvantage, literacy and equality. u r It also includes contributions on how adults learn in formal, non-formal and na The informal settings including life and work contexts. l o f A d u The journal provides a forum for publication and dissemination of lt reflections on research, policy and practice in the broad field of adult and an d community education. C o m Adult The journal can also be viewed on the AONTAS website, where further details m u on how individuals can make contributions are made available each year. n it www.aontas.com y E d u c a t io n Learner Th Ae 2017 d u lt L e a r n e r 2 0 1 7 1 AONTAS The National Adult Learning Organisation 2nd Floor, 83-87 Main Street, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, D06 E0H1 Ph: 01 4068220 Email: [email protected] Website: www.aontas.com ADULT LEARNER 2017 The Irish Journal of Adult and Community Education ISSN No. 0790-8040 The views expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of AONTAS or the Adult Education Officers’ Association. ©2017 Design by Language, www.language.ie Contents 7 Editorial comment rob mark, editor 11 Contributors Section 1 – Perspectives on Community and Lifelong Learning 15 Rhetoric and reality: The Irish experience of Quality Assurance camilla fitzsimons 33 Towards a Quality Framework for Adult Learners in Recovery: Ensuring Quality with Equity patricia doyle 43 Pedagogical Leadership of VET within a confused FET Context lynn russell 58 In pursuit of an authentic educational relationship: An examination of dialogue in Freirean adult literacy practice alex mckillican 73 Later Life Learning: A post-retirement perspective from Northern Ireland freda mccormick 86 Learning to mother over coffee and cake: Naming our informal learning sarah coss Section 2 – Case Studies on Improving Practice 103 Examination of quality in a community family communication course eimer cadogan, liam mccarthy and mary mangan 113 Holding the line: A slow movement towards a critical professional development for community educators Jerry o'neill and susan cullinane Section 3 – Book Reviews 130 A new skills agenda for Europe: Working together to strengthen human capital, employability and competitiveness 133 Community education and neoliberalism: Philosophies, practices and policies in Ireland 137 I nside Education: The art of good learning 141 Reframing partnerships in education: Uniting the power of place and the wisdom of people 147 Call for Papers 2018 Edition Editorial comment In the past decade, there has been a growing focus on the issue of quality and its management across the broad field of adult learning. Concern stems partly from the need to increase competitiveness in a global economy, but also from the demand for public services to demonstrate accountability and ability to achieve results. The relative importance of quality is demonstrated by the place it is given in policy documents such as the European Community report on Quality Indicators of Lifelong Learning (2002). The report represented the work of representatives from thirty-five European countries, the OECD and UNESCO and outlined specific quantitative and qualitative data which might be used as indicators to evaluate, promote and support planning in the field of lifelong learning. This report and the ongoing focus on quality reflects the breadth and complexity of the lifelong learning process itself and the need to have mechanisms for quality assurance, evaluation and monitoring to ensure constant progression towards quality improvement and striving for excellence. The emergence of quality as a key issue in education has also led to the development of a plethora of custodians legitimised by policies that are handed down from politicians, policy-makers, administrators and heads of institutions to teachers, learning support staff, learners etc. In a short space of time, a quality industry has grown up creating an ever-increasing bureaucratic load on those responsible for the actual delivery of education and training. The 2017 call for contributions for the Adult Learner welcomed articles with a focus on quality in adult learning and we are delighted to be able to publish articles which focus directly or indirectly on this theme. The articles are divided into two sections. In section 1, there are six articles which present different perspectives on critical debates in adult learning and in section 2, there are a further two articles which are case studies of practice. 7 The first two opening articles focus overtly on quality as an issue in adult learning. In Rhetoric and reality: The Irish Experience of Quality Assurance, Camilla Fitzsimons traces the growth and development of quality management in Ireland, venturing to define what quality might mean. She examines the tensions which exist around the quality debate noting the inconsistent moderation and incongruence between the wider values of quality and a government-led employability discourse. The article reports on a study of educators who participated in an on-line, anonymous survey noting that adult educators do care about quality whatever that means to them. The survey uncovers philosophical tensions in how quality assurance should be approached. Finally, she returns to the question of whether our understanding and measurement of quality is really linked to a neoliberal, market-oriented, utilitarian agenda? In the second article, Towards a Quality Framework for Adult Learners in Recovery: Ensuring quality with equity, Patricia Doyle describes a participative approach to curriculum development for adults in addiction recovery across the European Union and efforts to conceive of a quality-learning programme with equity for adult learners in recovery. This links the question of quality to the concept of inequality and raises the question of whether indeed discussions on quality can be had in isolation from discussion on inequality and the need for our practices to take this into account. A third article in Section 2, offered by Eimer Cadogan, Liam McCarthy and Mary Mangan takes a look at what quality might actually mean in a community family communication course. The writers examine how participants benefitted from a course, both on a personal and interpersonal level. They note that the measurement of quality may go beyond dominant discourses related to quality through developing ways of measuring quality which are consistent with andragogy and the principles which underpin the concept. Other articles while not overtly focusing on quality as an issue, do raise issues which are inevitably linked to the broad framework of quality management. Lynn Russell’s article on leadership looks at the pedagogical leadership within the further education Vocational Education and Training (VET) context while Jerry O’Neill and Susan Cullinane remind us of the need for critical professional development for adult and community educators, also a key issue in promoting quality in across the field of lifelong learning. Alex McKillican’s contribution raises questions about the need to embrace radical dialogue in Freirean adult 8