David Parkes
Published: 1982
Total Pages: 122
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In this occasional paper, seven persons--a further education (FE) officer, two principals, the head of a specialist youth training unit, a plumbing teacher, a head of division of alternative education, and a Further Education Staff College (Coombe Lodge) tutor--give their views of the changes in further education in England during the past decade. Their intention was to write personally and record impressions rather than to be authoritative. The contributors discuss the changes they have seen in the environment of FE, including the curriculum, the students, the staff, college government and organizations, regional and national perspectives, and FE's values during the 1970s. The writers conclude that there have been substantive changes in such areas as students who have moved from part-time vocational to full-time nonvocational courses of study, in the role of lecturers and their place of work, and in the courses they teach. Change, too, has occurred in the organization and in the way the principlas are seen. However, the contributors, in summary, seem to suggest that despite substantial changes during the past decade, similar underlying assumptions have remained about the divisions between and the processes within training and education. According to the writers, FE has been reactive rather than proactive, and therefore, has absorbed change; can the changes of the 1980s be so absorbed? (KC)