Open Collections

What characteristics account for who participates in adult basic education at Vancouver Island University? A case study of policy and practice

University of British Columbia

This study is an in-depth examination of what accounted for participation in Adult Basic Education (ABE) at Vancouver Island University (VIU) from 1995 to 2015. I use a qualitative case study and discourse analysis to investigate participation in relation to how policies, perceptions, and contexts influence understandings of participation in ABE at VIU. I consider what other scholars have said about participation in ABE, particularly in regard to barriers to participation and student motivation. In particular, I draw on ideas presented in studies done by Rubenson and Desjardins (2009) and Boeren (2011) on how participation in adult education is impacted by power and governmentality located in welfare regimes and their associated policy structures. I take this idea a bit further by studying one institution in depth to learn that power and governmentality are present at macro, meso and micro levels. I then focus on how governance structures shape understanding and control who participates at the local level. In this way, I fill a gap in current literature on participation in adult education by explaining how various actors make meaning of policy in their local context and how these same meanings contribute to finding alternative solutions to longstanding participation problems.

Text

2019-09-27

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/71795

Educational Leadership and Policy

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/