ThecultureofthenowbarrierstoresearchinEnglishFurther.docVIP

The culture of the now: barriers to research in English Further Education. Tony Scaife Lifelong Learning Centre, University of Leeds,UK Paper presented at the 36th Annual SCUTREA Conference, 4-6 July 2006, Trinity and All Saints College, Leeds I argue in this paper that in English Further Education (FE), there is a culture of the now with its origins in the manufactured uncertainty of the risk society (Beck 1999). This culture creates significant barriers to sustained, well grounded research in FE. That is not to say there is no enquiry in FE - indeed as we shall see some are quickly responsive to the findings of accountants, consultants and indeed anyone but the staff within the colleges. There is very little organisational space or time made available systematic research. There are three inter-related aspects to the culture of the now. Firstly there is an institutional dimension of frenetic instability with endless national and local policy changes and an audit culture of financial and curriculum inspections leading to frequent re-structuring and personnel change. Responses tend to be inchoate, short term and unsustainable thus serving to manufacture further instability. Secondly research in FE appears an unattractive option for college strategic planners for ideological reasons. In essence the audit culture favours standardisation and easily replicable processes: it produces stultifying systems and controls leading to performativity ( Ball 2000).Whereas a research focus would ‘enhance individual responsiveness and flexibility’ (Brotherton, 1998) but would be also less amenable to superficial audit and control by systems. Thirdly, despite the rhetoric to the contrary, colleges do not treat their employees as their most valuable asset. Rather in seeking to micromanage the activities of staff through one failed initiative after they help to create the climate of manufacture uncertainty which is so corrosive to sustaining tutor’s professional development in a c