Fafo-paper 2010:16

Ole-Anders Stensen and Odd Bjørn Ure

Social inclusion in adult education is more than implementing mainstream public policy

A compilation of interviews in Norwegian adult education institutions

ISSN 0804-5135
2010

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Norwegian adult education institutions do not succeed in recruiting learners from backgrounds of social marginalisation and non-traditional learners if they follow a default policy that only mirrors minimum requirements and mainstream public policy. This is the main conclusion in this national study from Fafo in the frame of the EU project Lifelong learning 2010.
After interviewing staff at all educational levels, the authors maintain that institutions succeeding in recruiting and retaining groups exposed to social exclusion tend to define their own institutional objectives, earmark their own money and get additional funding from public (or private) programmes or initiatives. Such deliberate institutional strategies can also embrace the design of courses that support certain groups of untraditional adult learners, for example by using the public framework for appreciation of non-formal and informal learning experiences. The institutional freedom to put in place such strategies varies according to education levels. Despite the 2006 Knowledge Promotion Reform allowing for more leeway in institutions below tertiary level, universities and university colleges have better conditions for this. If they use the opportunity is often a question of will.