Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic: Flexible Learning Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

1. Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic:Flexible Learning Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation Tony Wall Head of Flexible Learning & Teacher Fellow York St John University

2. Towards a mosaic • Starting point of diversity (of purpose?) • Access, diversity, participation (and transition) • ‘Lifelong learning’? • Employer engagement? • ‘Flexible’ practices (and patterns) • Recognising value for our purposes • Strategically placing together • Noting ongoing/emerging challenges • Possibilities for a vision of life-long-learning Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

3. Familiar Patterns (short, fat) Important notions: Content ‘coherence’ + Academic Freedom Ongoing challenge: engraining academic culture(s)? Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

4. Familiar Patterns – Long, thin structures Important notions: Content ‘coherence’ + Academic Freedom Embedded learner preparation / development (transition, retention, success) Engraining in academic culture(s) Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

5. Familiar Patterns – Access(awareness / confidence raising; community delivery?) Important notions: Generating interest / building confidence ‘Bolt-on’ learner preparation/development Content ‘coherence’ + Academic Freedom Partnership (possibly) Ongoing challenge: engraining in academic culture(s)? Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

6. Familiar Patterns – Extended degrees Important notions: Content ‘coherence’ + Academic Freedom ‘Bolt-on’ learner preparation/development Partnership (possibly) Ongoing challenge: engraining in academic culture(s) Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

7. Familiar Patterns – APL for Access(access) access Important notions: Content ‘coherence’ + Academic Freedom Ongoing challenge: engraining in academic culture(s) Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

8. ‘Familiar’/Emerging Patterns – APEL?(access  employer engagement) Important notions: Content ‘coherence’ + Academic Freedom Recognition of experiential and partner-learning (as part of award rather than for access) Learner preparation/development??? Ongoing problem: engraining in academic culture(s)??? Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

9. ‘Familiar’/Emerging Patterns – Short Awards(Adult education / employer engagement) Important notions: Broad interest / content ‘coherence’ Embedded learner preparation/development Ongoing problem: engraining in academic culture(s) Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

10. ‘Emerging’ Patterns – Negotiated / CAT Awards(Employer engagement; cross institutions) Important notions: Need/interest ‘coherence’ + Learner Freedom? Embedded learner preparation/development? Ongoing problem: engraining in academic culture(s) Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

11. ‘Emerging’ Patterns – Bite size(Employer engagement) Non-accredited learning / activities Accredited learning / activities Optional accreditation: “wrap-around” Important notions: Need/interest ‘coherence’ + Learner Freedom? Learner preparation/development??? Ongoing problem: engraining in academic culture(s)??? Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

12. ‘Emerging’ Patterns – Accreditation (FEC / employer engagement) In/at a business / work setting In/at a HEI Important notions: Need/interest ‘coherence’ – organisational/individual Partnership & Distributed Learning Learner preparation/development??? Ongoing problem: engraining in academic culture(s)??? Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

13. An Example from a YSJU Dialogue… activities bite-size modules YSJU campus clusters of bite-size modules - negotiated aspiration raising In-community and/or YSJU campus transition transition transition transition Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

14. …towards a community-negotiated partnership learning approach aspiration raising In-community and/or YSJU campus transition Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

15. A Summary of ‘Flexible’ Patterns • Diversity of patterns (practices), usually separated and/or isolated: • recognition for prior experiential/community-based learning (localised, ) • credit accumulation and transfer (small) • negotiated studies (small, localised, intensive) • credit-wrapping around external organisation provision (employer-facing provision) • distance, open and blended learning (fragmented) • accredited partnerships (mixed: FE, employer engagement) Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

16. …towards a community-negotiated partnership learning approach Determined by a community of learners (plus advice and guidance) Within the particular ‘cultural context’ Within a negotiated award structure Affecting motivation to learn relevant subjects / skills Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

17. Towards a Mosaic for Care Leavers:Starting Out • Context and commitment – Frank Buttle Trust • Plotting the life journey of care leavers • Who has a ‘learning and development’ role or impact? • What is ‘legitimate’ learning in academe? • “informal” = “formal”? • Experiential learning important • Developing relationships with ‘developmental influencers’ • “they are not HE material” (see Wall and Davenport, 2009) • What is ‘legitimate’ learning in academe?! Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

18. Towards a Mosaic for Care Leavers:Developing Partnerships • Developing ‘activity’ partnerships • Developing accreditation partnerships: • Accreditation of prior experiential learning (APEL) • Credit recognition • Academic practices (not necessarily skills) development embedded in: • Content determined by the local, specific group • Utilise flexible academic frameworks (e.g. ‘shell award’ suite of awards) • Utilise innovations in teaching/assessment (“creative assessment beyond the essay”) Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

19. Possibilities • Bringing together multiple practices • A wide diversity of approaches • Focus for impact – aims, aspirations, opportunities • ‘Engagement with credit’ • A mode of ‘partnership learning’ – shared delivery, shared risk, commitment to learning from the partnership, and developing it Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

20. Making it happen – facilitators • Vision of the possibilities • Academic frameworks – ‘shells’? • Academic structures – ‘owned’? • Leadership, champions, commitment • Examples, pilots • Evaluation, experimentation Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

21. Growing Challenges • What is HE? • What is ‘valid learning’? • APL – broadening to APEL + APCrL + ACnL – accreditation of concurrent learning • Teaching (+R)  Accreditation of Learning (+R)? • Teaching vs Support • T/S  Learning Professionals (specialist curriculum developers, link tutors, assessors, moderators) • Notions of ‘professionalism’ • Notion of ‘coherence to/of what’ – content, process, experience? • Academic Freedom  Learner/Demand driven • Costing, Funding, Pricing (inc. ELQ) Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

22. Additional principles for life-long-learning? • People developing personally and professionally, over time – in different areas • Multiple awards (vs. towards a degree) – credit accumulation, specialist • Learning as a broad, inclusive term (inc. informal) • Developing criticality, autonomy (confidence, motivation, critical/reflective skills) • Shared, partnership approaches • Using a mosaic of practices (vs. in ‘silos’) • …? Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

23. A beautiful mosaic… …and beauty is in the eye of the beholder (how can these practices help you?) Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation

24. Collaborative inquiry and research in the issues raised today: • Tony Wall, • t.wall@yorksj.ac.uk • +44 (0) 1904 876948 • Flexible Learning Centre, York St John University, Lord Mayors Walk, York YO31 7EX Imagining a Beautiful Mosaic - Flexible Practices for Access, Diversity and Participation