Learners for life: vocationalism and emancipation Alison Kuiper Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand Kuiper@Lincoln.ac.nz Abstract: This paper reports findings from a survey of mature students, studying at a New Zealand polytechnic, placing the results within the context of the continuing discussion of 'lifelong learning'. The high number of mature students in New Zealand is reflected in the numbers enrolled at the institution. Information is provided about their characteristics including family status, gender and dependants and previous education and occupational history. Gender is a significant variable, particularly when combined with age and dependants. Women appear to be advantaged by the existence of part-time study. Particular attention is paid to the reasons the students provide for undertaking further education. Originally conceived of by adult educators as an emancipatory measure, lifelong learning has become to be regarded by governments and international organisations as a means of enhancing economic growth. Given that the students were enrolled in courses which had a primary vocational focus, the paper speculates as to whether this means that lifelong learning fulfils a narrow purpose or whether, although they volunteered that their purpose in studying was vocational, many of the students may indeed be 'lifelong learners'. Keywords: Lifelong learning; mature students; vocational education No other subject is more widely pondered and discussed by people interested in the education of adults than the motives which lead men and women to introduce systematic learning into the patterns of their lives. Legal requirements reinforced by social expectations no longer apply to them. Yet in the years beyond and amidst all the pleasures and duties of responsible maturity, many people are moved to devote part of their time to the development of their potentialities. They either go seeking for an activity or somehow become aware that one exists and are lead by impulse, often obscure to themselves, to take part in it (Houle, 1961, p. 7). Introduction The term ‘lifelong learning’ (Husen, 1974) is ever present in the discourse of the ‘knowledge economy’ and ‘the learning society’ (Moreland, 1999) but like those terms, ill-defined and used with a variety of meanings. 'Lifelong learning' is used in so many different contexts and with so many different referents that it seems as though the only consistency in its use is the 'feel- good' factor associated with it. For adult educators it evokes the concept of emancipatory education which aims to provide a richer life for those who participate. For governments and others with a focus on economic growth ‘lifelong learning’ is often presented as equivalent to ongoing vocational training, a process of continuing to upskill the working population to enable a country to compete internationally. In this second usage the term has gradually come to mean something more restricted than it did originally, being largely restricted to vocational reskilling although often used to suggest that the intent is wider. This paper reports on 'lifelong learners' and their motives for learning as revealed in a survey of mature students at a New Zealand polytechnic. In particular, the characteristics of the students who were undertaking further education and training and the reasons they provide for undertaking further education are examined. Given that the students were enrolled in courses which had a primary vocational focus, were the expectations that they were enrolled primarily for vocational reasons fulfilled? This paper speculates as to whether that means that lifelong learning fulfils a narrow purpose or whether, even in the context of seeking vocational advantage, students may undertake lifelong learning in a wider sense. Multiple discourses Originally the term lifelong learning did not have any suggestions of vocationalism. Methven and Hansen (1977) trace the origins of the phrase in New Zealand. In its beginnings, and under other names, it was conceived as an instrument of social change and an augmentor of economic advancement. Initially, in the form of mechanics institutes or mutual improvement societies, and later in the guise of adult, continuing or community education, lifelong learning was originally a working class movement whose purpose was the intellectual, economic and political betterment of those who might otherwise remain an ill-paid, badly- housed, poorly-educated reservoir of cheap labour and occasional cannon- fodder. Lifelong learning’s extension in the first half of the century was interwoven with the rise of socialism in its various forms, trade unionism, and the embryonic welfare state (p. 5). This conceptionalisation was succeeded in the 1960s and 1970s by debates about fundamental questions concerning the nature and purpose of education, with a background of international upheaval and competition associated with the tensions of the Cold War, decolonisation, the rise of new technologies and increasing internationalisation. Lifelong education became one of the themes of the International Year of Education in 1970 at the same time as the Council of Europe adopted education permanent as its guiding principle in the field of education and cultural policy. Lengrand’s report for UNESCO noted the idea of ‘lifelong education’ as ‘the keystone of the learning society’ (Lengrand, 1970, p.45). New Zealand adopted this view of the significance of lifelong education, with its aims defined as: First, the setting into place of structures and methods that will assist a human being throughout his life span to maintain the continuity of his apprenticeship and training. Second, to equip each individual to become in the highest and truest degree both the object and the instrument of his own development through the many forms of self education (Lengrand, 1970, p. 45). In New Zealand, the National Commission on UNESCO produced in 1972 a report entitled Lifelong learning (Law, 1996, p. 162). Shortly after this the OECD took up in 1973 the same theme with its concept of recurrent education (Tobias, 1996, p. 50). The rhetoric was similar in all cases but, according to Law, the OECD focus placed priority on economic concerns such as growth. If the direction of government funding is taken as an indicator, in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom vocationalism appears to have triumphed over traditional liberal adult education. Government support is now directed primarily at courses which lead to credentials and enable people to gain or improve their positions in the paid workforce. The study reported on in this paper concerns students undertaking such education. The Polytechnic study Christchurch Polytechnic, now known as Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT), was chosen as a tertiary institution which is primarily involved with vocational training. It offers a wide range of courses to students with a variety of backgrounds and aspirations who range from second chance learners to students in degree courses. The essential nature of polytechnic education is that it is a mixture of theoretical and practical learning. One aim of the study was to provide a snapshot of mature students at such an institution. Although in other countries students over 21 can be regarded as ‘mature students’, and although New Zealand policy treats those 25 and over as financially independent of their parents, for this study those over 30 were selected as the target group so that the respondents would have life experience which was likely to include training and employment. The study covers mature students who are studying either full-time or part-time, instead of, or as well as, being in paid employment. These students may also be combining family responsibilities with study and work. Methodology Selecting the students to questio n involved identifying appropriate samples of full-time and part-time students and led to the first finding: there were significant numbers of students over 30 enrolled at the Polytechnic. This is particularly noteworthy given the age chosen. Of the total Polytechnic enrolment at the time of the survey, almost 25 percent, over 4,000 of the 17,000 students, were aged 30 years or more. Of these mature students, 259 were full- time while the majority, 3851, were part-time students. A disproportionate stratified random sample of students who fitted the criteria of being fulltime, full- year students over 30 years of age produced a sample group of 105 students. The part-time sample of students of 30 years of age and older resulted in a sample size of 195 students (for further information on the methodology, including sampling, see Kuiper, 2001.). For a sample of this size where names and addresses were available, a postal questionnaire was an appropriate method. The high total response rate of 214 questionnaires from the 300 posted (71.3 percent) may reflect that the topic was of strong personal concern to those who took part in the survey. Many replies were supplemented by a page or more of comments. The questionnaire asked 25 questions. Students were questioned about the course they were enrolled in, and about their personal circumstances because information about age, gender and dependants are key variables in research about adults returning to study. For example, gender was included as a variable in order to check whether, for this group, study was predominantly a female activity. Data on previous educational and occupational history and current lifestyles were cross-checked by asking questions about occupational history, i.e., previous work and training and the main activities in which the respondents were currently engaged. While a questionnaire can provide limited information about motivation, of central importance to the study was whether the respondents anticipated a change of career or were studying primarily ‘for interest’, i.e. whether they were concerned primarily with skills and credentials or whether their motivations were in the tradition of liberal adult education. Characteristics of the respondents Age International comparisons of the age distribution of tertiary level graduates support the contention that New Zealanders continue to study or return to study at older ages (OECD, 1995, 1998). According to the 1998 OECD report: [i]n New Zealand as in Sweden, ages are high at median and 75th percentile particularly for second university degrees and non-university tertiary programmes (OECD, 1998, p. 28). The majority of the respondents were full- timers (40) and a third of the part-time respondents (48) were in their thirties. Of the total sample 88 (41.1 percent) were in the 30-34 age group, 54 (25.2 percent) were aged 35-39, 60 (28 percent) were aged 40 to 49 and 12 (5.6% percent), all of whom were women, were 50 or over. These findings are congruent with statistics which indicate the older ages of New Zealand students. The pattern is confirmed by the 1999 New Zealand Vice Chancellors’ Committee Report where “the trend to lifelong learning shows up in the number of graduates who are aged 40 years or older” (NZVCC, 2000, p. 28). Older students have become an important population in New Zealand tertiary institutions and statistics support the contention that the trend appears to be a continuing one. Occupational and educational history Most of the respondents already had some education and/or training when they started their Polytechnic course. The majority of those surveyed (57: 76 percent of full- timers; 177 : 82 percent of the total) had had job training since leaving school with a great range of occupational areas cited including nursing, soldiering, fitting and welding, printing, teaching and flax-weaving, although this training was not necessarily in the area in which they were currently working. Males were slightly more likely (88 percent) than females (79 percent) to have undertaken post-school training. A New Zealand government department comment on government statistics acknowledges, “tertiary education is not simply a follow on from secondary school. A significant number of students now begin tertiary education after being in the workforce or unemployed” (Department of Labour, 1999, p. 8). While the Department of Labour reported that the majority of university students (58 percent) went directly from secondary school, 20 percent had previously been wage or salary workers or self- employed. For polytechnic students the situation was more closely balanced with 30 percent being previously employed while only 29 percent came directly from school (Department of Labour, 1999, p. 8). Family status, gender and dependants For many respondents, study was combined with family life. The majority (127: 59.3 percent) of the total sample were married or living with a partner, outnumbering those who were single (44: 20.6 percent), or separated or divorced (36: 16.8 percent). Twice as many (143) were parents tha n not (71: 33.2 percent). Gender has been a significant variable in studies of mature students, primarily because women, as a result of their out-of-the-workforce status, have been in the position of wanting, and needing, to retrain in order to re-enter the paid workforce. That gender is still a significant variable is confirmed by the high proportion of women in the survey sample. The women tended to be older than the men, with 18 (42.9%) women being under 35 years, and 24 (57.1%) over that age, whereas 22 (66.7%) of the men were younger than 35 and only 11 (36.3%) older. When the existence of children is considered we note that more males (17: 51.5%) than females (15: 35.7%) had no children, no doubt partly because the men were on the whole younger. This may suggest that for men, growing older and having children may be less compatible with retraining than being younger without dependants, while for women a period spent primarily in child care provides an opportunity to study. It may be that ‘second chanc e’ learners catch up on educational opportunities missed earlier or women use the opportunity to extend their education. A period out of the paid workforce bringing up children has been used by many New Zealand women as a time to study and acquire new skills (Kuiper, 2001). It may even be that women are advantaged in having opportunities to undertake retraining (although any such contention should also take into account any disadvantage in first chance education and training). The presence of children may be a positive factor rather than a deterrent for women as it sanctions the use of time spent out of the workforce. In New Zealand, as probably in other countries, the role of mother/housewife has provided opportunities for ‘education as a life choice’, an opportunity less open to those who see themselves as earners and providers. In contrast, a Scottish study found a lower uptake among women (Schuller, Raffe, Morgan-Klein & Clark, 1999). The greater availability of part-time education in New Zealand may well be significant for the proportionately greater uptake of further education by New Zealand women with dependants. International and New Zealand surveys (e.g., Ministerial Consultative Group, 1994) also suggest that women are more likely to return to education and that those already educated are more likely to be over-represented in tertiary education. Choosing to study In the survey, a forced-choice question on motivation required the respondents to declare whether they had chosen the course primarily in order to gain skills and/or qualifications, or primarily out of interest. Overwhelmingly the respondents chose the acquiring of skills and/or qualifications as their reason for enrolling. This was true for 70 (93.3 percent) of the fulltimers, 122 (87.8 percent) of the part-timers and 192 (89.7 percent) of the total group. Three full-time students (4.3 percent) and 11 (5.2 percent) of the part-timers said they were studying primarily for interest. Houle's typology of learners, the basis for much of the research on individual motivation, suggests the three categories of learners: goal-orientated learners who use education as a means of achieving some other goal; activity-oriented learners who participate in education for the sake of the activity itself and the social interaction; and learning-oriented learners who seek knowledge for its own sake (Houle, 1961). The answers to the forced-choice question suggest the respondents are primarily Houle’s goal-orientated learners, no doubt reflecting the vocational nature and aims of the programmes the Polytechnic offers and the students have undertaken. The responses of the students may reflect the responses of individuals to the changing nature of employment in the area, as reported by a Christchurch newspaper: Employment in Canterbury has been characterised by change. Until the 1980s, people tended to stay in one type of occupation for 30 years … workers at the turn of the millennium tend to remain in a job for an average of only seven years. … Canterbury Development Corporation chief executive Chris Pickerill says, within a few years more than half of the jobs in Canterbury will be in “entirely new industries”. This has major implications for education and training. People will need to be increasingly flexible and adaptable he says (Crean, 1995, p. 5). The question of what has motivated these students to return to study is answered by the overwhelming response that they are doing so in order to acquire skills and qualifications. Given that the students were chosen because they were in vocational-type courses, the result is not surprising. However the supposition that many of the students might be Houle's activity-orientated learners, participating for more than one reason, cannot be ruled out. The factors which ha ve led to increased interest in tertiary study for adults may be both vocational and leisure-centred (Schuller, Raffe, Morgan-Klein, & Clark, 1999). Although this study did not, because this was not congruent with its main focus, ask the students whether they considered their learning to be enjoyable or emancipatory, it was clear from their responses that this was certainly true for a number of students. One was enrolled in a full time three-year course learning Mandarin, without any certainty of employment at the end, another had made a similar commitment to a jazz course although he managed his own business. Others volunteered comments on the personal value of their learning. Disentangling the factors which lead an adult to return to study is difficult to do for one individual; it is even more difficult to generalise about the motivations of mature students in general. A Scottish study which surveyed Open University, university and college students, found evidence that motivations can change over time with some students reporting that they had increasingly appreciated the more intrinsic or personal benefits of study. According to this study many students, bored in their jobs, looked to part-time study to provide a challenge and stimulation. The findings suggested that the majority were seeking a qualification but the perceived vocational returns … were often generalised, long-term and uncertain. Most students hoped for some occupational advantage from their studies, either with their current employer or through a change of job, but they rarely knew precisely how, or when, this would occur (Schuller et al., 1999, p. 139). Few have only pecuniary motives and for some lifelong learning can be such a source of satisfaction that this personal involvement can be the main reason for undertaking further study. Merrill (1999), in research undertaken at Warwick University, found that at the start of their university careers, participants saw their participation in instrumental terms. By the end of their degree course their attitudes and ambitions had changed. The learning process had been so enjoyable and personally rewarding that many wanted to continue (although the majority faced financial constraints that prevented their doing so). Conclusion The study supports statistical data that show New Zealanders returning to study, full-time and part-time, in considerable numbers. This is particularly true of women. Women are proportionately over-represented both in the numbers of students enrolled at the Polytechnic, and in the numbers of mature students (both full-time and part-time) in comparison with the numbers in the total population. Women continue studying to later ages and for women, the studying for occupational change is positively linked with having dependants, whereas there is an inverse relationship between dependants and commitment to study for males. Most of the students, in line with many findings that show those with most education are likely to seek more (Dwyer, 2000; Titmus, 1969), had previous education and training. They declared their motives in undertaking further study were primarily vocational. Whether or not the student had such benefits in mind when they began, study undertaken initially for vocational reasons may still prove to be emancipatory. The converse is also true, for, as Brennan , Kogan and Teichler point out, the value as well as the motivations of a student engaging in further study are not always able to be appropriately assessed by assigning a monetary amount or a vocational destination. Finally, it must always be remembered that higher education is not directly relevant to employment through the kind of education and training it provides, but through the ways students make use of these educational provisions (Brennan, Kogan & Teic hler, 1996, p. 2). Learners for life in seeking vocational advantage may also become committed to learning for non-vocational reasons. Many of the students in this study were enrolled in more than one course or had a history of participation in adult education. Rather than vocational learning being restricted in its benefits, those learning in order to get qualifications may also participate in the wider benefits of further education, in line with Tawney's belief that : [t]he purpose of an adult education worthy of the name is not merely to impart reliable information, important though that is. It is still more to foster the intellectual vitality to master and use it, so that knowledge becomes, not a burden to be borne or a possession to be prized, but a stimulus to constructive thought and an inspiration to action (Tawney, 1953). Those who undertake further study as adults may do so primarily for vocational reasons but they, and the society they live in, are likely to benefit in double measure because their learning can be both vocational and emancipatory. References Brennan, J., Kogan, M., & Teichler, U. (1996). Higher education and work: A conceptual framework. In J. Brennan, M. Kogan, & U. 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Scott (Eds.), The fourth sector: adult and community education on Aotearoa/New Zealand (pp. 38-64). Palmerston North: Dunmore. Usher, R. (1999). Identity, risk and lifelong learning. In P. Oliver (Ed.), Lifelong and continuing education: What is a learning society? (pp. 65-82). Aldershot: Ashgate. Copyright © 2003 Alison Kuiper. The author assigns to HERDSA and educational non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The author also grants a non-exclusive licence to HERDSA to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web (prime sites and mirrors) on CD-ROM and in printed form within the HERDSA 2003 conference proceedings. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the author.