Dennis, Carol Azumah; (2009) Controlling the imagination :how do teachers and managers of adult language literacy and numeracy define achieve and maintain quality. Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.

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Abstract

Controlling the Imagination is an exploration of the tensions embedded in the notion of quality when it is used in relation to the teaching and managing of Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy, with specific relation to 'Skills for Life' — New Labour's policy attempt, instigated in 1999, to improve the basic skills of adults living in England. The thesis offers an analysis that charts the development of discourses around quality from the vague and attractive transcendental quality of the 18th C artisan to its object like textualisation in the Common Inspection Framework. Through critical discourse analysis and interview data with teachers and managers in further and adult education colleges graded as good or outstanding in their most recent ALI / OfSTED inspection, the text traces the contours along which practitioners experience the tension between quality-as-professional-aspiration in contrast to quality-as-demanded by policy. This axis, wrenched apart in several directions, is further complicated by the tension between quality-as-abstract and quality as embodied in day-to-day experience. I argue that practitioners talk about quality in ways that journey through these competing and contrasting meanings. In considering the implications of these ideas about quality, the thesis explores the research, policy and practice nexus. Research can inform policy and practice, but it can also lead to uncomfortable and unsettling conclusions that to some extent also unframe professional practice. Key concepts: quality, adult literacy, professionalism, policy, Skills for Life, basic skills, research and practice, further education,

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