institutions, and further education colleges in particular, have certain characteristics
that are highly favourable to effecting shifts in adult values and identities in ways that
promote civic engagement. Our respondents frequently noted such changes occurring
as a result of further education, whereas there were relatively few accounts of schools
having such an impact. Given the way in which memory may alter perceptions of
childhood experience it would be unjustified to conclude that schools have little effect
in this regard. Equally, given that our adult learners were voluntary participants, and
thus a selective sample, it would also be unjustified to conclude that colleges are more
effective agents of civic socialisation than schools. However, we would be justified in
concluding here, at least, that the learning context of FE has certain characteristics
that are conducive to the promotion of social cohesion. Amongst those mentioned in
this context by our respondents are the voluntary nature of attendance, the relatively
‘adult’ atmosphere, the cultural and social heterogeneity on the college body, and the
‘customisation’ of learning programmes to individual values and aspirations.
The third, and perhaps most important, point is that learning impacts on civic
consciousness and engagement are highly dependent on external contexts. The final
section here focuses on the significance of time and place.
9.2.2 The importance of time and place
Formal learning is clearly only one (although an important one) amongst a number of
factors that shape individual identities and values and lead towards civically aware
behaviour. In as much as learning does have this effect, it is through a process that is
embedded in particular contexts both within and beyond the learning site. Amongst
the most important of these contexts are time and place.
Interviewees cited a variety of factors that had influenced their values and laid the
basis for their civic behaviour. Many attributed their values to the influence of the
family and to life experiences in general. Rather few by comparison cited their
schools as being important influences. Where formal learning experiences - typically
of adult education - were described as influential, this was often as one of several
influential factors and, furthermore, one whose influence was intimately related to
other causes. Learning experiences, in other words, worked alongside and in
conjunction with other influences. So, for instance, learning in colleges helped many
respondents to articulate (through conceptual understanding) and put into practice
(through acquired skills) beliefs they had already acquired from elsewhere. Part of the
significance of the adult learning episode was, precisely, that it related to other aspects
of development, both reinforcing and enabling nascent patterns of civic behaviour.
In many of the accounts of life pathways into civic engagement, time and place were
highly significant. Time was important in as much as many individuals related their
values acquisition to very specific times in their lives and to the historical values of
that period that they experienced through family and life experience. For instance,
Gerald, who had a long history of civic activity, says that education had helped to
broaden his horizons, but attributed his sense of civic responsibility mostly to the
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