This response to Vassiliki Papatsiba's article on collaboration draws attention to structural barriers to collaborative research: for example, increased competition for scarce resources, increased steering of research, and the casualisation of research workers. It draws on experience of collaborative work in a large, EU-funded project to…

All the countries of the United Kingdom have something to learn from nations facing comparable challenges elsewhere in Europe. Seeing these challenges through a European lens can help these countries understand them and their selves better. The author thinks they need to join in solidarity with adult educators across Europe and, indeed, further…

While the last 10 years have seen a significant increase in research published on early intervention and autism, there is a persistent disconnect between educational research and practice. Governments have invested significant funds in autism education, and a range of approaches have been implemented in schools, but there is limited research…

For many, 1 March 2011 is a significant date. On the one hand, it was the day that David Mitchell, the international development secretary, presented the key outcomes of two major reviews on international aid to the Houses of Parliament; and on the other, 1 March was the date chosen for the simultaneous launch of the 2011 Global Monitoring Report…

The TLRP has provided a wealth of information that can form the foundation of conversations and debate for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners. This paper focuses on two of the issues raised by James and Pollard: (1) the methodology that they used to analyse and synthesise the learning from massive amounts of data into a coherent and…

The focus of this paper is to reflect on research ethics practices at universities and particularly on the additional considerations needed as "enterprise" becomes a key driver across the sector internationally. The outcome of the paper is to identify suitable guidelines for dealing with the management of research ethics in this changing…

This paper examines the learning gained from facilitating four action-learning sets whose members were drawn from management teams of local authority, health, education and police, working in partnership. Facilitation posed a series of difficult choices which impacted on personal and organizational dynamics within and between the partnership…

Universities are increasingly accountable for their research output, not only to government but also to an increasingly diverse range of funding bodies. However, the growth in research management structures has been neither universal nor evenly distributed. It would be easy to cite lack of resources as the reason for the uneven development between…

There is consensus across the three main parties that adult learning, in all its forms, matters. As the Government publishes its White Paper on informal adult learning, this article asks what the three main parties think needs to be done about it. John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, argues that by working in…

This article argues that, despite globalisation forces, national education and training systems have kept their particularities. Policies of convergence, enhanced by supranational organisations such as the European Commission, have not yet led to a homogenisation of national education and training systems. The latter are still influenced by the…

Each time the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development announces that America's students are falling behind those of other countries, and with every business section article on America's trade deficit with China, America sees a new commission to reinforce the negatives and urge dramatic upgrading of the workforce. This author states…

We argue that the Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers, with its dual emphasis on literacy and occupational skills, can serve as a new model for writing classrooms and writing program administrators. We further contend that the "contact zone" classroom should be replaced with community-based "federations."…

Across the world, representatives of governments, non-governmental organisations, adult learning providers and learners have been preparing for CONFINTEA VI. The world adult education conference has been held every 12 years since the late 1940s and takes place this month in Brazil. Organised by UNESCO, CONFINTEA aims to provide a common vision for…

This article reflects on the experience of one UK higher education institution in its efforts to develop more effective support mechanisms for the growing numbers of students with Asperger syndrome and autism, in collaboration with a specialist support organisation. Case studies are used to illustrate the complex needs of this group of students.…

This paper is about how the transformatory pedagogical practice of popular/liberatory education can be further articulated within geography. It is based on the experiences of a third-year undergraduate course, "Autonomous Geographies", in which the author developed some of the core values of popular education, namely engaging with…