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ABSTRACT
Flexible Learning Options (FLOs) are common across many countries to enable secondary school completion by young people for whom mainstream schooling has not worked well. Access to high-quality education through FLOs is a social justice issue. In the context of an inclination among governments for accountability and evidence-based policy, as well as of financial austerity, there is pressure on FLOs to demonstrate and publicise their outcomes. This work is not straightforward, due to debates about the purposes of education and to difficulties in measurement. This paper analyses Australian practical and evaluation reports, so-called grey literature, to examine the specific outcomes that are the focus of those publications, alongside the evidence that is provided to substantiate these claims. Our aim is to contribute to better understandings of what counts as success in these settings, and how that success may be demonstrated. Overall, the reports focus on five different sets of outcomes: traditional academic outcomes, post-programme destinations, student engagement, personal and social well-being, and broader community engagement and well-being. Across the reports, there was a strong emphasis on qualitative research methods, often supplemented with descriptive statistics and case studies. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of the analysis for determining ‘what counts’ as outcomes from FLOs.
Acknowledgements
More information about the project, the full team and the partner organisations can be found at http://www.floresearch.com.au.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Professor Kitty te Riele is Professorial Research Fellow in the Victoria Institute for Education, Diversity and Lifelong Learning, at Victoria University (Australia), and a Chief Investigator on the Project informing this article. Her recent books include Interrogating Conceptions of ‘Vulnerable Youth’ in Theory, Policy and Practice (Sense, 2015, co-edited with Radhika Gorur) and Ethics and Education Research” (SAGE, 2014, co-authored with Rachel Brooks and Meg Maguire).
Dr Kimberley Wilson is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Centre, in the College of Arts, Society & Education at James Cook University (Australia), and a research assistant on the project. She has been supporting and researching the work of the Youth+ Edmund Rice Education Australia Flexible Learning Centres since 2008.
Mrs Val Wallace was a lecturer (now retired) in the School of Indigenous Australian Studies in the College of Arts, Society & Education at James Cook University (Australia), and a Chief Investigator on the project. She is a Gugu Badhun woman and a respected Aboriginal Elder in north-east Queensland.
Professor Sue McGinty is an Adjunct Professor in the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Centre, in the College of Arts, Society & Education at James Cook University (Australia), and the lead Chief Investigator on the project. In recent years she has won six nationally competitive grants to examine ways of reengaging young people who have disengaged from schooling, and to create digital repositories for Indigenous histories.
Professor Brian Lewthwaite is a Professor in the College of Arts, Society & Education at James Cook University (Australia), and a Chief Investigator on the project. A particular research concern has been the attention given to ensuring the educational experience provided for Indigenous students is located consistent with local community and self-determining priorities for education rather than being mandated by nationalistic goals.
ORCID
Kitty te Riele http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8826-1701