[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-594459-105":59,"doc-detail-594459-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","australian-journal-of-adult-learning-diversity-and-excellence-prompts-from-the-history-of-the-tertiary-education-sector","Australian Journal of Adult Learning - Diversity and excellence: prompts from the history of the tertiary education sector","","The paper examines adult education policy and philosophy by reflecting on the history of Australia’s tertiary education sector and adult learning movement. It contrasts earlier ideological debates and vocational versus liberal aims with contemporary framings such as social inclusion versus productivity. Drawing on historical examples, it argues for better representation of history in policy development and warns that productivity targets can intensify credentialism and homogenize education. Lifelong learning is presented as essential for nurturing innovative, creative workers and thoughtful citizenship.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/australian-journal-of-adult-learning-diversity-and-excellence-prompts-from-the-history-of-the-tertiary-education-sector/594459/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/australian-journal-of-adult-learning-diversity-and-excellence-prompts-from-the-history-of-the-tertiary-education-sector/594459.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Aldword","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-19","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What philosophical dilemma does the paper highlight for adult learning?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It contrasts long-running tensions—liberalism versus utilitarianism, instrumental versus cultural, and today social inclusion versus productivity.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the author connect history to adult education policy development?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The author argues that history should be better represented in the mix of policy development, helping policy-makers ask the right questions rather than assume the past provides answers.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does the paper criticize productivity-oriented policy targets?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It warns that high-level skills framed mainly around productivity can lead to credentialism and threaten the homogenisation of the tertiary education system.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},594459,1792171024,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},2336478940917,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 50, Number 3, November 2010  \nDiversity and excellence: prompts from the history of the tertiary education sector  \nFrancesca Beddie  \nNational Centre for Vocational Education Research Adelaide  \nIn 2010, fifty years after the establishment of the association now called Adult Learning Australia (ALA), the association still faces the dilemma about how to sell its message that adult learning matters. The dilemma is one of philosophy: in the nineteenth century, it was liberalism versus utilitarianism; in the mid-twentieth, the instrumental versus cultural; today, the dichotomy is couched in terms such as ‘social inclusion’ versus ‘productivity’.  \nThe tension goes back to the very early days of white Australia’s approach to adult education. Here, I offer an historical perspective on the development of tertiary education—itself a disputed term, but one which can embrace all types of formal education that occurs after secondary school—in Australia. My hope is that a better understanding of this evolution will help identify issues we need to  \nDiversity and excellence 519  \ndiscuss as we move towards a more integrated tertiary education sector. These issues are essentially about the purpose and value of adult education, matters at the heart of Adult Learning Australia’sremit.  \nThis paper is also the further airing of my argument that history needs to be better represented in the mix of policy development (Beddie 2007). Otis Graham (1991), in an analysis of what the history of immigration to America might tell current policy-makers, lists three ways in which the historian can advise. The first is the admonition to stop thinking in any particular way. The second is to remind that situations are never exactly the same—examples are easy to lift from the historical record, but are only useful if properly examined. Instead, the past helps us to find the right questions to ask—it does not offer the answers.  \nTake the first point about changing perspective: the history of the development of adult education and the tertiary sector suggest to me that we must think differently about the benefits of education and not assume that more and higher qualifications for our people is the progressive way.  \nWhile there are similarities between current approaches to education and the mix of the liberal and the vocational in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there are no easy solutions offered by the past. There are, however, lessons to be learned as we try to find the best way to nurture the innovative and creative workers our economy and society is calling for.  \nIt is worth remembering, as the historian of adult education Derek Whitelock did that, despite the rich history of mechanics’ institutesand strong tradition of adult education in the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) and elsewhere, for many Australians, education was not regarded the golden key to success it was in nineteenth century Britain. The rather erratic campaigner for education, Henry  \n520 Francesca Beddie  \nParkes, summed up the pragmatism that prevailed: ‘we are practical people… and have little affection for the ideal and the imaginative; and we are also rather proud of this defect in our national character’(Whitelock 1974: 129–130). Perhaps many still are.  \nBefore emigrating to Australia, Henry Parkes, a bone and ivory turner by trade, attended a mechanics’ institute in Birmingham. On offer that year, 1835, were lectures on the manners ofthe ancient Romans, improved cultivation, physiology and music in the age of Elizabeth (Martin 1962: 9–10). That mix of the liberal and vocational would not be misplaced in an ACE provider’s offerings today. The difference is that now we would not speak about education as a civilising agent used to curb the excesses of the working class or, as G.K. Holden, a president of the Sydney Mechanics Institute of Arts in the 1860s, put it:  \n…the people may thus be rendered not only a harmless, but ","cbCaiepiiTgPzsTQ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiepiiTgPzsTQ","pdf",134780,11,"English","# Diversity and excellence: prompts from the history of the tertiary education sector\n## Philosophy shifts in adult learning debates\n## Historical examples and policy implications\n## Productivity targets and risks of credentialism\n## Lifelong learning and liberal education ideals","[{\"question\":\"What philosophical dilemma does the paper highlight for adult learning?\",\"answer\":\"It contrasts long-running tensions—liberalism versus utilitarianism, instrumental versus cultural, and today social inclusion versus productivity.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the author connect history to adult education policy development?\",\"answer\":\"The author argues that history should be better represented in the mix of policy development, helping policy-makers ask the right questions rather than assume the past provides answers.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the paper criticize productivity-oriented policy targets?\",\"answer\":\"It warns that high-level skills framed mainly around productivity can lead to credentialism and threaten the homogenisation of the tertiary education system.\"}]","Australian Journal of Adult Learning - Diversity and excellence: prompts from the history of the tertiary education sector | PDF",1792079203,28]