ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the shape and scope of the complex and shifting landscape of further education (FE) in the UK. Part of the chapter presents an historical review of the structural changes imposed on FE by central government over the past 20 or so years. Teaching and learning are situated activities that are profoundly affected by the contexts in which they occur. At the same time, teachers and learners also shape and change the contexts in which they work and study. This chapter is intended to help you gain a better understanding of the nature of the context in which you teach in terms of how your college is being affected by internal and external pressures and the role colleges play in a broader educational landscape. In writing a book of this nature, we are faced with the challenge of trying to keep up to date with educational change in the UK, and particularly in England where government ministers seem to have an almost pathological desire to invent as many new policies as possible during their (often) very short term in office. In the five years since we wrote the second edition of this book, the content of this chapter has changed radically, and we know that in the time that passes before someone reads it there will have been new policies invented and some agencies may have come and gone. We want to stress, however, that while FE teachers work in a dynamic context, much of what they do still involves the age-old process of helping people to learn and achieve their ambitions.
