Communication Skills and the Knowledge Economy: Language, literacy and the production of meaning (Perspectives on Educational Policy)

Higher education in Britain at the dawn of the twenty-first century is changing--adapting to the sometimes conflicting demands being placed upon it by the government, by employers and by consumers and tax-payers. While recognizing the need for Higher Education Institutions to adapt to changing social and economic circumstances and in line with technological and communicational developments, this book raises fundamental questions about the nature of the compact between HE and society.

Fiona Doloughan uses as a framework for her investigation a critical analysis of the vision for education articulated in the Dearing Report. In particular, she takes issue with the key skills agenda in so far as it seeks to reduce the complexities of communication to a series of teachable skills and quantifiable outcomes. Through reference to informed accounts of the process of communication and the constitutive role of language in the production of meaning, she reflects on the implications that insights gleaned from such interdisciplinary perspectives have for teaching and learning.