Search

This paper explores learning trajectories in becoming 'rural women' in Sweden, by using a biographical and socially-situated learning perspective. The data is based on in-depth biographical interviews with three young women who moved between rural and urban areas, and finally decided to return to a rural area. The findings show three learning phases: the mythical, the questioning and the self-positioning phase. Furthermore, the paper identifies four types of learning spaces of urban and rural areas: an imagined, a career-related, a cultural-emotional and a biographical learning space. The paper offers valuable insights about everyday life learning and identity development in young adulthood, and how stereotypes of rural areas negatively impact on young adults' views of themselves and their life choices.Keywords: young female, rural/urban dived, countryside returnees, learning space and trajectories, biographical learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the research on intergenerational learning of Traditional Knowledge (TK) through informal education. Using qualitative methods, case study was used to explore storytelling by nomadic herders to educate the youth in Mongolian rural areas. This case study consists of 22 interviews with nomad herders, their children, and urban older adults with more education. The first part provides an overview of the TKof pastoralists and the impact of modernisation. The second part addresses the concept of a TK system as informal and nonformal learning within lifelong education , as well as its contextualisation in Mongolia. Thereafter, the research methodology and the study design are outlined, and data presented. The last part identifies the issues of TK transmission within the intergenerational informal learning practice of nomads. The findings suggest that intergenerational informal learning programs are necessary as part of lifelong learning, to promote Traditional nomadic culture and knowledge, and develop incentive policies for participation. The article concludes with recommendations to develop intergenerational informal learning for TK transmission. This study contributes to a richer understanding of lifelong education, particularly the usefulness of older and younger generations transmitting as well as learning nearly forgotten knowledge and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on educational choices and participation has tended to focus on youth and to some extent on older adults, with little attention to the group in between. This paper therefore analyses participation in various types of learning by people in their 30s and 40s. This group are often juggling career and family life commitments meaning that there are substantial barriers and time constraints on learning participation. We draw on large-scale quantitative longitudinal data for Britain to examine the trajectory of engagement with learning using latent class analysis to identify patterns in the data and regression modelling to investigate explanatory factors. We show that both highest qualification reached by their early 30s and participation in learning activities of some kind in young adulthood are key antecedent factors predicting higher chances of participating in learning in mid-life. The research confirms the importance of cumulative processes in learning as in other aspects of the lifecourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores patterns in participation in adult education and training (AET) by comparing five countries with high participation rates (the Nordic countries and the Netherlands) with three countries with significantly lower participation rates (France, Poland and the Slovak Republic). Using PIAAC data the paper examines differences in the levels of demand for AET as well as variations in barriers to AET participation between the two groups of countries. The demand for AET is higher than the actual participation rate since it includes those who do not participate although they wish to. The demand for AET is substantially higher in countries with high participation rates. Further, the structure and level of barriers is quite similar in the two groups of countries.  Countries with low AET participation rate do not have a higher proportion of individuals reporting barriers to AET participation; that they do not participate in AET although they wish to. In both groups of countries demand for AET is strongly associated with the individuals' educational level. The findings are discussed by drawing on previous studies on drivers of and barriers to participation in AET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peter Jarvis is a towering figure in the study of adult and lifelong education and a leading and original theorist of learning. This paper sets out his intellectual and professional biography, maps the main contours of his work and introduces fourteen papers by leading scholars devoted to his work. Five broad phases in Jarvis’ life are identified: (a) youth, self-education, Methodist ministry and early teaching and research; (b) founding of theInternational Journal of Lifelong Education, authorship of important textbooks on adult and professional education and linking of academic communities in different countries; (c) early research on and theorisation of learning; (d) engagement from the early 1990s with debates on lifelong learning and the learning society; and (e) return to theorisation of learning, particularly from the perspective of globalisation, from around 2000. Recurring themes include ethics and responsibility, the essentially social nature of learning, democracy, and authenticity in human relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focus on how the Swedish population is shaped into desirable citizens as resources for the nation's prosperity. The aim is to analyse how health operates as a governing technique in discourses of lifelong learning. Within such current discourses the population is today described as generally well-educated and healthy, but not educated or healthy enough. When constructed as being in need of enhancement, measures of learning are suggested for regulating certain groups of the population into becoming what is regarded as desirable. Making use of Foucault's notions of governmentality and genealogy, white and green papers from the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs from 1930s and today (2017) are analysed. The analysis shows that although the population is described as having different problems originating from ignorance, the solutions that are suggested in the different time periods are basically the same. The relation between learning and health is described in different ways in the 1930s and the present. In the 1930s learning is explained merely as a means to achieve a healthy population while in the present health is described both as a prerequisite and as an effect of learning. Further, there is also a difference in how the governing is conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored drivers of participation in job-related lifelong learning (LLL) among low-educated mature-aged employees and compared them across four Nordic countries. Workplaces can be low-threshold, effective arenas for development of their skills in work and learning. The paper builds on the Bounded Agency Model and theories of learning motivation, human capital, and workplace learning. We used data from the Survey of Adult Skills (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The average participation rate was 36%. Results of the logistic regression analyses showed that income, skills use at work, sector and gender were significant drivers of participation in all countries. Additionally, being under-skilled was significant in Finland and parents' education in Sweden. Totally, these variables explained a quarter of the variation in participation. Thus, the drivers of participation appeared more similar than different across the countries. Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to how to support skills development among low-educated older workers, and to some challenges in cross-country comparative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of mayors are adding ‘learning’ to traditional city responsibility for sewers, roads, parks, garbage and dog-catching. However, just like in the 1970s, there is uncertainty about what is meant by ‘learning’ and considerable variance embedded in the notion of ‘city’. Some Learning City advocates look to UNESCO’s Faure and Delors reports for advice on how to interest citizens in learning in informal, nonformal and formal settings. Hence, older preoccupations (such as the learning society) are enjoying a discernible renaissance. Other authorities depend on OECD (money-oriented) notions of learning. In China, there is an infatuation with Peter Senge’s notion of ‘learning organisation’. In this paper, the task is to examine the Learning City as a place and a process, analyse the political orientations and scope of well-known Learning Cities and reflect on UNESCO Learning City world conferences held in Beijing, Mexico City and Cork. Finally, the author highlights scholarly issues needing research and urges adult educators and advocates of lifelong learning to get involved with Learning Cities before their places are nabbed by ‘smart city’ enthusiasts raving about digital literacy and entrepreneurs motivated by the smell of money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the results of a mixed-methods study of 13 participants in a Radical Humanities programme designed as a transformative learning space for low-income adults who have experienced barriers to learning. Using demographic questionnaires, semi-structured narrative interviews and course evaluations this study examined participants’ experiences in the programme and the impact on their learning, sense of agency and future ambitions. As the first phase of a longitudinal project on the well-being and agency of under-represented and marginalized learners, this preliminary study revealed five predominant themes emerging from learners’ experiences: (1) self-reflective meaning-making processes; (2) interrelated personal and communal growth; (3) appreciation of diversity; (4) emerging sense of self-as-learner; (5) renewed aspirations. This paper argues that transformative learning for low-income adults is a complex and challenging process that entails participants’ ongoing negotiations of self, learning, and purpose. Understanding and evaluating the effectiveness of transformative learning within a social-emancipatory humanities programme requires attention to the programme’s social context and choices faced by participants. Programme participation fosters increased well-being, deeper relationships and hope for the future. However, these tangible benefits are tempered by constraints of individual and structural systems that, for some students, impose limitations on their ability to enact change in themselves and in their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the wake of new museology and constructivist learning theories, the traditional unidirectional educational role of the museum has been contested and challenged. Museums have the potential to be progressive pedagogical sites and are an ideal terrain to explore educational theories and attitudes. Jacques Rancière, in his seminal book The Ignorant Schoolmaster (1987), proposed a different view of what education should look like. This article explores what an 'ignorant art museum' practice can look like beyond meaning-making, through analysis of key actions, such as observing, repeating, failing, trying and verifying. Theorising on literature (philosophy and educational theory) and taking international examples, it will explore the benefits and issues created by such practices. What are the tensions between the museum as the site of the expert and the space of the public? What can a new form of museum expertise look like? How can technology contribute to the development of the 'ignorant museum'? What knowledge can be created in an 'ignorant museum' environment and how can this knowledge be displayed in the framework of the museum? By attempting to resolve these questions, this paper aims to look into the 'ignorant museum' as a strategy for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both Jarvis and theories of Christian Religious Education (CRE) emphasise that learning develops the whole person, yet they differ in their understandings of how and why this is the case. Jarvis’s experiential learning theory begins ‘from below’ with experience, whereas many approaches of CRE begin with the end result: individuals themselves. By bringing the two into dialogue this paper offers critical insights into Jarvis’s work through an exploration of three conceptualisations of the whole person: biography, ontic self and wisdom. The discussion provokes and engages with questions focusing around the nature of experiential learning, how the whole person might be conceived and what the relationship is between learning and teaching in human becoming. The role of reflection in ‘forming’ people is then considered, together with its spiritual attributes. As a relational process, it also has a spiritual dimension, something which Jarvis, in his role of colleague, supervisor, mentor and friend, has frequently exhibited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globalising learning economy driven by more intense competition and the wide use of information and communication technologies is characterised by rapid change in technologies and markets. At the level of labour markets and within enterprises, this is reflected in continuous change in skill requirements for employees. This is true for all parts of the world economy. In this paper, the focus is on Europe and developments in the first decade of the new millennium. The major challenge for Europe is to counter the inherent trend, reinforced by the crisis, towards unequal access to learning both in work and in education. Without a new new deal that gives privileged access to vocational education and training for those with little education, the economic performance of Europe will be undermined. Such a new new deal must be a fundamental element in the effort to lift Europe out of its current crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision to make the UK student population financially responsible for their own university education has major implications for the future of higher education provision. Chief among these implications will undoubtedly be a much stronger emphasis on the student experience, not least the experience of the teaching and learning environment. Given the increasing influence of consumerism on student identity, the distinct possibility exists that such notions of market-led accountability will be first in line to shape how the academic–student relationship is redefined and understood in future years. It is therefore an appropriate time to explore alternatives to such a narrow understanding of relationships—an understanding that inevitably tends to frame direct accountability in terms of economic exchange. It is argued in this paper that one alternative can be developed by exploring a more relational approach to HE pedagogy, and more specifically one that is based on a synthesis of critical theory and psychoanalysis. By emphasising the intersubjective nature of learning and teaching and the role of emotions in this regard, the paper argues that a relationally centred approach takes seriously questions of trust, recognition and respect at the heart of the academic–student relationship, while also making space for doubt, confusion and relational anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The main purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of participation in non-formal learning in different European Union member states. The paper also seeks to extend analysis of the training gap by pursuing the distinction between the supply and the demand for skills. We use aggregate data from the Adult Education Survey (Eurostat) carried out in different European countries between 2005 and 2008. Analysis indicated that inequality in participation reflects the distribution of occupations (or workplaces with different requirements) more than the available qualifications of the workforce. The analysis infers that in market-centred societies, the market’s impact on participation in non-formal learning and inequality in participation is more important than the output of the education system. Our result confirms previous findings that innovation has a stronger impact on the non-formal learning participation of lower skilled workers, because workers with higher education levels have sufficient skills and do not need to be trained or re-trained to be able to manage innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lifelong learning appears frequently on university statements of desirable graduate outcomes. It is also referred to as a desirable outcome for Australian law graduates. This paper examines academic staff perceptions of lifelong learning as part of a broader study about assessment practices in a recently established Australian law school. Findings indicate that participants value lifelong learning, and that some of their perceptions of assessment principles and practice are broadly aligned with the lifelong learning paradigm. However, responses also indicate a lack of precision about how students’ capacity for lifelong learning ought to be developed, as well as a tendency for participants to conflate the ‘self-management’ component of lifelong learning with a more traditional, higher education concept of learner autonomy. The paper argues that imprecision and confusion about how to assess relevant skills and attributes will continue where lifelong learning is understood only in general terms, or as a sub-set of generic, graduate attributes. It therefore recommends that some unpacking of the concept be undertaken, at the institutional level, and that possible assessment models and exemplars be provided for the different lifelong learning domains, including: self-awareness; self-management and judgement; self-efficacy and motivation; and relevant generic graduate skills such as research and/or information literacy, critical thinking and problem solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that lifelong learning can be a torch for education that is relevant, appropriate and appreciated by many Africans if conceptualized within the African Indigenous Learning (AIL) framework. Such learning is entrenched deep in the practices, cultures and ways of knowing of many Africans. The fundamentals or the ideals of lifelong learning in AIL can be presented in three dimensions of time, space, and I/We. Woven together, these concepts present a context in which lifelong learning is defined by aspects such as learning-in-action (immediacy of application); interactive methods; and a time that is only valued in respect of events that constitute it. Generally, an understanding of lifelong learning from the western perspective hinges on the linearity, economics and individualism of learning and these concepts may not be well promoted within the framework of AIL. It is not difficult to imagine the impact of borrowed concepts of learning on Africans if applied uncritically. Africans cannot afford to be oblivious of the differences in contexts between them and the western world. Context, therefore, is central to the application of lifelong learning. The authors of this paper have a full understanding that people in different parts of Africa may view lifelong learning in different ways. Thus, the term 'African' is used to underscore the importance of context. The authors also note that the advantages of lifelong learning to Africa are obvious vis-a-vis learning as a human right and a social justice. While these ideals are helpful, Africans cannot be subservient to how lifelong learning comes packaged from the western perspectives. To illustrate some differences, some ideals of lifelong learning in the AIL are introduced through the case of an adult education compensatory programme, and a three dimensional model is proposed for applying these ideals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the constructive links between cooperation, rivalry, and learning within the structure of team communities. Drawing upon social learning theory and qualitative data from case studies conducted in Danish team-based firms, the main purpose is to argue that both cooperation and rivalry are important triggers for mobilizing learning processes within and between teams. However, social learning theory tends to disregard the positive aspects of rivalry. Instead, the paper suggests that rivalry is often critical for learning to take place, and identifies four recurrent stories of rivalry as a trigger of learning based on two case studies of teamwork dynamics in firms. Consequently, this paper argues for the need to extend social learning theory beyond its rather harmonious learning perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that while the Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning that was commissioned by NIACE makes some helpful recommendations for broadening the scope of lifelong learning to include considerations around well-being and happiness, the reports do not provide a sufficiently critical or philosophical analysis of the challenges facing the field of lifelong learning today. Perhaps because it is intended to inform policy makers and the general public, the Inquiry reports are written in language that seems to be carefully designed not to offend or alarm anyone, appealing to the reason and good sense of readers who might be swayed by persuasive argument to be supportive of wider notions of lifelong learning. Despite its critique of viewing education only in economic terms, financial concerns are used consistently as justification for recommendations with the report. The main difference is that economic issues are presented within a broader social context. While the report makes some beneficial recommendations, the contributors have not taken this opportunity to assert the importance of critical adult education taking the lead in informing the future direction of lifelong learning in the UK. This paper focuses particularly on the theme of well-being and happiness, using a critical feminist analysis, to point out ways in which this argument could be developed to provide a deeper analysis of some the concerns raised in the Inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the report Learning through Life exemplifies the dominant policy discourse on lifelong learning emphasizing strongly individual social mobility. The paper explores further how this functionalist and reductionist turn in (adult) education has come about and how concepts of democratic citizenship and education may create new perspectives on how to deal with important challenges of society today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers what the idea of creativity can mean and how it can contribute when creativity becomes a key to the development of lifelong learning practices. It seeks to adapt or extend our understanding of creativity in an attempt to facilitate the development of lifelong learning. This paper argues that, while the classical concern around developing creativity mainly derives from humans' interest in the possibility of designing, producing or inventing things to change human life, the idea of creativity in relation to the development of lifelong learning practices tends more towards an emphasis on producing ideas meant to deal with unpredictability and contestability in a knowledge-based society. The main body of the paper is theoretical in its orientation. The structure of this paper is as follows. First, the essential characteristics of creativity are explored as a basis for understanding what meanings it may offer to the development of lifelong learning practices. Then, the issues of why creativity is required and how it may be seen as distinctive in lifelong learning practices are addressed. The discussion centres upon the significance of creativity and its characteristic features when it is embedded in lifelong learning practices. Finally, this paper considers Deleuze's thought concerning the principles of association and passion as useful in illuminating the formation of pedagogical practices that encourage creativity, which, in turn, could assist in the effective development of lifelong learning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this paper is to suggest that researchers on workplace learning avoid an isolated learning discourse. The point at issue is that being a learner is just one aspect of people's sometimes complicated lives in the workplace, and that people may sometimes—for good reasons—resist a learning discourse if it is linked excessively to the educational system, management or researcher processes. It is suggested that associating learning excessively to a learner identity is problematic. A more comprehensive situated perspective on workplace learning may assist in understanding the different and sometimes conflicting aspects of learning situations in the workplace. The paper is based on recent literature on situated learning with a particular focus on workplace learning studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of 'lifelong learning' or shōgai gakushu has rapidly become one of the topmost priorities in Japan's education policy agenda. This was considerably evident in December 2006 when the term 'lifelong learning' was added to Japan's educational charter, the Fundamental Law of Education. This paper explores, as a means to develop Japan's new lifelong learning policy, the lessons that can be learnt through an examination of the European countries' efforts to build a knowledge economy, where lifelong learning is regarded as the key solution in overcoming several important social and economic concerns. In this paper, I first examine the current situation of lifelong learning in Japan, employing the ethnographic data that I have collected since 2001. Second, I provide a brief review of the European lifelong learning policy, which is one of the priority guidelines in the European Union. Under the Lisbon Strategy, for example, the argument on European lifelong learning theoretically centres on developing human capital in order to survive in the global knowledge economy. Lastly, referring to the European experience over the past decade, I propose to directly connect Japan's latest policy development regarding lifelong learning with the trend of building human capital through lifelong learning in order to enhance its competitiveness in the era of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a five-year study which explored the engagement of a group of long-term mentally ill adults in community provision in which they learned basic, expressive literacy. The research mapped points in the learning, writing and auto/biographic engagement where set identities were being troubled, and frisson created in the challenge of the new. This was not always sustained or managed comfortably, raising questions about the containing function of such community learning provision. The study took a critical ethnographic approach in which biographic narrative interviews with learners played a major part. The Lacanian concept of point de capiton is used here, in order to illustrate the extent to which the mentally ill learner of basic literacy is prescribed in and through current educational policy and practice. Given these constraints, the longitudinal data did, however, appear to reveal instances of both agency and defiance, with individuals making a stand regarding their learning. The paper suggests that the anxious regimes of adult learning, ironically, despite their 'discourses of certainty', appeared to replicate symptoms many individuals were suffering from as part of their long-term illness. It asks whether this model of education, in which prescription, observation and quasi-diagnosis prevail, is the most appropriate given the saturated experiences of the mentally ill, of being prescribed to, observed and diagnosed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiential learning has explicitly, since the publication of the Kolb 'treatise' been a cornerstone of youth work practice in the UK. It is the contention of this paper that there is a significant misinterpretation of Kolb's theory by those who have applied his theory to youth work. Not least that experience is framed as: 'concrete experience' and therefore something 'other' or additional to the life experience of those being educated. This concrete experience is interpreted in youth work as the undertaking of discrete activities upon which, via subsequent reflection, learning is elicited. What is argued in this paper is that what is required is a return to the formulation of experiential education conceived of by Dewey which locates 'lived experience' at the heart of the educational process. For Dewey experience involves a dual process of understanding and influencing the world around us, as well as being influenced and changed ourselves by that experience, what Dewey referred to as 'trying' and 'undergoing'. This important aspect of experiential learning is omitted from the interpretation of Kolb as a simplistic four-stage learning cycle, though not ironically from his own theory. Finally learning by experience is according to Dewey necessarily concerned with growth and therefore lifelong education—in addition a commitment to Dewey implies rather than denies a curriculum in youth work, a point that those who advocate experiential learning tend to deny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative examination of four local learning centres that provide learning opportunities throughout life in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. The paper aims to assess some of the strengths and weaknesses of different types of local learning centres and partnerships in South-Eastern Europe—in line with the value and impact of the Lisbon strategy for developing multipurpose local learning centres for 'brining learning closer to home'—in order to draw some conclusions on how to promote greater collaboration and a culture of co-operation, in an area where a lifelong learning culture is still underdeveloped, compared with that in other parts of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the discourses of power in adult literacy and numeracy (ALN) teaching and learning that were highlighted through the processes of accessing and gaining the views of ALN learners for a research project on the quality of learning and teaching. It details the problems encountered in gaining access to this group of learners and discusses how they are rooted within the discourses of power and deficit that permeate ALN teaching and learning. It also argues that the pedagogical structures of 1:1 learning that characterise sections of ALN provision reinforce the suppression of collective voice by individualising the 'problem' and its solution. It suggests that whilst ALN learning aims to effect change in individuals and in society, the structures and power relationships within it militate against such change. The paper shows that in learning communities where power and meaning are mutually negotiated learners do begin to recognise their personal worth and power and its impact in the wider world. However, it argues that critical, radical adult learning extends beyond the parameters of individual change. It is a collective process whereby people who begin to see themselves differently as individuals also question together the asymmetrical power relationships that have marginalised them and their practices, and act to change them. The learners' comments show that, although they had changed through participating in learning, the change process was essentially individualised, and almost entirely devoid of these critical elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A national white paper was published in 1998 with 14 action plans to be the blueprints for developing lifelong learning. These were based on continuously strong recommendations of academics and lobbying groups in Taiwan. Many national policies were formulated and implemented based on the white paper and its action plans, and this has paved a way towards establishing a learning society. The Lifelong Learning Law took effect on 26 June 2004 and has laid a foundation for improving lifelong learning. However, mainly because of the frequent transfers of national governments, national lifelong learning policy-making is becoming unstable. It is essential for academics and practitioners in Taiwan to search for more critical and influential arguments to pursue policy-makers to develop lifelong learning. Enhancing the interactive relationship between lifelong learning and social changes would be the key to achieve that. The author analyses significant and concrete phenomena of Taiwan's social changes such as shift of population structure first and then explores how lifelong learning policy-making can reflect the changes and lead the changes to achieve the vision of education for all. In Taiwan, the crucial challenges of lifelong learning would be how to make sustainable policies to respond to more multicultural groups of the social population. Since the ingredients of population are changing in the context of sociocultures, enhancing the interactive relationship between lifelong learning and social changes is getting critical. These Taiwan's current issues could be found the similarities in other counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English Skills for Life strategy symbolises the prominent place that adult basic skills have claimed in education and training policy in England since the beginning of this century. The strategy aims to improve the skills of a large number of learners over a ten year period (2001-2010). This paper explores what we can learn about the impact of the strategy from an analysis of available statistical data. The paper presents trends in participation and achievement over the first four years of the strategy, which indicate a pattern of diminishing returns to numbers participating over time, and which may well reflect the growing difficulties the policy will face of engaging 'hard to reach' learners. Alongside this analysis, the paper raises a number of issues concerning the limitations of available statistical data in providing answers to questions such as the progress made by learners and their subsequent progression, both within and beyond adult basic skills provision. The paper goes on to argue that the strong emphasis on a numerical target related to qualification outcomes may serve to focus both practitioners' and policy makers' attention on this aspect alone. This, it is argued, may serve the interests of international benchmarking of skills levels in the population, but may do rather less in helping to improve learners' lives and capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that the emergence of a new mode of production - co-configuration is generating new modes of expertise that EU policies for lifelong learning (LLL) are not designed to support professionals to develop. It maintains that this change can be seen most clearly when we analyse Small and Medium Size (SMEs) enterprises in the creative industries. Drawing on concepts from Political Economy - 'Moebius strip enterprise/expertise' and Cultural Historical Activity Theory - project-object' and the 'space of reasons', the paper highlights conceptually and through a case study of an SME in the creative industries what is distinctive about the new modes of expertise, before moving on to reconceptualise expertise and learning and to consider the implications of this reconceptualisation for EU policies for lifelong learning. The paper concludes that the new challenge for LLL is to support the development of new forms of expertise that are difficult to credentialise, yet, are central to the wider European goal of realising a knowledge economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a critical feminist theoretical framework is used to explore the challenges of creating democratic learning spaces that will foster active and inclusive citizenship for women. Three democratic considerations are addressed to assess how adult educators can create more inclusive opportunities for lifelong education for women. The first consideration is the need for a careful examination of structural inequalities that create disadvantages for women in pursuing lifelong education. The second consideration is the need to create a broader and more gender inclusive understanding of the scope of lifelong learning possibilities, so that women's learning experiences are not devalued. The third consideration explores how to take up gender as a complex variable within the broader discourse of inclusion. This paper is informed by preliminary results from a current SSHRC (Social Science and Humanities Research Council) study on lifelong learning trajectories for women in Canada and a CCL (Canadian Council on Learning) study on active citizenship for women in Nova Scotia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today’s post‐modern world of difference, and amidst globalising forces of insidious convergence, this paper explores how far the concepts of lifelong learning and learning society embrace international worldviews. It conducts a brief excursion into literature that has explored learning society models. It also looks at an increasing number of voices from across the developing world, especially Africa, where a more globally aware and context sensitive agenda for lifelong learning is advocated. Definitions of lifelong learning and related policy papers from Scotland, England and Finland in response to the European Memorandum for Lifelong Learning are compared with definitions of lifelong learning and related policy documents from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana in relation to the Southern African Development Community’s equivalence to the EU document. To broaden the picture, reference to recent historical analyses of polices in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong will also be made. The core questions, drawn from a broadly critical theory perspective, ask: what kind of learning societies are being envisaged as a result of national and international policy statements? What are the implications for global understanding, tolerance of difference and education for all? How global is our vision? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflection has long been an aspiration in education, from Aristotle’s Nicamachean Ethics, through Bacon’s (1605) Advancement of Learning and later articulated by John Dewey. Schön’s reflective practitioner underpins the ethos in the professional training of teachers in the UK. This paper reviews approaches to reflection in learning and argues that we require a model of learning sensitive to the complex interaction between theory, practice and reflection that take place in social contexts and relationships with others. Following a critical review of the literature it argues for a social model of experiential learning connecting themes in contemporary social theory. The paper considers learning in sociological and philosophical terms rather than as simply a cognitive or psychological process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the discourse of lifelong learning as it has emerged in many countries (especially Europe) over the last few years, with its concentration first on learning for work and latterly on learning for citizenship .The failure of lifelong learning to pick up on the earlier tradition of adult education is noted and some reasons for this are suggested. The paper argues that a social transformation approach to lifelong learning based on a diversity paradigm rather than a deficit or a disadvantaged paradigm is possible within its existing conceptualisation, especially within the fields of the reflective practitioner, learning and identity and the learning organisation/society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which people with lifelong chronic illness engage with learning, and how learning impacts on the ways in which they learn to live with their illness. It considers their engagement with and changing focus of learning at different stages: prior to diagnosis, at about the time of diagnosis, and as their understanding of their condition deepens. It asks how knowledge of their illness affects people’s learning, and whether (and in what ways) learning enables them to deal with their condition. Questionnaires were distributed through the Primary Immunodeficiency Association (PiA) website; via immunology nurses; and through personal contact. Although I had a small rate of return on the questionnaires (22 returned in total), several respondents who completed questionnaires gave their contact details so we could explore the issues further, and I interviewed eight people in greater depth. In exploring connections between bodily experience, emotion, learning and cognition, and asking whether these connections differ according to gender, age and other differences, this paper argues that individual experience can never be understood outside of social, cultural and collective experiences. The relationship between lifelong learning and lifelong illness is complex and multi‐faceted, but clearly learning has been an important element in the respondents’ ability to cope with lifelong illness. In the words of one respondent, ‘I spent so many years feeling vulnerable and at the mercy of an illness that I didn’t understand, I have found learning about it to be very empowering. It gives me a way of taking control over something which previously controlled me completely’. There are several issues that could be further developed. I did not, for example, ask what definitions of disability respondents were using when they replied to my question ‘do you consider yourself disabled?’, nor did I gain sufficient information to explore gendered or classed experiences in the way people gained information about their condition, including the sharing of experiences with each other. There are also differing engagements with learning regarding age, geography and so forth which could be further developed. In addition, the responses to the questionnaires represent current thinking about past memories and actions, and do not represent a longitudinal study. Nevertheless, the findings in this paper could have implications for the role of learning in the management of lifelong illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social dimension of lifelong learning from the perspective of demographics, with particular focus on the issue of the birth of fewer children, which has become one of the most important current social issues in Japanese society. When considering hie relationship between lifelong learning and demographics, the issues arising from an ageing population are usually the focus of policy-makers. This perspective often overlooks crucial children's issues, such as child development and the influence of the child's daily environment. This paper suggests that it is necessary to analyse the issues arising from a society with fewer children independent of the concept of an aged society with fewer children in an attempt to emphasize these essential issues. The presented relationship between lifelong learning and the issues surrounding the birth of fewer children is based on two perspectives. The first perspective seeks to remove barriers such as the economic burden of educating children and the traditional stereotypical gender-roles that have contributed to the birth of fewer children. The second perspective includes a response to the negative influences that the birth of fewer children has had on family's experiences of child rearing and on children's growth. Specifically, this paper develops the second perspective by focusing on three aspects: the development of children's social skills; children's growth as influenced by a high adult-child ratio; a decline in the quality of child rearing. Three issues are identified as necessary in order to build a Japanese society that fosters children: (1) embracing the concept of the "family-friendly company'; (2) creating opportunities for mixed age groups to participate in learning programmes based on communities and schools; (3) reconsidering an intergenerational exchange programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the (changing) role of older, experienced employees in the workplace in terms of their own needs and opportunities for learning and in the context of changing organizational expectations. It draws on Lave and Wenger's (1991) theory of situated learning and the notion of 'learning as participation' as starting points for examining the types of learning opportunities experienced by older workers. The discussion relates the nature of such opportunities to the changing workplace contexts in which employees are located. The article presents illustrative data from a recent research project that focused on how older experienced workers learn at work in two contrasting organizations. A brief review of literature is provided, which discusses the changing nature of work and the implications for learning. The paper then describes and contrasts the sites from which the data presented in this paper were collected, and the data collection methods that have been utilised. An analysis of the research data is presented and the authors discuss what the evidence reveals about the types of learning opportunities older employees are experiencing and how they make sense of them. The analysis suggests that from the perspective of experienced employees, factors such as organizational culture and history, the way jobs are designed and work is organized, and the way people are managed and their performance is judged, help explain the lived realities of workplace learning and provide messages for enhancing workforce development. The paper argues that contrasting forms of work organization and approaches to managing employees are likely to generate different learning environments and opportunities for workplace learning. It concludes by calling for more empirical research to explore the relationship between work organization and learning and to increase understanding of the implications for what and how different groups of employees learn at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the politics of lifelong learning policy in post-1997 Hong Kong (HK). The paper is in four parts. Continuing Education, recast as 'lifelong learning', is to be the cornerstone of the post-Handover education reform agenda. The lineaments of a familiar discourse are evident in the Education Commission policy documents. However, to view recent HK education policy just in terms of an apparent convergence with global trends would be to neglect the ways in which the discourse of lifelong learning has been tactically deployed to serve local political agendas. In the second part of this paper, I outline what Scott has called HK's 'disarticulated' political system following its retrocession to China and attempts by an executive-led administration to demonstrate 'performance legitimacy'--through major policy reforms--in the absence of (democratic) political legitimacy. Beijing's designation of HK as a (depoliticized) 'economic' city within greater China must also be taken into account. It is against this political background that the strategic deployment of a 'lifelong learning' discourse needs to be seen. In the third section of this paper, I examine three recent policy episodes to illustrate how lifelong learning discourse has been adopted and has evolved to meet changing circumstances in HK. Finally, I look at the issue of public consultation. The politics of education policy in HK may be seen to mirror at a micro-level, the current macro-level contested interpretations of HK's future polity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was provoked by Ted Bailey's article, 'Analogy, dialectics and lifelong learning' which appeared in the March-April 2003 edition of this journal. Dr. Bailey argued that students can be enabled to learn the key concepts of the subjects they are studying through the dialectical operation of analogy which makes new knowledge accessible by comparing it to familiar experience. It is the aim of this paper to show that dialectics extend far beyond this particular application, and that indeed they may be said to underpin the very concept of lifelong learning itself. The paper begins by examining the concepts of the dialectic and the double-dialectic, relating these to the writings of Giambattista Vico. The dialectical interplay of Nature and History is seen to be the foundation of human knowledge. This unitary view is then contrasted with specialism in the categorization of knowledge. The implications for lifelong education are considered, and illustrated through an example of a curriculum project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that the dominant discourse of lifelong learning is a political rather than an educational discourse. On this view, lifelong learning enables the deconstruction of welfare to be effected through the reconstruction of citizenship. Democratic citizenship properly understood, on the other hand, depends on determined progress towards a more equitable distribution of material and cultural resources among citizens. Education on its own can do little to ensure that such structural change takes place. It is, nevertheless, the task of critical adult education, as distinct from economistic models of lifelong learning, to raise such questions as urgent issues for democratic deliberation and debate, and to expand our notions of what it means to be active citizens in a democratic society. The paper contains the text of a talk given at the annual study conference of the UK's National Institute of Adult Continuing Education in April 2002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of the marketplace on discourses in lifelong learning and raises questions about the future direction of these discussions, drawing upon critical and feminist analyses. A brief overview of how the notion of lifelong learning has shifted from an emphasis on cooperation and shared development to a discourse of competition and individualism is given. Drawing upon the works of various educators, an overview is given of some of the ways in which the marketplace has influenced lifelong learning discourses and has become a pervasive presence in academia. Both critical and feminist analyses are used to examine how justice, equity issues, and critical thinking are suppressed when the marketplace becomes a predominant influence in education. An assessment of questions raised by educators working to challenge this marketplace orientation in lifelong learning and suggestions for further areas of research conclude the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explain, or at least put in political context, the current approaches to Lifelong Learning as developed by the New Labour government, by locating them in the process of internal ideological transformation of the Labour Party. Secondly, it seeks to identify the strands in current New Labour thinking in relation to Lifelong Learning. The paper questions many of the assumptions which underpin these approaches and concludes that New Labour's approach will lead to different experiences of Lifelong Learning for different people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an investigation of collaboration between schools and adult education providers in relation to some case-study examples of 'parent education' and 'family literacy' programmes. It examines how these organizations' different conceptions of their purposes and their under-pinning values can lead to different outcomes particularly in relation to their conceptualization of the role of the 'parent'. It argues that schoolteachers and adult education staff come from distinct cultures and have different ideas about education and learning. They have, however, distinctive and complementary roles to play in promoting learning and education and creating a fairer social order. Using a parent centred, dialogic approach positions parents as people with an important contribution to make rather than as 'problems' that need to change to the school's way of seeing things. The paper suggests that whilst learning alone cannot abolish inequality and social divisions it can make a real contribution to combating them, not least by tackling the ways in which social exclusion is reinforced through the very processes and outcomes of education and training. If parents can be helped to challenge deficit views of the culture of their homes and communities then a small step has been taken in enabling their voices to be heard in the learning of their children and in their own educational development. For this to happen, however, some of the control that professionals have imposed on schooling for so long will have to be released and parents would need to be regarded as people with important contributions to make as collaborating educational partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ways in which learning in higher education can influence a person’s modus vivendi or way of life. The cases of three individuals following transition to higher education from an apprenticeship in England are presented. Data from individual interviews were analysed according to approaches to reflexivity. In all three cases, the findings show changes to practice in various areas of life and work, which in turn prompted them to revisit their initial concerns. The modus vivendi was influenced by different approaches to reflexivity in addition to new concerns or tensions that arose. Also permeating lived experiences were the role of networks (both personal and at work) and the enjoyment of higher level learning that could act as pivotal enablements or constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the wake of the world’s fast-growing ageing populations and the increasing recognition of the benefits of later life learning towards successful ageing, opportunities for elders and senior persons to engage in learning have proliferated, resulting in an array of programmes and activities being planned and organized by governments, universities, schools, non-government organizations and even hospices in many parts of the world, particularly in developed regions and economies where the opportunities and challenges brought forth by an ageing populace are more pronounced. Amidst the rising importance of elder learning and the increasing provision of learning opportunities for older adults, attention is drawn to the differences in the teaching and learning of this particular group of learners, who are experiencing significant social and psychological transitions in addition to personal changes in senior adulthood. Yet, does the mere fact that they are different from other learners, such as children and younger adults, merit a distinctive theory of teaching and learning for this unique group of older learners? The aim of this paper is to present arguments for and against such a proposition on the grounds of pedagogical principles, needs and motivations as well as difficulties and barriers, pertinent to the learning and teaching of older learners as they advance into a later stage of the lifecycle. Also, suggestions are offered regarding the approach, methods and strategies to be used for the facilitation of learning and the planning and organization of learning opportunities, be they formal, non-formal, or informal, which are appropriate for older learners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores how newcomers experience their transition to work as they strive to move from a position of ‘educational’ knowledge to professional knowing. Hence, we focus on how newcomers learn to transform knowledge to knowing at work. We do this through the analysis of two ethnographic case studies: one with a focus on new office workers and the other on newly employed paramedics. In our analysis, we approach knowledge as a question of knowing through practise. This enables us to recognize the complexities of learning at and for work and learning and knowing as integrated processes, where learning is situated, relational and mediated. We find that newcomers’ learning occurs through social interactions and participation, not simply by joining in but involving complex interactions to first find and grasp the pathways or the ‘codes’ (established organizational culture) that enable fruitful participation. Getting access to colleagues and thus, established practice is already considered important support for newcomers to learn to enact ‘educational’ knowledge professionally. However, we find that what is most important for newcomers is how they become knowledgeable as they recognize that it is not their educational knowledge, but working out how to engage and participate in the social practices, that counts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we outline a pilot project aimed at exploring the role of contextual factors in the facilitation of creativity and innovation within a range of South African art forms. Interviews with 11 people who have rich experience of the South African art domain delivered an insightful perspective on the contextual factors driving lifelong creativity and its continuous realization in innovative outcomes within these art forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based arts projects can act as powerful learning opportunities in a variety of lifelong and life wide contexts. Many of these projects involve artists, who usually undertake a leading role to ensure that some type of transformation takes place for those involved. The impact on the leaders—in this case the artists—is difficult to identify, even if they have been involved in several community-based arts projects. In this paper I provide insights drawn from my doctoral thesis. There I explored the cumulative impact on artists who work on community-based arts projects, what transformations and learning occurred for them as a result of working on these projects, and how those experiences contributed to their identities. My study involved hermeneutic phenomenological/narrative research approaches based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 visual artists. Data were analysed using a recursive and spiralling process and were subsequently presented thematically as a neonarrative. The findings discussed in this article relate to the artists’ attempts at reconciling aspects of their individual, social and cultural identities by challenging their own as well as the community’s perceptions of artists. The cumulative effect of being involved in community-based arts practice also provided the artists with ongoing identity capital in that they came to realize that they learnt about themselves by connecting with others. The findings contribute to the emerging debate that challenges the narrow view of measuring the value of community-based art projects based on instrumental and public worth, and invites exploration of the private and intrinsic impact on individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of lifelong learning has become a mantra within educational policies. However these have been strongly critiqued for reflecting an understanding of learning that privileges the economic benefits of participation in formal education. In UK contexts, the importance attached to widening participation in higher education is one manifestation of these policy discourses, which can be interrogated as a form of governmentality. This paper draws upon a recent small-scale mixed-method study of different vocational learners' transition from Level 3 courses to consider how these policy discourses are being mediated by 'learners' who were qualified to enter higher education, but decided instead on alternative life courses. The analysis suggests that policy constructions of participation in higher education sit at a disjuncture with respondents' longer-term experiences of institutionalised education processes. In other ways, lifelong learning seemed to be willingly embraced in respondents' different commitments to learning and self-development, although higher education institutions were not often seen as a source of this learning. The article aims all the same to allow this interpretation of respondents' voices to speak back and disrupt policy mantras. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to challenge models of workplace learning that seek to isolate or manipulate a limited set of features to increase the probability of learning. Such models typically attribute learning (or its absence) to individual engagement, manager expectations or organizational affordances and are therefore at least implicitly causative. In contrast, we discuss the contributions of complexity theory principles such as emergence and novelty that suggest that learning work is more a creative and opportunistic process that emerges from contextualized interactional understandings among actors. Using qualitative case study methods, we discuss the experiences of workers in two organizations asked to 'act up' in their managers' role to ensure work continuity. We believe the differences in how workers take up these opportunities result from a complex combination of situational factors that generate invitational patterns signalled from and by various understandings and interactions among actors doing collective work. Rather than a deficit view of learning that needs fixing, an emergent model of learning work suggests that learning develops as a collective generative endeavour from changing patterns of interactional understandings with others. This re-positioning recognizes that although invitational qualities cannot be deterministically predicted, paying attention to the patterns of cues and signals created from actors interacting together can condition ways of understandings to expand what is possible when work practices also become learning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foundation degrees have been developed in the UK as a means of meeting the learning needs of paraprofessionals in health and social care and the services within which they work in a cost-effective fashion. Workplace learning is an intrinsic component to these degrees. Taking a socio-cultural perspective, this paper examines how the students' workplaces, life circumstances and sense of career trajectory shaped their learning experience and motivation. A small-scale evaluation study, using semi-structured interviews, focused on the learning experiences of a group of paraprofessionals enrolled in a foundation degree in health and social care. Data revealed fragmented employment patterns, underpinned by consistent vocational drives. While the study resonated with vocation, participants were ambivalent or lacked information about career progression. Workplace conditions, relationships and limited time shaped learning and coping strategies. A strategic and focused approach to student learning is required and includes attention to career pathways, workforce development strategy, the requirements of a range of stakeholders, workplace supervision and support for learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]