This study aimed to offer fresh insights into the analysis of attitudes towards learning and perceptions of lifelong learning affecting lifelong learning participation by exploring the differences in network structures between lifelong learning participants and non-participants and identifying the core items with the greatest impact on lifelong…

Many critical educational philosophies assume that learners are naïve and unable to critically read their social reality. Critical educational gerontology (CEG) aims to emancipate learners from oppression, to which they are oblivious. This strand of older adult education charges teachers with the task of raising learners' naïve consciousness, by…

The aim of this article is to analyse the ways in which migration plays out in adult students' narratives about their occupational choice and future, focusing on three individual narratives of adult students with various experiences of migration to Sweden. Drawing on Sara Ahmed's conception of orientation, our results show how the adult students'…

This article examines the promotion of lifelong learning (LLL) in Singapore through a new national initiative known as the SkillsFuture movement. It is argued that the attainment of LLL is confronted with three key challenges, the first being the sociocultural preference for academic rather than vocational education in Singapore. Secondly, there…

Higher education is a means by which human capital is mostly developed and awareness is created in people to think of themselves as active citizens willing and able to have influence in public life, and with the critical capacity to weigh evidence before speaking and acting. The rationale behind the paper is to address the low access to higher…

This article explores cross-national differences in the intensity of perceived barriers to adult learning in Europe focusing on the barriers recognised by those not participating and having no intention to do so. This relatively large subgroup has received scant scholarly attention, yet exploring their participation barriers is critical for…

Continuous learning and updating one's competences and abilities have become requirements for staying "up-to-date" and "at the top of one's game". Lifelong learning policy has been persuasive in its emphasis on equal learning opportunities for all: everyone has endless possibilities and capabilities to learn according to…

In this contribution, I explore how critical pedagogical perspectives can inspire adult and community education practices. The central argument is that today, in contrast with the heydays of emancipatory practices and theories, the classical critical approaches need reconsideration. The paper explores how these approaches sometimes have a…

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…

The UK's National Adult Learning Survey has emphasised that graduates are more likely than other groups of people to engage in further learning and to be motivated by the intrinsic nature of the subject matter. However, beyond this we know relatively little about the learning of graduates as a specific group. In particular, we know very little…

Using the framework of communities of practice, data were collected from a labor union education program (152 survey responses, 3 life histories). Despite negative early schooling experiences, respondents saw union involvement as a rationale to participate in formal education. Union education was depicted as situated learning through participation…

Analysis of life stories of Finnish adults identified three cohorts with distinct life/education experiences (born pre-1935, 1936-55, post-1955). Core experiences were summarized as narratives of national culture and economic structural change. Three future scenarios for adult education were developed: formal rationality and bureaucracy, material…

Human resource development (HRD) executives from the United States (n=7), Brazil (n=1), and Britain (n=3) reported some shift toward free-agent attitudes and long-term employability among high-potential and high-tech employees. Organizations increasingly view learning as a recruitment and retention tool. The focus of HRD is shifting from training…

The primary objective of this study was to develop an instrument to measure adults' attitudes toward continuing education. Secondary objectives consisted of various statistical analyses designed to provide preliminary evidence of the instruments' criterion-related and construct validity. (JOW)

Definitions of lifelong learning barely mention the Third Age (over age 65). Interviews with University of the Third Age participants in Sydney, Australia, reveal perspectives on life and learning that should be incorporated into programs that are age integrated and prepare people at all life stages to be custodians of the past and trustees of the…