This article examines the lessons from a collaborative project that worked with women agricultural leaders in Papua New Guinea. The project sought to build the capacity of these leaders as trainers in a way that would enable the development of a sustainable community of practice and worked within a critical and place-based pedagogy underpinned by…

This article focuses on findings from an Economic and Social Research Council study in England about the uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among 15 highly mobile migrant workers within their transnational families. Using an extended case study approach including ethnographic methods and a thematic analysis, patterns…

This qualitative case study attempts to conceptualize certain "patterns" and "processes" of which 28 mature women undergraduates give meanings to their motivation for higher education in their life contexts. Particular attention has been paid to include diverse groups of women according to their age, prior educational…

There are few empirical studies that demonstrate how values are developed and how they are linked to coaching actions. There can be a discrepancy between the statement of coaches' values and their actual coaching actions. In order to examine how coaching actions are influenced by values that are developed over a lifetime, the purpose of this…

Many children raised in orphanages suffered ongoing child abuse and neglect including sexual abuse, and nearly all were denied an adequate education. This paper explores adult females' perceptions of the impacts on their education of child sexual abuse they suffered while living in orphanages in Australia. In-depth qualitative and anonymous…

Adult literacy is a crucial element of community and economic development in South Africa and many developing countries striving to meet Millennium Development Goals. However, few governments invest the recommended 6% of education budgets on programmes for adults. Without resources, volunteer educators and international supporters rely on their…

Many US women have had or will experience a cardiac event and little is known about their learning experiences associated with subsequent lifestyle change. In this qualitative study, the researcher examined the experiential learning of 22 women who made lifestyle changes after a cardiac event. Meaning making experiences were examined for influence…

This article considers how a group of migrant women in the town of Shepparton, Australia, understand their futures in the spaces created by globalising forces. Shepparton is a "case study" of globalisation, at the centre of the movement of peoples, skills and capital globally. The issues it faces are compounded by profound climate change. The…

Using a life history approach, this article explores the ways in which women in the military who are also mothers learn to embody various masculinities and femininities as they negotiate workplace gender processes. Complex intersections of gendered communities of practice result in the participants' learning to variously understand, accept, shape…

Women's Campaign School (WCS) is a non-partisan, non-formal three-day educational programme held annually in Vancouver, to empower and inspire women to enter politics and as a means towards socio-political change. Our findings show the WCS provides excellent practical and tactical skills and an experiential learning opportunity that is highly…

As more and more mature women return to vocational learning, the issues facing this group of learners are being acknowledged and attempts made to address these concerns. Many existing strategies, developed to address the needs of other groups of learners, are applied to mature women. These women are drawn into a formal learning environment in…

The European Union has set a goal that by 2010, 12.5% of the working age population should be taking part in lifelong learning. This participation rate has not yet been achieved in many countries. A partial explanation is the fact that the decision to participate depends on a variety of factors at three levels: the individual; the educational…

Well-educated Korean women are returning to higher education in unprecedented numbers with the motivation of recovering their personal identity. The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand the ways in which this experience is meaningful to these re-entry women. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 Korean full-time housewives aged…

This article shows how migrant women engage in learning through social spaces. It argues that such spaces are little recognised, and that there are multiple ways in which migrant women construct and negotiate their informal learning through socialising with other women in different informal modes. Additionally, the article shows how learning is…

Critiques of lifelong learning have focused on the neo-liberal underpinning of state policy, where individuals are expected to take responsibility for meeting the needs of changing labour market conditions in the post-Fordist economy. We treat lifelong learning as an "ideological frame" that (re)shapes how people see and understand social reality,…