Many agree that educational systems should instill in students the value of lifelong learning (LLL), but few have suggested how to accomplish that or how to measure the effectiveness of those curricular initiatives. We developed a technique intended to strengthen students' beliefs about the value of LLL and piloted use of a recently developed…

Drawing upon a research study on lifelong learning, citizenship, and fiction writing, this paper explores issues around identity and learning in becoming a fiction author. Five main thematic areas are discussed: (1) envisioning a writing career, (2) compelled to write, (3) learning the craft, (4) getting published, and (5) online identity. The…

As educators and lifelong learners, we were drawn together by the question: How have we fostered our own capacity for agency, self-efficacy and risk-taking in the research practices we utilize? This paper reveals a connectivity and enabling thread that has enriched our experiences within and across our disciplinary areas. In particular this paper…

Adult learning is seen as a key factor for enhancing employment, innovation and growth. The aim of this paper is to understand the points in the life cycle at which adult learning takes place and whether it leads to reaching a medium or high level of educational attainment. We perform a synthetic panel analysis of adult learning for cohorts aged…

The aim of this study is to understand the different ways that university students conceptualise quality in learning by drawing on a phenomenographic approach. A total of 20 students in higher education in Rwanda were interviewed and analysis of the interviews generated an outcome space of conceptions of quality in learning as transformation,…

This paper seeks to advance our understanding of the credit transfer phenomenon in the UK, specifically how students draw on a credit as a form of institutional cultural capital. Drawing on interviews with 26 part-time mature learners, this paper examines the progressive and retrospective orientations to study that surfaced in students' accounts…

The purpose of the research described in the paper was to explore the learning experience that occurs during leisure tourism from the tourist's perspective. Learning throughout the lifespan occurs in diverse contexts and travel presents a unique learning environment enabling both unplanned and planned opportunities. The Husserlian phenomenology…

At first sight, participation rates in adult learning do not differ strongly between men and women. Further exploration, however, makes clear that differences exist at the level of the type of learning. Men participate more in work-related learning and experience more job-related motives to participate. Women take on the main responsibilities in…

This paper analyses Botswana's commitment to lifelong learning policy and discusses how it can help the state achieve its vision for sustainable development. First, it argues that while Botswana is renowned for its economic success, it still fails to address positively such traditional challenges as poverty, unemployment and income inequality,…

In the last couple of decades, there has been a shift from speaking about employment to speaking about employability. The interest in this article is directed at how discourses on employability are mobilised in the wider discursive terrain of governance. How does governance operate, what subject is produced and, more specifically, who is…

The relations among learning, work and subjectivity are discussed here to offer explanations about how individuals direct their learning throughout their working lives. These explanations are salient for informing policy and practice about learning for, through and throughout working life. The prospects for realising the kinds of goals that…

This paper develops a critical feminist theoretical analysis of the significance of the homeplace in explaining the experiences of adult women learners. It argues that current discourses in lifelong learning are shaped by neoliberal influences that emphasize individualism, competition, and connections to the marketplace. Critical educators,…

The characteristics of lifelong learners have been extensively discussed in the literature and generally encapsulate two broad dimensions; skills and abilities related to learning, and beliefs about learning and knowledge. This study examined the factors that may predict such characteristics and thus an individual's propensity to engage in…

Drawing on studies of teachers, accountants and pharmacists conducted in Canada, this essay examines models for assessing professional learning that currently enjoy widespread use in continuing education. These models include professional growth plans, self-administered tests and learning logs, and they are often used for regulatory as well as…

Prior to 1949 the Chinese Communist Party orchestrated innovative and participatory forms of adult education. This article concerns Madame Li Li, a leading Chinese Communist woman adult educator. Western delegates at the International Council for Adult Education 1984 Shanghai symposium on adult education were fascinated by Madame Li Li because,…