The Bologna Process, recently implemented in Portugal, has brought many changes to higher education institutions. One of these changes refers to a law that enables mature students (23 years and older) to gain special access to higher education, taking into account their professional experience and other biographical elements. The numbers of…

This article explores the higher education learning experience of Kat, a mature female student. As part of a longitudinal case study spanning two years, data were collected through interviews and journal entries. The data were used to construct an account of Kat's higher education experience, focusing particularly upon her self-theory in relation…

Universities traditionally construct ethical, as well as educational goals in their mission, which they attempt to promote not only through their graduates, but sometimes directly to the wider community. This study explores how targeting lifelong learners through the medium of educational tourism might be one such way in which universities can…

How individuals position themselves as "students" within the university landscape can provide insight into the personal experience of entering this environment. This article will explore how one group of female students narrated their identity work as they moved through the first year of study in an Australian university. These students were all…

This case study examines a group of archaeologists working at a new project that strives to be more environmentally friendly and community inclusive, and positions these archaeologists as adult learners who are simultaneously creating a new vision of archaeology and learning to enact new forms of archaeological practice. Using the framework of…

Both lifelong learning and community are central to the mission of the National Federation of Women's Institutes (WI). Their website, for example, states that the WI aims to educate women to enable them to provide an effective role in the community, to expand their horizons and to develop and pass on important skills--key elements of lifelong…

Interviews with participants in extramural archaeology in British universities reveal growth in field-based involvement of adult students from 1943-1975. Since the 1970s, archaeology has been increasingly professionalized, leading to its decline in extramural adult education. (Contains 55 references.) (SK)

Views adult learner resistance through the perspectives of three feminist poststructuralist pedagogies: (1) pedagogy of the unconscious (learners refusing to acknowledge systematic oppression); (2) pedagogy of the unthought (the notion that identity is not innate or fixed); and (3) pedagogy for critical literacy (deconstruction and reconstruction…

Although postmodern perspectives can be incorporated into the teaching of history to adults, they require greater awareness of epistemological issues and less concern with disciplinary boundaries. Teaching history requires critical engagement with postmodern thinking, enabling adult learners to act as peer reviewers of the output of historians.…

The philosophy underlying assessment in a New Zealand adult education program rests on four assumptions: (1) assessment is integral to life and learning; (2) assessment involves power relations; (3) adult learning culture involves self-direction, critical reflection, and transformation; and (4) assessment should be valid, fair, and appropriate.…

A survey of 765 adult learners who funded education through the British government's Individual Learning Accounts showed the program brought in new lifelong learning participants, encouraged more demanding learning, and increased participation of underrepresented groups. Advice and guidance played an important role. (SK)

In interviews, nontraditional colleges students defined themselves against the stereotype of traditional-age entrants. They tended to choose subjects about which they had some knowledge. Women especially had difficulty balancing conflicting life demands. A need for change in the culture of higher education was identified. (SK)

A study of 24 Open University students found that adult distance learners approach learning either as reformulation of, or challenge to, texts. Those who reformulate may display surface knowledge but little engagement with issues. Those who challenge may create their own knowledge but fail in terms of instructors' expectations. (SK)

Using a taxonomy of student motives and a framework of transition phases in residential experience, data from interviews with four adult students and questionnaire responses from others showed the following: residential adult students have individualized and instrumental motivations; communal life is seen as vital to the experience; and results…

Interviews, questionnaires, and participant diaries of 36 adult students were used to investigate the process of becoming a student. The stages of qualitative research were examined: preconceived theory, emergent themes, refinements, secondary analysis, and establishment of grounded theory. (SK)