In the context of aging populations, governments in Australia and in other Western nations fear that slower growth in the numbers of people of working age (15-64 years) will have a dampening effect on economic growth. They are thus considering how to encourage older workers to remain in the workforce beyond the point at which many currently…

The year 1998 was one of immense change for adult learning and literacy, as significant new legislation was passed and the field headed more deeply into the mainstream. Along with these developments came greater demands for program accountability, expanded strategic alliances and partnerships, new instructional methodologies, changes in public…

There are two predominant interpretations of the history of Canadian university extension. The "liberal or institutional" perspective argues that extension has been a means for universities to disseminate resources, foster progress in society, and meet the learning needs of individuals. The "critical or nostalgic" perspective…

Innovation is the lifeblood of companies, while simultaneously being one of the most difficult and elusive processes to manage. Failure rates are high--varying between six out of ten to nine out of ten--while the need to innovate is high. Departing from a real-life case of a company, Sara Lee/Douwe Egberts, that has set learning within and from…

Informal learning's roots emerged from educational philosophers John Dewey, Kurt Lewin and Mary Parker Follett to theorists Malcolm Knowles and other successive researchers. This paper explores the background and definitions of informal learning and applications to the global workplace. Informal learning's challenges are applied to developing…

This study examined community leadership education programs employed in rural communities and organizations of several states to empower both local leaders and residents. In particular, the study investigated the relationships between community leadership education program design and structure (contact hours and content) and six outcome indices of…

This bulletin is one of a series reporting the findings of investigations undertaken during 1936-37 under the Project in Research in Universities of the Office of Education. The project was financed under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935; and conducted in accordance with administrative regulations of the Works Progress…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to illustrate how marketing intelligence might be improved when an organisation's learning capacity is integrated and incorporated in well-defined organisational subsystems in a not-for-profit context. Design/methodology/approach: First, given that market orientation is primarily concerned with gathering and…

This article is concerned with the meanings that employees in industry attribute to representations of data and the contingencies of these meanings in context. Our primary concern is to more precisely characterize how the context of the industrial process is constitutive of the meaning of graphs of data derived from this process. We draw on data…

The purpose of this article is to explore the effects of an alternative, transformative andragogy, i.e., the art and science of helping others to learn, designed to be responsive to the challenges of preparing educational leaders committed to social justice and equity. Three aspects of Mezirow's (1990) Transformative Learning Theory, which in…

In many countries in both the Mediterranean region and the European Union (EU), interest in the quality of, and improvements to, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems has increased progressively in recent years. The main reason underlying this interest is a growing awareness of the key role played by education and training…

This article provides a genealogical perspective on narratives about the past and the future as governmental discourses in teacher education, public health, and criminal justice in Sweden. Contemporary governmental strategies bring nostalgic memories of the past and visions and fears about the future back to life in the present. The past (history)…

In the vein of action research, the author examines his practice of matching lesbian and gay student teachers with a lesbian or gay cooperating teacher for field placement. This article addresses several questions. In what ways, if any, do lesbian and gay teachers help new teachers cope with and interrupt homophobia? How do they help student…

This article explores how contemporary professional associations employ discourses of knowledge as a means of promoting professionalism. By analysing policy documents from the Norwegian associations for teachers, nurses, engineers and accountants, we reveal dominant knowledge discourses and discuss how they serve to position the associations in…

In this article, I describe the personal challenges encountered in making the transition from a long career in management to teaching. Through this experience, I came to construct my own meaning of student centeredness, learning to examine many of my assumptions about teaching and students. Drawing from my experience and the literature on adult…