Researching Transitions in Lifelong Learning

In today’s society, people and organisations increasingly undergo processes of transition. Experiences of change affect all areas of life: our jobs, relationships, status, communities, engagement in civil society, lifestyles, even understandings of our own identity. Each person must expect and make ready for transitions, engaging in learning as a fundamental strategy for handling change. This is where lifelong learning steps in. From career guidance to third age programmes, from ‘learning to learn’ in kindergarten to MBA, from Mozart for babies to gender re-assignment counselling, people face a crowded world of learning activities designed to help them through transitions.

Researching Transitions in Lifelong Learning presents new research from Britain, Australia and North America. The authors include leading scholars with established international reputations - such as Kathryn Ecclestone, Sue Webb, Gert Biesta, W. Norton Grubb, Nicky Solomon and David Boud - as well as emerging researchers with fresh and sometimes challenging perspectives. While emphasising the complexity and variety of people’s experiences of learning transitions, as well as acknowledging the ways in which they are embedded in the specific contexts of everyday life, the authors share a common interest in understanding the lived experiences of change from the learner’s perspective. This volume therefore provides an opportunity to take stock of recent research into transitions, seen in the context of lifelong learning, and outlines important messages for future policy and practice. It will also appeal to researchers worldwide in education and industrial sociology, as well as students on courses in post-compulsory education.

John Field is Professor of Lifelong Learning at the University of Stirling and co-director of the Centre of Research in Lifelong Learning, Glasgow Caledonian University. He is author of Social Capital (Routledge, 2003) and co-editor of Lifelong Learning: Education across the lifespan (Routledge, 2000).
Jim Gallacher is Emeritus Professor of Lifelong Learning, Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning, Glasgow Caledonian University. He is author of Researching Widening Access to Lifelong Learning: Issues and approaches in international research (Routledge, 2004) and Learning Outside the Academy (Routledge, 2006).
Robert Ingram is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning, Glasgow Caledonian University. He is a political scientist who has worked on a number of studies in lifelong learning policy, and he has published a number of research papers.

Introduction 1. Troubling transitions: learning and the changing life course, John Field, Jim Gallacher and Robert Ingram, University of Stirling, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK Themes, methods and concepts 2. Lost in transition? The rise of ‘identity’ as a political and educational concern, Kathryn Ecclestone, Oxford Brookes University, UK 3. Lifelong Learning As Critical Action: A comparative analysis of policy cultures and possibilities In today’s global change culture, Andre Grace, University of Alberta, Canada 4. Time, individual learning careers, and lifelong learning, Barbara Allan and Dina Lewis, University of Hull, UK 5. Who is the ‘responsible learner’? Viewing learning careers through social narratives and recursive methodology, Sue Webb and Simon Warren, University of Sheffield, UK 6. Older men’s lifelong learning: common threads/sheds, Barry Golding, University of Ballarat, Australia 7. Learning for Life and Learning from Life: Exploring Opportunities for Biographical Learning through the Lifecourse, Michael Tedder and Gert Biesta, University of Exeter, University of Stirling, UK Changing places of learning 8. US Community colleges and the provision of lifelong learning, W. Norton Grubb, University of California, Berkeley, USA 9. Two conceptual models for facilitating learners’ transitions to new post-school learning contexts, Jill Lawrence, University of Southern Queensland, Australia 10. Positioning themselves: Higher education transitions and ‘dual sector’ institutions, Anne-Marie Bathmaker and Thomas, T., University of Western England, UK 11. Mind the Gap: The student experience of direct entrants to higher education, Joanne Caldwell-Brodie, Nuala Toman and Jim Leahy, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK 12. Improving transfer from vocational to higher education: lessons from abroad, Gavin F. Moodie, Griffith University, Australia 13. Imagined transitions, Muir Houston, Yann Lebeau, Mike Osborne and Ruth Watkins, University of Stirling, Open University, UK 14. Moving Where? Problematising Knowledge Cumulation In Researching Technology Enhanced Learning, Uma Patel, Nicky Solomon and Lawrence Solkin, City University, UK/University of Technology, Sydney, Australia Transitions in and from working life 15. Locating learning in work: integrated development practices in organisations, Clive Chappell, David Boud and Hermine Scheeres, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia 16. "Drifting", "Desperate" or just "Diverse"? Researching young people in jobs without training, Jocey Quinn, Robert Lawy and Kim Diment, London Metropolitan University, University of Exeter, UK 17. Biographical landscapes of learning and professional practice, Margaret Volante, University of Surrey, UK 18. Beyond the contextual: the importance of theoretical knowledge in vocational qualifications & the implications for work, Leesa Weelahan, Griffith University, Australia 19. "Well, if the government won’t do it, we bloody well will!" Third Age Activism. Vancouver, Canada, Garnet Grosjean, Shiela Pither, Art Kube and Sylvia MacLeay, University of British Colombia, Canada Conclusion 20. Researching transitions: trends and future prospects, John Field, Jim Gallacher and Robert Ingram, University of Stirling, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK