ABSTRACT
In recent times we have seen a loosening of the boundaries around concepts of adult learning, symbolized by contemporary discourses of ‘lifelong learning’. Learning is now seen as a key feature of participation in social and economic life. Learning as a preparation for life has been displaced by learning as an essential strategy for successful negotiation of the life course, as the conditions in which we live and work are subject to ever more rapid change. Traditional distinctions between formal and informal learning, or between different institutional contexts, become less significant since learning might occur in the workplace, the home, the car, the internet cafe, as well as the college. We learn not only for the purposes of gaining formal qualifications but also to obtain and keep employment, develop expertise in a leisure activity, deal with changes in relationships, or manage personal finances. We learn from colleagues, friends, parents and children. We learn through mentoring, television and books, as well as various forms of ‘webucation’ and ‘e-learning’. There seems to be no aspect of human experience that does not lend itself to appropriation as a pedagogical project; a situation that has raised questions for some about the nature and intent of the lifelong learning project as a whole (Alheit, 1998). In contemporary conditions learning becomes not only ‘lifelong’, suggesting learning as relevant throughout the life course, but also ‘life-wide’, suggesting learning as an essential aspect of our whole life experience, not just that which we think of as ‘education’. Whilst this adds to the difficulty of making generalizations about learning, it also serves to stimulate interest in wider understandings of the processes of learning. These wider understandings extend the reach of ‘learning’ beyond the institutional settings and formats of ‘education’ and constitute a serious challenge to many established ideas of how, why, where and with whom learning might occur.
