The Concepts and Practices of Lifelong Learning

This textbook gives a wide-ranging, research-informed introduction to issues in lifelong learning across a variety of educational settings and practices. Its very accessible approach is multi-disciplinary drawing on sociology and psychology in particular. In addition, issues are discussed within an international context. While there has been a proliferation of texts focussing on particular areas of practice such as higher education, there is little in the way of a broad overview. Chapters one to four introduce various conceptions of lifelong learning, the factors that impinge on learning through the life course, and the social and the economic rationale for lifelong learning. Chapters five-ten consider the varied sites of lifelong learning, from the micro to macro (from the home to the region to the virtual). Chapter eleven draws the strands together in the context of turbulence and continuing transition in personal and work roles, and against the background of future technological development. This timely overview will be relevant to education and training professionals, education studies students and the general reader.

1. Introduction 2. Learning Through the Lifecourse 3. The Social Dimensions of Lifelong Learning 4. The Economics of Lifelong Learning5. LL and Schools 6. LL and Tertiary Institutions 7. Learning at Work 8. Learning in the Community and the Home 9. Learning in the Region 10. Learning at Distance - Information and Communications Technology and LL 11. Conclusion

Professor Michael Osborne is Deputy Head of the Institute of Education and Co-director of the PASCAL Observatory on Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions and the Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning (CRLL) at the University of Stirling. Brenda Morgan-Klein is Senior Lecturer in Adult Education at the Institute of Education, The University of Stirling where she is Director of the First Year Undergraduate Programme in Education. She has previously been Director of the Teaching Qualification in Further Education (TQFE).