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How To Spot a Lifelong Learner at 40 Paces? The Two Components of Determination. Patterns of Participation in Adult Education and Training. Working Paper 9.

Authors :
Bristol Univ. (England).
Cardiff Univ. (Wales). School of Education.
Gorard, Stephen
Furlong, John
Fevre, Ralph
Rees, Gareth
Publication Year :
1997

Abstract

This paper considers the social and structural determinants of adult participation in education and training. Section 1 deals with 11 lifetime learning trajectories identified from a systematic stratified sample of 1,104 education and training histories collected from respondents aged 15-65 in industrial South Wales. For the purposes of the paper, they are analyzed at a higher level of abstraction, with only five categories: non-participant, delayed, transitional, lifetime, and immature. This section is a simple report of empirical findings relating to the similarities and differences between the trajectories in terms of the major variables. These findings form the basis of an outline hypothesis of the social and structural determinants of participation in lifelong learning, which section 2 makes explicit. Section 3 tests the hypothesis by attempting to predict which post-compulsory trajectory each respondent will follow, using only variables not used in the classification into trajectories. A conclusion finds the determinants of participation in adult education and training are not linearly progressive; the two-component model of determination suggests that immediate further and higher education histories are predictable from privileged family background, while later learning is more dependent on changing opportunities, motivation, and learner identity. Appendixes include classification of trajectories, data tables, and trajectory determinants. Contains 25 references. (YLB)

Details

Language :
English
ISBN :
978-1-872330-10-5
ISBNs :
978-1-872330-10-5
Database :
ERIC
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
ED442946
Document Type :
Reports - Research