Peter Jarvis

Paradoxes of learning : on becoming an individual in society

Preface. Part 1 The Development of the Social Self. 1 The Nature of Human Learning. 2 The Paradox of Living and Learning in Society. 3 Being and the Birth of the Self. 4 Understanding Conscious Action. 5 Learning and Action. 6 Interests and Learning. Part 2: Personal Growth Through Lifelong Learning. 7 Being a Person. 8 Authenticity, Autonomy and Self-Directed Learning. 9 Being and Having. 10 Meaning and Truth. 11 Learning, Personhood and the Workplace. 12 Aging and Wisdom. 13 Learning and Change. 14 The Political Dimension of Learning. 15 Implications for Teaching and Education. References. Index.

Learning to be a Person in Society

Section 1: Laying the Foundations 1. The Person in Society 2. Learning in Society 3. Learning in Early Childhood 4. Practical Living 5. Experience 6. Meaning Section 2: Learning Processes 7. Experiencing 8. Perceiving 9. Thinking 10. Knowing 11. Believing 12. Feeling - Emotion 13. Doing 14. Interacting 15. Valuing 16. Positioning Section 3: Being and Becoming 17. Becoming 18. Being

Globalisation, the Learning Society and Comparative Education

Extending the logic of industrialism thesis, it is argued here that the world now has a global infrastructure, information technology empowered by those who control capital. Globalisation has resulted in the development of learning societies as a superstructural phenomenon. Four dimensions of the learning society are analysed in this article and the implications of these are explored for the study of comparative education. The thesis of the article is that the field of comparatives is broader than education itself, and that reasons for comparative studies have changed little since early adult education comparativists met in 1966 and agreed on a number of major themes.

Adult education : evolution and achievements in a developing field of study

Part 1 Development of the field: changing relationships between theory and practice contributions of research to a developing body of knowledge evolution of a formal knowledge base the impact of intellectual leadership disseminating and utilizing adult education knowledge growth and future of graduate programs. Part 2 Multidisciplinary dimensions of adult education: the psychology of adult teaching and learning educational leadership and program administration a critical perspective on sociology and adult education philosophical foundations connections with political science uses of history. Part 3 Forces and trends shaping the future: international influences on the development of knowledge social, professional, and academic concerns advancing the study of adult education - a summary perspective.

The Changing University: Meeting a Need and Needing to Change

This paper returns to the logic of industrialisation thesis of the 1960s and asks whether higher education can respond to the new infrastructures of global society. Its thesis is that capitalism has generated new global infrastructures (the control of capital empowered by information technology) and that these driving forces have generated changes in knowledge, higher education, research and learning. Higher education is a typical superstructural institution, functional to the infrastructure – but it is finding problems in responding rapidly to the greater demands of the knowledge-based society of advanced capitalism. It has to change but perhaps it is unable to change sufficiently rapidly, and so the infrastructure is beginning to generate its own educational institutions. More significantly, it would have to be non-functional to the infrastructure if it were to meet some of the human needs.

Human learning : an holistic approach

1. Towards a Philosophy of Human Learning: An Existentialist Perspective 2. The Biology of Learning 3. The Brain and Learning 4. Multiple Intelligences Theory and Adult Literacy 5. The Role of Individual Differences in Approaches to Learning 6. A Comprehensive Understanding of Human Learning 7. Cognition 8. Human Learning: The Inter-Relationship of the Individual and Social Structures 9. Morality and Human Learning 10. Emotional Intelligence and Experiential Learning 11. The Spiritual and Human Learning 12. Women, Fabric Crafts and Fashion: Learning at the Boundaries 13. Life Cycle Development and Human Learning 14. Learning Trajectories: Reconsidering the Barriers to Participation 15. Human Learning: The Themes

The validity and reliability of focus groups as a research method in adult education

The article examines the theory and practice of focus groups in adult education research. Three theoretical positions are described: radical hermeneutic, moderate interpretative and pragmatic realistic position trying to bridge the gap with positivist research. This last position has been chosen as the departure point for a further analysis of the focus group elements, which relate to validity and reliability. The research examines four European research projects in the field of adult education. The most important and surprising data are presented with reference to both socio-psychological and technical problems in the use of this method. The results highlight the importance and dynamics of all the elements discussed.

Global Trends in Lifelong Learning and the Response of the Universities

The argument of this article is that higher education is forced to respond to the dominant social pressures of the day, especially the demands of advanced capitalism. Globalisation has produced an international division of labour with more knowledge-based workers in the West. Higher education in those countries has, consequently, endeavoured to respond to the demands of these workers in innovative ways and these changes point the direction that higher education elsewhere might have to go. However, some countries will not have sufficient knowledge-based workers to force changes in the higher education system and market-orientated Western universities will fill that gap through new means of delivery. Where universities are not responding to the needs of the international division of labour, transnational companies are taking the initiative in creating their own universities.

Beyond the Learning Society: Globalisation and the Moral Imperative for Reflective Social Change

The argument of this paper is that the learning society, as presented by the dominant discourse, has emphasised scientific rationality and work–life learning to the exclusion of both a comprehensive understanding of lifelong learning and also the breadth of human experience and knowledge. This is because global capitalism has emphasised scientific and technical knowledge and the competitive market; its other driving force has been information technology, which has, paradoxically, made us all aware of the extremes of global capitalism and evoked a moral sentiment that will lead to social change. The moral argument here is pragmatic but it also reflects but does not rely on Pitirim Sorokin’s theory of social change, in which we move from a sensate to an ideational society, and with the change the discourse on the learning society will necessarily change.

Continuing Education in a Late-modern or Global Society: Towards a theoretical framework for comparative analysis

Continuing education, those forms of education that occur after initial education, is exposed to the global market forces in a twofold manner which is foreign to traditional education: firstly, it has to relate to the changing structures and demands of the workforce in the global market and, secondly, it is a marketable commodity in itself. This means that there are no simple systems of continuing education that can be compared between nations or even between occupational categories. This paper, therefore, endeavours to provide a taxonomy which might underlie comparative theorising about continuing education.