Epistemic problems exist when researching painting as adult learning. Painting has non-linear emergent properties. When video-recording and images are used to enable inquiry, and there is a desire to adhere to hermeneutic principles, then painting begins to inform the research output. In this way the emergent content determined the emerging form…

This paper explores themes associated with teacher research and its role in enhancing and more deeply emancipating practice. Wider themes underpin how research might be understood which entails one in acknowledging political and epistemological controversies about the concept of evidence and its use in defining professionalism. Evidence-based…

In the South, as in the North, the need to confront and escape poverty forces people to seek out administrative knowledge as a way of participating in economic activities. The current study considers one such group of individuals and provides a case study of a cooperative of single mothers in El Salvador (the Madres) that produces fairly traded…

This article considers what the learning and skills system would look like if, in line with the rhetoric of ministers, teaching and learning really were made the first priority of policy. The author draws out some of the implications for teachers and managers, and reflects on how the relationship between tutors and learners can be enhanced. He…

This article aims to develop a paradigm of lifelong learning situations. The starting point is the EU-Commission policy document where three kinds of learning situations are identified: formal, non-formal and informal. The article tries to deepen this categorisation by searching for the underlying ontological and epistemological dimensions. The…

Tiedeman (1919-2004) designed the blueprint for equipping and building career construction theory. After making significant contributions to the statistical analysis of occupational behavior, he shifted to a constructivist epistemology for comprehending careers as the imposition of direction on vocational behavior. The cornerstones of his…

This study attempts to further our understanding of how expertise is acquired in a specific vocational context. Using unstructured interviews with both individuals and groups, carried out whilst engaged in practice, it examines what happens when dry stone wallers are developing their skills, how they gain expertise and how they communicate their…

In the 21st century, the rapid pace and complexity of economic, technological and cultural changes require women and men to adapt and re-adapt throughout their lives--all the more so in the context of globalisation. In this era of the knowledge society--where production structure is shifting towards greater knowledge use and away from reliance on…

This empirical study uses auto-ethnography to describe a higher education pedagogical process that facilitated largely doctoral students in preparing their candidacy proposals through the use of specific adult learning principles. Students' experiences and points of view of such a learning environment were explored, including: (1) how they…

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how theory and particularly the theoretical perspective of social constructionism can influence the ways in which scholars conduct qualitative research studies in the area of family systems. The authors argue for the importance of theory in qualitative research projects and promote researchers' clear…

The online environment represents one of the fastest growing contexts for adult learning. The first online programs resembled electronic versions of old correspondence study programs. As problems of low motivation, alienation, dissatisfaction, and attrition within these programs mounted, practitioners and scholars recommended more emphasis on…

Several years ago the authors, a professor from The Netherlands and another professor from the United States, met over coffee and discussions about teacher education at an international conference. With mutual interests in the role of teacher educators' development of their professional identity, the authors developed an intellectual relationship…

The belief that randomized controlled trials provide a "gold standard" for evaluating therapeutic interventions is challenged. The need for research designs that produce valid and reliable information about interventions, which is clinically/educationally relevant and personally important, is discussed together with possibilities for broadening…

The purpose of this Executive Position Paper (EPP) is to develop a model for improving the online training modules utilized by a mid-Atlantic Residence Life department. The complexity of the Residence Life staff positions, coupled with demands from other university departments and the need to provide as much information as possible, resulted in an…

In this paper I call for an unequivocal legitimisation of the living "I" in educational research. The paper itself becomes a context that explains this call. It is a report of my action research into my professional learning through working in South Africa, within the context of new policy frameworks for continuing teacher development.…