Historians of education are well placed to engage in applied historical approaches providing authoritative evidence of the past to inform policy and practice. This article is based on the presidential keynote delivered at the History of Education Society (UK) annual conference in 2019. As such it reflects on possible future directions for the…

There are many potential harms to individuals, societies and environments associated with powerful "networks" of living, nonliving and symbolic entities (actants), such as financiers, banks, think tanks, transnational trade organizations and agreements, competitiveness, scientists, engineers, universities, governments, military,…

This short paper will describe the details of a SSHRC/IDG-funded research program currently underway (2015-2016) that will investigate how older adults (65+) use Web 2.0 tools and Internet-based resources to establish and expand their virtual personal learning networks (PLNs) for the purposes of enriching their expertise and knowledge within the…

This paper examines literacy and language learning across the lifespan within the context of immigrants in the Canadian context. It explores the process of improving literacy skills and acquiring second or third language skills through the systems of formal, non-formal and informal learning, as defined by the OECD [Organisation for Economic…

In a Canadian survey of informal learning (n=1,562) and a follow-up (n=328), unpaid work, informal learning, and job-related learning were extensive. Despite considerable underemployment, respondents still pursued learning that prepared them for work. (Contains 29 references.) (SK)

Informal learning environments compel the design of activities that are both appealing and educational. This paper addresses issues involved in the design of science television programs for preadolescents, drawing more specifically on the case of a French-language series currently in production in Montreal. The program goals and format are…

Western European forms of discourse have been foisted upon the world as the universal value-neutral reference point. External standards have been used to assess aboriginal discourse, particularly in public contexts such as schools and courtrooms. These standards assume that there is one single correct way to proceed (to talk, write, argue, teach),…

Many immigrants, refugees, and aboriginal Canadians learn their own languages in the normal, informal way. These minority languages learned informally are not valued as a skill that yields returns in the labor market in the same way the official languages or formally learned languages do. What counts as a skill in a society, in a given point in…

A study analyzed the schooling, further adult course participation, and informal learning of organized and unorganized workers in different occupational classes across Canada. Data were obtained from the first Canadian national survey of 1,562 adults' informal learning practices, conducted in 1998, and field notes and interview transcripts drawn…

A common pattern in all studies of adult learning is that informal learning seems to be a very normal, very natural human activity. A 30-year old study and the 1998 Livingstone study show parallel findings. One of the most important findings is that about 90 percent of people had done some sort of intentional learning in the last year. The 10…

A survey of 1,500 Canadian adults looked at the full range of adults' learning activities, including informal learning related to employment, community volunteer work, household work, and other general interest. Findings indicated those in the labor force, or expecting to be in soon, participated in informal learning related to current or…

This project examined attitudes, expectations, and behaviors that make prostitutes successful in learning to establish their autonomy and work safely. Ethnographic studies were conducted of 47 prostitutes in Canada and 60 in New Zealand through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and open-ended discussions supplemented by researchers'…

A research project studied Canadian organizations that are using informal organizational learning approaches to embed ongoing learning within the actual work processes. Five organizations that self-identified as learning organizations at mature stages of development were studied in depth. No organization was a paragon of organizational learning.…

Unlike many recent immigrants who entered Canada as highly trained professionals in their countries of origin, most of Canada's immigrant garment workers are working-class women with little education. The Apparel Textile Action Committee (ATAC) and Homeworker's Association (HWA) are among the bodies that were established to assist immigrant…

To take community seriously in the conduct of educational research, the researcher should consider taking down epistemological walls and the "real" ones that confine the processes and products of academic labor to artificially isolated settings. Epistemologically, the question of walls relates to the kinds of knowledge competed over,…