In this paper I suggest that social dances and local markets are examples of resilient practices of place-making and community that involve active participation. These two activities create mobile and pliant communities of participants that involve considerable informal and incidental learning. With dances and markets in mind, I look at the two…

This qualitative case study was designed to explore whether and how a sample of domestic and international managers use two key adult education concepts--critical reflection and experiential learning--to influence changes in individual employees whom they coach. The study is based on the primary assumption that although managers do not…

Geospatial and Robotics Technologies for the 21st Century (GEAR-Tech-21), teaches science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) through robotics, global positioning systems (GPS), and geographic information systems (GIS) activities for youth in grades 5-8. Participants use a robotics kit, handheld GPS devices, and GIS technology to…

The taking up of an "educative" mantle has proven to be a complex task for museums, filled with many unknown and/or misunderstood factors. Of the vast assortment of educational opportunities museums afford their adult patrons and staff, the majority fall into one or two learning categories: either they are nonformal or informal. In effort to…

The topic of informal learning and work has quickly become a staple in contemporary work and adult learning research internationally. The narrow conceptualization of work is briefly challenged before the article turns to a review of the historical origins as well as contemporary theories and methods involved in researching informal learning and…

Social movements at universities have recently flourished as a response to the Bologna Process and austerity measures at universities, but studies on learning within these movements are still scarce. Our goal is to describe one movement which started at the University of Gdansk in 2009 and aimed at democratising the university and implementing…

This study investigated informal learning activities among low-education adults, using data from the 2005 National Household Education Survey. Survey respondents were asked about their participation in six types of informal learning activities, from reading books to using computers to attending conventions. Respondents with the lowest educational…

In the first decade of the 21st century, efforts to create alternatives to neoliberalism emerged in many parts of Latin America. Social movements across the region took to the streets, occupied abandoned factories, and started to create new democratic spaces, solidarity networks, and social economy initiatives. In one country after another,…

This paper reports on research into community-based men's sheds in Australia, focusing on how regular activity in these sheds impacts on the informal learning experiences of the mainly older men who use them. It leads to an exploration and reflection on how men's learning experiences in such sheds might inform adult and vocational education in…

In this article, we describe data from two case studies of seniors (one younger senior and one older senior) in learning to use computers. The study combined interviews, observations, and documents to take a close look at their experiences with computers, as well as the influences of aging and computer training on their experiences. The study…

In this article, the author discusses how narratives, which are part of the common currency of the day, have dramatically changed over the years. Grand narratives, which grew exponentially in the mid-nineteenth century, have now been replaced by two different narratives: life narratives and small-scale narratives. He also discusses how small…

The purpose of this ethnographic case study was to discover the manner in which two Irish musicians, Loretto Reid and Brian Taheny, taught/and or transmitted traditional music at the Celtic College Summer School in Goderich, Ontario. Two central questions, each followed by several sub-questions, served to focus the study: "How did you learn…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the paid and unpaid work time and learning activities of a small longitudinal sample (n=286) of continuously employed Canadians over the 1998-2004 period. Design/methodology/approach: A sub-sample of those who responded to two national surveys carried out in 1998 and 2004 and who were continuously…

In 1973, the evolutionary biologist Leigh Van Valen of the University of Chicago devised what he called the "Red Queen Effect" to describe the growth and development of species. It stipulated that an evolutionary system must continue to develop just to maintain its fitness relative to others evolving in its environment. The literary reference is…

Exhibitions are a fundamental form of informal learning in museums. An exhibit should engage visitors in dialog with the material and its representation in a self-reflexive way in order to fulfill the museum's role of facilitating community dialog. (Contains 25 references.) (SK)