A conceptual framework for analyzing participation in adult education was developed. Adult education participation was considered a specific kind of strategic behavior. The term "strategic" was defined by proceeding from Pierre Bourdieu's concept of "educational strategy," which permits consideration of the structural constraints that the social order imposes on social actors and the active practices with which actors react against those constraints. Educational strategies were characterized as follows: (1) they steer the decision-making processes in education and learning by generating pragmatic-rational answers to challenges; (2) they can be discerned in an "education as investment" approach, where educational participation is perceived as an investment in economic, "human" capital as well as in social and cultural capital; (3) the subjects and practitioners of educational strategies are individuals in households but operate in a given frame of social relations and rules; and (4) they must be understood in terms of the life histories of learners and their families, and they are situated within specific societal conditions and transformation processes. Strategic learning was deemed a key competence in late modern society, and control and identity were considered key elements of this competence. Strategic learning competence was said to include the ability to generate accurate and adequate planning skills. (Contains 68 references.) (MN)