LIFELONG LEARNING AT UCT – “bringing the outside world inside" A presentation about research in progress towards a masters dissertation Janet Small University of Cape Town 28 October 2006

My research questions What are the different understandings of ‘lifelong learning’ at UCT? What factors have shaped the development of these different understandings of ‘lifelong learning’?

My purpose personal purpose - motivations of the researcher practical purpose - “accomplishing something” research purpose -“understanding something” Maxwell (1996)

My purpose as an adult educator working in higher education, I am interested in gaining greater understanding of the particular context of the institution where I am working, so I will be better able to design programmes for continuous education at UCT (ie. accomplish something).

Research method Qualitative – interpreting meaning and context Secondary data - documentary material about UCT’s policies and practices relating to lifelong learning to be analysed Primary data – interviews with key informants who are working in educational provision which provides for lifelong learning opportunities

Challenges But what do ‘lifelong learning opportunities’ at UCT look like? And what exactly is lifelong learning… and what is not?

Commonest theme – time dimension “throughout life” Definitions Vast literature, many interpretations… Commonest theme – time dimension “throughout life” Greatest divergence on ‘purpose’ (Abukari:2005)

Indicators of education ‘throughout life” Age – older, mature students Working while studying – part-time and occasional students Returning to study – continuing education and professional development Short courses – diverse target audiences, levels and purposes

Looking for useful indicators  Age – not reliable because of particular social context of South Africa (Buchler et al, forthcoming)   Working while studying – but couldn’t use only the criteria of part-time. Incomplete data on this at UCT (Hendry:2006)  Returning to study – continuing education an emerging category at UCT  Short courses – encompasses many of the above features (mostly older, mostly working, many returning to study)

Challenge 1 – where do I look for LLL? Informants should be involved with short courses, continuing education courses or part-time courses aimed specifically at working people.

Challenge 2 – what is LLL exactly? I wanted to find out what my interviewees thought... But I needed a framework for constructing simple “codes” or “categories” for the analysis of the results… (Ensor & Hoadley: 2004)

Constructing a simple model from the literature

Interviews – gathered data Interviewed small number of key informants across the faculties at UCT Gathered comments on the model – from the perspective of their learners

Changing the model

Illuminating or obscuring? Much more complex model emerging … but will it provide an adequate structure for the discussion of the results ?

And now what? Use model to plot where the different understandings of LLL lie – individual and institutional Reflect on macro influences (global trends in higher education and learning) on LLL discourses Discuss results in relation to micro influences (the institution’s particular context) on LLL discourses at UCT

And then… I may be able to answer the research questions… What are the different understandings of ‘lifelong learning’ at UCT? What factors have shaped the development of these different understandings of ‘lifelong learning’?

The end for now …for you Thanks for listening.