1. Examining the Experience of Adults in Selecting Online Learning as Part of Their Post-secondary Studies
Dr. Kari Rasmussen

2. Dr. Kari Rasmussen Lead Educational Researcher
Educational Research and Scholarship Centre
School of Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
University of Alberta

3. There are many frameworks that can be used when one engages in educational research.
These frameworks, and educational research tends to focus on the student, the content, the instructor – roles that people take on once they engage in their educational activities.
Educational Research

4. So, what happens when we want a broader perspective for our research – when education, teaching and learning are only one component of an experience that we wish to investigate?
When I began my research design this is the challenge that I experienced as I wanted to investigate motivations around why adults were re-entering post-secondary in the context of their overall experience.
Setting the Stage

5. the recognition of care as both an ethic and practice.
The result of this work resulted in the movement to a more encompassing theoretical framework – one that examines our place and experience in the world:
the recognition of care as both an ethic and practice.
Derived from the works of Tronto, Gillian and Nodding, recognizing care means:
That we balance the experience of education with our other responsibilities within our daily life.
Recognizing Care

6. “On the most general level, we suggest that caring be viewed as a species activity that includes everything that we do to maintain, continue, and repair our ‘world’ so that we can live in it as well as possible. That would include our bodies, our selves, and our environment, all of which we seek to interweave in a complex, life-sustaining web.”
(Tronto, Fisher)
Care

7. Practice of Care Framework
Practice of Care Framework, adapted from Tronto, 1993 and Rasmussen, 2012, p. 13.
A Perspective ...

8. “ THE WORLD WILL LOOK DIFFERENT if we move care from its current peripheral location to a place near the center of human life.”
Tronto, 1993
Simply acknowledging the competing responsibilities of our students/instructors/institutions would then influence the research around educational activities.
The Possibilities

9. Utilization in a research project
The Ability to Access Post-Secondary Education: Adult Learners’ Conceptions of Choosing Online Learning
Phenomenographic Interviews
Participants
1 - 19
Semi-structured Initerviews, design based on ethic of care
Categories of Description
Categories,
based on phenomeno-graphic data analysis
Findings
Examination of the commonalities and variations of experience
Research Design, a graphic representation of the design of this research study.
Utilization in a research project

10. Phenomenographic Findings
Resulting Outcome Space
Categories of Description
Community
Family
Self
Phenomenographic Findings

11. 1. My Choice Reflected my Responsibilities to Self

12. 2. My Choice Reflected my Responsibilities to my Family.

13. 3. My Choice Reflected my Responsibilities to my Community.

14. The Presence of a Practice of Care
The experience of the participants within the research was heavily influenced by responsibilities as adults, employees, family members, and members of their community.
In fact if we were to remove these factors from the experience no experience could be described.
In all instances a practice of care was central to their description of experience; not once did I hear about their previous educational experience, position in society, age or gender as part of their consideration.
K. Rasmussen, 2015
The Presence of a Practice of Care

15. By acknowledging that the student/teacher/institution is only part of a complex web that makes up our world we can focus on a perspective that respects the individual while allowing for a common view.
Impact on Research

16. Kari Rasmussen kwadding@ualberta.ca
Comments?
Kari Rasmussen
Discussion