1. Combining Methodologies to Study Learning in the Life Course: Insights from the Learning Lives Project Gert Biesta, Flora Macleod, Paul Lambe and Michael Tedder SELL Research Seminar, 8 May 2007 http://www.education.ex.ac.uk/pages.php?id=137

2. 2 LEARNING LIVES: LEARNING, IDENTITY AND AGENCY IN THE LIFE COURSE a 3+ year longitudinal study into the learning biographies of adults (25+) ESRC’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme, Phase III Exeter, Stirling, Leeds and Brighton

3. 3 BACKGROUND * from ‘adult education’ to ‘lifelong learning’ * growing interest in lifelong learning and actual rise of informal and non-formal learning (Field: ‘silent explosion’) policy focus (UK, EU) on the economic function of lifelong learning: learning for earning, adult basic skills but there are other functions of lifelong learning: e.g., personal and civic THE LEARNING LIVES PROJECT investigation into what learning ‘means’ and ‘does’ in the lives of adults

4. 4 KEY CONCEPTS learning – identity – agency – lifecourse - how identity (including learner identity) and agency (ability to give direction to one’s life) impact on learning dispositions, practices and achievements -how learning impacts on identity (sense of self) and sense of agency and actual agency against the background of unfolding lives: transitions and transformations & against the background of societal change

5. 5 KEY CONCEPTS (CONTINUED) unit of analysis: the learning biography learning: one of the ways in which people respond to events in their lives (from adaptive and reproductive to generative and creative) related to transitions, turning points and routines

6. 6 3 METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES -How to investigate learning in context? -How to investigate the ‘temporality’ of learning? - How to investigate the ‘temporality’ of learning contexts?

7. 7 DESIGN life-history: retrospective and life-course: ‘real time’ interpretative: repeated life history interviews with 125-150 adults (25 and older) over a period of about 3 years Leeds: Hodkinson, Hodkinson, Hawthorne & Ford Exeter: Biesta & Tedder Stirling: Field, Malcolm & Lynch Brighton: Goodson & Adair quantitative: analysis of British Household Panel Survey (1991-) Macleod & Lambe

8. 8 4 THEMATIC FOCI older learners (Leeds) (un)employment (Stirling) family and community (Exeter) migration (Brighton)

9. 9 THEORETICAL and METHODOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS -learning (biographical learning; narrative learning) -identity (including narrative identity) -agency (an ecological understanding) -life course (context & generation) * * * combination of methods and methodologies in a large scale longitudinal project

10. 10 WEBSITE www.learninglives.org working papers, presentations, publications end date: 31st January 2008

11. 11 Table 1: AGE Cohorts 199120-25 b 1966-1971 39-44 b 1947-1952 58-63 b 1928-1933 1992 1993 1994 1995 199625-3044-4963-68 1997 1998 1999 2000 200130-3549-5468-73 2002 2003 200433-3852-5771-76

12. 12 Table 2: Conditional Probabilities for Latent Life Paths Age-stageLatent Role Configuration Latent life path POsMTsWOs 20-25I0.08330.48450.3895 1991II0.71000.07440.0651 Marie Tuck age 20IIl0.20670.44110.5454 25-30I0.75680.04380.0675 1996II0.03620.91020.9000 Marie Tuck age 25III0.20700.04600.0325 30-35I0.01500.03520.9017 2001II0.07000.81920.0447 Marie Tuck age 30III0.91500.14560.0446 33-38I0.09470.03000.8900 2004 MT age 33II0.90530.97000.1100 Latent Class Probabilities0.49570.26600.2384

13. 13 Pathway at age 20 mediated through dichotomous variable: ‘left school at 16/did not leave at 16’ X Married Parent InFormEd Out of Workforce Mover G Left at 16 Did not leave at 16 Latent Classes

14. 14

15. 15 Questions about Marie’s decision-making  How can we understand the trajectory of Marie’s life?  How are we to understand decisions she took concerning the five social roles in life - marriage, parenthood, formal education, work, moving geographically – that we’ve used to construct the latent pathways?  Were Marie’s decisions simply reactions to circumstances? If so what were those circumstances?  How did her subjective views of the world influence her decisions?  What was the interplay between how she experienced things and external circumstances?

16. 16 Questions about Marie’s learning  What consequences did Marie’s decisions have for her learning?  Given that she can be located on a particular pathway, how has it restricted or enhanced the opportunities she has experienced and is experiencing for learning?

17. 17 Marriage and Parenthood  He was already winding down a bit really. The club had disbanded and it was sort of a strange transition really because it was almost like mourning. You know, it was something that he’d done for thirty years and something that I’d done for a good ten, and, and it was strange. All of a sudden we didn’t have that anymore. … now my husband’s into fishing instead of motorbikes. [laughs] So it’s quite a little bit of a life-change really, you know, from, from living in the pub basically to, you know, wanting the best for our children and looking after our house. (Interview 1, December 2004)

18. 18 In Formal Education  My little girl’s, you know, learning and spreading her wings and I just want to make sure she’s got it right and I’ve got it right for her, you know. I don’t want her to be the only kid that ain't got what everyone else’s supposed to have that day or whatever, you know. I do try really hard to make sure it’s alright. It’s important. (Interview 1, December 2004)  I was really chuffed that I actually, sort of, knew any of it … it’s not sort of to go onto to anything else particularly at the moment. But it’s just to know that I can do it really. For just of me to know that I can pass that test, a math test. (Interview 2, May 2005)

19. 19 Informal learning Re-cycling  skip rat – someone who goes to the recycling centre with a boot load of stuff and comes back with even more  dump buddy - someone who helps you with repairs to the things you want to recycle. (Interview 5, June 2006) Parenting  consultations with health visitor service and Sure Start – in addition to communication with networks of friends and relatives Committee membership  organisational procedures and legal matters

20. 20 Employment 1  I used to go out on the roads and help them do work out on the roads as well. This is where I met my husband while I was in the ditch. I was in a ditch with a whacker at the time. Yeh, one of these great big, you know, sewing machine feet and I seen him go past on a motorbike and he was on the back with somebody that I knew … he said “Who’s that, that you just waved to, that bird in the ditch?” (laughs) Said “That’s Marie, that is,” and that was it and he, he pursued me after that. (Interview 1, December 2004)

21. 21 Employment 2  it is seriously frustrating that you have got to look, ask, go from phone call to phone call to phone call, person to person, to actually find out what exactly, you know, help can I get with. Cos I mean I haven’t got the money to, to go and, you know, train myself up for this and for that…it’s all really costly. And somebody somewhere makes an awful lot of money, you know, these private sectors now, for, you know, all these tickets and these licences that everyone has got to have. (Interview 6, September 2006)

22. 22 Agency  I feel so much better in control. I know where my money’s coming from, I know what money I’ve got to deal with. I know, I know it’s just me I’ve got to worry about and, you know, for me kids yea, you know, and I haven’t got to look after a, a grown man. (Interview 7, February 2007)

23. 23 CONCLUDING REMARKS Understanding how probabilistic pathways are ‘biographically achieved’ (both to understand the ‘norm’ and the ‘exception’) Methodologically this requires an iterative relationship between biography and pathway (in both case to select ‘relevant’ aspects) The biographical perspective can show what learning means and does in the life of Marie Tuck (formal, informal, biographical – always retrospective) and how this is linked to identity and the achievement of agency