Preparing professionals for lifelong learning: Comparative examination of master’s education programs

There has been continued debate regarding educational policies and practices regarding the lifelong learning social order with significant focus upon the preparation of educators of children and youth for this global lifelong learning society. However, there has been limited discussion and research regarding the professional preparation of lifelong learning adult educators. This article investigates the current status of graduate professional programs to prepare lifelong learning adult educators (individuals who are prepared and credentialed through a professional graduate master's degree in adult education and human resource development). Because of differing international policies and structures of graduate education, this discussion will present a comparative examination of current structures and characteristics of master's degree programs at two institutional sites located in Denmark and the USA. Current objectives, characteristics, and understandings of graduate professional preparation programs will be delineated between these two case studies. Contextual issues and influences in the preparation of lifelong learning adult educators will be discussed, with comparative discussions of cultural norms and policies regarding graduate professional preparation, innovative programmatic and instructional efforts, engagement of theory and best practices in lifelong learning, and comparative cultural differences between program students and faculty.     

Information technology systems and the learning organization

Several authors have depicted the learning organization as a model of organization survival in the global economy. Learning organizations are able to adapt to their environments and learn effectively from their actions. This article explores the relationship of information technology systems to learning organizations. The article discusses ways that information technologies may be used to enhance individual, team and strategic‐learning.     

Improving adult learning and professional development in a post-conflict area: The case of Cambodia

All over the world, international development organizations try to increase professional capacity of local staff. These attempts are thought to fail because of financial constraints, but this is just part of the story. Professional development and adult learning theories approach learning from a western perspective, while many developing societies are organized according to non-western models. This article describes research conducted in the Cambodian Ministry of Education, focusing on how adult learning theory could be applied in order to improve learning and support transfer. When local experience and the cultural influence on learning are acknowledged, learning outcomes are found to improve.     

Action learning in China

Action learning was introduced into China less than 20 years ago, but has rapidly become a valuable tool for organizations seeking to solve problems, develop their leaders, and become learning organizations. This article provides an historical overview of action learning in China, its cultural underpinnings, and five case studies. It concludes with the six major challenges and six powerful forces that will propel the use of action learning in China.     

Student Apathy

In this article, we examine a new global studies program that departs from the traditional state-centric approach and uses a geocentric, or earth-centered, approach that emphasizes the roles of individuals, grassroots organizations, cultural groups, and international organizations in an attempt to help students conceptualize global events and their role in the world as interrelated and interdependent. We describe the process of program development, the program itself, and the challenges of program approval.     

Culturally and Geographically Relevant Performance Interventions

This article attempts to showcase how one particularly financially endowed organization is seeking to modify its instructional and organizational practice to better serve its Iñupiat (Eskimo) target/client population. This is an extreme and instructive situation of socio‐cultural tension that provides interesting contrasts with the issues of performance in culturally diverse corporations, governmental and non‐governmental organizations. Considering the thematic argument made in this issue that multiple levels of analysis are sometimes required in developing human performance interventions in complex socio‐cultural contexts, this author observed that running a school system conceived almost entirely along Western lines while serving a predominantly non‐Western population leads to some problems at the macro, meso, and micro levels. This strongly suggests that, in today's cross‐ and multi‐cultural organizational contexts, human performance technology (HPT) analyses and interventions must unearth the rich complexity of issues embedded in our increasingly complex world or suffer the consequences of doing more harm than good.     

Mobile learning and integration of mobile technologies in education

Mobile technologies have a huge potential to transform education provided these technologies are designed and implemented in such a way that they are relevant to the social and cultural context of learning. Clearly, the application, implementation, and design of mobile technology in the global educational context pose technological and socio-cultural challenges. Specifically, technology tools and applications that are familiar in developed nations may pose unique challenges in developing countries, so ‘one size fits all’ or ‘one technology for all contexts’ does not practically work. Therefore, the authors provide case studies focusing on the pedagogical benefits of mobile technologies when used as educational tools. Ideally, this article is intended to stimulate reflections on the subject of m-learning as well as the integration of mobile technologies in education.     

Changing adult learning in Japan: the shift from traditional singing to karaoke

Lifelong learning in Japan involves various cultural and/or sporting activities for personal enjoyment rather than for individual or national economic benefit. Currently the study of karaoke at a variety of public and private organizations is very popular among older Japanese and housewives. This article explores the emergence of karaoke as a newer form of adult learning, discussing students’ learning objectives and the consequences thereof. It also explores how karaoke differs from traditional forms of singing and why students are more interested in the newer form of learning. Fifteen months of fieldwork included participant observation, interviews and a quantitative survey. Karaoke learning offers freedom and simplicity and is less expensive than traditional singing. The structure of karaoke is flexible, generative and egalitarian. These characteristics perfectly match current Japanese adult interests and make the learning of it popular.     

A means of personalising learning: incorporating old and new literacies in the curriculum with mobile phones

This article explores a notion of ‘personalising learning’ which puts the learner at the centre, supported by mobile technology and teacher mediation. It reports a small study in the Northern Territory of Australia, with indigenous students who were given mobile camera phones to capture aspects of their everyday lives and bring them into school. It found that they created a range of narratives that linked their traditional literacies with ‘new literacies’. The article argues that, using tools like these, students can contribute to their curriculum. However, it raises issues of cultural differences between teachers and students, and the importance of developing critical literacy in conjunction with new communication forms and other new literacies. Finally it points to the important role of teachers in leading change in school cultures, and particularly assessment, that will allow these personal contributions to learners' curricula.     

Transformation of the Adult Education System in Slovakia

This article examines trends in adult education in Slovakia since it became a separate republic in 1993. Economic and social transformations during this period have led to a re-thinking of the adult education system. The author describes four basic modalities for providing adult education in Slovakia: (1) schools and colleges; (2) cultural centres and similar institutions; (3) institutions for vocational training; (4) voluntary organizations such as trade unions, political parties and ethnic minority groups.     

The computer as a cultural influence in mathematical learning

My starting point in this paper is that there is a cultural gap between the mathematics that children do as part of their everyday experience and the mathematics that they learn at school; my thesis is that the computer has (perhaps uniquely) the potential to bridge this divide. The paper will examine the cultural impact-both actual and potential-of the computer on children's mathematical education; at the ways in which the introduction of the computer does and will changes the ambient space in which children learn mathematics.I begin with a brief discussion of the cultural context of mathematics learning and the relationship between informal, everyday mathematical activity, and formal, school mathematies. This perspective leads to a closer examination of what it means to do mathematics, and on the relationship of a technology to the mathematics embedded within a given culture. I discuss the issue of injecting meaning into mathematical activity, and then examine some ways in which the computer might offer a solution to this central problem. Next, I give some examples of the influence of the computer on the culture of the mathematics classroom. Finally, I suggest some of the outstanding issues of research and curriculum development which remain.This paper is based on substantially the same data as is discussed in an article inCultural Dynamics.     

Successfully using HPT internationally: An international performance model

This article introduces a new international model that focuses on culture while including familiar elements of human performance technology (HPT). HPT adaptation for cultural differences is an essential part of our profession. We must be sensitive and flexible to succeed in an ever‐changing global environment.     

Adult development: Implications for teaching and learning

This paper presents the background and issues emanating from an adult studies curriculum for adult students. The experimental nature of this program is analyzed in the context of three recent trends in higher education. First, individuals in their thirties, forties, and fifties are returning to college in increasing numbers. Second, adult development theory and research is a fairly new body of knowledge suggesting interesting implications for teaching and learning. Third, adults returning to college tend to seek out nontraditional models of higher education. Empire State College, established in 1971 as the alternative unit of the State University of New York, illustrates this trend.The adult studies curriculum and instructional design are subsequently analyzed in terms of four theoretical perspectives: (1) life cycle theory, (2) ego development, (3) moral development, and (4) adult learning style. Implications for teaching and learning and issues for further research conclude the article.     

探析《跨文化交际》中文化差异现象之成因及建议

本文从《跨文化交际》中存在的文化差异现象出发,从中西方文化起源不同、思维模式不同、行为规范不同和价值取向不同四个方面分析比较中西文化差异现象的本质原因,并对电大系统成人英语专业的学员提高跨文化交际能力提出了一些建议。     

The learning worker,organizations and democracy

A current turn of interest in notions of the ‘learning economy’ and the ‘learning society’ is fuelling discussions on promoting education, training and learning in contemporary organizations and workplaces. Although the education of workers has been variously theorized and practised throughout the 20th century, the current debates are marked by a prevailing economic perspective that places emphasis on constructing ‘learning organizations’ and on ‘human resource’ learning in service of organizational strategies for innovation and competitive advantage in economic activities. Critics point out that economic and managerial models scarcely attend to the human subjectivity of the learner‐worker and the worker's diverse learning interests. Broader socio‐cultural ends of worker learning such as lifelong human development and participatory citizenship in democratic society are very often overlooked. This article offers a critical discussion of current conceptions of learning organizations and learning workers. It argues that the prevailing focus on techno‐economic imperatives and of obscured managerial elite interests in organizations currently circumscribe and delimit learning in production organizations. It proposes that a more comprehensive approach to learning in organizations attends explicitly to the needs and interests of workers as learning persons. Taking a longer view, it proposes that organizational and worker learning may generate not only improved work practices but may regenerate links between lifelong learning, societal democratic citizenship and civilized organizations.     

A tale of the field: reading power and gender in the learning organization

In this article, I will argue that learning organizations that claim certain emancipatory promises in principle continue to ignore issues of gender, which, in practice are a distinctive and defining feature of our workplace contexts. Applying a feminist–Foucauldian interpretive framework, I intend to demonstrate and analyse the material workings of power, and how power relations work to produce both people and actions in organizations, which contributes to reproducing a patriarchal system, through a recounting of my own experiences as a Learning and Development manager implementing a change program at Xtrading Worldwide. In particular, by means of an auto-ethnographic account, I intend to illuminate the manner in which this patriarchal system not only contradicts the philosophy of the learning organization, highlighting its embeddedness within contemporary capitalist and managerialist discourse, but also how it works to produce both subordinated women and behaviours, which continues to exclude them from occupying levels of seniority in organizations.     

Developing preservice teachers' global understanding through computer-mediated communication technology

This study examines preservice teachers' conceptual understanding of global education subsequent to participation in an asynchronous web-based multinational project to discuss issues related to cultural diversity and global challenges. Data included 59 preservice teachers' online messages and reflective essays. Six perspectives emerged from this inquiry: global education as cultural learning and understanding, fostering tolerance, addressing global issues, teaching global connections and collaborations, promoting peace, and critical understanding of global issues and events. The findings suggest that the online discussion provided a unique opportunity for participants to interact with teachers and students from different countries in an authentic context.     

Technology policy as a stealth agent of global change

Drawing upon a year of ethnographic research with the Los Angeles public school system, this article follows the translation and negotiation of several key technology grants and their policies. It argues that as a global trend, myths of technological neutrality and transparency merely cloud the panoply of negotiations taking place in public organizations, subsequently removing those decisions from public participation or scrutiny. Technology policy thereby becomes a stealth agent of global change, which, ironically in this case, reinforces Fordist rigidities in technological realms that are typically viewed as supporting post‐Fordist flexibilities. Only by engaging with technology policy in all its complexity, the article concludes, can public institutions hope to achieve democratic participation and outcomes.     

Multimodal design,learning and cultures of recognition

In this article, a design-oriented, multimodal understanding of learning will be outlined. There seems to be a need for a new conceptualisation of learning in an era characterised by an increasing virtual space, blended media and new communicative patterns. This means a broader understanding of learning, and a theoretical understanding of transformational and interactive processes, where meaning-making, the role of agency, and what is seen as proper representations and as signs of learning in a cultural context are central issues.     

Evaluation of projects in the developing world: some cultural and methodological issues

This article stems from fieldwork for a series of short external summative evaluations of environmental education projects in developing countries, and distills from these experiences some cultural issues, constraints and differences that either confront, or are created by western evaluators in the developing world. The assumption is that the range of cultural issues, differences and constraints discussed here are either absent from, or are present to a markedly different degree, in western evaluation environments. The paper concludes by suggesting some revisions to evaluative methodology as a contribution to resolving some of the issues.