Kompetence og curriculum - Institut for Uddannelse og Pædagogik ...

78 Mette Iversen
Cursiv nr. 1, 2006
Summ Summary
Summ ary
Learning in further education of Adults who wish to widen their field
of competences with an extra-profession
An increasing number of adults wish to plan for further education and in-service
training and still more adults demand a variety of qualifications. In the skill-uponskill
tradition of mid-career training various skills and identities are highlighted,
thus implying pervasive and complex issues in learning. At the same time further
education where new skills are added to old ones entails educational issues that
are essential to the phenomenon of learning. The article is founded on an empirical
study of the learning process of adults participating in mid-career training in order
to widen their field of competencies with an extra-profession and thus acquire
qualifications for new kinds of jobs. The training in question is the one-year
education programme in adult teaching targeted at people who already have a trade
or profession. 12
Learning is broadly defined as a process within as well as outside of teaching
situations, whether intentional as organized learning or non-intentional such as
everyday learning, but also as a phenomenon taking place alongside other activities
for example teaching situations. Furthermore, the learning process itself and its
characteristics are not immediately visible, so teaching is structured on silent
knowledge. Thus learning is considered a partly invisible process accommodating
knowledge from various spheres including spheres of personal lived experience. The
approach is philosophical and phenomenological focusing on participatory learning
as experienced reality. In order to explore the aesthetic dimension of the learning
process I turn to the phenomenology in order to develop a perception of learning
as a transforming attempt to create space and emergence.
In the article I intend to open up for new approaches to the field of study. For
this purpose a design is presented for studying learning as an aesthetically forming
process. A concept of form is derived from Merleau-Pontys phenomenological
philosophy, and I draw on supplementary theories of sociology, language theory
and theory of art and poetics. The theories are characterised by their focus on processes
and by a certain approach to emergence and emerging phenomena. The aim of
the theoretical design is to uncover learning as a process, the visibility-invisibility
of learning as well as learning as what may be termed its forming and reforming
indirect presence. Finally I want to stress the importance of aesthetic and senssuos
dimensions in the transitory processes of learning.
The article analyses a study of a male participant in the one year education programme
in adult teaching illustrating fundamental issues concerning students in
further education. The concept of experienced reality is used to analyse the