Learning, Identity and Agency in the Life Course - Teaching and ...

The researchWhat we foundWe found that learning of some sort isubiquitous in people’s lives. We generatedextensive, fine-grained longitudinalevidence of the variety, scope,characteristics and trajectories of learningin the life course. This has helped us tounderstand the value and significance oflearning in people’s lives. Our analyseshave also generated insights into therelationships between learning, identityand agency.Longitudinal evidence of learningthrough the life-courseThis project generated detailed evidenceof the ubiquity and variety of learning inadults’ lives. We found that much learningis tacit and routinised. Just as learning canlead to significant changes in people’slives, life-changing events often triggerlearning, We also showed that adultshave widely differing dispositions towardslearning. For many, learning is merely afactor of life, a continual striving to dealwith problems. For a minority, the senseof being a learner is an important part oftheir identity. In some cases this learneridentity is focussed on formal education,but substantial informal learning is alwaysrelated to it.While learning is sometimes valued forthe outcomes it brings, people often valueengagement in learning for its own sake.Individuals differ in their judgements ofwhat counts as good or worthwhilelearning. The judgements of individualsmay be at odds with official policy, andthis can impact negatively on adults’opportunities to learn what is importantto them. Learning is not necessarily apositive experience and does not alwayshave positive outcomes. Progression andtransitions in people’s lives, such asretirement, can valuably be understoodas learning processes. Especially withineducation and employment, there aresignificant barriers to progression forsome people.Longitudinal evidence of learningfrom life through narrative andnarrationThis project has generated detailedevidence of the ways in which adults learnfrom their lives. Life history methodologyhas helped us to explore the significanceof narrative and narration in these learningprocesses, something we have capturedin the idea of ‘narrative learning’. We havefound that stories and story-telling areimportant vehicles for learning from one’slife. We have been able to show howdifferences in the ‘narrative quality’ oflife stories, including their intensity, theirdescriptive or evaluative content, theirflexibility and the presence of a plot,correlate with learning processes andoutcomes.We have found important differences inthe efficacy of life stories and have shownthat there are relationships between stylesof narration, forms of narrative learningand agency. We have found that thecapacity to learn from one’s life is not fixedbut can be learned. Life stories play acrucial role in the articulation of a senseof self. This means that narrative learningis a form of identity work which involvesinternal conversations and social practicesof story telling. Social opportunities fornarrating one’s life story are importantfor practising and improving narrativelearning.Longitudinal evidence oftrajectories of participation inpart-time education and trainingOur analysis of qualitative data identifiedtwo types of engagement with part-timeeducation and training. Some participationinvolved low levels of involvement, withlittle impact upon identity. But other adultsdevelop a high level of involvement inwhich being a learner or student becomesan important part of their life and identity.It is this high-level involvement which canlead to personal change, including theachievement of agency. For these people,participation in part-time education andtraining is a long-term process, not aquick fix. Analysis of British HouseholdPanel Survey data gave us a detailedempirical understanding of participation inpart-time education and training, of thefactors influencing such participation, andof trajectories of participation. Knowingchange at the level of each individual gaveus a more accurate picture of the trueextent of change and non-participationthan has been available hitherto, and drewattention to the need for a longitudinalperspective which avoids a focus oninstantaneous effects.The evidence shows that (i) mostparticipation did not result in a higher levelqualification; (ii) gender effects are moreimportant than age effects, particularlyamong younger people, although youngwomen who made an early transition intoparenthood had a higher probability thanany of their contemporaries of returningto formal learning later on; (iii) there isa strong age effect whereby almosteverybody stops participating by age 55;(iv) participation patterns are influencedby prior learning and, separately, byemployment, including whether it wasmanual or non-manual; (v) participation isaffected by externally imposed events inpeople’s lives as well as by the choicesthey made, including the timing of theseevents and choices; (vi) social class statusat age 14, and mothers’ and fathers’education and work histories, affectparticipation in education.Learning and identityWe have defined identity as one’s senseof self and have theorised this in terms ofthe dispositions people have towardsthemselves and towards their life andlearning. We found that people’sdispositions and their social positionscan both enable and constrain learning.Many aspects of the sense of self remainimplicit. But they can become moreexplicit at times of change and crisis,although particular dispositions and aparticular sense of self may sometimesprevent learning and change. Thenarration of one’s life story is an importantvehicle for expressing one’s sense ofself, and also for articulating and activelyconstructing it. When people go throughmajor life-changing events. they are oftenpresented with a need to learn, so thatrelationships between identity and learningoften become clear at times of crisis andchange. Learning can then contribute tochanges in some dispositions, and thusto changes in a person’s identity. But insome cases, existing dispositions are sostrong that learning and subsequentchange in identity do not happen. Ourdata suggest a widespread need for theconstruction of a coherent life-story thathelps individuals to make sense and cometo terms with their life, and adjust tochanges in their lives.Learning and agencyWe have taken agency to be about thesituated ability to give direction to one’slife. We have found that learning itself mayor may not be driven by the decisionsof the individual. It can be self-initiatedor forced by others, or be incidental.Learning may result in an increase ordecrease in agency. Increased agencyseems to be more obvious and common,but much depends on the extent to whichpeople acknowledge that they havelearned something. This is more obviousin relation to formal education and training,often because qualifications open up newpossibilities for action. Experiences ofsuccessful learning also impact positivelyon people’s self-confidence, which in turncan lead to increased agency in manyaspects of their lives. The researchindicates that the extent to which learningtranslates into agency depends on arange of factors including the particularecological conditions of people’s actions.Learning can damage people’s agencywhen they find that things are too difficultor that they cannot cope, which in turnimpacts upon their sense of self.www.tlrp.orgTeaching and Learning Research Programme