Assoc Prof Paul Hager - Abstracts

Recent papers & current research

P. Hager (1999)
'Finding a Good Theory of Workplace Learning',
in D. Boud & J. Garrick (eds.) Understanding Learning at Work. London and New York: Routledge (due Apr 1999).

Abstract
Workplace learning has attracted unprecedented interest. A difficulty is the sheer number of relevant theories, since research on workplace learning represents a convergence of many literatures. Central questions for this chapter are:
• What are the features of a useful theory of workplace learning?
• What different aspects do the available theories seek to explain?
• What are the scope and limits of the various kinds of theories?
• What different assumptions are made by different theories about the nature of workplace learning? This chapter:
• Discusses what theories do.
• Explains why training and learning inspire a multitude of theories.
• Offers guidance on theory selection.

P. Hager and D. Beckett (1998)
'What Would Lifelong Education Look Like in a Workplace Setting?'
in J. Holford, C. Griffin & P. Jarvis (eds.) International Perspectives on Lifelong Learning. London: Kogan Page.

Abstract
This chapter focuses on the workplace as a site for lifelong education, rather than the more formal and structured provision found in classrooms and training settings. Workplace learning is typically informal and incidental, since it engages the moment-by-moment, day-by- day experiences people undergo at, and through, the performance of their work. Research on workplace learning points to a new epistemology of practice, which confronts many of the cherished and traditional values of education. Our research shows that workplace education emerges from: • the contingent (rather than formal, sustained, and systematic studies)
• the practical (rather than the theoretical)
• the process (rather than assimilation of content)
• the particular (rather than the universal and a priori as the ‘context’)
• the affective and the social domains (rather than merely the cognitive domain) We argue that the traditional binary categories are deficient and that lifelong learning in the workplace is better seen as coalescing these into a new synthesis that suggests a conception of education more suited to the 21st century.

P. Hager (1998)
'Lifelong Education: From Conflict to Consensus?',
Studies in Philosophy and Education, Vol. 17, No. 2, (in press).

Abstract
When the notion of lifelong education was launched in the 1970s by UNESCO it received widespread criticism, particularly in educational circles. Central was the claim that lifelong education confused learning with education. In the 1990s lifelong education has reappeared to a more favourable reception. A simplistic explanation is that it fits current economic agendas. This paper trace the changed reception to three interrelated factors. Firstly, the weakness of the 1970s arguments against lifelong education. Secondly, developments within educational research and practice that fit with lifelong education more than in the 1970s. Thirdly, the notion of lifelong education sits well with post-modernism. Hence, in the 1990s there is consensus from both modernism and post-modernism in favour of lifelong education.