The Negative Mirror and Critical Memory

Marco Polo\u27s negative mirror is, more or less, like one of the concave parabolic surfaces used to concentrate the parallel solar rays into a unique point, giving them a previously unknown shining. In a similar manner the traveler\u27s gaze will bend the apparently isolated and undifferentiated facets of a place and tie them together in a more intense reality thereby revealing the genius loci, which is a projection of human conscience

All Things Bold and Beautiful: Researching Adult Learning Through Soaps

This paper proposes that, globally, informal lifelong learning outside of education institutions is often neglected, and that cultures of learning must recognize and value a wide range of informal learning. In popular culture, soap operas have both intentionally and unintentionally been sites for learning, and their significance need to be more thoroughly researched. But this challenges conventional methodologies. Innovative approaches are needed, including the use of chat forums on the worldwide web, through the internet

Observing Silence

The interpretation of silence depends on meanings that are negotiated in a particular social and cultural location, or place and space. Silence is an under-theorized and under-researched aspect of adult learning. The complexities and salience of silence in teaching and learning, methodological issues around observing and researching silence are explored

Location, Relocation, Dislocation Learning Cultures or Cultures of Learning?

Following a recent organizational relocation, the impact on the teaching and learning became evident. In analyzing the impact of change, the most useful way of understanding the change was to utilize the postmodern concepts of location and (dis)location, and to consider using anthropological research techniques to identify cultures of learning

Where Have We Got To? Stories of Survival, Resistance and Retreat in Sustaining Commitment to Social Purpose in Adult Education

As part of a larger study seeking to understand the social, political and cultural values of those who began teaching adult education between 1975 and 1985, this focuses on those adult educators from North America and the UK who took part in an Exchange program between 1984 and 1988

Towards fin de siecle: A time to revision Durkheim\u27s sociology of education?

This paper builds on earlier work on values and ethics that argued the need to re-vision the ideas of Emile Durkheim, by suggesting that the argument is supported by the notion of fin de siecle, which implies that the challenges of post-modernity are by no means new, and that there is evidence of a patter or even a cycle that would seem to re-appear at the end of each century. Approaching the 21st century and the millennium, the notion of fin de siecle has additional significance. But is it merely a matter of history repeating itself? And is this important to the educators of adults