scholarly journals Balancing Act: A Phenomenological Study of Female Adult Learners Who Successfully Persisted in Graduate Studies

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Shepherd ◽  
Barbara Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Adult Learning ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Graduate Studies ◽  
Female Adult ◽  
Family Responsibilities

A study was conducted utilizing Cross’ (1981) barriers to adult learning as a framework to better understand how adults successfully complete their graduate studies. Participants in the study were solicited via Facebook and LinkedIn. Three female adult learners who persisted in their graduate studies while balancing demands outside academics including employment and family responsibilities were selected. The study found the barriers identified by Cross 30 years ago–institutional, dispositional and situational–were still relevant for these female graduate adult learners. The phenomenological approach allowed the participants to describe how they made meaning of these barriers while overcoming them to persist in their graduate studies.

Article Review: The Impact of Fun and Enjoyment on Adult Learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Laily Yahya
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Adult Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Programme ◽  
Continuous Quality ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Affective Experiences ◽  
The Impact

The article review of ‘The Impact of Fun and Enjoyment on Adult Learning’ (Lucardie, 2014) opens doors to the kaleidoscope of fun and enjoyment amongst adult learners. The essence of this review is an informative snapshot on the critical issues of how fun and joy have impacted adult learning through a qualitative research drawing upon traditions of phenomenology. It aims to explore the affective experiences of fun and enjoyment. This article review attempts to highlight an insightful assessment of the ideas and the arguments that are being discussed by the author. The different interpretation of this concept draws out contrasting elements between learners and teachers’ beliefs. A twist to this review is a reflective stance procured to address central issues emerging in the article related to the Malaysian context. It is through the lens of the reader, Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI):4R is proposed. This refers to the process of continuously improving the quality of teaching and learning of an educational programme. This review concludes with the framing of CQI:4R to illustrate reflect, revisit, realign and reconstruct processes that could possibly navigate the architectural landscape of the Malaysian Teacher Education.

scholarly journals ‘Somebody stuck me in a bag of sand’: Lived experiences of the altered and uncomfortable body after stroke

2021 ◽  
pp. 026921552110007
Author(s):  
Hannah Stott ◽  
Mary Cramp ◽  
Stuart McClean ◽  
Ailie Turton
Keyword(s):  
Support Groups ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
The Body ◽  
Stroke Survivors ◽  
Post Stroke ◽  
Personal Perceptions ◽  
Psychological Sense ◽  
Qualitative Phenomenological

Objective: This study explored stroke survivors’ experiences of altered body perception, whether these perceptions cause discomfort, and the need for clinical interventions to improve comfort. Design: A qualitative phenomenological study. Setting: Participants’ homes. Participants: A purposive sample of 16 stroke survivors were recruited from community support groups. Participants (median: age 59; time post stroke >2 years), were at least six-months post-stroke, experiencing motor or sensory impairments and able to communicate verbally. Interventions: Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were analysed using an interpretive phenomenological approach and presented thematically. Results: Four themes or experiences were identified: Participants described (1) a body that did not exist; (2) a body hindered by strange sensations and distorted perceptions; (3) an uncontrollable body; and (4) a body isolated from social and clinical support. Discomfort was apparent in a physical and psychological sense and body experiences were difficult to comprehend and communicate to healthcare staff. Participants wished for interventions to improve their comfort but were doubtful that such treatments existed. Conclusion: Indications are that altered body perceptions cause multifaceted physical and psychosocial discomfort for stroke survivors. Discussions with patients about their personal perceptions and experiences of the body may facilitate better understanding and management to improve comfort after stroke.

Adult Immigrant Journeys: Occupational Downgrading and Continuously Evolving Selves

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Jan Adversario
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learning ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Possible Selves ◽  
Professional Experiences ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Qualitative Phenomenological ◽  
Adult Immigrants ◽  
Possible Selves Theory ◽  
Qualitative Phenomenological Study

This qualitative phenomenological study examined the occupational downgrading experiences of six adult immigrants. Occupational downgrading happens when an individual’s occupation post immigration does not match his or her education credentials and previous professional experiences. The goal is to make sense of the participants’ narratives through the lens of possible selves theory. Therefore, the research questions guiding this study were (1) How do occupational downgrading experiences of immigrants shape their integration to the U.S. workforce? and (2) How can we make sense of the participants’ narratives through the lens of possible selves theory? Phenomenological interviews served as the main source for data collection. In addition, artifacts allowed the participants to enrich their stories. Themes that emerged from the participants’ occupational downgrading experiences include underemployment, shift in status, language barrier, feeling of discrimination, and lack of inspiration at the new job. Looking at past, present, and future selves, the participants’ narratives were examined first through identity transition processes: separation, transition, and reincorporation. The study adds to a developing body of literature focusing on the possible selves of adult immigrants experiencing occupational downgrading. In particular, they inform who is participating in adult education. Likewise, this study centralizes the immigrant as participant to adult learning; it provides new narratives of adults in transition.

Revisiting competences of adult learning facilitators: Perspectives from the Mongolian context

2021 ◽  
pp. 147797142110031
Author(s):  
Togtokhmaa Zagir ◽  
Helga Dorner
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Adult Learning ◽  
Needs Assessment ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Teaching Role ◽  
Core Competences ◽  
Key Stakeholders

Competent adult learning facilitators play a vital role in improving the quality of adult learning programmes. This article thus explores common and core competences of adult learning facilitators from the perspective of key stakeholders, such as facilitators, adult learners and administrators. By synthesising previous international studies, we developed a survey and collected data in Mongolia ( n = 227). We identified adult learning facilitators’ common and core competences focusing on their teaching role. As found, areas of adult learners’ needs assessment, communication and motivation should be integrated in professional development programmes in order to aim for a better completion rate and higher participation of target audiences in adult learning programmes.

scholarly journals Are adult learners in Europe happier than non-learners? Statistical evidence from the European Social Survey

2021 ◽  
pp. 147490412110146
Author(s):  
Ellen Boeren
Keyword(s):  
Adult Education ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Adult Learning ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Participation Rates ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Relationship

This paper borrows insights from the literature on European welfare regimes to analyse the relationship between happiness and participation in adult education. The academic literature and policy discourses on adult education tend to claim that participation in learning is correlated with happiness despite the lack of strong European comparative empirical evidence on this topic. This paper uses data from the latest Wave of the European Social Survey to analyse the happiness perceptions of nearly 20,000 adults between the ages of 25 and 64 who live in 16 European countries (15 European Union countries and the United Kingdom). Results indicate that while adult learners on average tend to be happier than non-learners, this correlation weakens when controlling for determinants of participation and happiness and for the countries in which these adults live. Confirming the importance of welfare regimes, this study found that adults in Finland tend to be happier than those in other countries, regardless of their participation in adult education. Happiness scores were lowest in Bulgaria and Hungary, countries with low participation rates in adult education and with the biggest differences in happiness scores between learners and non-learners. It is argued that the presence of well-structured adult learning provision might be an important characteristic of welfare regimes but that happiness is determined by much more than being an adult learner.

scholarly journals Nurses and care delivery to elderly women: a social phenomenological approach

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 888-895 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastião Caldeira ◽  
Miriam Aparecida Barbosa Merighi ◽  
Luz Angelica Muñoz ◽  
Maria Cristina Pinto de Jesus ◽  
Selisvane Ribeiro da Fonseca Domingos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Professional Training ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Elderly Women ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Action Strategies

OBJECTIVE: To understand how nurses see care delivery to elderly women. METHODS: In this phenomenological study, ten nurses working at Primary Health Care Units were interviewed between September 2010 and January 2011. RESULTS: In care delivery, nurses consider the elderly women's knowledge background and biographical situation, and also value the family's participation as a care mediator. These professionals have the acuity to capture these women's specific demands, but face difficulties to deliver care to these clients. Nurses expect to deliver qualified care to these women. CONCLUSION: The theoretical and methodological approach of social phenomenology permitted revealing that the nurse designs qualified care to elderly women, considering the possibilities in the context. This includes the participation of different social actors and health sectors, assuming collective efforts in action strategies and professional training, in line with the particularities and care needs of elderly women nurses identify.

Adult learning in traditional music

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Cope
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Adult Learning ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Traditional Music ◽  
Technical Advice

This study is based on interviews carried out with 13 adult learners of traditional fiddle playing. The average age of the learners was 56 and they had been learning to play for between 2 and 20 years. All of the interviewees had taken music at school but none of them had been stimulated to participate further in any significant sense. The aspiration to learn to play the fiddle had various sources. Learning usually took place through traditional workshops and through the medium of the tune rather than through scales and exercises. Only one of the participants took regular conventional individualised lessons. They tended to take a pragmatic stance with regard to technique, looking for technical advice when they came up against barriers to progress. The music they played was within an aural culture and most of them learned by ear although they tended to regard notation as a useful supplement. All of them played in some sort of social context and all of them described an immense sense of pleasure and achievement from their playing. It is suggested that this kind of informal learning may have implications for learning to play instruments at school.

scholarly journals Building and Mobilizing Social Capital: A Phenomenological Study of Part-time Professors

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-70
Author(s):  
Sarah Jamieson ◽  
Jenepher Lennox Terrion
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Barriers To Communication ◽  
The University

This paper explores the experiences of new part-time professors (instructors hired on a semester-by-semester basis that have been working at the institution for less than five years) and considers the phenomenon of how they connect with peers. It examines whether a lack of connection exists among part-time professors at the University of Ottawa and how this may affect their experience (i.e. teaching and career), lead to barriers to connection, and affect their social capital (i.e., their ability to access or use resources embedded in their social networks). Using Moustakas’ (1994) phenomenological approach for collecting and analyzing data and Creswell’s (2007) approach for establishing validity, we uncovered several thematic patterns in participants’ experience that indicate barriers to connection and affect the ability to access and mobilize social capital: Feeling uncertain or impermanent, isolated, overwhelmed, and like second-class citizens. The paper concludes that inadequate social capital may not only influence part-time professors – it may also have problematic implications for students, the department, and the University as a whole. Keywords: Social capital, barriers to communication, phenomenology, qualitative methods, part-time professors

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