Informal Learning: Some Underlying Philosophies

Authors

  • John Garrick University of Technology, Sydney

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v10i1.2079

Abstract

In the theory and practice of adult education and training, much of the writing on informal learning has focused on three main topics. These topics tend to represent the importance of informal learning as a valid form of knowledge acquisition; they explore how people learn from experience, and they seek to establish how learning from experience can be best facilitated and assessed. A postmodern critique of experiential learning has also emerged which challenges the arguments of each of these perspectives. The postmodern critique asks "why has this form of learning become an important discourse at this particular historic moment?" This article is primarily concerned with the underlying philosophies of these topics. It argues that the uses of informal learning will tend to embody the values and ultimate goals of its implicit philosophy. Developing a socially useful theory to eliminate oppression now requires attention to the elusive conditions of post modernity, and informal learning-at work and in education-is a central feature of these conditions.

Résumé

Les écrits théoriques et pratiques sur l'apprentissage informel traitent principalement de trois sujets. On y décrit l'importance de l'apprentissage informel en tant que mode valide d'acquisition de connaissances; on y explore les méthodes employées par les apprenants en situation informelle; enfin, on cherche des moyens pour soutenir et évaluer les apprentissages informels. Une critique postmoderne de l'apprentissage expérientiel remet en question chacune de ces trois perspectives, en posant d'abord la question: «Pourquoi cette forme d'apprentissage occupe-t-elle une place aussi importante dans le discours actuel, à ce moment de l'histoire?» Le présent article se penche sur les implications philosophiques de cette question. On verra que l'apprentissage informel reflète des valeurs, des buts et une philosophic implicites. Afin d'élaborer une théorie sociale utile à la lutte contre l'oppression, il faut tenir compte des conditions cachées de la post-modernité; parmi ces conditions, l'apprentissage informel en milieu de travail et dans les institution d'enseignement occupe une place de premier plan.

Downloads

Published

1996-05-01

How to Cite

Garrick, J. (1996). Informal Learning: Some Underlying Philosophies. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 10(1), 21–46. https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v10i1.2079

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (1996)

Section

Articles

License

Authors of manuscripts accepted for publication will be required to assign copyright to the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education/L’Association canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation des adultes (CJSAE). CJSAE requests that, as the creator(s)/author(s) of the manuscript your are submitting assign certain rights to the manuscript to the CJSAE in exchange for undertaking to publish the article in print and electronic form and, in general, to pursue its dissemination throughout the world. The rights the CJSAE requests are:

  1. The right to publish the article in print and electronic form or in any other form it may choose that is in keeping with its role as a scholarly journal with the goal of disseminating the work as widely as possible;
  2. The right to be the sole publisher of the article for a period of 12 months;
  3. The right to make the article available to the public within a period of not more than 24 months, as determined by relevant journal staff of the CJSAE;
  4. The right to grant republication rights to itself or others in print, electronic, or any other form, with any revenues accrued to be shared equally between the author(s) and the journal;
  5. The right to administer permission to use portions of the article as requested by others, seeking recompense when the CJSAE sees it as warrented;
  6. The right to seek or take advantage of opportunities to have the article included in a database aimed at increasing awareness of it;
  7. As the author(s), the CJSAE wishes you to retain the right to republish the article, with acknowledgement of the CJSAE as the original publisher, in whole or in part, in any other pbulication of your own, including any anthology that you might edit with up to three others;
  8. As the author(s), the CJSAE withes you to retain the right to place the article on your personal Web page or that of your university or institution. The CJSAE askes that you include this notice: A fully edited, peer-reviewed version of this article was first published by the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, <Year>, <Volume>, <Issue>, <Page Numbers>.

BY AGREEING TO THE FOREGOING, YOU CONFIRM THAT THE MANUSCRIPT YOU ARE SUBMITTING HAS NOT BEEN PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE IN WHOLE OR IN PART, AND THAT NO AGREEMENT TO PUBLISH IS OUTSTANDING.

SHOULD THE ARTICLE CONTAIN MATERIAL WHICH REQUIRES WRITTEN PERMISSION FOR INCLUSION, YOU AGREE THAT IT IS YOUR OBLIGATION IN LAW TO IDENTIFY SUCH MATERIAL TO THE EDITOR OF THE CJSAE AND TO OBTAIN SUCH PERMISSION. THE CJSAE WILL NOT PAY ANY PERMISSION FEES. SHOULD THE CJSAE BE OF THE OPINION THAT SUCH PERMISSION IS NECESSARY, IT WILL REQUIRE YOU TO PURSUE SHUCH PERMISSSION PRIOR TO PUBLICATION.

AS AUTHOR(S), YOU WARRANT THAT THE ARTICLE BEING SUBMITTED IS ORIGINAL TO YOU.

Provided the foregoing terms are satisfactory, and that you are in agreement with them, please indicate your acceptance by checking the appropriate box and proceed with your submission.

This copyright agreement was extracted with permission from the "Best practices guide to scholarly journal publishing" (2007), produced by the Canadian Association of Learned Journals (CALJ).