LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Orientation 2/2010

Orientation

LIFELONG LEARNING AND WELLBEING

The mission of LLinE is to bring adult education academics and practitioners together to share their work and best practices. To complement the printed forum of the journal, LLinE has a long tradition of organizing international conferences on lifelong learning themes. The 12th international LLinE Conference on the theme of wellbeing was held on the 27th to 29th of January, in Tuusula, Finland. This issue of the journal is a selection of the conference papers and presentations. Hence, the central question we ask in this issue is: how does learning influence wellbeing in different settings?
This issue’s contributions form together a holistic picture of wellbeing. The articles cover topics from wellbeing at work to mental health, from 3rd age wellbeing to national education policy.

David Watson
Learning Through Life: in and beyond the UK

The Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning was set up in the United Kingdom in 2007 to identify a consensus for the future of lifelong learning in the UK. Learning Through Life is the main report from the Inquiry. In this article, Professor Sir David Watson, chairman of the Inquiry, presents the findings of this report with the reasoning behind it, drawing conclusions for both the UK and Europe.

Irma Kunnari and Lasse Lipponen
Building teacher-student relationships for wellbeing

What do best practices in student guidance in the Finnish context look like? This study describes the ways teachers construct practices conducive to socio-psychological wellbeing of their students in building feelings of relatedness, competence and autonomy. This seemed to have an impact on the teachers’ own wellbeing as well. Threats to wellbeing in an educational community are also discussed in this article.

Sofia Boutsiouki
In search of wellbeing
-aspirational and functional purposes of learning of Greek postgraduates.

This paper draws data from an empirical survey carried out on Greek postgraduate students, exploring their perceptions and attitudes regarding lifelong learning in relation to wellbeing. The article finds -perhaps contrary to expectations -that lifelong learning is valued as much as a way to personal development as a vehicle for professional advancement.

Eeva Anttila and Teija Löytönen
Sensuous Understanding
-embodied mode of reflection enhancing wellbeing at work

Anttila and Löytönen - dance pedagogues and researchers- approach wellbeing at work from a radical perspective. Reflecting upon one’s work plays a key role in work wellbeing. Western body-mind-duality, however, makes us see this reflection solely as a cognitive process. The body is excluded from knowing. This article argues that bodily experiences are significant in human learning and suggests that a bodily mode of reflection would enhance wellbeing at work and in society as a whole. The article also discusses how this might be achieved in practice.

Katarina Popovic
Health and the power of informal learning

In this contribution we focus on learning about (physical) health through adult education. The author finds that the existing adult education provision in Europe in general and in South Eastern Europe in particular is not enough to satisfy the demand for health knowledge. Informal learning on the other hand is very important in bridging this gap.

James Ogunleye and Marja Kaunonen
Lifelong learning and mental health

How does lifelong learning empower those suffering from long-term mental illness? This paper documents the results of the trans-European EMILIA project’s qualitative research involving mentally ill people in a lifelong learning training intervention. The results indicate mainly positive experiences, for example in terms of the participants’ employment and meaningful activities. While the mental health problems of the participants have not disappeared, these have diminished, and the participants’ ability to expand their social networks, training and work prospects has improved.

Brian Groombridge
‘Out of the twilight zone’
-older people: learning, the arts and wellbeing

The arts are crucial in maintaining and developing the mental and physical wellbeing of older people, as practitioners or as audiences. In his article Brian Groombridge urges governments –in his native UK as well as abroad –to invest in learning for and about the arts to improve quality of life for senior citizens. Society also benefits as the cost of care homes and medical treatments is reduced.

ADULT EDUCATION IN BELGIUM

Stéphanie Peters, Céline Mahieu, Arnaud Salmon, Cédric Danse, Françoise de Viron and Daniel Faulx

Validation of learning in French-speaking Belgium
- discourse and practices

Belgium holds the EU Presidency from July to December 2010. Our article series of presenting national adult education systems continues with a look at the validation of formal and informal learning in French-speaking Belgium