Education - Social & Political Aspects, Psychology - Theory, History & Research, Educational Levels & Settings, Educational Theory, Research & History

Beyond Fragments: Adults, Motivation And Higher Education

Name: Beyond Fragments: Adults, Motivation And Higher Education
Author: Linden West
ISBN: 9781136350238

by Linden West

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Overview

What motivates adults to enter and continue in higher education and what does this represent in the context of whole lives? Adults now form the majority of students in higher education: what they bring to, want and need are important questions in the development of a more responsive higher education. Beyond Fragments challenges the idea that learners simply pursue vocational ambitions; motivation and learning are rather to be understood as part of a struggle for authentic selves and stories against a backcloth of oppression and fragmentation. A novel, inter-disciplinary, cultural psychology of learning is developed using object relations, sociological, cultural and feminist theory. The book derives from innovative in-depth, biographical and empathic research which chronicled and theorized peoples' motives, experiences and evolving narratives over time.

Synopsis

Adults now constitute the majority of students in higher education; what they bring to it, want and need are important questions in the development of a more responsive higher education. The author discusses The Relationship Between Motives, Education, And Life History To Explore how culture and history shape people and their motives for learning, taking into account variations in gender, social background and ethnicity, challenging the orthodox view that non-traditional students enter higher educational for vocational/material reasons.

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Develops a cultural psychology of adult learning incorporating object relations and sociological, cultural, and feminist theory, drawing on in-depth biographical research with individual adult students in higher education from various backgrounds. Students' stories and their experiences of oppressive conditions and negative cultural scripting demonstrate the importance of higher education as a space in which to experiment with the creation of new identities. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.