This was a collaborative action research project with three, mixed method evaluation cycles. Its aim was to increase the impact of new learning technologies (NLT) in two Police Forces. The first reconnaissance cycle found a significant absence of uptake for one computer based training system (<1% impact after five years) with only assumptions of ‘technological determinism’ driving the process. A range of individual, work related and cultural factors were illuminated, towards understanding how the Force might become a ‘network’ organisation, where technology fundamentally transforms how work is done (Symon, 2000). Following the qualitative interview study, a quantitative survey was carried out with 164 respondents on the areas of concern for NLT in the Police. Factor analysis of this data reinforced a parsimonious five factor solution, accounting for 55% of the variance and on which to proceed with cycles two and three. In the second cycle, 130 Police Probationers completed a battery of psychometrics to assess individual difference factors associated with successful outcomes in training with NLT. Results showed 27% of the variance on a bespoke NLT learning measure was predicted by computer attitudes. Age, gender, education, motivational and almost all personality measures offered no significant contribution to explaining the data. The bespoke learning criterion was used as a pre-test, post-test and retention measure and showed significant increases in knowledge were gained from NLT: effective and efficient learning was evidenced. Also in the second cycle, a sub-sample of (n=20-34) Probationers participated in two stages of repertory grid interviews rating different elements of Police training methods. From these data an ‘Ideal Probationer Learning Event’ (IPLE) model was proposed. This was stable over time and positioned NLT within a conceptual structure that identified preferred and non-preferred construct poles equating to four dimensions along which Police officers reliably rated any training event. In essence, it highlighted sites of perceived credibility and offered these as levers for creative change. Follow-up work with 120 Probationers using another example of NLT explored how integration of learning from NLT could occur from a learner-centered point of view, using an interpretive concept mapping technique. This illuminated sites of power exchange and the location of ‘ownership’ of learning in Police culture. The IPLE model was used to direct the third cycle which included constructivist and contingency perspectives. It was propsed that by creatively designing an NLT event to increase elements of the preferred constructs discovered in cycle two, integration of an NLT event would enable the transformative properties of NLT as a to manifest themselves. A sample of up to 60 Police Staff used an NLT package alongside a bespoke, collaborative e-learning group. Criterions were developed according to skill breadth, frequency and difficulty and significant increases in learning were not only found, but maintained following completion of NLT when retention was measured. The e-learning group brought some of the credible elements of training to the NLT event, thereby constituting a ‘unique solution’ (Seltzer, 1971). It created peer learning groups, despite geographical separation. Data for each level of Kirkpatrick’s (1959; 1960) ‘best practice’ training evaluation model was collected enabling the conclusion that creative integration is key to a network uptake of NLT.

This thesis explores the relatively under-theorised relationship between wisdom and adult teaching and learning. Whilst studies of wisdom are usually couched within a psychological framework, and/or one related to gerontology, this work poses key questions about what wisdom means, whether it can be taught, and the extent to which its elusive and allusive character has rendered it marginal to the design and delivery of adult and lifelong learning. Using autoethnography as both method and methodology, and by drawing on a diverse range of sources, including six interviews, this pursuit of wisdom is anchored in the reflexive relationship between the author and her subject of study. Key ontological and epistemological questions are posed as I seek meaning in relation to my lifeworld and lifespan. I also examine autoethnography’s efficacy whilst acknowledging criticisms within the academy, including accusations of narcissistic irrelevance. This study also incorporates the use of ‘writing as inquiry’ by way of offering a further challenge to the more traditional bounds of the social sciences. The interview material is couched within a fictionalised framework, and the whole thesis unfolds, conterminously, as both analysis and quest. In keeping with the methodological approach, the thesis concludes by offering a synthesis of certain of its propositions, rather than resolution. By adopting Sophia, the ancient goddess of wisdom, as metaphorical guide, the basic proposition that is shared across the text is the epistemologically fragmented nature of our understanding of wisdom and her relegation in a frenetic world which can be obsessed with the measurable as against the deepening of understanding. Yet the paradoxical nature of wisdom’s manifestations might also offer a degree of hope, should we heed her call…I argue that she is intimately intertwined with learning itself and with the potential for heartfelt and imaginative openness to the wisdom of ‘unknowing’ and the possibility of transcendence. However, Sophia demands our imaginative, authentic, loving and courageous attention in the process: in writing; in the classroom; in understanding the play of history, culture and the self. This autoethnographic inquiry is my response to that demand.

Qualified nurses require equitable access to continuing professional education (CPE) that is responsive to the needs of learners, employers and most importantly clients. There is scant attention paid to the CPE custom of community nurses, with research in the experience of island-based nurses mainly limited to the Mediterranean and under-developed islands, or of nurses working in the Scottish Isles. The community nurses in question are employed by a charity working outside the National Health Service (NHS), based on an island with a unique model of healthcare that is more medicalised and institutionalised than the United Kingdom NHS. Semi-structured, one-to-one interviews were conducted with sixteen community nurses, and two focus groups undertaken, one with nurse managers and the other with qualified nurses. Interview data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, a method new to education research, and not yet recorded in relation to nurse education. Findings indicated an ageing workforce, with ageism hindering access to CPE. Geographical isolation coupled with a lack of access to tertiary education dictated CPE to fulfil professional development. Charitable status and limited CPE funding resulted in a third of nurses applying for sponsorship via local or national agencies, this was not found elsewhere in the current literature. This research contributes to the knowledge relating to nurse CPE, confirming the transferability of existing literature relating to geographical remoteness, barriers and outcomes of formal study to community nurses. It advances the current knowledge base with regard to small island infrastructure effecting access to CPE, funding formal education for nurses working outside the NHS, and silo working within the community setting. Further research is required to explore the experience of community nurses under the age of 30 years not represented within this study, who will be the future workforce when older nurses retire. These findings are of particular significance to the Jersey Health and Social Services Department who are currently redesigning the future health and social care system on the island based on a community model, nurse educators, the charity and its qualified nurse employees, and finally the island population.

This thesis considers questioning of rigid conceptions of identity with regards the parallel and integrated contexts of the Canadian Arctic and academia. The text has been written as a conversation between texts written by Inuit (the source literature) and non-Inuit. I have searched and analyzed these sources on the broad themes of research, colonization and pedagogy. The theme of research is a guide for the first section of this thesis where I locate the research by detailing my rationales and methodologies. My objective to conduct this research ethically, responsible to writings by Inuit and others represented within this thesis, led me to use a literary approach considered by some as non-standard within the social sciences. Drawing only on secondary texts for this research, reading and writing are my methodologies and I utilize intertextuality as a theoretical and methodological guide. The theme of colonization in the Canadian Arctic provides a main focus for the second and third sections of the thesis. I review perspectives both on colonization in the Canadian Arctic, and contemporary social health challenges, and consider these in relation to the educational sphere most specifically. Colonization is discussed as something that has incurred trauma for Inuit, and as something that Inuit seek to be resilient to, but I emphasize a need to recognize diversities within the colonization and contemporary experiences of Inuit. I discuss that narratives can be misleading and potentially harmful, particularly when there is an overreliance on rigid externally-defined narratives which conflict with internal conceptions of identity. And I discuss how narratives can also be affirming, particularly when an individual has agency over the construction and the sharing processes. I consider the writings within the source literature as enactments of resilience through inherent questioning of hegemonic ‘truths’. Pedagogy is a thematic guide for the fourth section of the thesis. I suggest that under the intangible terminologies of ‘overcoming trauma’ or ‘resilience over colonization’ sit pedagogies that Inuit discuss whereby such ideals may be pursued. Learning theorists focussed more broadly promote critiques of mainstream pedagogies and ideal pedagogies similar to those discussed by Inuit. Considering these connections leads to an articulation of five characteristics of ideal pedagogies for coming to new understandings on difference: 1) a need to revalue diversities and ‘soft’ skills such as imagination; 2) a tolerance of an individual’s need for freedom to define one’s own identity; 3) a conceptualization of pedagogy as a contextualized way of living rather than a decontextualized activity; 4) the importance of a dialogic pedagogy and humility of both teacher/learner; and 5) the promotion of a cognizance, through pedagogy, that essentialisms are necessary but also potentially misleading and damaging. Such an articulation of ideal pedagogies has also guided my own learning within this research.

China's 'Modern Distance Education' is a government-led initiative prompted by the need to widen access to higher education and by the opportunities offered by the development of a widespread infrastructure of information and communications technologies. Distance education using television, radio and other technologies has a long history in China, but the advent of computer communications opened new possibilities for promoting educational development and the policy goal of modernisation. Distance education in China now involves online learning, to various degrees. However, the effectiveness of online courses depends on learners accessing them and using the resources provided. Does this happen? How well do learners manage their online learning? What barriers do they encounter? This thesis examines these questions through a study of adult distance learners based on analysis of a survey of 2931 learners and in-depth interviews with 21 learners and distance education experts in several locations. I find that: (1) The barriers to online learning faced by the sample learners are of seven types: communication and interaction; teaching and courses; learning resources; learning support services; external support and economic burdens; computer and network operation skills; and conditions for accessing the Internet. (2) Among the seven types of barrier, the 'communication and interaction' barrier is not only acting as the most important one faced by these learners, but also exists as a markedly independent one. (3) Improvements in 'communication and interaction' are the most effective in overcoming the other barriers and also contribute to increasing the learners' learning efficiency. This leads to the perception that working on 'communication and interaction' is very likely to be the best starting point for tackling barriers to online learning. According to these findings, I believe that if the situation of 'communication and interaction' in online learning can be improved for online learners to meet their desire for 'sociability', and once they can thus establish their own 'learning communities' and form relatively stable 'student-to-student' relationships, and 'student-to-teacher' relationships, other learning barriers will be reduced as well. Hence, I argue that we should always pay attention to making 'communication and interaction' occur effectively for online learners in the learning process. We should consider the matter of 'interaction' not only in the delivery process of teaching and tutoring as well as in learning activities, but also in the production of teaching materials and in the provision of learning materials, as well as in the building of learning environments. In a word, it is necessary to put the whole matter of 'interaction' at the core of the instructional system design for online learning.

This work outlines the history of Access Courses and explains the National quality assurance framework established to co-ordinate standards within such provision. The National Framework consists of a number of Authorised Validating Agencies (AVAs) who have been empowered to validate Access provision subject to various quality assurance mechanisms. The quality assurance requirements of AVAs are generalised and the effects they have, in terms of costs and benefits, to a number of stakeholders are detailed. Key stakeholders identified are the providing institution, students, and higher education institutions. The general principles of cost-benefit analysis are outlined along with case study examples. A computer-based model is produced with the capability of manipulating the generalisable costbenefit factors to accommodate local conditions and could therefore be used as a decision support aid by the three key stakeholder groups. The application of the model beyond the case studies is also discussed. The problematic nature of applying cost-benefit analysis to the quality assurance mechanisms of Access Courses is also considered. Areas where further research is required are outlined.

The arrival of lifelong learning within nursing constitutes a major conceptual shift that every qualified nurse is expected to adopt to be able to function as a Registered Nurse (RN) throughout their career. In the 1990s, lifelong learning had been appearing sporadically within nursing literature as a fait accompli, and with a seemingly general assumption that there was a shared understanding and acceptance of the concept amongst all nurses. The literature review revealed that lifelong learning is closely linked to the evolving nature of healthcare delivery in the National Health Service (NHS), and that it comprises of a number of related components. However, there was a dearth of empirical literature with regards to its application to day-to-day nursing practice at the time this study started. The study focused on examining the assumptions that seemed extant at the time and the areas that were not documented in the literature. It sought to ascertain the nature of RNs' perceptions of lifelong learning, and took into consideration the underlying philosophy, principles and practicalities of the concept. It also sought to identify both the formal structures required for effective implementation of lifelong learning as well as the day-to-day factors that might facilitate uptake and continuation of learning. Furthermore, the study endeavoured to ascertain the current and likely future impact of lifelong learning on nursing. To explore these issues, the study involved collecting, analysing and interpreting data from twenty-six individual interviews and two focus group discussions along with a comprehensive documentary analysis. The findings revealed that there are positive perceptions as well as reservations about lifelong learning amongst RNs, the latter mainly because mandatory continuous professional development (CPD) is resented by a number of nurses. This could be due to their lack of experience and apprehension related to studying in a university. The study found that structural mechanisms could be more firmly anchored and equitably available. Numerous day-to-day factors such as profession-based and personal networks tend to influence levels of engagement in formal learning. For instance, CPD in the form of workbased formal and informal learning is relatively widely utilised. Additionally, the impact of attitude change towards continuing development of own knowledge and competence yields favourable outcomes for the RN and for patient care.

The thesis looks at the morphogenesis of structure, culture and agency and the historical interplay between them. It attempts to do this by investigating the lives of mature students applying for a place on an Open Access course as a foundation year for university entrance. The focus of the study concerns the reasons given by the students for their application to undertake Access and seeks to discover whether their decision to enrol on Access can be interpreted morphogenetically as representing a 'new beginning' in their lives; a 'new beginning' which in turn represents the end of a personal and culturally related morphogenetic cycle. It is the contention of the thesis that the socio-cultural background of the students is not one that is usually seen as culturally compatible with university entrance and thus their application represents not only a major event in their personal lives but also a significant cultural movement from one cultural base to another. Since Access courses represent a major educational initiative the students' decision to join the course can be read as a morphogenetic interplay of structural, cultural and biographical factors. Research material was gathered through a morphogenetic analysis of the students' Access application forms, course interviews, informal discussions, written statements whilst on the course and a series of in-depth interviews. The thesis concludes that from the evidence of their own life histories the students were experiencing a personal morphogenesis related to change in their lives and that their biographical 'journeys' need to be read in relation to the changing wider structural, cultural and familial backdrop against which their own morphogenesis is occurring.

In 128 small companies in the West Midlands, the way staff are selected for development is explored is explored, together with the characteristics of staff and selector. Finding that some staff are repeatedly selected for development, a comparison is made between the attributes of those being selected and of those carrying out selection. This is an attempt to define why some staff are identified as possessing 'the right stuff' while other similar staff are not. Variables such as gender, ethnic background, age and educational background are compared but relationships only found between the learning outlook of the CEO and that of his or her selected key worker(s). The learning outlook is described in terms of the preferred learning style and of the most preferred methods to learn. However, in some sectors very little selection of ethnic minority staff occurred. Part of the research reviewed the selection process, relating this to business planning and identification of training needs. Little evidence was found of the use of formal planning or of specific processes to identify training needs, selection resting firmly with informal mechanism often under the narrow control of the CEO. Given the investment by government in this sector of the economy, it seems important for those providing resources to recognise this lack of formal planning and to work to ensure that opportunities for education and training are widened to include more of those employed by the company. Similarly, where CEO ambitions are explored, it is clear that most CEO's are not committed to growth but have other varied, personal aims. Investment in all companies assuming that growth is a key factor may be an ineffective use of resources, which might be better specifically targeted rather than distributed uniformly across the whole sector.

In recent years policy changes have encouraged access to and the participation of adults in British universities. This thesis is a case study which looks at the experiences of non-traditional adult women students in universities. Emphasis is placed on understanding the experiences of mature undergraduate women students in universities from the perspectives of the actors. This is a sociological study. I draw on and integrate three theoretical paradigms: Marxist feminism, Marxism and interactionism. I examine the significance of macro and micro levels in shaping the behaviour, attitudes and experiences of women adult students. Gender and class were important factors in shaping the past and present lives of women in this study. However, in deciding to return to learn the women were actively choosing to change the direction of their lives. An underlying question was to what extent did studying change the way participants perceived themselves as women? Learning and the influence of social science disciplines helped the women to deconstruct and redefine the self. Being a student was influenced by the interaction of structure and agency. The women's student identity was shaped by both their own actions and institutional forces. Adult students are not homogeneous. Younger, single mature women experienced university life differently from older, married women as do full-time students compared to part-time students. The women studied here adjusted to the institutional life of a university through the formation of subcultures. To understand fully the experiences of being an adult student the interactions between public and private worlds are examined. A biographical approach using interviews was employed. A small sample of male mature students was included to identify the extent to which experiences were gendered ones. Despite the struggles the women interviewed valued the acquisition of knowledge and learning in a university environment.