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Overall, 11% of high school students leave school without a diploma, and the percentage is higher for at-risk populations. High school graduates earn higher salaries and are healthier and more law abiding than dropouts. Research is limited on the motivation of at-risk students to graduate from high school related to their technological identity to include technology and social media in their learning schema. This qualitative case study explored at-risk students' perceptions of social media, personal learning networks, and informal learning in facilitating their graduation. Pink's concept of motivation, Siemens's connectivism theory, and Bingham and Conner's theory of engagement and social learning provided the conceptual framework. Interviews were conducted with 11 at-risk students identified by one Charter school: 4 students at-risk of dropping out, 3 dropouts planning to return, and 4 dropouts who had returned to high school. Open coding was used to identify rich themes and patterns that may help at-risk students succeed in school. Of the 5 themes identified 4 related to technology identity: transference to learning, relationships with personal learning communities and social networks, bridging technologies, and connected knowledge. Relationships with instructors and the school community also emerged as a theme. Connecting familiar and accessible technologies with formal learning could provide additional means of supporting academic success. Permitting the use of smart phones and social media to provide technological access to learning materials and instructors may create a motivating learning environment where students are willing to remain in high school to obtain a degree. Potential social and work benefits beyond high school may accrue for students.

It seems that for many people, spaces on the web are an integral part of their lives. This may include seeking out learning opportunities in online communities. There is plenty of buzz about these cyberspaces whether they are part of new social media configurations or commercialized product-related spaces cultivated by enterprises. It is important to explore how online spaces mayor may notcreate new locations of educational possibilities for workers. The subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, fusion of these technologies into work-learning practices warrants attention. This research project focuses on online communities as sites of learning, with an over-arching question of: How do self-employed workers experience informal work-related learning in an online community? Community can describe a gathering of people online that is organic and driven by a shared interest. These online spaces may also be purposefully nurtured by professional associations, workplaces, or businesses. This research project focuses on these spacesoutside the auspices of formal online courses. I draw on Actor Network Theory (ANT) to explore how work-learning is enacted in online communities and the implications of the intertwining of people and objects in multiple, fluid and distributed actor-networks. I also use the notion of legitimate peripheral participation from Situated Learning theory to explore how different possibilities for learning are shaped by locations and trajectories within a work practice and larger community of practitioners. Data was collected by interviewing 11 self-employed workers and then following the actors as objects of interest surfaced. This dissertation is a collection of five papers as well as introduction and conclusion chapters and a background chapter on ANT. Findings explore notions of online collectives shifting to more networked configurations, the complexity of work-learning practices unfolding in multiple spaces, contradictions between Web2.0 rhetoric and practices as different associations with knowledge and novel ways of knowing are enacted, and questions about the politics of technology that emerge from uncertainties around delegation, invisible practices, and necessary literacies. Given the need to pull objects out of the background and into critical inquiry, I also explored how a researcher interviews technology objects as participants in a study. / Adult Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of popular culture, especially prime-time television, on women learner-viewers’ identity development. More specifically, this study explores one specific television show, the 1962-64 Cathy Gale episodes of The Avengers as a portal to adult learning. It further explores the ways in which television, as a form of public pedagogy, can help facilitate the formation of a critical or feminist identity among adult learner viewers. The research questions guiding this study were: 1) How and what did women learn from watching The Avengers? 2) How did women incorporate that learning into their lives and into their identities? and 3) How did women interpret and accommodate the feminist example of Cathy Gale? Data for this study was collected over a two-and-a-half year period. Data consisted of interviews with contemporaneous viewers of the Cathy Gale Avengers episodes, interviews with scriptwriters and the actor who played Cathy Gale, Honor Blackman, numerous documents from statistics obtained at the British Film Institute, fanzines, and newspaper articles of the period. Analysis revealed that in particular historical times and situations television viewing can become a form of public pedagogy, facilitating transformational learning in adult viewers that produces lasting, life-changing effects. The investigation revealed that not only did biologically-born women incorporate Cathy Gale’s feminist example into their identities and actions, but biologically born males whose core gender identity was female did also. This dissertation is written in article format. Each of the six sections has been designed as stand-alone pieces to aid accessibility and enhance readers’ engagement with the study.

AbstractThe aim of this essay is to identify English out-of-school activities among students with an immigrant background to find out to what extent English out-of-school activities have an impact on the students’ results at the National Test of English.An additional aim is to find out if English out-of-school activities are a way of integration outwards or vice versa if the lack of English out-of-school activities is a sign of integration inwards. The present study is based upon a questionnaire with closed questions, which was filled in by 54 third graders enrolled in the Child and Recreation Programme. The informants are divided into two groups, one of which is a control group of native Swedish students. The study showed a tendency that students with an immigrant background who are not involved in English out-of-school activities obtain lower grades in English and that they integrate inwards by using their native language on the Internet, listening to music and watching films from their home country. Furthermore, the study showed that there is a slight difference between native Swedish students and students with an immigrant background as regards computer habits.Keywords: English out-of-school activities, integration, third language acquisition, informal learning, computer habits, National Test of English, the third culture

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of popular culture, especially prime-time television, on women learner-viewers’ identity development. More specifically, this study explores one specific television show, the 1962-64 Cathy Gale episodes of The Avengers as a portal to adult learning. It further explores the ways in which television, as a form of public pedagogy, can help facilitate the formation of a critical or feminist identity among adult learner viewers. The research questions guiding this study were: 1) How and what did women learn from watching The Avengers? 2) How did women incorporate that learning into their lives and into their identities? and 3) How did women interpret and accommodate the feminist example of Cathy Gale? Data for this study was collected over a two-and-a-half year period. Data consisted of interviews with contemporaneous viewers of the Cathy Gale Avengers episodes, interviews with scriptwriters and the actor who played Cathy Gale, Honor Blackman, numerous documents from statistics obtained at the British Film Institute, fanzines, and newspaper articles of the period. Analysis revealed that in particular historical times and situations television viewing can become a form of public pedagogy, facilitating transformational learning in adult viewers that produces lasting, life-changing effects. The investigation revealed that not only did biologically-born women incorporate Cathy Gale’s feminist example into their identities and actions, but biologically born males whose core gender identity was female did also. This dissertation is written in article format. Each of the six sections has been designed as stand-alone pieces to aid accessibility and enhance readers’ engagement with the study.

The aim of the thesis was to explore the magnitude of inequity in accessibility to initial formal education, continuing adult education, and work-related informal learning for the workplace. The two main issues that the thesis attempted to determine is whether social background characteristics that affect initial educational attainment continue to influence participation in adult education and work-related informal learning. More specifically, this research focused on three main questions: First, to what extent does parents’ social background influence educational attainment levels for Canadians from different generations? Second, to what extent does parents’ social background influencing participation in adult education for their offspring beyond the effects of an individual’s own social background? And, third, to what extent does parents' social background have on their offspring’s participation in informal learning for the workplace beyond the effects of an individual's own social class background? A secondary data quantitative analysis was carried out on the data collected in the 2004 Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL) survey. Both crosstab analysis and structural equation analysis were used to obtain an overview of inequities in participation in formal education and informal learning and to test the applicability of Bourdieu’s social reproduction theory. Overall, the findings of this thesis indicate that social reproduction occurs not only through the formal education system, but also through the adult education system. More specifically, parents’ education continues to be a good predictor of the level of education attained by offspring. Moreover, one’s level of education continued to be a predictor of participation in adult education. Social reproduction was not present for work-related informal learning. In fact, those from low incomes were more likely to engage in informal learning than those from high incomes. These findings indicate that despite level of cultural and economic capital, the majority of Canadians engage in a learning activity. It is apparent that structures that are present in our formal education system continue to advantage students with high cultural and economic capital; however, work-related informal learning is accessible to all.

Disertacijoje analizuojama, kaip vadovų savaiminio mokymosi pagalba daryti įtaką įmonės veiklos rezultatams. Vadovų savaiminis mokymasis nagrinėtas tarpdiscipliniškai – atskleisti vadybiniai, psichologiniai bei edukologiniai aspektai. Susisteminta savaiminio mokymosi samprata bei atskleisti jos ryšiai su formaliuoju ir neformaliuoju mokymusi. Įvardinti vadovų savaiminio mokymosi veiksniai: savaiminio mokymosi individo, savaiminio mokymosi aplinkos veiksniai bei savaiminio mokymosi metodai. Taip pat aprašyti mažų ir vidutinių įmonių veiklos rezultatai. Vadovų savaiminio mokymosi veiksnių įtaka įmonių veiklos rezultatams ištirta empiriškai Lietuvos mažose bei vidutinėse įmonėse. Tyrimas atskleidė, kad didžiausią įtaką Lietuvos mažų ir vidutinių įmonių rezultatams (įmonės inovatyvumui, klientų pasitenkinimui ir jų nusiskundimų fiksavimui, darbuotojų pravaikštų mažėjimui ir darbuotojų pasitenkinimui) turi tam tikri vadovų savaiminio mokymosi veiksniai: aukštas vadovų pasiekimo poreikis, aukštos teigiamos vadovų nuostatos į mokymąsi, lengvai darbuotojams prieinama informacija įmonėje, skiriamas laikas, o taip pat ištekliai bei priemonės, reikalingos mokytis. / The dissertation analyses how to impact enterprise performance results with the help of managers’ informal learning. The concept of managers’ informal learning has been analyzed interdisciplinary – the aspects of management, psychology and educology sciences have been revealed. The concept of informal learning has been clarified and its interrelationship with formal and non-formal learning has been defined. Also factors of managers’ informal learning have been identified: individual informal learning factors, factors of informal learning environment and informal learning methods. The performance management results of small and medium-sized enterprises have been described. The impact of managers’ informal learning on enterprise performance results has been verified empirically in Lithuanian small and medium sized enterprises. The research revealed the particular factors having the biggest impact on Lithuanian small and medium-sized enterprise performance results: enterprise innovativeness, customer satisfaction and their complain tracking, absenteeism decline and employee satisfaction. The mentioned most significant managers’ informal learning factors are as follows: manager’s high need for achievement, high positive manager’s attitudes towards learning, easily accessible information in organization, resources and time allocated for learning.

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The aim of the thesis was to explore the magnitude of inequity in accessibility to initial formal education, continuing adult education, and work-related informal learning for the workplace. The two main issues that the thesis attempted to determine is whether social background characteristics that affect initial educational attainment continue to influence participation in adult education and work-related informal learning. More specifically, this research focused on three main questions: First, to what extent does parents’ social background influence educational attainment levels for Canadians from different generations? Second, to what extent does parents’ social background influencing participation in adult education for their offspring beyond the effects of an individual’s own social background? And, third, to what extent does parents' social background have on their offspring’s participation in informal learning for the workplace beyond the effects of an individual's own social class background? A secondary data quantitative analysis was carried out on the data collected in the 2004 Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL) survey. Both crosstab analysis and structural equation analysis were used to obtain an overview of inequities in participation in formal education and informal learning and to test the applicability of Bourdieu’s social reproduction theory. Overall, the findings of this thesis indicate that social reproduction occurs not only through the formal education system, but also through the adult education system. More specifically, parents’ education continues to be a good predictor of the level of education attained by offspring. Moreover, one’s level of education continued to be a predictor of participation in adult education. Social reproduction was not present for work-related informal learning. In fact, those from low incomes were more likely to engage in informal learning than those from high incomes. These findings indicate that despite level of cultural and economic capital, the majority of Canadians engage in a learning activity. It is apparent that structures that are present in our formal education system continue to advantage students with high cultural and economic capital; however, work-related informal learning is accessible to all.