Anna Milione and Tiziana Tesauro edited the volume published in the series “Social Theory and Research“ by Edizioni Altravista entitled “Lifelong Learning for Adults: Experiences and Practices“

Continuing to Learn

According to the PIAAC results – the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies – in Italy 27.9% of the population between 16 and 65 years of age lacks the so-called literacy skills, which enable one to read a text on familiar topics easily and identify specific information. The same Programme shows that in our country fewer than one in four adults participate in educational activities – 24% compared to the OECD average of 52% – and these are almost always employed individuals who undertake such pathways to improve their professional position.

It is important to view these data in light of the reflections that in recent years have concerned the concepts of competence and the regulatory developments – European and national – that have emphasized the importance of lifelong learning as an instrument for promoting personal development, social inclusion, and active citizenship.

But how is the discourse on lifelong learning translated into practice and what infrastructural conditions favor the emergence of such practices?

The proposal of “Lifelong Learning for Adults: Experiences and Practices” – a volume edited by Anna Milione and Tiziana Tesauro, published by Altravista – stems from the need to answer these questions.

After a review of the European legislative framework and the theoretical framework on lifelong learning and human development, the IRPPS researchers present six experiences related to different fields of activity – adult education, continuing vocational training, university education, and digital education in schools and universities – describing “the interactions among people, objects, technologies, artifacts, and infrastructures.”

Given the breadth of perspectives and experiences reported, the volume can be a valuable tool in various disciplinary and organizational fields.

Continuing Vocational Training

Non-conventional training experiences aimed at professionals can pursue different objectives.

Barbara Pentimalli describes the training sessions that involved middle managers in healthcare, conducted with the mediation of a tutor and through the sociological tools of action research, aimed at developing competences to understand and initiate changes in their work context.

Tiziana Tesauro’s chapter concerns the experience with care professionals in a broader sense (medical, nursing, and social care personnel), describing the use of theatrical practice aimed at developing processes of reflexivity: subjects who act as if they were actually in a given situation develop competences that they can then transfer into practice.

University Education

The theoretical background linking theater and education is developed in Francesco Cappa’s chapter, which traces the practice, originating in an academic context, of the pedagogically oriented theater workshop and its connections with the approach to the methodology of adult education and training.

Adult Education

The case study presented by Anna Milione on the territorial network of the CPIA (Center for Adult Education) in Salerno documents the growing demand for education among users with a migration background and examines the institutional responses – often fragile – implemented to meet these needs.

Digital Education

The chapters by Paolo Landri and Marialuisa Villani investigate the educational scenario of 2020 which, following the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, is characterized by an increase in distance learning activities in both school and university contexts and in work settings. Although the pandemic has produced an acceleration of digital technology in the educational field, it is difficult to predict what the effects will be on the morphology of educational organizations.

Edited by Monia Torre with the scientific contribution of Anna Milione.

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“In contemporary society, lifelong learning has assumed a crucial function in the construction of individual biographies, not only for professional updating and retraining, but also to promote personal development, social inclusion, and active citizenship. The extension of learning modalities from formal to non-formal contexts, the definition of key competences, the increasing complexity of the concept of literacy prefigure a plurality of actors, places, and educational contexts.
But how is the discourse on lifelong learning translated into practice? Through what experiences? To what extent can these experiences be transferable? What are the infrastructural conditions that favor the development of lifelong learning practices?
The volume attempts to provide answers to these questions by documenting some practical experiences in different contexts (school, university, social, and healthcare settings)”

Contributors to the volume: Anna Milione, Barbara Pentimalli, Tiziana Tesauro, Francesco Cappa, Paolo Landri, and Marialuisa Villani