Public lecture with Prof. Stephen Billett: „Negotiating Learning & Development Across the (Adult) Lifespan“

This lecture is open for interested people from the scientific community.

This event explores how individual progress across the lifespan is shaped by both societal structures and personal negotiations, focusing on the transitions from childhood to old age. Building on work life history research that highlights the importance of community networks in supporting these transitions, this lecture elaborates concepts such as the „personal curriculum“ (i.e. the pathway of experiences individuals have across their lives) (Billett 2023a) and a broader consideration the kinds of „educative experiences“ that comprise processes of guidance and support, yet in ways that sit outside of the orthodoxy of what is often captured as lifelong education (Billett 2023b). Central here is the duality between what is afforded individuals by societal practices and suggestions, broadly captured through the concept of social affordances (i.e. invitations to participate), on the one hand, and how individuals can come to engage with what is afforded them. Yet, these are only one means by which those negotiations, and that learning, and development can be understood. Consequently, the discussion following the lecture will elaborate on approaches adopted by colleagues at the Goethe University of Frankfurt so that the diverse perspectives and adopted by researchers interested in the life course can better be understood.

About the lecturer:

Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Stephen Billett is Professor of Adult and Vocational Education, Griffith University, Brisbane, and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. Following an earlier work life in garment manufacturing, he has worked as a vocational educator, educational administrator, teacher educator, professional development practitioner and in policy development in the Australian vocational education system and as a teacher/researcher at Griffith University. Since 1992, he has researched learning through and for work and published widely in fields of learning of occupations, workplace learning, work and conceptual accounts of learning for vocational purposes. He was awarded a Fulbright scholar, National Teaching Fellow, recipient of honorary doctorates from Jyvaskala University (Finland) and University of Geneva (Switzerland), and elected Fellow Academy of Social Sciences of Australia.