In this article we build a theoretical framework with which to analyse trendsetting learning biographies, i.e. biographies that are prototypical realisations of a cultural script about how young people learn and live in late modernity. In the current debate on lifelong learning in knowledge-based societies learners are interpreted in an economical and psychological sense. Notions from youth, life course, and generation sociology are, however, needed to fully understand trendsetting learning biographies. We selected 14 Dutch younger adults (varying by class and gender) with these biographies, analysed their biographical narrations, and explored the importance of structure and agency in their learning biographies. Their life stories reveal a structured interrelation between an integrated life conception, special forms of social capital, and the key competence of biographicity. We conclude with some thought on the complications of theory building when interpreting learners in a biographical sense.
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Within the study ‘Musicians as Lifelong Learners: Discovery through Biography’, biographical research was used to examine key developments in the professional lives of musicians, focusing on the relationship between their life, educational and career span ant their learning styles. This resulted in a collection of 32 narrative learning biographies of musicians from different countries and with various careers. Musicians with a performing career, music pedagogues, and musicians with a portfolio career, who combine different roles within various areas of engagement, are portrayed. The main thread throughout the biographies is the question of how these musicians learn as ‘lifelong learners’.
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This article considers four learning biographies from professional musicians. Each musician holds a different portfolio career and is from a different age category. The key questions I ask are: "How does one learn as a musician?", "What knowledge, attitudes, values and artistic skills are necessary to function effectively and creatively as a contemporary musician?", and "What is the necessary framework of lifelong learning in music education?" My findings are analysed in the light of lifelong learning for musicians with a focus toward teaching and learning.
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