Adult Learning in Everyday Life

Learning in everyday life is always situated. In this contribution – an edited version of an extended interview – Jean Lave elaborates on this situatedness. She points out that learning is not to be understood as the acquisition of knowledge but as the transformation of people in practice and through practice. Thus, learning can lead to changing social practices. In viewing learning this way, it is important to consider the relevance of structures of power. Drawing on Gramsci’s and Lefebvre’s reconstructions of alienation in everyday life, this chapter offers a perspective on including hegemonic and disalienating practices in research into learning. It also discusses the concept of situated learning in relation to other theories and methods for researching learning in everyday life.