Advocates of 'lifelong learning' promise positive change for individuals and society, but the transition to student' life is difficult for mature university students. Those traits which define the 'student' identity on campus, in society, and in current research, conflict with many adults' experiences. The normalised 'traditional student' identity is marked by freedom from parental control and the social aspects of university life; this discourse marginalizes 'adult learners' who are stereotypically portrayed as middle-aged and concerned with parenting and employment issues. The social acceptance of these competing discourses, and their influence on academic policy, affects both the construction of a 'student' identity and individuals' information behaviours. Through a combined methodology, grounded in a postmodern framework of social constructionism, this study explores the 'student' identity, and the academic and informational experiences of mature students (over age twenty-one), returning to university studies after an absence of at least three years. The study's first phase involves the manipulation of Canadian Census data. Cross-tabulations and logistic regression analyses show the limitations of 'adult learner' stereotypes and the privileging of the 'traditional student' in the Census' design. For instance, 'school attendance' only refers to the September to April academic year, while many mature students take summer courses. Also, the Census currently does not track students' re-entry status. In the second phase of the study, in-depth qualitative interviews examine the lives of twenty-five mature, re-entry students at the University of Western Ontario. This shared institutional context provides insight into the 'student' discourses on campus, academic and informational support, and the effect of the environment on the construction of a 'student' identity. The interviews explore the integration of information behaviours into mature students' daily lives, and the impact of discursive constructions on these behaviours. The results detail the pursuit of academic success, and dispel stereotypical myths of the 'adult learner'. For instance, while children are typically viewed as barriers to academic success, the interviewees' children supported their parents by reading assignments or searching for information. The study's findings call for research and service practices based on mature students' individual academic and informational needs, rather than stereotypical discursive constructions.

Gorard, S. & Selwyn, N. (2005) What makes a lifelong learner? Teachers College Record, 107 (6) 1193- 1216.

This article uses reports from 1,001 home-based interviews, with adults living in the United Kingdom, to describe their varying patterns of participation in lifelong learning. It finds that 37% of all adults report no further education or training of any kind after reaching compulsory school- leaving age. This proportion declines in each age cohort but is largely replaced by a pattern of lengthening initial education and still reporting no further education or training of any kind after leaving. The actual patterns of participation are predictable on the basis of such key variables as age, ethnicity, sex, family background, and initial schooling, all of which are set very early in life. This suggests that universal theories to describe participation, such as simple human capital theory, are incorrect in several respects. Where individuals create, for themselves and through their early experiences, a learner identity inimical to further study, then the prospect of learning can become a burden rather than an investment. This has implications for the notion of overcoming barriers to access, such as those involving technology.

Gotteson, R.L. (1994) The adult with learning disabilities: An overview. Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 5 (1) 1-14.

This literature review focuses on the outcome of childhood learning disabilities, adult symptomatology, and the educational and vocational status of adults with learning disabilities. It concludes that learning disabilities are life-long disabilities and that childhood deficiencies in reading, language, memory, attention, visual perception, and social-emotional adjustment tend to persist into adulthood.