Lernen in Lebensphasen – eine Alternative zum Lebenslangen Lernen?

For various reasons adult participation in lifelong learning does not measure up to expectations tied to the agenda of lifelong learning. The article suggests that adults relate learning activities to their conceptions of life stages. Therefore, participation in institutionalized continuing education must rather be linked to life-stage-dependant decisions based on sociocultural patterns than to the acceptance of lifelong learning in general. Specifically in the stage of professional life, these orientations towards continuing education are formed by habitual perceptions of one’s own occupational and operational position. How do adults experience chances and possibilities of continuing education then? Continuing education is seen as a matter of course, as unattainable, as unreasonable or as irrelevant. The article underpins the supposition of life-stage-dependancy theoretically by differentiating between biography, life course as triadic sociocultural pattern and life course as category for longitudinal cohort research. Our assumption is also substantiated by empirical findings about baby boomers’ orientations towards learning and continuing education.