Comprehensions of learning and learners - understanding experiences of adults and experts in adult education

The aim of the paper is to interpret personal comprehensions of learning, in order to understand the complexities, uniqueness and divides of the subjective reality of adult learning comprehensions. "One of the major implications of lifelong learning is that we can potentially learn from every experience in life" (Jarvis, 2006; 2007). We present an interpretation of adults and adult education experts' comprehensions of learning and learners. According to Roger Harrison representations of learners are never neutral; rather they are active in ‘naturalising’ certain understandings of what learning means, what it means to learn and to be a learner, and in so doing define the boundaries of the educational field and whatever is possible within it (Harrison 2003). Interpretation of empirical examples is based on two studies, comprising of 55 semistructured interviews with adults and 14 semistructured interviews with experts. There are tensions and divides in the comprehensions of learning, especially in understanding the adult learner and the role of adult education by the experts. There is a need to understand different comprehensions in order to understand learning experience.