The concept of identity has become prominent in the study of Canadian education. We further the understanding of identity by examining the ways through which adults present themselves as subjects in learning processes. We recruited 134 adults who had recently read self-help books pertaining to health, careers, or relationships, and conducted…

Objective: To address a critical gap in health education scholarship by exploring the contexts in which self-help reading takes place, the motivations of self-help readers and the processes through which such readers engage with books on mental health. Design: Structured, in-depth interviews conducted with participants recruited through online…

Numerous scholars have documented and critiqued the predominance of neoliberal policies and rationalities shaping adult and continuing education around the world. Contemporary sociologists have argued that neoliberal citizens are characterized by hyperindividuality and a strong sense of personal autonomy. Self-help reading is widely viewed as one…

In recent years, the concept of public pedagogy has increasingly influenced the study of continuing education, drawing attention to ways in which adults access resources from popular culture and learn without the involvement of educational institutions. Reading relationship self-help books has become a prominent component of popular culture. There…

Self-help literature has become an important domain of adult learning in North America. Self-help books offer readers advice on how to take charge of their lives and achieve goals such as prosperity, love, happiness, wellness, and self-actualization. Despite the popularity of self-help books, there has been little research about them from scholars…

Examined role of home practice of hand warming in thermal biofeedback treatment of migraine headache. Seventeen female migraine sufferers were assigned to thermal biofeedback with or without regular home practice. Subjects on home practice group experienced decreases in headache activity and medication intake that were both statistically and…

Surveyed 80 Canadian university counselors to determine whether they prescribed self-help books and to compare titles of most prescribed books to those selected by Canadian psychologists. Found that 74.4 percent of 78 counselors answering question responded affirmatively to recommending books with 56 titles being prescribed. Lists 10 books most…

Students from two high schools in Nova Scotia rated the Self-Directed Search (SDS) according to reasonableness and usefulness of the results. The high esteem group reported greater satisfaction on the second criterion. (Author)

The unprecedented development of self-help groups confirms their importance, but few studies have focused on prevention and self-help groups. Two methods for investigating preventive potential are outcome studies and process analysis. To assess the presence of helping processes in self-help group meetings, a process analysis was developed to…

This working paper lays groundwork for a Network for New Approaches to Lifelong Learning study on informal learning by people displaced from the labor market or chronically unemployed, in the context of community organizations. Section 1 examines the context and two particularly significant features--wider changes in the nature of work and related…

Participatory adult education programs assist individuals to substitute interdependent, mutually beneficial relationships for unrewarding, dependent relationships. Indicators of changes in dependency, however, are absent or imprecise in evaluations of participatory projects. A study explored facets of dependency by relating practitioners'…