Narratives and images from professional practiceto promote non formal adult learning in agriculture: a case study

AbstractAccording to the American Psychological Association a case study is a paper inwhich “the author describes case material obtained while working with an individualor organization to illustrate a problem, to indicate a means for solving a problem or toshed light on needed research or theoretical matters” (APA, 2001: 8-9).Within this framework the study here presented – developed within the framework ofthe Leonardo da Vinci project Tas for Agriform - focuses on the educational andtraining impact of narratives of professional practice in non formal adult learningcontexts for agricultural entrepreneurs and documents the process of construction,development, implementation and evaluation of a non formal educational and trainingmethodology based on the use of narratives and images of professional practice. Theproject is specifically targeted to agricultural farmers who need to becomeentrepreneurs, considered as a particularly difficult target of adult learners for age,culture, personality.According to these premises, the paper addresses in particular the following twoESREA issues “what is the impact of auto/biographical, biographical and life historyresearch in the field of lifelong learning, education, in the lives of subjects and in theresearcher's relationship to his/her knowledge”; “what is the place of informal andtacit knowledge in learning lives and doing research- situating them in the frameworkof educational research on professional development and training, in a lifelonglearning perspective”.