breathing in—that was creatively and ingeniously applied by all tribes… . Through these methods [such as storytelling, dreaming, tutoring, and artistic creation], the integration of inner and outer realities of learners and teachers were fully honored, and the complementary educational processes of both realities were fully engaged (Cajete, 1994, pp. 33–34).
Cajete beautifully expresses what teaching and learning mean to him:
A parable that often flashes through my memory during times of quiet, deep relaxation, or just before I fall asleep: ‘It is an essential, life-sharing act of each generation of a People to nurture that which has given them Life and to preserve for future generations the guiding stories of their collective journey to find life’ (1994, p. 187).
According to Cajete, “among American Indians, education has always included a visionary expression of life. Education has been, and continues to be, a grand story, a search for meaning, and an essential food for the soul” (2010, p. 1131). Cajete's recognition of the importance of the “natural environment” in indigenous knowledge systems is reflected in recent research on the link between indigenous communities and the environment. For example, Hendry's (2014) book explores indigenous wisdom with regard to science and sustainability. Lowen-Trudeau (2017) studied teaching and learning in indigenous environmental movements, and Bardsley and Wiseman (2016) reported on indigenous community-based monitoring of environmental change in Australian rangelands. And in a discussion of the term indigenous, Morrison and Vaioleti (2017) concur: “What seems to be the defining quality and foremost in the thinking by indigenous people is their tie to land” (p. 48).
Brennan (1997, p. 191) has observed that “the lack of attention to the indigenous learning structure may have been initially the work of missionaries who viewed indigenous culture as inferior and non-Christian and therefore to be ignored or if necessary repressed.” He goes on to suggest a four-stage process for recognizing indigenous learning as an essential part of the nonformal system of learning for adults. In Stage 1, approaches or techniques that may be relevant to educational or developmental activities are identified—for example, the role of traditional dance and music and the use of legends, myths, tales, and proverbs. Stage 2 involves classifying these approaches and techniques into a system that educators in more formal settings can understand and integrate into their own ways of thinking. “The third stage,” he writes, “is associated with advocacy for the exploration of a broader indigenous learning ‘system’ … [and] the fourth stage is represented by the development of more detailed and comprehensive learning ‘systems’ for a particular cultural group” (pp. 192–193). Indigenous forms of learning can also be seen as informal or self-directed learning, as was described by Cajete and is examined in the next section.
Informal Learning
Informal learning is the third form of learning in Coombs's typology. Defined by him as “the spontaneous, unstructured learning that goes on daily in the home and neighborhood, behind the school and on the playing field, in the workplace, marketplace, library and museum, and through the various mass media” informal learning is by far the most prevalent form of adult learning (Coombs, 1985, p. 92), the “base of the iceberg” upon which formal and nonformal learning rests (Rogers, 2014). Rogers (2014) notes three forces in our lives that promote informal learning: (a) taking on new roles such as parent, student, retiree; (b) adapting to factors in the sociocultural context such as economic forces, advances in technology, etc.; and (c) individual interests that change over time. Illeris (2017) calls informal learning “everyday learning” because it “occurs informally and apparently by chance in everyday life as one moves around the spaces of one's life without consciously intending to learn anything, but often busily absorbed in getting everything to function, and more or less understanding it” (p. 203). It is, as Livingstone (2001) points out, learning that takes place without the externally imposed curriculum of either formal or nonformal educative programs. The complexity of this type of learning is underscored by Ross-Gordon, Rose, and Kasworm (2017):
These informal learning experiences have typically involved learner-created, situation-specific, frequently extemporaneous, and more often undocumented learning experiences. Adults in informal learning activities take responsibility for identifying a variety of learning goals and for actively choosing to learn new information and skill through their own means, style, and judgment. Through efforts to identify key resources from books, technology media, tutorials, neighbors, colleagues, or a local authority, each individual self-experiments with different forms of learning resources. Further, these learners utilize varied forms of assessment to meet their self-defined learning goals and expected outcomes (p. 34).
The very nature of informal learning is what makes it so difficult for adults to recognize. Embedded as informal learning is in our everyday activities, whether we are at work, at home, or in the community, and lacking institutional sponsorship, adults rarely label these activities as learning. However, studies of informal learning, especially those asking about adults' self-directed learning projects, reveal that upwards of 90% of adults are engaged in hundreds of hours of informal learning (see Chapter 6). It has also been estimated that the great majority (upwards of 70%) of learning in the workplace is informal (Kim, Collins Hagedorn, Williamson, & Chapman, 2004), although billions of dollars each year are spent by business and industry on formal training programs. Caruso (2017) suggests more should be done to capture and share this rich resource of informal learning in the workplace.
Informal learning, Schugurensky (2013) suggests, has its own internal forms that are important to distinguish in studying the phenomenon. He discusses three forms: self-directed learning, incidental learning, and socialization, or tacit learning. Informal learning is:
all that learning that is not acquired through the formal and non-formal educational systems. At first glance, it seems that there is little left. A deeper look will reveal that we learn many important and relevant things outside of organized educational programs. Informal learning could be self-directed (intentional and conscious), incidental (unintentional but conscious), or tacit (unintentional and unconscious) (p. 6).
These differ among themselves in terms of intentionality and awareness at the time of the learning experience. Self-directed learning, for example, is intentional and conscious; incidental learning, which Marsick and Watkins (1990/2016) describe as an accidental by-product of doing something else, is unintentional but “after the experience she or he becomes aware that some learning has taken place” (p. 4); and finally, socialization or tacit learning is neither intentional nor conscious (although we can become aware of this learning later through “retrospective recognition”) (p. 6). For an exploration of these forms of informal learning see Duguid, Mundel, and Schugurensky's (2013) case studies of informal learning of volunteers in diverse institutional and organizational settings.
Of the three forms of informal learning, self-directed learning is the most visible and the most studied (see Chapter 6). The following two scenarios illustrate the informal nature of self-directed learning:
Scenario 1: David has a passion for model railroading. He spends hours in his basement planning his layout, tinkering with his equipment, and laying track. He subscribes to every railroad magazine published and talks shop with acquaintances who also have model trains. Every once in a while, he attends a model railroad show, but for the most part, this is a hobby he enjoys pursuing on his own. Over the years he has learned a great deal about model railroading and is proud of his layout, though as he says, “I'll never be totally satisfied. There are always new things coming out which I like to fiddle with.”
Scenario 2: Trudy has just learned that she has breast cancer. Once over the initial shock, she decides to take an active role in planning her treatment. So that she can speak intelligently with
