Fishing Paradigms

Adult learning, according to Yang (2003, p.107) citing DeSimone, Werner and Harris (2002, p.75) is “relatively permanent change in behaviour, cognition, or affect that occur as a result of one’s interaction with the environment.” Several models dominate the adult learning paradigm. The first adopts the Western Rational tradition where “educational process is to transmit accurate representations of the real world, ideally established as such by scientific test” (Meizerow, 1996, p. 59). The second is the interpreters’ paradigm where the learning experience is constructed out of personal experience to form the framework of learning. The third is the critical theory where it considers learning as a transformation process (Yang, 2003).


Wagner (2001) identified the inventive ways to encourage adult learning. Some of the innovations include “language guidelines and planning, empowerment and community participation, learning, instruction and materials design, gender and family, multispectral connections, post literacy and income production, and technology and distance education” (p.5). Professional development, potential advancement at work, and continuing to enrich one’s life as one grows older are some of the reasons why adults are motivated to learn.


Fishing is one of the oldest occupations of humans and it contributes to the food security as well as the economy of a country. The Aboriginal people on the British Columbian coasts, in particular are dependent on salmon and other marine and freshwater species. Since the 1800’s, large-scale commercial fishery operates in British Columbia (Pitcher, Buchary, & Sumaila, 2002). Aboriginal people in Canada do not approach history within the context of the Western idea of causal relationships, record, and time sequence. Instead, they approach history through narrative, cosmology, and place (“Aboriginal versus Western world views,” 2009). Indigenous peoples have used oral evidence to document traditional practices in agriculture and fishing. Knowledge is passed from one generation to another through traditional narratives, instructional travel, and place names (“Narratives and place names,” 2009). In this discourse, how British Columbia fishermen learned their craft is explored.