The evolution of the European Union’s lifelong learning policies: an institutional learning perspective

The EU’s lifelong learning policy has emerged as an overarching educational reform policy intended to address a wide range of issues, including education, employment and competitiveness. The question has been raised as to whether the resulting policy is merely a catch‐all concept that can be applied to any needs or whether it is underpinned by a comprehensive concept and strategy. This article advances the notion of institutional learning as the selective adoption by organisations of characteristics or policies from other organisations, as opposed to the wholesale homogenisation suggested by institutional isomorphism. Based on our periodisation of international lifelong learning policy, this article argues that a complete historical analysis of the discourse on lifelong learning, coupled with an analysis of the European Commission’s institutional learning from others will give a more appropriate picture of what contributed to the current conceptualisation of lifelong learning.     

Education,technology, and the ‘new’ knowledge economy: views from Bongoland

The concept of bridging the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world draws symbolically on nineteenth century diffusion theories of linear progress and twentieth‐century theories of modernization and development. This paper examines information and communication technology (ICT) policies and public‐access postings on http://www.bongoland.net. Bongoland evokes a quality of life that is hectic, frustrating, and slightly crazy. Where the language of policies envisions that technology will improve life in Bongoland, users’ postings suggest that technology reinforces regional hierarchies. This essay argues that, despite the disarticulation of past and present at narrative levels in policy, the past and the present emerge as related in Bongonians’ online postings.     

Challenges in evaluating the EU’s lifelong learning policies

Since the early 1990s, lifelong learning has become a major policy concern for the European Union, being seen as a means for enabling individuals to be more competitive in social and economic contexts that are continually changing. After a series of white papers and strategies in the field of lifelong learning, the EU launched the Lifelong Learning Programme in 2007, which dealt with the most pressing issues in the field. In light on the complexity of this programme, we need to ask ourselves if traditional evaluation models and approaches are appropriate for evaluating complex educational policies and programmes in the educational field. Thus, the stake of this article is to explore the challenges which arise when evaluating the EU’s lifelong learning policies and programmes in general, and the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013 in particular, as well as to propose several new directions for overcoming these challenges.     

Preschool’s new suit: care in terms of learning and knowledge

This article focuses on aspects of the notion of care in relation to the work of quality documentation in the Swedish preschool. Questions deal with how teachers enact pedagogy in relation to the documentation work; how they handle the demands of visibility; and which aspects of the teacher profession are exposed and which are silenced. Data consist of observations from staff meetings at a preschool and interviews with preschool teachers and their managers while discussing the work of documenting quality in the preschool. Our analytical tools are based on theories of teacher professionalism, combined with education policy. Our results show that the preschool staff rarely talk about care and that difficulty in describing and documenting the meaning of care leads them to use various professional strategies whereby they escape the challenges and transform care into children’s learning and knowledge.     

Trans-nationalization of educational policy making: from European innovation projects in adult education to an emerging European space for lifelong learning: what model for the European vocational education and training policy?

This article is drawn from broader qualitative research on innovation in the field of professional adult training within the framework of European pilot projects such as the LEONARDO projects. This research aims at contributing to a general understanding of the phenomenon of innovation, in the context of European calls for projects, as an instrument of the European Vocational Education and Training (VET) Policy, which is supposed to transform the national training systems of EU member states according to the Lisbon Strategy. For this article, the author has chosen to present some of the results of the analysis of the European VET Policy and its transition to a lifelong learning policy. The first part of this article describes the conceptual framework and more especially three of the main concepts examined: public policy, social innovation and European space. The second part distinguishes three periods in the European VET policy’s history, identified through a genealogical examination from its first step within the European Coal and Steel Community to the present lifelong learning policy. The third part highlights the specificity of this supranational public policy model and the links between the European VET policy, the LEONARDO programme and the pilot projects. In conclusion, this article supports the idea of antagonistic logics in the evolution of this policy, on at least three levels: decision-making powers, conception of VET systems and conception of learning.     

UNESCO’s utopia of lifelong learning: An intellectual history

International Review of Education -     

Education’s role in the economy: towards a new perspective

The economics of happiness is a developing field of inquiry that is arousing more and more interest among public policy-makers. This article discusses some of the educational implications that stem from this new field of inquiry. The article argues that the economics of happiness shows that the present educational focus on enhancing productivity is insufficient in and of itself and that greater emphasis should be placed on how education can help to transform wealth into happiness. It also maintains, however, that it would be inadvisable to directly derive the role that education should play in the economy from the findings of the economics of happiness. The current educational aim of enhancing productivity, it is concluded, must be complemented by an educational emphasis on informing, guiding and even shaping people’s economic preferences.     

‘No escape from the hard things of the world’: learning the lessons of empire

Educating older adults (in the so‐called third age) is becoming an increasingly important activity for the elderly, above all because it empowers them, while at the same time reducing their social exclusion. The aim of this paper is to closely examine the actual state of affairs and the education possibilities for older adults in Slovenia. The article deals with a secondary analysis of data that was collected in three Slovene researches dealing with the participation of adults in the education process in 1987, 1998 and 2004. The purpose of the analysis is to examine te changes in the participation of the older adults, their motivation for education and barriers that have dissuaded them from education. Special attention is devoted to the development of the offer of educational programmes for older adults in Slovenia. The authors state that the offer of education for older adults has improved between 1987 and 2004, while the participation has declined. The older adults mentioned a number of various barriers that represent the reasons for the decline in their participation, however the major obstacle is the low educational level of older adults.     

Social inclusion and active citizenship under the prism of neoliberalism: A critical analysis of the European Union’s discourse of lifelong learning

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate the impact neoliberalism has in shaping the discourse of the European Union’s policy of Lifelong Learning. The literature review initially presents the theoretical framework of neoliberalism as the dominant ideological and economic paradigm of our time. Thereafter, it takes a view on how neoliberalism perceives the four objectives of the European Union’s Lifelong Learning policy, namely employability/adaptability, personal fulfillment, social inclusion, and active citizenship. Through the analysis of European Commission’s policy documents on Lifelong Learning, this article explores whether these objectives, with focus on social inclusion and active citizenship, can be realized within the ideological, political, and economic framework set by the neoliberal paradigm. The data underwent Qualitative Analysis using the methods of Critical Discourse Analysis and Qualitative Content Analysis as well as Quantitative Analysis of textual data. The results indicate that only employability and adaptability seem to be compatible with the neoliberal rhetoric since the flexible and adaptable employee better serves the needs of the markets. The role neoliberalism holds for the individual is that of the consumer, product user, and voter. Therefore, the non-economic objectives of Lifelong Learning cannot be equally developed as they constitute the complete antithesis of neoliberalism’s basic principles.     

‘Creative destruction’: knowledge economy policy and the future of the arts and humanities in the academy1

Policy conceptualizations of the global knowledge economy have led to the channelling of much Higher Education and Research and Development funding into the priority areas of science and technology. Among other things, this diversion of funding calls into question the future of traditional humanities and creative arts faculties. How these faculties, and the disciplines within them, might reconfigure themselves for the knowledge economy is, therefore, a question of great importance, although one that as yet has not been adequately answered. This paper explores some of the reasons for this by looking at how innovation in the knowledge economy is typically theorized. It takes one policy trajectory informing Australia’s key innovation statement as an example. It argues that, insofar as the formation of this knowledge economy policy has been informed by a techno‐economic paradigm, it works to preclude many humanities and creative arts disciplines. This paper, therefore, looks at how an alternative theorization of the knowledge economy might offer a more robust framework from within which to develop humanities and creative arts Higher Education and Research policy in the knowledge economy, both in Australia and internationally.     

Children’s informal learning in the context of schools of the knowledge society

This paper builds on a key finding of a 5-year Danish research project con-cerning children in the 7 to 15 age group: children’s principal use of computers and the internet takes place in their spare time, and it is during their spare time that the majority of children really learn how to use interactive media. The project shows that in children’s spare-time use of ICT they employ informal forms of learning based to a large extent on their social interaction both in physical and virtual spaces. These informal learning forms can be identified as learning hierarchies, learning communities and learning networks; they are important contributions to the school of the knowledge society. The ICT in New Learning Environments project based on anthropologically inspired methods and social learning theories shows that students bring their informal forms of learning into the school context. This happens particularly when the school has undergone physical alterations and when its organisation of learning and teaching are also restructured, with project-based learning becoming an important part of the school work and with the media available in the learning environment. Using organisation theory, the school working with ICT and project-based learning is shown to simultaneously constitute a mixed mode between the school of the industrial and the knowledge society. The research shows that it is possible to tip the balance in the direction of the school of the knowledge society, and thus of the future, by comprehensively using ICT and project work in the day-to-day activities of the school, alongside and integrated with the traditional forms of learning, and not least by employing the informal learning processes children develop outside school. For teachers this will mean an extension of their function: no longer merely communicators of knowledge, they will have to become knowledge managers and overall leaders of projects, and this entails much more dialogue with the pupils.

Edufare for the future precariat: the moral agenda in Australia’s ‘earning or learning’ policy

This paper considers the educational experience constructed under Australia’s policy decision in 2009 to extend compulsory education by requiring that students must be ‘earning or learning’ till 17 years of age. The discussion draws on an empirical project that explored the moral order operating in classrooms for students retained under this policy in non-academic pathways in high schools and Technical and Further Education colleges across three towns experiencing youth employment stress. It asks how the policy regulating these students’ prolonged engagement with formal education plays out in classroom interactions, to what end and to whose benefit. A theoretical lens informed by work by Standing and Wacquant is used to understand the contemporary moment, and work by Durkheim and Bernstein unpacks the moral work implicated in classroom interactions. The analysis describes the light curriculum and the heavy compliance demanded in these ‘edufare’ programmes then argues that in essence the policy seeks to manage the social risk posed by the future precariat. The conclusion reflects on whether this is an adequate policy response to broad generational changes in fortunes and prospects to which education may not have the answers.     

Cumulative and segmented learning: exploring the role of curriculum structures in knowledge‐building

The present article extends Basil Bernstein’s theorisation of ‘discourses’ and ‘knowledge structures’ to explore the potential of educational knowledge structures to enable or constrain cumulative learning, where students can transfer knowledge across contexts and build knowledge over time. It offers a means of overcoming dichotomies in Bernstein’s model by conceptualising knowledge in terms of legitimation codes (bases of achievement) and semantic gravity (context‐dependency of knowledge). This developed framework is used to analyse two contrasting examples of curriculum – from professional education at university and secondary school English – that aim to enable cumulative learning. Analyses of students’ work products show that both cases can constrain knowledge‐building by anchoring meaning within its context of acquisition. The basis for this potential is located in a mismatch between their aims of enabling students to learn higher‐order principles and their curricular means that focus on knowers’ dispositions rather than articulating principles of knowledge.     

UNICEF’s lessons learned from the education response to the COVID-19 crisis and reflections on the implications for education policy

COVID-19 triggered mass innovation that grew flexible learning modalities and pathways that can be built upon in future sector plans to make education systems more resilient. These tools must be paired with investments in the people expected to use them and strengthened data systems. To ensure plans are rooted in ever-pressurised budgets, Education Ministers will increasingly need to turn to economic analysis. Expansion of partnerships will be necessary to secure greater and more innovative forms of finance but also affordable digital learning solutions. If these opportunities are seized alongside the disruption wrought by the pandemic, they can equalize opportunities and accelerate progress.     

Re-defining ‘learning about religion’ and ‘learning from religion’: a study of policy change

The study of how policy processes shape religious education as a curriculum subject, rather than within faith schooling, is relatively unexplored. This paper applies a policy analysis perspective to an important distinction in non-confessional English religious education, which has also been adopted internationally: ‘learning about religion’ and ‘learning from religion’. The changing nature of the distinction in English policy documents from 1994 is examined in the light of three main voices of influence on educational policy: neo-conservatives, neo-liberals and progressives. These changes are also analysed through three policy contexts: influence, text production and practice. Revisions to policy wording are interpreted in the light of this theory, showing the growing significance of neo-liberalism, and the nature of compromise, amendment and ambiguity. The implications for an understanding of the inter-relationship between policy, pedagogy and practice are then considered.     

From lifelong learning to youth employment: back to the future for higher education in Scotland’s colleges

This article explores aspects of the experience of higher education students in a Scottish college within the context of widespread contemporary concern about youth unemployment. Analysis of published data reveals a marked shift in the demographic profile of higher education students in colleges in favour of young people. An unseen consequence of this change has been a decline in opportunities for older students, particularly women wishing to study part time at an advanced level. Survey data from one college follows up an earlier case study and explores new dimensions of the work/life/study balance. In this study the respective experiences of school leavers, young adults and adults are compared. Over half of the students were in paid work, an increase compared with the previous survey. The relationship between work or family life and study was significant in influencing the quality of the students’ experience. Young part-time students, many of whom were following modern apprenticeships, achieved a more successful work/life/study balance compared with full-time students who were in paid work. It is recommended that colleges should devote attention to enabling students to maximise the benefits of combining work with study, to prepare them for transition into a difficult labour market. It is also argued that the different priorities of older lifelong learners should continue to be recognised as their numbers decline.     

Active learning for active ageing: Chinese senior immigrants’ lifelong learning in Canada

This paper explores the intersection between migration, aging and lifelong learning with the aim of expanding our understanding of how lifelong learning enhances older migrants’ active aging in a foreign land. Our study also offers insights into the learning activities of older immigrants in general. In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed a conceptual framework of active aging, which has greatly influenced aging policies and seniors’ everyday practices. Yet, there is a paucity of research that explicates and fully integrates lifelong learning into active aging discourse, and focuses on senior immigrants’ lifelong learning in an aging society. Based on interviews, textual materials, and participatory observation in five Chinese seniors’ immigrant associations in Toronto, we explore how Chinese senior immigrants’ learning has been (re)shaped and practised through re-settling in Canadian society. Five categories of learning are explored, including a) learning language and computer skills, b) learning culture and history, c) learning civic engagement, d) learning leisure, and e) learning health. We argue that ‘active learning’ can be used as a dynamic conceptual framework that interacts with active aging theory, demonstrating how senior immigrants actively participate in the lifelong learning project for participation and integration in Canada. This paper provides insights to the understanding of culturally sensitive policy-making on integration, health, and lifelong learning of older immigrants in Canada and beyond.     

Raising the participation age in historical perspective: policy learning from the past?

The raising of the participation age (RPA) to 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2015 marks a historic expansion of compulsory education. Despite the tendency of New Labour governments to eschew historical understanding and explanation, RPA was conceived with the benefit of an analysis of previous attempts to extend compulsion in schooling. This paper assesses the value of a historical understanding of education policy. The period from inception to the projected implementation of RPA is an extended one which has crossed over the change of government, from Labour to Coalition, in 2010. The shifting emphases and meanings of RPA are not simply technical issues but connect to profound historical and social changes. An analysis of the history of the raising of the school leaving age reveals many points of comparison with the contemporary situation. In a number of key areas it is possible to gain insights into the ways in which the study of the past can help to comprehend the present: the role of human capital, the structures of education, in curriculum development and in terms of preparations for change.     

‘Becoming our own experts’: lessons from the past

This article reports on a local curriculum development project from the 1970s that shared many of the features of action research, though it was not thought of as such. Teacher control, the bridging of the theory–practice divide, the centrality of practitioner classroom research, and the quality of pupils' learning were all features of the project. The article also discusses the problematics of outsider involvement, of contributions to knowledge, and of authenticity.