Lifelong learning policies and discourses: critical reflections from Aotearoa,New Zealand

This article examines New Zealand experiences and understandings of lifelong education and lifelong learning over the past 30 years or so. It investigates the place of lifelong education and lifelong learning discourses in shaping public policy in Aotearoa as well as questions about the similarities and differences between the discourse in New Zealand and in Europe and the UK. The aim of the paper is to throw light on the following questions: what effects, if any, have notions of lifelong education or lifelong learning had on public policy discourses on tertiary education and the education of adults? Is there evidence to suggest that notions of either ‘lifelong education’ or ‘lifelong learning’ have provided a vision or sense of purpose or set of guidelines in developing public policies? Have they served to justify or legitimate new initiatives or funding arrangements? And, if so, what is the nature of this influence? Finally, in the light of this discussion the article also examines the question whether notions of ‘lifelong education’ and ‘lifelong learning’ as they have featured in the academic and policy literature are predominantly located in a Euro‐centred discourse and hence how they might be reconstituted to reflect more adequately discourses of learning and education in other parts of the world.     

Can lifelong learning be the post-2015 agenda for the Least Developed Countries?

This paper discusses what approaches to ‘lifelong learning’ should guide the post-2015 education agenda for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) which refers to a group of 49 countries that are off-track in achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All goals. Reports prepared by major consultation groups such as the High Level Panel established by the United Nations and Global Thematic Consultation Group have proposed that ‘providing quality education and lifelong learning’ is an overarching post-2015 education agenda. It is an important breakthrough since ‘lifelong learning’ has been recommended; however, it is not clear what understanding(s) of lifelong learning has been articulated in those documents. How have those recommendations addressed the issues and challenges of the LDCs? In this paper, I review literature on lifelong learning and analyse major documents related to the post-2015 education agenda, especially the one prepared by UN High Level Panel. I conclude that unless the LDCs are given a leadership role for setting their goals—according to their contextual realities—the post-2015 millennium initiatives, such as ‘lifelong learning’ as a new educational agenda, will make no sense.     

Busting the myth of low-skilled workers – destabilizing EU LLL policies through the life stories of Danes in low-skilled jobs

In the EU, ambitious objectives have been set for education and training since the adoption of the Lisbon Agenda in 2000. The policies aim among other things to empower the individual through participation in lifelong learning which is seen as both a right and a duty: ‘People need to want and to be able to take their lives into their own hands – to become in short, active citizens’ (CEC, 2000, p. 7). However, not all citizens are taking part in lifelong learning and consequently the EU and its member states have set up policies with a ‘particular focus on active and preventative measures for the unemployed and inactive persons’ (CEC, 2006, p.1). ‘Inactive’ persons comprise different groups which are marginalised in terms of participation in lifelong learning, among others ‘low-skilled’ who have a lower participation rate in education and training activities (Cedefop, 2013). In this article, the aim is to destabilize the political discourse on ‘low-skilled’ through individual narratives of being in low-skilled jobs. Whereas the problem of being low-skilled from a political perspective is represented as psycho-social problems of the individual, the narratives point to the complexity of people in low-skilled jobs and the role of structure to ‘low-skilledness’. The narratives open up issues of power and the historical arbitrary distinctions between skilled and unskilled in the Danish labour market. It opens up for how the educational structures produce ‘low-skilled’ people, especially in the transition from basic vocational education and training into an apprenticeship. The article points to the narrow focus of policies on the ‘supply’ side of lifelong learning and less on the ‘demand’ side of a ‘needy’ global labour market in which precarious jobs are no longer limited to low-skilled. The article draws on Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ (1999, 2009) and narrative inquiry.     

Open Learning: Beyond the Institutional Approach

In the concept of ‘open learning’, the word ‘open’ is certainly the keyword. But what does this idea of ‘openness’ mean today? It is not only a matter of registration or timetable, but also a real question: how should we face the challenge of the necessary permanent updating of professional skills and knowledge? The author addresses some critical issues concerning the implementation of the concept of ‘lifelong learning’ in general and professional contexts. The proposed hypothesis emerges from an attempt to go beyond the opposition of three current approaches trying to shape the future: an institutional approach, which sees the future of education in the development of open and flexible learning systems; a social approach, which sees the future of education in the reinforcement of social exchanges as ‘knowledge exchanges’ leading to the development of a ‘learning society'; and a technological approach, which sees the future of education in the provision of easy access to knowledge via multimedia systems. Merging these approaches leads to the concept of ‘learning organization’, relying on the use of facilities provided both by ‘knowledge technologies’ and ‘knowledge transactions’.     

Lifelong learning policies in France

France has more than 30 years of experience with continuing education and training. Thanks to the 1971 law and subsequent reforms, enterprises are obliged to pay for education and training activities. What are the results after three decades? Did the law fulfil its initial objectives? As recently as this year, a new agreement has been signed between social partners. How significant is this agreement and what changes could be expected? Are there lessons for lifelong learning policies that might be applied in European member states and elsewhere?     

Switching on the learning society? - questioning the role of technology in widening participation in lifelong learning

The creation of technologically-based ‘virtual education’ has been portrayed as a means of widening access to learning opportunities for those currently excluded from participation in lifelong education and training. Now in the UK these claims are being operationalized under the ‘University for Industry’ initiative and associated Virtual College programmes all of which aim to make real the concept of Britain as a ‘learning society’ for all with an emphasis on reaching those traditionally seen as non-participants in learning. This paper examines these claims in the light of current knowledge about the characteristics of non-participants in lifelong learning and the barriers that they face. It is suggested that the application of ‘technological fixes’ to underlying socio-economic determinants of participation will solve some problems, create others, and leave many unaffected. In this way the paper argues for independent research on the impact of the ‘virtual college’ movement, and begins to outline the form such research could take.     

Perspectives of lifelong education in Portuguese higher education: a critical analysis of learning outcomes

ABSTRACT

Nurturing students’ continuous learning is a current trend in the higher education agenda. Curricula and academic contents should enable students to take part in stimulating learning experiences, as well as promoting both developing and training opportunities in the course of their lives and careers. Despite the relevance given to lifelong learning in the educational system, there are still some open questions: how this concept is understood and put into practice by higher education institutions? The paper aims to analyse the conceptions of lifelong learning as reflected on the learning outcomes proposed in a sample of study programs. A qualitative methodology and a data-driven approach are adopted to explore the content of the learning outcomes proposed in 10% of total study programs submitted to quality accreditation, since 2009. Generally, results reveal that higher education institutions are committed to the lifelong learning paradigm, particularly in master and PhD degrees. Students are expected to ‘invest in personal and professional development through life’, to ‘develop learning competences through life’, as well as to ‘foster lifelong learning’. This study provides a better understanding of the range of perspectives and the relevance given to lifelong learning as a valuable learning outcome.     

Further Education under New Labour: translating the language of aspiration into a springboard for achievement

In this article, Ann Limb outlines the main elements of new Labour's emerging policy framework for adult, continuing and further education within the context of the debate about lifelong learning. The government has established its coherent purposes for further education and now expects successful implementation by the sector in return for significant funding. Raising standards and widening participation are the keystones of this policy and, as in other areas of government activity, ‘zero tolerance of failure’ and ‘social inclusion’ are at the heart of the agenda for further education. The article suggests that the diverse assumptions underlying the delivery of lifelong learning policies nonetheless remain largely unexplored and that it is too soon to make a sound judgment about the likely effectiveness of the new lifelong learning partnerships     

Research and policy in lifelong learning

It has long been acknowledged that adult and lifelong educators have exercised little influence over national education policies. This article addresses the issue, with particular reference to the research elements of policy advocacy. Researchers and policy‐makers are distinguished and related as communities of practice and intellectual categories of social function. It is argued that the concept ‘policy‐maker’ is too ambiguous to be of either theoretical or practical use, especially since the focus has shifted over the years away from the advocacy of adult education to the implementation of lifelong learning. Also, the concepts of both ‘policy’ and ‘research’ have undergone significant shifts of meaning, so that traditional ideas of the relation between research and policy are now outdated. We live in an age of public scepticism about the political uses to which research is put, and this also needs to be taken into account in the case of lifelong learning. Thus, the relation between research and the policy process needs to be reconceptualised in a future beyond lifelong learning in order to be meaningful, with the focus much more upon process than outcome. Only in this way could adult and lifelong educators expect to have any influence upon national policies.     

Editorial. Globalization: a moral phenomenon

Abstracts

This article explores the idea of lifelong education as expounded by a number of writers published under the auspices of UNESCO. There is a short discussion of the problems involved in subjecting this kind of idea to critical analysis and it is suggested that a policy for education rather than a new concept of education is being expressed. Nevertheless, an implicit concept of education can be deduced from the policy, and there is a review of the role of concepts as a means of distinguishing and classifying areas of experience and areas of thought. It is suggested that writers on ‘lifelong education’ tend to blurr a number of distinctions traditionally drawn in education and it is suggested that the concept of ‘education’ is defined too broadly. As a result, it fails to distinguish between the totality of formative influences which determine our individuality and those influences which are intentionally chosen to form or influence us in desired and desirable ways. ‘Education’, it is suggested, should be restricted to areas of learning that are chosen because they produce effects which we and society wish to bring about. There is reference to the place of ‘knowledge’ in lifelong education and an extended discussion of some of the consequences which follow from failing to separate the concept of ‘training’ from the concept of ‘education’. It is argued that ‘education’ implies a concern for moral and evaluative issues consistent with a Humanistic approach, whereas ‘training’ being task and role oriented can ignore moral issues in the interests of efficient performances. This argument is, in effect, a case study to support the claim that finer conceptual distinctions are of practical importance.     

Regional lifelong learning policies and the social vulnerability of young adults in Girona and Vienna

ABSTRACT

This article explores the interface between lifelong learning policies and the definition of social vulnerability of young adults in two regions located within the European Union. Girona comprises a constellation of small towns with important industry, service and hospitality sectors. Vienna is a global city where many key international operators are based and employ a large number of highly qualified professionals. The article explores to what extent the meta-governance and the ‘causal narratives’ of lifelong learning policies contribute towards shaping the prevailing images of youth vulnerability in these regions. In Girona, bureaucratic governance patterns lifelong learning policies, which strongly rely on the potential of career guidance to encourage the youth to undertake further education. Correspondingly, policy designs and professional discourses emphasise that the beneficiaries previously failed at school. In Vienna, authorities govern lifelong learning by means of both bureaucracy and complex networks of employers and non-profit organisations. The ‘causal narrative’ of the policies straightforwardly claims that all youth must have an experience with employment, whether in apprenticeships or in transitional workshops that emulate real jobs. There, policies portray beneficiaries according to their capacity to undertake and finish apprenticeships.     

Lifelong learning-attitudes to practice in the rural context: a study using Bourdieu's perspective of habitus

This article compares and contrasts the views of educational policy makers and consumers within Lincolnshire, an English rural county, using Bourdieu's notion of ‘habitus’ as a vehicle for analysis. The article focuses on the relative importance of education as cultural capital in determining the motivational factors affecting participation in lifelong learning. The article considers lifelong learning in the context of ‘continuing education’. If lifelong learning is characterized into three discrete yet connected phases: the first, ‘full-time education’ from the age of 5 until leaving full-time education at age 16, 18 or 21; the second, the ‘transitional phase’ between school and work at age 16–21; the third, ‘continuing education’ beyond the age of 21; it is the policies and attitudes to this third phase described in this paper. Education for adults rather than simply the education of adults. Interviews with small groups of learners and an experienced manager of lifelong learning policies in Lincolnshire are used to illuminate clear differences between the continuing education providers' expectations of lifelong learning and those of the learners. The conclusions reaffirm the importance of community and cultural tradition in education and highlight the importance of family learning within the rural context.     

Dewey,Derrida, and ‘the Double Bind’

It is taken for granted that the complexity of the information society requires a reorientation of our being in the world. Not surprisingly, the call for lifelong learning and permanent education becomes louder and more intense every day. And while there are various worthwhile initiatives, like alphabetisation courses, the article argues that the discourse of lifelong learning contains at least two difficulties. Firstly, the shift from a knowledge‐based to an information society has revealed a concept of learning with an emphasis on skills related to information retrieval, dissemination and evaluation. Learning now is the constant striving for extra competences, and the efficient management of the acquired ones. Secondly, the discourse of lifelong learning suggests the autonomy of the learner. However, educational practices are organized in a way that ‘choosing to learn (particular things)’ has become the contemporary human condition. With reference to Marshall's notion of ‘busno‐power’, it is argued that—contrary to what one likes to believe—lifelong learning has become a new kind of power mechanism.     

A future for adult lifelong education in Aotearoa New Zealand: neoliberal or cosmopolitan?

This paper sets out to answer two questions ‘Given the policy settings for lifelong learning for adults in Europe and much of the western world, what are the policy settings and experiences in Aotearoa New Zealand?’ and ‘Will the future of adult lifelong education there be neoliberal or cosmopolitan?’ The article first examines some of the roots of post‐compulsory education policy in Aotearoa New Zealand over the last 30 years. In particular it considers trends in philosophies and practices about educating adults as well as some of the varied policy discourses prevailing over this period. Next it reviews the ever‐changing policy landscape, in particular unresolved tensions between social and economic goals, the acquisition of skills for learning for living and dialogic social purpose learning, and attainment of social cohesion and recognition of diversity. Finally the paper attempts to preview how these tensions may play out in an uncertain future.     

The role of the ‘technical fix’ in UK lifelong education policy

The integral place of information and communications technology (ICT) in UK lifelong education has been established by a series of technology-based initiatives introduced by the New Labour government since 1997. Initiatives such as the University for Industry, learndirect, People's Network and National Grid for Learning are being implemented as part of a coherent lifelong education policy-agenda fundamentally based upon the use of ICT. Yet, beneath the political enthusiasm for technology-based education, the role of ICT in lifelong learning remains largely unexamined and unproblematized, with many policy-makers and educationalists content to view technology as providing a ‘technical fix’ for many of education's problems. From this background, the present paper provides a critical perspective on the technological foundations of the UK government's lifelong education agenda. In particular, it examines the nature and form of the policies that have been introduced and then contrasts them with the rhetorical claims that are being made by government and other official actors. In this way the paper discusses how such policies continue to be shaped within a restrictive technocratic and determinist discourse of the ‘technical fix’, thus conforming to traditional narratives of society and technology. The paper then goes on to explore how such construction juxtaposes social and economic elements of the policy-drive and threatens, ultimately, to restrict the eventual educational effectiveness of these ‘new’ lifelong learning initiatives.     

The Norwegian competence reform and the limits of lifelong learning

Today, ‘lifelong learning for all’ figures prominently within the education and training policies of governments throughout the developed world and is presented as a powerful solution to a wide range of economic and social challenges. Norway is often regarded as a country that has perhaps made more progress towards this ideal than many others. Norway invests considerable resources in its education system and has already achieved a highly educated population by international standards. Its experience may be instructive therefore of the problems that more advanced countries confront in attempting to further progress the lifelong learning agenda even under relatively favourable conditions. Drawing upon a range of secondary material and interviews conducted with key stakeholders, this paper explores the main achievements, problems and challenges that Norway has faced in attempting to implement a recent reform of adult and continuing education and training, entitled the Competence Reform. To date, the reform would seem to have had only a relatively limited impact especially with regard to low‐qualified workers in sectors with poor training records and relatively high concentrations of ‘learning‐deprived’ jobs. In reflecting upon this experience, Norwegian policy makers appear to be reaching the end of a cycle of policy and academic thinking concerned mainly with boosting the supply of skills through the education system and are now embarking upon a new and challenging agenda aimed at increasing the utilisation and development of skills within the workplace.     

Teachers' Educational Gestures and Habits of Practical Action: Edusemiotics as a Framework for Teachers' Education

When trying to help teachers cope with the critical situations they face in classrooms, public policies are mainly concerned with improving initial teacher training. I claim in this article that the role of lifelong learning should no longer be undermined and that the design of teachers' training should be supported by a thorough examination of the cognitive processes involved. A faulty view of cognition may explain both our emphasis on initial training and most of the difficulties faced in designing teachers' training. Searching existing alternative metaphors of cognition and investigating new ones constitutes a way of coping with these problems: first to design new forms of training, second to understand the processes involved in innovative training methods that have already been implemented. My focus in this article is precisely the ‘metaphor of cognition’ that underlies innovative teacher training methods. This metaphor is based on Peirce's pragmaticism, and it describes teachers' training as a process of taking and changing habits. This article mainly investigates the links between Peirce's later semiotics, Merleau‐Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception and Varela's theory of enaction, in order to propose a threefold definition of ‘habit’ and define the notion of ‘educational gesture’, which constitutes a translation of the concept of habit in the field of education and training.     

全球化视野中“学习社会”与基础教育改革

处在一个人人都需要确立终身学习思想和观念的时代,教育的重要目标之一就是要使现代的人们都具有终身学习的意识,而我们的社会则应该为提供这样一种多样化和多元化的终身学习活动肩负起应有的责任和义务。那么,何谓“终身教育”?何谓“终身学习”?基础教育又应如何立足于终身教育和学习社会的理念来加以改革?全球化视野中“学习社会”的特征是什么?它对基础教育改革又将产生怎样的影响?这一系列问题的提出都具有十分重要的意义并有待于教育理论工作者去作深入的研究和探讨。     

Glimpsing the Future in the Past: VET in Europe

What do we expect from Vocational Education and Training (VET) systems? Is it different from 25 years ago? This article argues that the focus has increasingly been placed on strategies for lifelong and life-wide learning that seek to reinforce continuity among the subsystems of learning, but that VET systems are, nevertheless, still expected to address many and sometimes conflicting agendas, needs and priorities. The last 25 years or so have been critical for the development of VET in Europe. Making VET more attractive and increasing its parity of esteem in relation to general secondary education have been major, recurring themes in European countries, as part of, at least conceptually, more comprehensive approaches to lifelong and life-wide learning. From 1989 to 2003, the European Journal of Education (EJE) published a special issue on ‘Trends in Vocational Education and Training’ every two years and has continued to publish on VETrelated topics. This article revisits the major themes and challenges as they were observed and discussed by the authors who wrote in those special issues and in later articles. Many were directly involved in advisory positions to governments; held key decision-making responsibilities; undertook studies and consultancy and brought technical assistance across several countries. Their articles are moments of reflection nourished by experience on the ground. This article explores how the European Journal of Education has contributed to European reflection on VET systems, policies and preoccupations in recent decades – what can we learn that is useful for shaping and formulating our present ideas about new policy from our colleagues writing about the same or similar issues 20 years ago? A key theme concerns the role of the Europe Community (and subsequently EU) as a change agent supporting bottom-up exchange and top-down stimulus for reform through an increasing integration of education and training in the socio-economic strategy of the EU.     

Vocational lifelong learners?

The notion of lifelong learning has become a mantra within educational policies. However these have been strongly critiqued for reflecting an understanding of learning that privileges the economic benefits of participation in formal education. In UK contexts, the importance attached to widening participation in higher education is one manifestation of these policy discourses, which can be interrogated as a form of governmentality. This paper draws upon a recent small‐scale mixed‐method study of different vocational learners’ transition from Level 3 courses to consider how these policy discourses are being mediated by ‘learners’ who were qualified to enter higher education, but decided instead on alternative life courses. The analysis suggests that policy constructions of participation in higher education sit at a disjuncture with respondents’ longer‐term experiences of institutionalised education processes. In other ways, lifelong learning seemed to be willingly embraced in respondents’ different commitments to learning and self‐development, although higher education institutions were not often seen as a source of this learning. The article aims all the same to allow this interpretation of respondents’ voices to speak back and disrupt policy mantras.