Search

This paper explores patterns in participation in adult education and training (AET) by comparing five countries with high participation rates (the Nordic countries and the Netherlands) with three countries with significantly lower participation rates (France, Poland and the Slovak Republic). Using PIAAC data the paper examines differences in the levels of demand for AET as well as variations in barriers to AET participation between the two groups of countries. The demand for AET is higher than the actual participation rate since it includes those who do not participate although they wish to. The demand for AET is substantially higher in countries with high participation rates. Further, the structure and level of barriers is quite similar in the two groups of countries.  Countries with low AET participation rate do not have a higher proportion of individuals reporting barriers to AET participation; that they do not participate in AET although they wish to. In both groups of countries demand for AET is strongly associated with the individuals' educational level. The findings are discussed by drawing on previous studies on drivers of and barriers to participation in AET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focus on how the Swedish population is shaped into desirable citizens as resources for the nation's prosperity. The aim is to analyse how health operates as a governing technique in discourses of lifelong learning. Within such current discourses the population is today described as generally well-educated and healthy, but not educated or healthy enough. When constructed as being in need of enhancement, measures of learning are suggested for regulating certain groups of the population into becoming what is regarded as desirable. Making use of Foucault's notions of governmentality and genealogy, white and green papers from the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs from 1930s and today (2017) are analysed. The analysis shows that although the population is described as having different problems originating from ignorance, the solutions that are suggested in the different time periods are basically the same. The relation between learning and health is described in different ways in the 1930s and the present. In the 1930s learning is explained merely as a means to achieve a healthy population while in the present health is described both as a prerequisite and as an effect of learning. Further, there is also a difference in how the governing is conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision to make the UK student population financially responsible for their own university education has major implications for the future of higher education provision. Chief among these implications will undoubtedly be a much stronger emphasis on the student experience, not least the experience of the teaching and learning environment. Given the increasing influence of consumerism on student identity, the distinct possibility exists that such notions of market-led accountability will be first in line to shape how the academic–student relationship is redefined and understood in future years. It is therefore an appropriate time to explore alternatives to such a narrow understanding of relationships—an understanding that inevitably tends to frame direct accountability in terms of economic exchange. It is argued in this paper that one alternative can be developed by exploring a more relational approach to HE pedagogy, and more specifically one that is based on a synthesis of critical theory and psychoanalysis. By emphasising the intersubjective nature of learning and teaching and the role of emotions in this regard, the paper argues that a relationally centred approach takes seriously questions of trust, recognition and respect at the heart of the academic–student relationship, while also making space for doubt, confusion and relational anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that lifelong learning can be a torch for education that is relevant, appropriate and appreciated by many Africans if conceptualized within the African Indigenous Learning (AIL) framework. Such learning is entrenched deep in the practices, cultures and ways of knowing of many Africans. The fundamentals or the ideals of lifelong learning in AIL can be presented in three dimensions of time, space, and I/We. Woven together, these concepts present a context in which lifelong learning is defined by aspects such as learning-in-action (immediacy of application); interactive methods; and a time that is only valued in respect of events that constitute it. Generally, an understanding of lifelong learning from the western perspective hinges on the linearity, economics and individualism of learning and these concepts may not be well promoted within the framework of AIL. It is not difficult to imagine the impact of borrowed concepts of learning on Africans if applied uncritically. Africans cannot afford to be oblivious of the differences in contexts between them and the western world. Context, therefore, is central to the application of lifelong learning. The authors of this paper have a full understanding that people in different parts of Africa may view lifelong learning in different ways. Thus, the term 'African' is used to underscore the importance of context. The authors also note that the advantages of lifelong learning to Africa are obvious vis-a-vis learning as a human right and a social justice. While these ideals are helpful, Africans cannot be subservient to how lifelong learning comes packaged from the western perspectives. To illustrate some differences, some ideals of lifelong learning in the AIL are introduced through the case of an adult education compensatory programme, and a three dimensional model is proposed for applying these ideals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the report Learning through Life exemplifies the dominant policy discourse on lifelong learning emphasizing strongly individual social mobility. The paper explores further how this functionalist and reductionist turn in (adult) education has come about and how concepts of democratic citizenship and education may create new perspectives on how to deal with important challenges of society today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers what the idea of creativity can mean and how it can contribute when creativity becomes a key to the development of lifelong learning practices. It seeks to adapt or extend our understanding of creativity in an attempt to facilitate the development of lifelong learning. This paper argues that, while the classical concern around developing creativity mainly derives from humans' interest in the possibility of designing, producing or inventing things to change human life, the idea of creativity in relation to the development of lifelong learning practices tends more towards an emphasis on producing ideas meant to deal with unpredictability and contestability in a knowledge-based society. The main body of the paper is theoretical in its orientation. The structure of this paper is as follows. First, the essential characteristics of creativity are explored as a basis for understanding what meanings it may offer to the development of lifelong learning practices. Then, the issues of why creativity is required and how it may be seen as distinctive in lifelong learning practices are addressed. The discussion centres upon the significance of creativity and its characteristic features when it is embedded in lifelong learning practices. Finally, this paper considers Deleuze's thought concerning the principles of association and passion as useful in illuminating the formation of pedagogical practices that encourage creativity, which, in turn, could assist in the effective development of lifelong learning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this paper is to suggest that researchers on workplace learning avoid an isolated learning discourse. The point at issue is that being a learner is just one aspect of people's sometimes complicated lives in the workplace, and that people may sometimes—for good reasons—resist a learning discourse if it is linked excessively to the educational system, management or researcher processes. It is suggested that associating learning excessively to a learner identity is problematic. A more comprehensive situated perspective on workplace learning may assist in understanding the different and sometimes conflicting aspects of learning situations in the workplace. The paper is based on recent literature on situated learning with a particular focus on workplace learning studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a five-year study which explored the engagement of a group of long-term mentally ill adults in community provision in which they learned basic, expressive literacy. The research mapped points in the learning, writing and auto/biographic engagement where set identities were being troubled, and frisson created in the challenge of the new. This was not always sustained or managed comfortably, raising questions about the containing function of such community learning provision. The study took a critical ethnographic approach in which biographic narrative interviews with learners played a major part. The Lacanian concept of point de capiton is used here, in order to illustrate the extent to which the mentally ill learner of basic literacy is prescribed in and through current educational policy and practice. Given these constraints, the longitudinal data did, however, appear to reveal instances of both agency and defiance, with individuals making a stand regarding their learning. The paper suggests that the anxious regimes of adult learning, ironically, despite their 'discourses of certainty', appeared to replicate symptoms many individuals were suffering from as part of their long-term illness. It asks whether this model of education, in which prescription, observation and quasi-diagnosis prevail, is the most appropriate given the saturated experiences of the mentally ill, of being prescribed to, observed and diagnosed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A national white paper was published in 1998 with 14 action plans to be the blueprints for developing lifelong learning. These were based on continuously strong recommendations of academics and lobbying groups in Taiwan. Many national policies were formulated and implemented based on the white paper and its action plans, and this has paved a way towards establishing a learning society. The Lifelong Learning Law took effect on 26 June 2004 and has laid a foundation for improving lifelong learning. However, mainly because of the frequent transfers of national governments, national lifelong learning policy-making is becoming unstable. It is essential for academics and practitioners in Taiwan to search for more critical and influential arguments to pursue policy-makers to develop lifelong learning. Enhancing the interactive relationship between lifelong learning and social changes would be the key to achieve that. The author analyses significant and concrete phenomena of Taiwan's social changes such as shift of population structure first and then explores how lifelong learning policy-making can reflect the changes and lead the changes to achieve the vision of education for all. In Taiwan, the crucial challenges of lifelong learning would be how to make sustainable policies to respond to more multicultural groups of the social population. Since the ingredients of population are changing in the context of sociocultures, enhancing the interactive relationship between lifelong learning and social changes is getting critical. These Taiwan's current issues could be found the similarities in other counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English Skills for Life strategy symbolises the prominent place that adult basic skills have claimed in education and training policy in England since the beginning of this century. The strategy aims to improve the skills of a large number of learners over a ten year period (2001-2010). This paper explores what we can learn about the impact of the strategy from an analysis of available statistical data. The paper presents trends in participation and achievement over the first four years of the strategy, which indicate a pattern of diminishing returns to numbers participating over time, and which may well reflect the growing difficulties the policy will face of engaging 'hard to reach' learners. Alongside this analysis, the paper raises a number of issues concerning the limitations of available statistical data in providing answers to questions such as the progress made by learners and their subsequent progression, both within and beyond adult basic skills provision. The paper goes on to argue that the strong emphasis on a numerical target related to qualification outcomes may serve to focus both practitioners' and policy makers' attention on this aspect alone. This, it is argued, may serve the interests of international benchmarking of skills levels in the population, but may do rather less in helping to improve learners' lives and capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a critical feminist theoretical framework is used to explore the challenges of creating democratic learning spaces that will foster active and inclusive citizenship for women. Three democratic considerations are addressed to assess how adult educators can create more inclusive opportunities for lifelong education for women. The first consideration is the need for a careful examination of structural inequalities that create disadvantages for women in pursuing lifelong education. The second consideration is the need to create a broader and more gender inclusive understanding of the scope of lifelong learning possibilities, so that women's learning experiences are not devalued. The third consideration explores how to take up gender as a complex variable within the broader discourse of inclusion. This paper is informed by preliminary results from a current SSHRC (Social Science and Humanities Research Council) study on lifelong learning trajectories for women in Canada and a CCL (Canadian Council on Learning) study on active citizenship for women in Nova Scotia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today’s post‐modern world of difference, and amidst globalising forces of insidious convergence, this paper explores how far the concepts of lifelong learning and learning society embrace international worldviews. It conducts a brief excursion into literature that has explored learning society models. It also looks at an increasing number of voices from across the developing world, especially Africa, where a more globally aware and context sensitive agenda for lifelong learning is advocated. Definitions of lifelong learning and related policy papers from Scotland, England and Finland in response to the European Memorandum for Lifelong Learning are compared with definitions of lifelong learning and related policy documents from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana in relation to the Southern African Development Community’s equivalence to the EU document. To broaden the picture, reference to recent historical analyses of polices in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong will also be made. The core questions, drawn from a broadly critical theory perspective, ask: what kind of learning societies are being envisaged as a result of national and international policy statements? What are the implications for global understanding, tolerance of difference and education for all? How global is our vision? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social dimension of lifelong learning from the perspective of demographics, with particular focus on the issue of the birth of fewer children, which has become one of the most important current social issues in Japanese society. When considering hie relationship between lifelong learning and demographics, the issues arising from an ageing population are usually the focus of policy-makers. This perspective often overlooks crucial children's issues, such as child development and the influence of the child's daily environment. This paper suggests that it is necessary to analyse the issues arising from a society with fewer children independent of the concept of an aged society with fewer children in an attempt to emphasize these essential issues. The presented relationship between lifelong learning and the issues surrounding the birth of fewer children is based on two perspectives. The first perspective seeks to remove barriers such as the economic burden of educating children and the traditional stereotypical gender-roles that have contributed to the birth of fewer children. The second perspective includes a response to the negative influences that the birth of fewer children has had on family's experiences of child rearing and on children's growth. Specifically, this paper develops the second perspective by focusing on three aspects: the development of children's social skills; children's growth as influenced by a high adult-child ratio; a decline in the quality of child rearing. Three issues are identified as necessary in order to build a Japanese society that fosters children: (1) embracing the concept of the "family-friendly company'; (2) creating opportunities for mixed age groups to participate in learning programmes based on communities and schools; (3) reconsidering an intergenerational exchange programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the politics of lifelong learning policy in post-1997 Hong Kong (HK). The paper is in four parts. Continuing Education, recast as 'lifelong learning', is to be the cornerstone of the post-Handover education reform agenda. The lineaments of a familiar discourse are evident in the Education Commission policy documents. However, to view recent HK education policy just in terms of an apparent convergence with global trends would be to neglect the ways in which the discourse of lifelong learning has been tactically deployed to serve local political agendas. In the second part of this paper, I outline what Scott has called HK's 'disarticulated' political system following its retrocession to China and attempts by an executive-led administration to demonstrate 'performance legitimacy'--through major policy reforms--in the absence of (democratic) political legitimacy. Beijing's designation of HK as a (depoliticized) 'economic' city within greater China must also be taken into account. It is against this political background that the strategic deployment of a 'lifelong learning' discourse needs to be seen. In the third section of this paper, I examine three recent policy episodes to illustrate how lifelong learning discourse has been adopted and has evolved to meet changing circumstances in HK. Finally, I look at the issue of public consultation. The politics of education policy in HK may be seen to mirror at a micro-level, the current macro-level contested interpretations of HK's future polity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the development of policies and practices related to lifelong learning in the last 10 years in China. It gives a brief introduction of the vital societal changes and offers a review on outstanding achievements in school education, which can be regarded as the context and infrastructure of lifelong learning enterprise. It analyses in depth the relevant national strategies adopted by the central government, which have been the fundamental guidelines for the practice of lifelong learning. After exploring the flourishing lifelong learning activities promoted by the government, industry and other nongovernmental agencies, it finally discusses the state-led promoting model of lifelong learning in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the evolution of lifelong learning and the development of continuing education among higher education institutions in Macau. Future directions for development are also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The philosophy and practice of lifelong learning has a long history in China, being traceable to Confucius's idea (circa 500 BC) of 'education for all'. However, very little research has been done on the development of the Confucian idea of lifelong learning in ancient China, or on its influence on current practices of lifelong learning within the wave of educational globalisation. This paper contains three parts that explore these topics. The first describes how Chinese people perceive and practise lifelong learning in the Confucian tradition. Apart from an updated review of Confucian ideas and practices, the development of Confucian tradition in selected dynasties is also examined. The second analyses characteristics of Confucian heritage learning cultures and their strong impact on present-day Chinese learners, including: pursuit of lifelong learning, teacher authority, collaborative learning, and the function of effort in successful study. The final part discusses negotiation and integration of Chinese and Western learning cultures in a globalising world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Korean lifelong learning in practice is gradually adapted by neo-liberals and the discourses of the economic market. Considering that the public foundation of Korean education is fragile to cope with the market challenge, the whole picture of Korean learning ecology is rapidly distorted towards the establishment of the learning market and the challenge it presents to public education. This paper attempts to grasp the evolution of the lifelong learning ecosystem in Korea and to explain the meaning of the learning market in this context. I am going to argue that (1) the emergence of the learning market changed the traditional learning ecosystem significantly; (2) the discourse of lifelong learning in this context also rapidly deconstructs the code of 'education' and replaces the learning system to fit to learning capitalism as a part of the knowledge economy; and (3) the Korean case clearly reveals the changes in the complex ecosystem of lifelong learning in this way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role and position of continuing education in the lifelong learning society of Hong Kong. The first section describes the basic components of Hong Kong's lifelong learning system, which is composed of two interconnected sub-systems—namely, conventional education and continuing education—integrated under a common qualifications framework. The second section illustrates the contribution of the Federation for Continuing Education in Tertiary Institutions, an organisational alliance formed among key continuing education providers to assure quality in the sector; enhance communication among government, industries and the professional bodies; map strategies for developing human capital; and widen access to higher education by providing high-quality continuing education programs. In the final section, the HKU SPACE case study highlights 'sharing of quality education resources with overseas collaborators', 'achieving self-financing status through economies of scale', and the 'provision of flexible, multiple-level, well articulated and quality education services' as key features of the Hong Kong model of continuing education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key feature of housing policy in the UK is the transfer of affordable housing stock owned by local authorities to not-for-profit registered social landlords. Such transfers involve local authority tenants to varying degrees in the development and implementation of the transfer proposals. Reporting the findings of a series of interviews with tenants involved in stock transfers, this paper argues that tenant involvement in housing stock transfers is in itself a site of critical pedagogy, characterised by experiential learning and active citizenship. It goes on to outline Freire's philosophy of emancipatory education, and analyses the interview data within a theoretical framework provided by Freire. It concludes that Freire provides a useful conceptual framework for understanding tenant involvement in housing stock transfers, and addresses some of the practical and policy implications for actors in the stock transfer process that flow from this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to growing population movements the UK Government has introduced a number of measures designed to facilitate the social inclusion and integration of refugees into UK society. This paper explores some of the lifelong learning issues for refugees and argues that the current discourse of social inclusion and exclusion gives rise to narrow and prescriptive learning opportunities which fail to address the barriers facing refugees in the UK. Using the concept of social capital as an explanatory framework, I will argue that for refugees to become integrated and useful members of society requires a shift away from the present focus on formal, individualised education provision to a greater recognition of informal and social learning opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last significant review of research about transformative learning was in 1998 and was mostly focused on unpublished dissertations. In response, this paper reviews an exhaustive body of research conducted since that time, involving 40 studies, published in peer-review journals with a lens of analysis of new findings and insights on transformative learning theory. The review finds less research less about identifying transformative experiences in different setting, and more about fostering transformative learning and the complex nature of critical reflection, relationships, the nature of a perspective transformation and the role of context. Furthermore, even though qualitative designs still dominate, they have become more sophisticated and creative, including longitudinal and mixed-method designs and the use of video and photography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions of learning in practice and in workplaces have been carried out within the various theories of learning. More recent discussions have unveiled the complexity inherent in learning in workplaces by acknowledging the presence of power relations in practice. However, the discussions fall short of an analysis on another more paramount power relation in practice – the relationship and effects of organizational ownership on learning in workplaces. Using the global phenomenon of concentrated media ownership, this paper presents a literature review to show that ownership is another higher form of power relation that shapes what and how professionals learn in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we argue that interventions aimed at preventing social exclusion need to be informed by detailed analysis of the formation, disruption, reformation and support of trajectories of participation in the opportunities for action provided. We draw on evidence we gathered on the lives of two women who used an inner city drop-in centre to discuss how resilience and trajectories of inclusion are built slowly over time in relationship with others. Using concepts derived from sociocultural psychology and activity theory, we interrogate the evidence to first ask whether there is a pattern of changes in participation over time and to then explore how the identity shifts these changes represent are supported. The analysis reveals that there is a pattern, but it is a pattern of using and giving support which suggests that such trajectories are likely to be recursive. This using and giving of support we term relational agency and argue that a capacity for relational agency, as both the supported and the supporter, is a crucial factor in the development of purposive identities and the building of resilience. We also suggest that it is likely to be encouraged in settings which can foster trust and reciprocity as flexible and open learning zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the theoretical bases of leading models of learning styles and empirical evidence of their impact on achievement and motivation in post-16 education and training. We describe the review process, the development of an organizing framework to understand the field, presented in a continuum of families of learning styles, and a summary of our assessments of 13 influential models of learning styles. We conclude with a discussion of the place of learning styles within new frameworks for understanding thinking and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues against the dominant discourse of lifelong learning. It is primarily a mode of social control that acts as a new disciplinary technology to make people more compliant and adaptable for work in the era of flexible capitalism. Whilst the main reference point is trends in the UK, the argument has a wider resonance. Lifelong learning diminishes the public sphere, undermines educational activity, introduces new mechanisms of self-surveillance and reinforces the view that failure to succeed is a personal responsibility. It is ultimately a 'deficit discourse', which locates the responsibility of economic and political failure at the level of the individual, rather than at the level of systemic problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops work carried out under the aegis of a European Commission-funded university continuing education (UCE) network. It compares the ways in which UCE has developed in three countries within Northern Europe. The authors firstly review the developments of university education in general in Finland, the UK and Sweden, paying particular attention to the factors that historically have influenced UCE. They then focus on developments and policy imperatives of the last decade. A number of convergences and divergences in policy and practice in the three countries are pointed to. In both Finland and the UK, UCE is well defined by state or quasi-state agencies and is an activity that has been located within well-defined structural units in most institutions. Universities in these two countries have a diverse mission based on a national lifelong learning agenda. By contrast, in Sweden, whilst there is a longstanding international tradition of adult education rooted within democratic movements and a recognition of the importance of equality of access, the provision is to a large extent embedded in universities and not manifest as UCE. What provision that does exist as UCE is patchily distributed across the university sector and nonuniform in character. UCE provision within Finland and UK to varying degrees in becoming more diverse in its make-up. The presence of new providers in a 'CE market', an emphasis on UCE as an economic instrument, moves towards the accreditation of provision and the loss of a particular identity for UCE are amongst factors creating increasing heterogeneity of provision in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between education, learning and civic participation arising from 120 biographical interviews conducted with respondents in three areas of England. Through analysis of individual biographies, it is argued that the relationship between education, learning and the generation of 'bonding' social capital is largely unrealistic. Rather, there emerge three loose typologies of relationship between education and civic participation: atomistic, networking and altruistic. These relationships are shaped by individual biography, type of learning and structural considerations. Class, gender and ethnicity particularly influence relationships between education and participation but not in a rigidly deterministic fashion, and may additionally be generators of creative tension. It is concluded that although policy makers would be naïve to expect investment in education and learning to automatically generate virtuous cycles of social capital, the role of education in generating benefits in what can be called the 'ecology' of community is both unexpected and illuminating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the emerging concerns over the threats to oversimplify the complexity of lifelong learning. Indications of how government policies in the European Union reflect the simplistic views to lifelong education; Instances in research papers that illustrate how lifelong learning is over-simplified by many scholars.