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This paper analyses one aspect of a pan-African action research project called ITMUA (Implementing the Third Mission of Universities in Africa). This particular paper draws on the data from that project to explore the National University of Lesotho's contribution to lifelong learning in its communities. It provides background information on the ITMUA initiative and analyses interview and focus group responses to two case studies in terms of their contribution to lifelong learning. It uses, as its analytical framework, a modified version of Mbigi's African perspective on the four De Lors' "pillars", by adding a fifth pillar, courtesy of Torres. The paper argues that community engagement is a two-way process between universities and their wider constituencies with opportunities for mutual lifelong learning. But there are also challenges of understanding and process which must be addressed if the full range of these lifelong learning pillars is to be accommodated within African contexts. The paper provides an introduction to the history of community engagement in Africa as a university mission, followed by a brief discussion of lifelong learning within African perspectives. After describing the particular context of Lesotho, the concept of community service and community engagement in contemporary African contexts introduces the action research project and the case studies. The final part of the paper presents and discusses the research findings. (Contains 1 note.)

The aim of this paper is to reflect on past discussions in order to see how far we have travelled in terms of research over the past 12 years, identify some of the continuities and look at the significance of some of the changes that have taken place in order to inform our agenda for the future. This paper starts with some conceptual definitions in relation to the keywords in this title, which in themselves are by no means unproblematic. It then comments on the previous era of CONFINTEA V, some 12 years earlier and the discussions that were taking place then, and indeed before then, for the African context. For that reference is made to the journal publication by DVV International in 1995, which reported on an adult education conference that was dedicated to research trends and issues of the time. The remainder of the paper discusses documentation that led up to and immediately followed the international CONFINTEA VI conference on adult education in Brazil in December 2009. The focus is on the African context. I suggest that a research agenda for adult education and lifelong learning in the era of CONFINTEA VI might be subdivided into research for: practice change; base-line data; critical awareness and social purpose; and African identity. The core argument is that the current era potentially lends itself to a more radical agenda for Africa than might have been the case in the past. (Contains 3 notes.)

This paper highlights some tensions regarding lifelong learning discourses for countries which are listed in the lower part of international development indexes. Such countries are often referred to collectively as the "South", though this represents a political focus rather than geographical accuracy and usually represents those formerly colonised countries that are affected by international aid agendas, as opposed to those in the "North" that are identified as advanced industrialised countries. This discussion follows recent concerns (for example by Torres 2003) that the dominant discourse for lifelong learning is articulated as a priority for the North while the learning priority for countries in the South are reduced to basic education, as evidenced in internationally agreed development targets such as the Millennium Development Goals. It is also a response to further calls (for example by Rogers 2003, 700) to articulate "real alternatives" for the South, and for "more theoretical" work on "lifelong learning for the countries of the South" (Youngman 2003, 114). One of this paper's arguments is that the "North-South" divide of policy agendas for educational reform is symbolic of other divisive discourses and behaviours by the international aid community that are constructed in the name of development. Its other argument is that the South has its own context-specific perspectives that can help to shape a more global lifelong learning vision.

Higher reported female literacy rates in Lesotho have resulted from poverty and economic challenges which prohibit male access to education in that males drop out in higher numbers in search of employment mainly as herders, in order to supplement their family income resulting in higher female literacy rates. Whilst non-formal education (NFE) provision caters for adult herders, this provision seems to inadequately cover for the herders’ educational ambitions. This information gap calls for a need to establish a deeper understanding of who the herders are, how they live and how they want to live. The findings of this paper derive from a qualitative PhD study of 30 adult herders in Lesotho. The herders’ life histories and educational ambitions are filtered through identity theory in order to inform the national NFE policy. It emerged that the public image findings were reflected through themes of culture, masculinity and ‘othering’. This image influenced their social relationships and their learning ambitions. A recommendation is made on the need for NFE curriculum to address the herders’ public collectively in order to promote their – participation, retention, inclusion into the society whilst also addressing the power relations that might potentially inhibit education access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on Peter Jarvis’ bookGlobalisation, lifelong learning and the learning society, volume 2 – in which he describes human learning within a global context and factors contributing to globalisation. He describes the relationship of power between countries manifested as the superstructure and sub structure. The paper explores to what extent this model reflects the current situation in selected southern African countries such as Tanzania, Lesotho and South Africa and how the global forces have influenced adult learning in these African contexts. The paper adopts a postcolonial lens to critique the ways in which learning opportunities in African situations are facilitated and manipulated through the globalisation process and provides a speculative commentary on how adult and lifelong learning policy in South Africa is evolving as a political gesture towards positioning the country as a global player. It concludes by suggesting that the core substructure is perhaps not as impenetrable as first appears and that more recent superstructure responses may have had some impact on the core. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper discusses the relationship between international agendas for lifelong learning and financial aid for low income countries, especially those on the African continent. It argues that there are subtle differences in terminology written by policymakers respectively in Europe and South Africa for lifelong learning but that international development agendas reinscribe lifelong learning for countries in receipt of development aid. Taking a postcolonial perspective the paper provides a textual analysis of case examples from policy documents in two African countries to demonstrate how international aid priorities negatively affect government choices and policies for lifelong learning, in spite of more regional analyses of the role of education and lifelong learning for the continent''s development needs. It argues that the inclusion of indigenous worldviews from the south have potential to enhance a global agenda for the social purpose element of lifelong learning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]