Pedagogies for Lifelong Learning: Building Bridges or Building Walls? Supporting Lifelong Learning Working Paper.

The United Kingdom does not yet have any lifelong learning pedagogies. The country has a stratified and segmented educational system, with little connection between those sectors that might be regarded as contributing to the concept of lifelong learning. The reasons for this lack of connections between sectors were examined during an 18-month study that included a literature review and resulted in identification of the following pedagogic "identities" assumed by adult educators: educator as critical practitioner; educator as psycho-diagnostician and facilitator of learning; educator as reflective practitioner; educator as situated learner within a community of practice; and educator as assurer of organizational quality and efficiency and deliverer of service to agreed or imposed standards. These identities were analyzed within the following conceptual dimensions: learning within a community versus individualized learning; disciplinary community versus pedagogic community; moral and social accountability versus organizational accountability; educator as "person in the world" versus anonymous/invisible educator; and student as "person in the world" versus anonymous/invisible learner. The analysis established that it is impossible to disentangle learners' situatedness from the educative process and that the split between adult education and higher education lies at least partly in the relationship between pedagogical theory and practice. (Contains 38 references.) (MN)