Education of the twenty-first century: New professionalism in lifelong learning, knowledge development and knowledge sharing

Abstract

A knowledge society is emerging in which Information and Communication Technology is omnipresent and ubiquitous. What form will education take to serve this society? And how will educational professionalism change? To begin to answer these questions one needs to understand the demands of this knowledge society on its citizens and knowledge workers. Continuous innovation in all aspects is characteristic of the knowledge society. This puts three demands to citizens and workers: lifelong learning, knowledge development and knowledge sharing. In the knowledge society learning is a continuous process: learning is lifelong learning. In many cases this learning will also involve knowledge development in the context of professional (or daily) life as new knowledge is needed to deal with innovation. Consequences of this are `democratization' of knowledge development (research) and a changing role of knowledge towards more prescriptive knowledge. In the knowledge society knowledge is the only resource that grows when shared. Knowledge sharing may be facilitated by communities of inquiry (practice, interest, etc.) supporting exchange and further development of knowledge. Information and Communication Technology is integrated facilitator in all this. If the picture sketched here is truthful, then there are profound consequences for education and the professionals in education. Education will find itself in a continuous process of change, embedded as it is in the changing knowledge society around it. The educational organisation will have to turn into a learning organisation, an agile organisation that is able to innovate educational processes to answer outside demands. New professionalism will be needed in such an organisation to understand and support new ways of learning and to create new learning environments. In this paper the Knowledge Society is explored in three aspects: lifelong learning, knowledge development and knowledge sharing. Then the implications for education and research in the twenty-first century knowledge society are explored. It is made clear that in this context new educational professionalism of teachers is needed, based on lifelong learning, practical research and knowledge sharing.