Lifelong Learning in Asia: Eclectic Concepts, Rhetorical Ideals, and Missing Values. Implications for Values Education

Abstract

The last decade has seen major education reform initiatives in Asia. There are some common emphases in these initiatives, such as school management reform in relation to school-based development, emphasising accountability especially in requiring school achievements be known to the public, redefinition of educational goals, aiming at quality and the assessment of quality, focusing on learning outcome rather than teaching performance, diverting the function of examinations from assessment and screening to assessment for learning and development, and – lifelong learning. These changes are not a single incidence, but are interlocking and build upon one another. They also reflect ideological shifts towards demands for efficiency, performativity, and measurability in education enterprises. In the face of more volatile economical situations and with a general elevation of education attainment in most countries, there are increased demands for public participation in educational provisions, including increased parental involvement in school activities and even policymaking and public participation in curriculum development. Lifelong learning is an area of educational provision that contains most of these elements in current educational reforms. It addresses educational needs for the volatile economies that would lead to quick turnovers in the types of jobs available because of quick turnovers in industries. To many, this type of economic situation is coined as the knowledge economy. The notion of lifelong learning, as attractive as it is to educational policymakers across countries, is an umbrella term that embraces a multiplicity of ideologies. As Medel-Anonuevo et al. (2001) point out, “While lifelong learning has increasingly been cited as one of the key principles in the educational and development fields, there is no shared understanding of its usage at the global level.” However, the idea of lifelong learning promoted by OECD based upon a market-oriented human resource development (HRD) concept, with a focus on the knowledge worker’s self-directed learning motivation, has gained prominence. A worker’s lifelong career development was gradually emphasised with his or her own expenses, and investment in human learning turned out to be the instrument for the realisation of