Discourse Of Lifelong Learning Research Articles

What Future for the Relationship between Early Childhood Education and Care and Compulsory Schooling?

The relationship between early childhood education and care (ECEC) and compulsory schooling is the subject of increasing research and policy attention, as attendance at both grows globally, as the discourse of lifelong learning emphasises that learning begins at birth, and as investment in early childhood is increasingly advocated for the returns it brings in later education. Having discussed the structural and cultural framework that contextualises the relationship, the article considers four possible types of relationship: preparing the child for school, stand off, making the school ready for children, and the vision of a meeting place. It concludes with a discussion of some critical questions and of how the relationship between early childhood and compulsory school should not be confined only to the first few school grades: full resolution requires inclusion of secondary education.

Subjects of choice and lifelong learning

This paper addresses some of the discursive practices of neoliberal government through which the subject is constituted as a subject of choice—subjects whose life trajectory is shaped by the imperatives of a labour market in which they will become mobile and flexible workers with multiple careers and jobs. Mobility among these multiple careers and jobs is secured through ongoing investment in education and training: an investment in lifelong learning. The paper analyses the ways in which neoliberal discourses of freedom and choice are mapped onto discourses of the market, and of the labour market in particular, and recognizes the centrality of education and training as sites and technologies for the production of mobile and flexible worker/subjects. Drawing on life‐history narratives of forty 18‐ to 65‐year‐olds, the paper addresses the discourses of choice, education and lifelong learning through which mobility within and adaptation to the labour market is understood as necessary, desirable and essential to successful negotiation of the multiple opportunities the participants believed were available to them now and in the future.

Timescapes of Flexibility and Insecurity

This article draws on the concept of ‘timescape’ (Adam, 1998) to explore the context of distance learners' stories about their reasons for studying. It examines these learners' narratives of being located in a socio-historical time and space in which there is a greater need for flexibility in relation to the times and spaces of work and how this is underpinned by a strong sense of insecurity of work. Engaging in continued learning becomes one means of coping with this timescape, by becoming more flexible and remaining employable. In exploring these micro-level narratives, this article highlights both some of the multiple, interlinked layers of time and space, the impact of macro-level discourses of flexibility, insecurity and lifelong learning, and the gendered and other power relations around these. It also reflects on the theoretical and empirical use of the concept of the timescape, arguing that the narrative or biographical approach provides a useful means through which to explore the timescapes of individuals and groups.

L/earning a living: practices and recognition of women’s on‐the‐job and informal learning in the information technology field

Information technology (IT) has been characterized as central to globalization and nation‐states’ competitive edge in the global economy. A highly masculinized field, IT is paradoxically characterized as gender‐neutral, a field which expands opportunities for women’s career and income development. For these reasons, feminist researchers regard it as an interesting context in which to explore contemporary issues of gender, learning and work. Based in Canada, our study broadens the scope of the literature in this area, extending the conceptualization of the IT field beyond its central occupations such as computer programming, software engineering and network administration, to niches such as technical communication, project and operations management and even librarianship and secretarial jobs. In this article, we focus on how gender has shaped the learning pathways and the politics of recognition experienced and articulated by women working across the IT field. We have purposefully gathered work and learning histories of women without formal IT credentials. Their stories offer an important counter‐narrative to the neo‐liberal discourse of equality and re‐insert informal learning into the mainstream discourse of lifelong learning.

The planetspeak discourse of lifelong learning in Sweden: what is an educable adult?

This article focuses on the idea of the educable adult subject in Sweden and the ways this idea has re‐emerged in different practices during the twentieth century. It’s a policy analysis where official documents from the twentieth century and early twenty‐first century concerned with adult education in Sweden are analysed based on the Foucauldian notion of governmentality. The results show that the idea of the educable adult subject has been present during the major part of the twentieth century. But there are differences in how it is inscribed into the practices. The main difference is that the educable subject today is created in relation to a new rationality of governing where it is governed and constructed through its own choices and actions instead of through institutions based on knowledge produced by the social sciences and experts. Further, the ambition today is that everyone should be included in lifelong learning. At the same time, these ambitions also create exclusion. What happens to those who cannot or do not want to participate in lifelong learning? I argue that such practices of inclusion/exclusion are present in all the documents analysed, but that today, this practice has taken a specific shape.

Lifelong learning and the knowledge economy: those that know and those that do not—the discourse of the European Union

This article is based on a textual analysis of European Commission documents that, from 1993 to 2006, construct the discourses of lifelong learning and the knowledge economy. Exploring an apparent conceptual laxity, it finds absolute consistency in the construction of two categories of learner: the high knowledge‐skilled learner (graduate/postgraduate) for the knowledge economy, and the low knowledge‐skilled learner located in (or beyond) the knowledge society. The low knowledge‐skilled learners are not only those at risk, they are increasingly constructed as the risk. The analysis suggests that the binary classification is initially classed and raced—and only then is it gendered. In contrast, labour market studies of the knowledge economy, providing either gendered or national data, obscure the vital cross‐cutting matrix of social class, ‘race’ and age. The article advocates further studies of lifelong learning practices and labour market data based on finely‐crossed analyses of social class, poverty, age and race.

Motivation in adult education: a problem solver or a euphemism for direction and control?

Adults' motivation to participate in continued education is of immediate interest, as lifelong learning is now considered as the solution to the pressing problems of increased levels of unemployment, not least among unskilled workers. Many theories concerning motivation and adult education maintain that individuals are innately motivated to learn, and conclude that motivation problems result from various dispositional, situational and structural impediments. If such barriers are removed, adults will be naturally motivated to educate themselves. This article argues against these theories and maintains that motivation should not be regarded as something residing within the individual. It is rather a construct of those who see it lacking in others. A critical reading of the literature shows how motivation theory stigmatizes people held ‘unmotivated’ in that the theories ascribe motivation problems to the individual, while assuming the basis upon which the problem is formulated for granted, and making those who formulate the problem invisible. Instead of a problem solver, motivation becomes a euphemism for direction and control. This article suggests that motivation should be seen as a relational concept, rather than as residing within the individual. Adults' motivation, or lack of this, is best understood in relation to those who formulate the problem. Instead of asking what motivates adults to study, research should focus on who states that this is a problem, and why, and the reasons for this conclusion. This approach makes the operations of power visible, and demonstrates how the discourse of lifelong learning, as a necessary political response to economic and technological determinism, constructs adults as inadequate.

Beyond the abstractions! Adult education research from idealism to critical social science

The anniversary of the International Journal of Lifelong Education can participate in a conceptual landslide from lifelong education to lifelong learning. Contemporary discourses of lifelong learning etc. are abstractions behind which new functions and agendas for adult education are set. The ideological discourse of recent policies seems to neglect the fact that history and resources for lifelong learning are different across Europe, and also neglects the multiplicity of adult learners. Instead of refusing the new agendas, however, adult education research should try to dissolve the abstractions by broadening its scope of interest, by focussing on differences of learners, by age, gender, ethnicity, social experience, and differences in context, by socioeconomic environment, culture etc. Practically, it is argued, this means embracing the new focus on informal learning and work related learning. Adult education research must fulfil its potential conversion from normative philosophy to critical and empirical social science.

Escaping the slums or changing the slums? Lifelong learning and social transformation1

This paper looks at the discourse of lifelong learning as it has emerged in many countries (especially Europe) over the last few years, with its concentration first on learning for work and latterly on learning for citizenship .The failure of lifelong learning to pick up on the earlier tradition of adult education is noted and some reasons for this are suggested. The paper argues that a social transformation approach to lifelong learning based on a diversity paradigm rather than a deficit or a disadvantaged paradigm is possible within its existing conceptualisation, especially within the fields of the reflective practitioner, learning and identity and the learning organisation/society.

Beyond the moorland? Contextualising lifelong learning

This article explores the question of what we might understand to be a learning context within discourses of lifelong learning. If we identify learning as both lifelong and lifewide, how then can we frame a meaningful notion of context and what is its relationship to learning? These are important questions that have been explored within work on situated learning and activity theory. However, they have yet to be explored specifically in relation to the notion of lifelong learning. This is the task of this article, which is theoretically driven and speculative.

From Education to Lifelong Learning: The emerging regime of learning in the European Union

This paper investigates the role of the lifelong learning discourse in actual governmentality. Starting with a description of the origins of lifelong learning in the discussions about alternative education in the 1960s and 1970s, the current adoption of lifelong learning by the European Union is used to show its critical components. Along with the distinction between formal and informal learning it is demonstrated how lifelong learning attempts to change the field of learning from enclosed environments to a totality of learning events, while at the same time attempting to change the individuals into self‐organizing learners. We show that lifelong learning has a crucial role within the strategies of subjectivation, since its mandate is to provide individuals with the necessary skill‐sets. Finally the methodological prerequisites of the administration of Lifelong Learning are investigated, showing the corresponding developments in the European Union and their contribution to generating a European population.

Lifelong learning and the absence of gender

This paper identifies that (with very few exceptions) in most of current literature on lifelong learning, gender issues are ignored or overlooked. An extensive review of the literature demonstrates this neglect. Some reasons are given for this, including the fact that most analyses of lifelong learning tend to stress the individual learning against the social construct of learning; individual learning paths are sought rather than gendered patterns. But within the discourse of lifelong learning there are elements such as identity, the reflective practitioner and critical reflection which could open the door to a more socially transformative approach to lifelong learning. More research and debate are needed.

평생교육담론이 교육학 연구에 던진 세 가지 파동

평생교육담론이 교육학 연구에 던진 세 가지 파동

Education as Liberation: The politics and techniques of lifelong learning

It is taken for granted that the complexity of the information society requires a reorientation of our being in the world. Not surprisingly, the call for lifelong learning and permanent education becomes louder and more intense every day. And while there are various worthwhile initiatives, like alphabetisation courses, the article argues that the discourse of lifelong learning contains at least two difficulties. Firstly, the shift from a knowledge‐based to an information society has revealed a concept of learning with an emphasis on skills related to information retrieval, dissemination and evaluation. Learning now is the constant striving for extra competences, and the efficient management of the acquired ones. Secondly, the discourse of lifelong learning suggests the autonomy of the learner. However, educational practices are organized in a way that ‘choosing to learn (particular things)’ has become the contemporary human condition. With reference to Marshall's notion of ‘busno‐power’, it is argued that—contrary to what one likes to believe—lifelong learning has become a new kind of power mechanism.

A critical feminist analysis of the homeplace as learning site: expanding the discourse of lifelong learning to consider adult women learners

Using a critical feminist analysis, this paper delves into the way in which current discourses in lifelong learning are frequently delineated by a masculine and competitive framework of values, reflective of the impact of the global marketplace. To challenge these underlying assumptions of what constitutes important learning, the article focuses on the significance of the homeplace as an important site of living and learning. By examining how identity, relationships, and labour within the homeplace impact upon and shape learning experiences, insights may be gained into the particular challenges that women learners face. From this, attention can be focused upon developing supports for women learners. At the same time, the article raises questions about underlying value structures that need to be addressed to create a broader and more inclusive perspective of lifelong learning.

Lifelong learning policies and discourses: critical reflections from Aotearoa, New Zealand

This article examines New Zealand experiences and understandings of lifelong education and lifelong learning over the past 30 years or so. It investigates the place of lifelong education and lifelong learning discourses in shaping public policy in Aotearoa as well as questions about the similarities and differences between the discourse in New Zealand and in Europe and the UK. The aim of the paper is to throw light on the following questions: what effects, if any, have notions of lifelong education or lifelong learning had on public policy discourses on tertiary education and the education of adults? Is there evidence to suggest that notions of either ‘lifelong education’ or ‘lifelong learning’ have provided a vision or sense of purpose or set of guidelines in developing public policies? Have they served to justify or legitimate new initiatives or funding arrangements? And, if so, what is the nature of this influence? Finally, in the light of this discussion the article also examines the question whether notions of ‘lifelong education’ and ‘lifelong learning’ as they have featured in the academic and policy literature are predominantly located in a Euro‐centred discourse and hence how they might be reconstituted to reflect more adequately discourses of learning and education in other parts of the world.

The politics of ‘lifelong learning’ in post‐1997 Hong Kong

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.

Working‐class women on an Access course: risk, opportunity and (re)constructing identities

Framed by discourses of lifelong learning and widening participation, further education Access to University courses attract mature students from a range of social backgrounds. This paper focuses on eight women students who, to varying degrees, share educational and occupational histories and aspirations. We explore their experiences of the Access programme by referring to developing learner and class identities and related femininities. This transitional phase is not a straightforward one of simply shedding old identities and donning unproblematic new ones, but is instead a period of reflexivity and risk, confusion and contradiction. Based on interviews held on termly basis throughout the one‐year course, we draw on an analysis of risk to examine the gendered complexities of transitional class and learner identities and developing educational histories. In so doing, we challenge the assumption that a changing learner identity necessitates a corresponding shifting class identity.

‘In and against’ lifelong learning: flexibility and the corrosion of character

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.

Adult education, lifelong learning and citizenship: some ifs and buts

This paper suggests that the dominant discourse of lifelong learning is a political rather than an educational discourse. On this view, lifelong learning enables the deconstruction of welfare to be effected through the reconstruction of citizenship. Democratic citizenship properly understood, on the other hand, depends on determined progress towards a more equitable distribution of material and cultural resources among citizens. Education on its own can do little to ensure that such structural change takes place. It is, nevertheless, the task of critical adult education, as distinct from economistic models of lifelong learning, to raise such questions as urgent issues for democratic deliberation and debate, and to expand our notions of what it means to be active citizens in a democratic society. The paper contains the text of a talk given at the annual study conference of the UK's National Institute of Adult Continuing Education in April 2002.