Swimming with the (Main) Stream? The Relationship of Adult Education and the Lifelong Learning Agenda in Post-Devolution UK (original) (raw)
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European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 2012
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Lifelong learning policy in two national contexts
International Journal of Lifelong Education, 2014
This article describes and discusses the development of lifelong learning policy in two EU member states, Denmark and Portugal. The purpose is to show how the different societal and historical contexts shape the development and implementation of lifelong learning policies, even though these policies have significant common elements. As basis for the discussion an inventory of policy elements is presented. Denmark and Portugal have been chosen as examples of smaller EU member states with different historical, social and cultural characteristics. Developments and policies in the two countries including the links with EU education policy are described on the basis of available research and documentation. The discussion includes comparison drawing on the inventory of policy elements. A main conclusion is that the different historical trajectories of the two countries are still very important for present-day education and for the advancement of lifelong learning policy. Early development of public primary education and popular adult education has provided a strong foundation for lifelong learning policy in Denmark while in Portugal not only institutional provision but also popular demand for lifelong learning has had to be built up relatively recently. EU education policy has had much more impact on lifelong learning policy in Portugal than in Denmark, because Portugal has had do depend much more on economic support from the EU social fund.
Adult Education Policies: Basic Dimensions according to the International discourse
2019
The development of policies aimed at educating and developing citizens is of crucial importance as a result of the particular contemporary societal characteristics, the global demographic changes, the intense rhythm of immigration, the rapid development of technology and the increase in the unemployment rate. This research, through the analysis of the text "Third World Report on Adult Learning and Adult Education (UNESCO, GRALE III, 2016), comes to explore the key dimensions of adult education policies. The methodology used to investigate the material is the qualitative analysis and in particular the methodological tool of thematic analysis with the contribution of thematic networks. The analysis of the text shows that policies supporting adult education should be universal, holistic, inclusive and without exclusions. A second dimension concerns the need for the Member States to modernize their policies, to control and evaluate their implementation. The proportion of public funding in the field of adult education constitutes a challenge, since it remains fairly low in the government's investment priorities, which seem to give priority to other areas, such as health, infrastructure and social welfare. Moreover, it appears that all countries do not interpret international policies in the same way. Thus, policies are sometimes used as a general frame of reference and sometimes as well-established practices. These practices could be implemented by governmental organizations, research institutes, civil society organizations, trade unions and other agents. Finally, governments, in cooperation with regional and local authorities and services are called to broaden their policies and strengthen adult learning and education. Towards this direction, the development of the mobility and participation of trainees in programs such as ARION, Comenius, Grundtvig, Erasmus and Erasmus plus is absolutely of major importance (UNESCO, 2016).
The many faces of lifelong learning: recent education policy trends in Europe
Journal of Education Policy, 2002
This article examines the rise of the discourse on lifelong learning across Europe and the variety of national policy trends which its rhetoric occludes. The ubiquitous presence of this meta-discourse in education and training policy-in-theory is seen as a singular event which can be ascribed to the impact of the variety of global forces on the education arena. It serves specific political functions in addition to signalling real changes in education and training systems. The duality of convergent rhetoric and divergent policy-in-practise is seen as a challenge to education policy analysis which requires multi-layered interpretation. Education and training policy can increasingly be seen as a global commodity. Armies of international think tank experts and consultants analyse, develop, adapt and package policies to order for governments, corporations and other interested parties; international organizations-notably the OECD, the World Bank and This article seeks to draw out some of the dominant trends in current education policy in Europe and the developed world, highlighting where these are convergent and, alternatively, divergent, and commenting on some of the implications of different policy models. In brief compass, this will not attempt to do more than sketch out some of the major overarching trends, although it draws on and updates a more detailed analysis of policy developments reported elsewhere (Green, Wolf and Leney, 1999). However, it does seek to analyse both policy-as-discourse and policy-as-practise where possible, albeit here with illustration rather than reporting of systematic analysis, to avoid the pitfalls noted above. Following one of Marx's better methodological precepts about 'rising' from the abstract to the concrete (and hence, although not here, dialectically back to complex higher order theory), the analysis begins with the contexts and themes which drive and overarch international policy discourse before exploring in some more detail the complexities of policy in practise in some different states. The rhetorics and realities of lifelong learning and the knowledge society The dominant and organizing discourse in education and training policy at the turn of the millennium was lifelong learning (in the context the learning/knowledge society). This idea, whose origins lie way back and buried in the writings of forgotten educationalists some 70 years ago (eg Basil Yeaxlee, 1929), gained currency through the late 1980s and 1990s, not least through the advocacy of the OECD (1996) and the European Commission (1995), to become by the turn of the century almost ubiquitous in the developed world. Although similar in some ways to earlier 1970s discourses around 'recurrent education', 'continuing education' and 'lifelong education'-the latter notably in the influential Learning To Be report by Edgar Faurė (UNESCO, 1972)-the 1990s idea of lifelong learning in a learning society decisively shifted the policy ground by stressing 'learning' rather than 'education', and 'society' rather than 'school'. The publication of Van der Zee's The Learning Society in 1991 and the European Commission's report Teaching and Learning: towards a Learning Society in 1996 provide two markers in continental Europe of the new society-wide emphasis. In the UK similar landmarks are visible with the publication of Stewart Ranson's book Towards the Learning Society in 1994 and the initiation in 1996 of the ESRC's Learning Society Research Programme. Now almost every OECD country-from South Korea to Canada-makes reference to lifelong learning and the knowledge society in its education policies and the idea now constitutes something of a meta-discourse in policy terms. The notion is, of course, hopelessly vague, masking many different policy approaches, but it captures something real and significant in modern policy trends, and thus provides a convenient way into analysis. As a meta-discourse, which is a relatively rare phenomena in the annals of education policy, lifelong learning has no doubt served various complex ideological purposes connoting, as it does, vision, change and, above all,
Adult Education and Lifelong Learning Policies
Andragoška spoznanja, 2019
This article discusses adult education policies in Greece and Portugal according to the model proposed by Lima and Guimarães (2011), which encompasses three analytical perspectives on adult learning and education. After the introduction, the methodological path followed is presented based on the document analysis of Greek and Portuguese national reports and the theoretical framework about adult education policies is discussed. A critical analysis of adult learning and education in both countries is made, based on a comparative approach. The conclusions stress the Europeanisation of adult education policies in the frame of human resources management policies as well as concerns about participation in adult education following modernisation and state control aims and conceptual elements. The findings show that both countries promote adult education as a strategy for modernisation and competitiveness in line with European Union guidelines but that there is a lack of evidence concerning...
Political globalization and the shift from adult education to lifelong learning
European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, Vol.3, No.2, 2012, pp. 103-117
This article reflects on the shift in vocabulary from (adult and continuing) education to (lifelong) learning and the ideological and purposive orientations it carries. It does so by critically addressing the changes occurred in policy discourses concerned with the education of adults after WWII at transnational level. The main argument is that the shift in vocabulary has been favoured by an increased voice acquired by transnational and inter-states entities (i.e. OECD, UNESCO, EU) in educational matters, however in combination with a change in political emphasis, at least within the European Union, from creating jobs opportunities towards securing that citizens acquire marketable skills. While both trends seems to point at the demise of the nation state as a guarantor for social justice, more research is needed to deepen our understandings of the interplay between transnational and nation-state levels; thus the article concludes by suggesting a research agenda to move in this direction.
Adult and lifelong education: the European Union, its member states and the world
International Journal of Lifelong Education, 2014
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Adult and continuing education in Europe. Using public policy to secure a growth in skills
2013
Adult and continuing education has the dual function of contributing to employability and economic growth, on the one hand, and responding to broader societal challenges, in particular promoting social cohesion, on the other. Companies and families support important investments that have, to date, ensured significant growth in both skills and the ability of the European population to innovate. Thanks to this commitment, Europe today has a wealth of organisations specialising in adult and continuing education. The sector has grown in importance, not only as an increasingly significant player in the economy but also in terms of its capacity to respond to the demand for learning from the knowledge economy. Adult and continuing education has a critical role to play in ensuring Europe copes with the phenomenon of educational exclusion, which, repeated year after year, generation after generation, undermines social cohesion and restricts the growth of employment. The prevalence of private intervention has created a situation in which participation in adult and continuing education is unevenly distributed, offering particular encouragement to certain groups (such as people with high levels of education or favoured social and cultural origin, and those employed in the knowledge-intensive productive sectors) while less advantaged groups are doubly disadvantaged. Demographic dynamics mean that the population, and hence the labour force, in the 45-65 age group will increase in the next decades, while the population aged between 15 and 44 will decrease. This phenomenon, linked to the increasing number of knowledge and skill-intensive jobs, makes adult education even more relevant. Nevertheless, the factor that, more than others, determines the likelihood of accessing learning opportunities is geography: the city, region and country of residence. This confirms the importance of past and present policies and, hence, the potential role of the state. Public policies must respond to two strategic challenges: to encourage the propensity to invest in adult and continuing education and to guarantee the reduction of educational exclusion. Therefore, investing appropriately in adult education will contribute to overcoming the economic crisis and to meeting the Europe 2020 targets on employment, poverty reduction, education, sustainability and innovation. Given this complex setting, research provides tools and data for helping policy-makers define effective policy measures. This publication is a review of the findings of several EU-funded research projects under the 6th and 7th Framework Programmes for Research. The conclusions of the research projects reviewed in this publication propose a number of policy priorities to support adult and continuing education and to harvest the potential of existing scientific production. This paper surveys these conclusions and guides policy-makers in developing policy interventions which both support the growth of adult and continuing education and exploit the wealth of research and research tools available.