A Critique of the Concept of Lifelong Learning in the Contemporary World: An Existential Critical Approach (original) (raw)
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Critical approaches to lifelong education
International review of education, 1999
This paper argues that contemporary interest in lifelong learning can be seen as an artefact of the market. It points out how the attractive vocabulary associated with personal development and empowerment often masks other economic and social purposes. Bearing in mind the social function of education, the author compares the strategies for the promotion of lifelong learning designed for those in "included social categories" with the policies designed for those in marginal and excluded positions. It concludes by challenging its own position by citing positive learner experience in each case. Zusammenfassung-Dieser Artikel legt dar, daß das heutzutage vorhandene Interesse an lebenslangem Lernen als Produkt des Marktes betrachtet werden kann. Es zeigt auf, wie das attraktive Vokabular, das mit persönlicher Entwicklung und Befähigung in Verbindung gebracht wird, häufig andere wirtschaftliche und soziale Zwecke überdeckt. Unter Betrachtung der sozialen Funktion der Bildung vergleicht die Autorin die Strategien zur Förderung lebenslangen Lernens für Personen in "akzeptierten sozialen Kategorien" mit den Planungen für ausgeschlossene, in gesellschaftlichen Randpositionen lebende Personen. Es endet mit einer Herausforderung seiner eigenen Position, indem es für beide Fälle positive Lernerfahrungen darstellt.
Existential Thoughts on Education
Turning Toward Being: Ontological Inquiry in Education, 2024
More often than not, systematic philosophies and practices of education tend to define the nature of the human being in terms of an immutable essence. For example, a manipulable organism within the learning environment or empty vessel to be filled with the knowledge it lacks. Systematic education is largely based on the uncritical acceptance of such antecedent ontological/biological conclusions regarding human being, and uncritical acceptance leaves little room for the exploration and experience of human freedom. Educators seeking to better serve their students should consider the existential pursuit of a reconceptualized understanding of the human being as an active and evolving perennial learner. Such a view might better inform the potential critique and reconstruction of our institutionalized and standardized education system.
Reconsidering education for all from a lifelong education perspective
Education has changed its character in modern societies; in a life of an individual, education has become more important than ever. At the threshold to knowledge society, education is not a privilege but a social necessity and an obligation. As an overarching concept, national and trans-national (e.g. European) education policies use the concept of lifelong learning. On one hand, this concept promises a firm foundation to a reconsideration of education and education systems; on the other side it seems sometimes vague and contradictory. There is a rainbow of interpretation: it is seen as a tool to make labour force more flexible but also as a threat to humanistic understanding of learning and knowledge. The presentation will try to reflect the on-going discussion on these issues and to put them under a light of future perspectives.
European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 2012
When we think about current adult education in the context of the uneven and contradictory social and economic impact of globalization, it necessarily implies thinking about the transfer from the paradigm of lifelong education to the paradigm of lifelong learning. We shall examine the essential quality involved in the social significance and the political dimension of each of these paradigms, because, since the post-war period, both became innovative educational policy strategies capable of mobilizing and transforming society. We would like to stress the importance of rethinking the role of adult education today in the light of the responsibilities shifting from the state to individuals, arising from the implications of this transition of paradigms: we do this by framing it in the context of the socio-productive restructuring movement, which speeded up the move from the so-called model of qualification, associated to social emancipation, to what is known as the model of competence (later competences), which is associated with individual empowerment. Therefore in this article we intend to question this new policy direction, which is associated with a conceptual and methodological shift in adult education practices, by using the prism of a critical sociology of education.
Lifelong Learning: Is a New Theory of Its Practice Possible?
This paper aims to understand and challenge the concept of humanity that has been embed in the meaning of lifelong learning, while asking the question: Is a new theory of lifelong learning practice possible? The paper argues that the concept and practice of contemporary lifelong learning is generally rooted in classical and neoclassical economics, which is the basis of the neoliberal agenda. Thus, the concept of lifelong learning dehumanizes and damages human beings and society. Drawing upon the analogy of the Tin Man, a character in the Wizard of Oz, this paper presents people’s struggle and hope for attaining humanity. Therefore, I suggest three fundamental actions, which are inspired by Polanyi (2001), for facilitating and creating possibilities for people’s humanization and re-signification of lifelong learning as education for all aspects of human life.
Philosophy of Existentialism and its Implications for Educational Pedagogy
International Journal of Educational Issues, Department of Arts Education, Faculty of Education, Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State, 2020
Quickly after the first and the second world wars, attentions of philosophers, shifted to issues concerning the nature of human existence, especially as such issues were about the influence of humans in the world. In a world that was recovering from the devastations of two wars whose underlying causes are not disconnected from human avarice and domination, philosophers began to critically reconsider deeply how the place of the human person can be better understood in relation to the actual world. In spite of the contributions of these existentialists, one sure oversight has been the neglect of the implications of their studies for pedagogy. Through the method of critical analysis, this study seeks to unearth the implication for pedagogy in existentialism. It engages the various existentialists via their distinct contributions and submissions to decipher the contributions toward a more grounded pedagogy that can aid the development of a sound mind. Whether or not these scholars were certain of their commerce is beyond the scope of the present inquiry. The submission of this research however is that existentialism is gravid with contributions for pedagogy, and it is necessary to existentially evaluate the human persons in relations to their lived experience towards the formulations of educational policies, curricula and pedagogies that indispensably help to shape their future.
Towards an Economy of Lifelong Learning: Reconceptualising Relations Between Learning and Life
British Journal of Educational Studies, 1998
Lifelong learning should embrace more than instrumental purposes. Some late modern social formations threaten individual autonomy, subordinating the needs of 'agent' in a 'locality' to universalising rationality, necessary for growth in a globalized and virtualised economy. These phenomena are discussed and illustrated. Learning, now an 'economic' activity, could bind individuals in heteronymously defined lifeworlds. Prerequisites of an alternative conceptualisation are examined.
Subjectification and Existentialism in Contemporary Educational Theory.
Teoría de la Educación. Revista Interuniversitaria, 2022
In the present paper, I will investigate contemporary neo-existentialism in educa-tional theory, by exploring the reasons which have recommended the rediscovery of an existentialist stance in our age, the significance of these endeavours for contemporary undertakings and also the manner in which the existentialist thrust has been spelled out. In particular, after situating present-day neo-existentialism against the backdrop of the mid-20th century educational existentialism and after specifying its topicality as a response to neoliberal stranglehold on education, I will focus on two models — «subjectification» and «existential learning» — and show that they ultimately represent two alternative pedagogical options. However, it will be argued, this difference does not exclude the possibility that both models can (and perhaps must) be deployed in contemporary scenarios to counter the human capital invasion of education, by operating in different dimensions of education and in response to different educational tasks. Indeed, together they may allow us to re(dis)cover education as an adventure.
Existentialism and Classroom Practice
This paper examines existing education literature that discusses existentialism, existential pedagogy, individual freedom, identity, and search for meaning. Through effective pedagogical strategies and by acknowledging the role of teacher, existential pedagogy will engage learners and will illuminate for them the existential motivations for learning. The study revealed that every technique, every tool, every gesture is a way that opens upon the world, therefore existentialist teacher should present the subject matter with all the possible views on it. The findings of this study offer individual learners opportunity to live more purposefully in complex and rapidly changing conditions. This attribute obviously has implications for learners even beyond schools. It also has applicability for adults who especially are experiencing personal existential crisis in their lives. The educational implications drawn from existentialism enables an individual's to understand how their lives can be made more meaningful. For conducting this study, philosophical and historical methods were employed. The primary and secondary sources related to educational philosophy of existentialism were evaluated after detailed analysis. The general philosophical tools used for the study are induction, deduction, dialectical analysis and synthesis.