Who is ‘competent’ to shape lifelong education’s future? (Editorial)
Author(s)
Hodge, Steven
Holford, John
Milana, Marcella
Waller, Richard
Webb, Sue
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2021
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Lifelong education practice and research are about important processes but also generate visions of what those processes should be and lead to. Many are drawn to the field of lifelong education because of traditions that have articulated visions of adults and their communities as capable of growth, emancipation and empowerment, and look to educational policies, systems, institutions, and programmes in terms of how they can foster those visions. For critical researchers and practitioners the field is complicated by the efforts of well-resourced transnational organisations that make lifelong education and learning a special ...
View more >Lifelong education practice and research are about important processes but also generate visions of what those processes should be and lead to. Many are drawn to the field of lifelong education because of traditions that have articulated visions of adults and their communities as capable of growth, emancipation and empowerment, and look to educational policies, systems, institutions, and programmes in terms of how they can foster those visions. For critical researchers and practitioners the field is complicated by the efforts of well-resourced transnational organisations that make lifelong education and learning a special theme in their policy work. Some of these organisations, such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), have been responsible for policies that resonate with the humanist and critical traditions of lifelong education (e.g. Faure, 1972). However, in recent years there has been a convergence of policy work among transnational organisations – including UNESCO, as well as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) – that points to a different vision of lifelong education. A shift seems to be taking place marked by more strident envisioning of a particular industrial future on the one hand, and a certain specification of the how and what of educational systems to get us there.
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View more >Lifelong education practice and research are about important processes but also generate visions of what those processes should be and lead to. Many are drawn to the field of lifelong education because of traditions that have articulated visions of adults and their communities as capable of growth, emancipation and empowerment, and look to educational policies, systems, institutions, and programmes in terms of how they can foster those visions. For critical researchers and practitioners the field is complicated by the efforts of well-resourced transnational organisations that make lifelong education and learning a special theme in their policy work. Some of these organisations, such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), have been responsible for policies that resonate with the humanist and critical traditions of lifelong education (e.g. Faure, 1972). However, in recent years there has been a convergence of policy work among transnational organisations – including UNESCO, as well as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) – that points to a different vision of lifelong education. A shift seems to be taking place marked by more strident envisioning of a particular industrial future on the one hand, and a certain specification of the how and what of educational systems to get us there.
View less >
Journal Title
International Journal of Lifelong Education
Volume
40
Issue
3
Subject
Education