The perils of confusing lifelong learning with lifelong education
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11424038 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Billett (0000-0002-9926-3518, Griffith University, corresponding author), Stephen Billett |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 401-413 |
| Publication date | 2010-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Lifelong Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0260-1370 • E-ISSN: 1464-519X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02601370.2010.488803 |
| OpenAlex | W2026260857 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 45 |
| References cited | 21 |
Lifelong learning is a socio-personal process and a personal fact. As such, it is conceptually distinct from an educational provision that constitutes an institutional fact. In building on this distinction, this article seeks to elaborate a central flaw in the precepts for, conceptualisation of and enactment of the report 'Learning through life', thereby proposing it as being ill informed, partial and of limited use. Moreover, it is potentially perilous to the project of lifelong learning as it could well lead to the misrepresentation, marginalisation and undermining of a broadly premised provision of support for adults' learning. The emphasis on educational provisions rather than individuals' learning and ignoring of the diversity of settings in which individuals' learn, stands as major flaws, seemingly arising from the authors' perspectives and stakeholder interests. Largely neglected throughout is the scholarship on adult learning and development across the life course. Instead, miscellaneous and often unhelpful sources inform the report. The overall recommendations reflect a view of human development that was abandoned decades ago as being unhelpful, and whose rejection is more now pertinent than ever. Moreover, it largely rehearses a tired educational discourse and unquestioningly privileges the value of taught courses, ignoring the importance and ubiquity of learning experiences outside of courses that are the most common source of learning across individual's lives. Within its discussion and the shaping of its recommendations, lifelong learning is presented as an institutional fact rather than a personal process. That is, erroneously, learning is claimed to be a product of what social institutions enact rather than being something done by people. In doing so, a misinformed and inaccurate account of lifelong learning emerges and a narrow conception of how that learning might best be promoted and supported is advanced. Yet, the great peril within this document is in promoting a form of learning support that lends itself more to management of educational provisions than concerns about individuals' learning. The peril here is that other circumstances and settings in which learning occurs stand to be ignored or further marginalised. In all, not only is this report an opportunity lost, it represents a significant threat to an important and viable field of human and societal development across the life course: lifelong learning
Adult education · Diversity (politics · Epistemology · Experiential learning · Lifelong learning · Misrepresentation · Pedagogy · Political science · Process (computing · Scholarship · Sociology · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Higher Education Learning Practices · Innovative Education and Learning Practices · Law · Psychology
Mapping Lifelong Learning Research
Mapping our way out? Critical reflections on historical research and the Faure report
Re-reading the 1972 Faure report as a policy repertoire
Learning across working life
Constituting integration in work-integrated education and learning
Developing capabilities
Lifelong Learning in an Age of Uncertainty
Lifelong Learning in Social Work
Trans-local academic credentials and the (re)production of financial elites
Conditions and Consequences of Unequal Educational Opportunities in the Life Course
Mutualising the university
Tracing the effects and impacts of the Memorandum on Lifelong Learning in the scholarly debate since its inception
The Impact of Gender Differences on Lifelong Learning Tendencies in Turkey
Lifelong Learning in Social Work Education
Learning from each other in the context of personalisation and self-build social care
Mapping adult education institutions for development in Taiwan
Neurofarming HE
The roles of Adult Education Centres and Civil Society Organisations in adult education in Turkey
Inclusive research as a site for lifelong learning
Development of social worker critical reflexivity through integration of lived experience into further education
In times of trouble, what is the role of lifelong education and educators
Lifelong education, social inequality and the Covid-19 health pandemic
Emergency preparedness as public pedagogy
Self-directed lifelong learning in hybrid learning configurations
Intersecting discourses of militarism
Serious but fun, self-directed yet social
Inclusion and exclusion in later life learning
Triangulating the lifelong learner
Resisting symbolic violence
The outcomes and impacts of everyday learning
The knowledgeable parenting style
When design of everyday things meets lifelong learning
Lifelong learning policy in two national contexts
An individual learning journey
The personal curriculum
Continuing professional development as lifelong learning and education
Workplace work-integrated learning
Ageing and Learning Agility –Mediating role of learning perception and Moderating role of technology leverage
How perception affects participation
Learning about ourselves from others
Linking complex problem solving and general mental ability to career advancement
What have we learnt about mobile LifeLong Learning (mLLL)
Re-examining the tensions between educators’ beliefs about assessment and its enactment in practice
Question-Based Dialogue on Media Representations of Social Problems
Adult learning and social inequalities
Human Agency and Language
Sociocultural Studies of Mind
Apprenticeship in Thinking
Learning through work
Observing sociocultural activity on three planes
Interest, Prior Knowledge, and Learning
Modernity and self-identity
Culture, communication and cognition
On the Construction of a Social Reality
Modernity and Self-Identity
Conceptualizing Learning Experiences
Farmers as Learners
Expert and Exceptional Performance
Participation as Dis-Identification With/in a Community of Practice
The Anthropology of Teaching and Learning
| Unique citing works | 45 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2026 (16) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 45 |