UNESCO’s Utopia of Lifelong Learning

Transformative dimensions of lifelong learning: Mezirow, Rorty and COVID-19

“…2 Habermas’ view of what adults need to be active citizens departs from the uncritical version of lifelong learning, where a lack of basic skills in concert with employability is central for adults in order to fulfil their roles as active citizens participating in democracy. Maren Elfert ( 2018 ) refers to the way lifelong learning has been emaciated and today bears little resemblance to its original meanings. She asserts that, in the European Union (EU), “Lifelong learning began as a radical idea with a strong political dimension, which asked questions about justice and equality, the distribution of resources and the exercise of power” (Elfert 2018 , p. 215).…”

“…Maren Elfert ( 2018 ) refers to the way lifelong learning has been emaciated and today bears little resemblance to its original meanings. She asserts that, in the European Union (EU), “Lifelong learning began as a radical idea with a strong political dimension, which asked questions about justice and equality, the distribution of resources and the exercise of power” (Elfert 2018 , p. 215). It has instead become de-politicized and “transformed” to make it fit into the agenda of the marketplace, turning it into a euphemistic label for a neoliberal worldview, in which the individual is held responsible to invest in her human capital, in the name of a false notion of freedom (ibid.).…”

Lifelong learning as cruel optimism: Considering the discourses of lifelong learning and techno-solutionism in South African education

“…But – as other scholars have already noted (cf. Biesta 2006 ; Lee and Friedrich 2011 ; Elfert 2015 , 2018 ) – the term lifelong learning has a long history and its meaning is far from fixed, uncontested or neutral. The assumption of technology as intrinsically good also does not withstand scrutiny (Bridle 2019 ; Morozov 2013 ), despite widespread belief to the contrary.…”

Theorising decolonisation in the context of lifelong learning and transnational migration: anti-colonial and anti-racist perspectives

“…Tracing the shifting meanings of lifelong learning Lifelong learning as a 'beautifully simple idea' (Field, 2000, p. vii) representing humanistic and emancipatory approaches to education, was perhaps first institutionalised as early as the 1960s or 1970s by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) that envisaged for a new vision of learning throughout the life of individuals and societies (Elfert, 2018). One of the first published reports in this context was by Faure, Learning to Be (1972), that argued for the principles of lifelong learning (initially referred to as lifelong education) to be enshrined as the basic concept in educational policies of both the developed and the developing worlds (Medel-Anonuevo, Ohsako, & Mauch, 2001).…”