Lifelong Learning and the New Educational Order

Citation

Brennan, B. (2001), "Lifelong Learning and the New Educational Order", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 80-81. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl.2001.13.2.80.1

This volume is written by the Professor of Lifelong Learning at the University of Warwick. It consists of five chapters. Chapter 1,“Lifelong learning: a design for the future?”, focuses on the concept, policies to implement the concept and the context in which the concept and policies operate. The chapter provides a useful discussion of the origins and development of the concept, particularly noting the change from lifelong education to lifelong learning. Field also explores what he terms “changes in the course of life” and new learning challenges. Noted here is the important topic of “work”. Next the discussion turns to the education and training system and problems of developing lifelong learning policy, particularly in the light of globalisation.

Chapter 2, “The silent explosion”, is based on Field’s belief in “the fundamental, underlying shift in the behaviour of ordinary citizens” (p. 35). He links this belief with the notion of “reflexive modernisation” and develops from this his four categories of lifelong learners: permanent, instrumental, traditional and non‐learners (p. 64). He concludes by asking how reflexive learners will perceive the sorts of education and training that are provided.

Chapter 3, “The learning economy”, addresses an area to which the concept of lifelong learning is most easily and frequently applied, i.e. the workplace. However, by examining the context of the workplace, e.g. changing occupations, related skills and the learning company, he questions the rhetoric of training in the new context of work.

Chapter 4, “Who is being left behind?”, returns to a point he has already noted and stresses the role that education has, and lifelong learning may, contribute to the “exclusion” of large groups within society. He links the concepts of the economic/social poor with the knowledge poor and argues that lifelong learning may legitimate inequality and exclusion. He also explores the policy of “conscription” to learning for those in the workforce and the unemployed.

In the first four chapters, Field has established the base for his strategies noted in Chapter 5, “The new educational order”. In the complex contemporary world there is no single (or simple) answer. Rather, he offers four plus one strategies to move towards his desired new educational order:

1. (1)

   rethinking the role of schooling;

2. (2)

   widening participation in adult learning;

3. (3)

   building active citizenship by investing in social capital;

4. (4)

   pursuing the search for meaning; plus

5. (5)

   balancing individual goals with environmental responsibility.

This is an important volume that makes a very useful contribution to the ongoing discussion of lifelong learning as a concept and its operationalising into specific policies and activities. It is important because Field has taken a very broad perspective on the issues. He has traced the emerging concept in the twentieth century: his focus is on the UK (and therefore Europe) but his illustrations are drawn from examples worldwide: he recognises the importance of schooling in the development of lifelong learning: most importantly, however, he has not restricted his discussion to a narrow field of lifelong learning, the workplace, and has sought to provide a conceptual framework for an understanding of the citizen of the twenty‐first century, the learner.

The volume is optimistic but avoids advocacy that does not face up to potential problems and issues. Field admits that lifelong learning is potentially exclusive and therefore in his strategies seeks to address this problem in his second strategy, but he is not one of those writers on lifelong learning who assume that it is the role of the educator (or reformer) to “get the process started”. He acknowledges it is already a social reality, caused not by educators (and especially adult educators), but by social, economic, technological and cultural changes. So educators, and policy makers, have to deal with an existing and increasingly important phenomenon.

The author suggests that governments have problems dealing with lifelong learning. He quotes Alan Thomas (p. 143) but he is not in the reference list, but does not focus on a more significant point made by Thomas about learning in general, namely that governments cannot manage learning, and trying to deal with “learning” as they have with “education” for over 150 years is a guarantee of failure and confusion. This omission weakens Field’s overall argument and the proposed strategies.

Further, the omission of two dimensions from his exploration of “learning” are unfortunate. Field mentions the “learning company” but overlooks the “learning city”. Not only is the latter an alternative social space, it also offers the possibility of the same sort of exclusion mechanisms that Field has isolated. The other omission is the way the media, advertising and the role of the “famous” as models contributes to lifelong learning. The reviewer poses the question:

To what extent are Field’s reflexive learners influenced by the barrage of images to which they are exposed “lifelong” by the media, broadly defined?

This volume will be informative and challenging to those who develop policy for, teach or administer in, lifelong learning. It seems especially relevant for those in adult education, workplace training or continuing professional education. The changing nature of work and the learner – a key contribution of this volume – is central not only to the effectiveness but also the viability of these forms of educational provision. Those identified by Field as “reflexive learners” may also appreciate this particular insight into an important feature of contemporary, global(?) society.