Lifelong Learning Book Series 19

George K. Zarifis
Maria N. Gravani Editors

Challenging
the 'European
Area of Lifelong
Learning'
A Critical Response
Challenging the ‘European Area of Lifelong
Learning’
Lifelong Learning Book Series
VOLUME 19

Series Editors
David N. Aspin, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Judith D. Chapman, Centre for Lifelong Learning, Australian Catholic University,
Melbourne, Australia

Editorial Board
William L. Boyd, Department of Education Policy Studies, Pennsylvania State
University, University Park, PA, USA
Karen Evans, Institute of Education, University of London, UK
Malcolm Skilbeck, Drysdale, Victoria, Australia
Yukiko Sawano, University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo, Japan
Kaoru Okamoto, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan
Denis W. Ralph, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

Aims & Scope

“Lifelong Learning” has become a central theme in education and community
development. Both international and national agencies, governments and educational
institutions have adopted the idea of lifelong learning as a major theme in the coming
years. They realize that it is only by getting people committed to the idea of education
both life-wide and lifelong that the goals of economic advancement, social
emancipation and personal growth will be attained.

The Lifelong Learning Book Series aims to keep scholars and professionals informed
about and abreast of current developments and to advance research and scholarship in
the domain of Lifelong Learning. It further aims to provide learning and teaching
materials, serve as a forum for scholarly and professional debate and offer a rich fund
of resources for researchers, policy-makers, scholars, professionals and practitioners in
the field.

The volumes in this international Series are multi-disciplinary in orientation,

polymathic in origin, range and reach, and variegated in range and complexity. They
are written by researchers, professionals and practitioners working widely across the
international arena in lifelong learning and are orientated towards policy improvement
and educational betterment throughout the life cycle.

For further volumes:

http://www.springer.com/series/6227
George K. Zarifis • Maria N. Gravani
Editors

Challenging the ‘European

Area of Lifelong Learning’
A Critical Response
Editors
George K. Zarifis Maria N. Gravani
Faculty of Philosophy School of Humanities and Social Sciences
School of Philosophy and Education Open University of Cyprus
Department of Education Latsia, Cyprus
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki, Greece

ISBN 978-94-007-7298-4 ISBN 978-94-007-7299-1 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London

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Contents

1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 1
Maria N. Gravani and George K. Zarifis

Part I Lifelong Learning and New Basic Skills for All

2 The Skills: A Chimera of Modern European Adult Education .......... 17

Katarina Popović
3 Computer Literacy Among the Generations: How Can Older
Adults Participate in Digital Society? ................................................... 31
Bernhard Schmidt-Hertha and Claudia Strobel-Dümer
4 Basic Skills for Becoming a Citizen ....................................................... 41
Emilio Lucio-Villegas
5 ‘New Basic Skills’, Nonbasic Skills, Knowledge Practices
and Judgement: Tensions Between the Needs of Basic
Literacy, of Vocational Education and Training
and of Higher and Professional Learning ............................................. 51
Martin Gough

Part II Lifelong Learning and More Investment

in Human Resources

6 Incentives and Disincentives to Invest in Human Resources .............. 61

Marcella Milana
7 An Inconsistent Policy: Lifelong Learning and Adult
Education Policy Towards a Competitive Advantage .......................... 75
Paula Guimarães and Fátima Antunes

v
vi Contents

8 Vocational Education: The Tension Between Educational

Flexibility and Predictability ................................................................. 87
Eva Andersson and Gun-Britt Wärvik
9 Lifelong Learning and Employability ................................................... 99
Andreas Fejes
10 Human Capital and Human Action in Lifelong
Learning: Questions Concerning the Revival
of a Seemingly Obvious Theory ............................................................. 109
Despina Tsakiris

Part III Lifelong Learning, Innovative Teaching and Learning,

and Rethinking Guidance and Counselling

11 Re-representing Education’s Image and Status:

In the ‘Interest’ of Pedagogical Innovation .......................................... 123
Stephen O’Brien
12 Teaching Methods and Professional Teaching in Adult
Education: Questioning the Memorandum’s Understanding
of Professional Teaching ......................................................................... 137
Regina Egetenmeyer and Patrick Bettinger
13 From ‘Innovation’ to ‘Quality’: The Topic
of Professionalisation for Adult Learning Staff
in Selected European Policy Documents ............................................... 147
Simona Sava
14 Being an Adult Learner and Learning Through Life .......................... 157
Larissa Jõgi
15 Perspectives on Guidance and Counselling
as Strategic Tools to Improve Lifelong Learning
in Portugal ............................................................................................... 167
Maria Paula Paixão, José Tomás da Silva, and Albertina L. Oliveira

Part IV Lifelong Learning and Valuing Learning

16 Contradicting Values in the Policy Discourse

on Lifelong Learning .............................................................................. 179
Nils Bernhardsson
17 Quality in Adult Learning: EU Policies and Shifting Paradigms? ..... 189
Bert-Jan Buiskool and Simon Broek
18 The Adoption of an International Education
Policy Agenda at National Level: Conceptual
and Governance Issues ........................................................................... 203
Alexandra Ioannidou
Contents vii

19 Vocational Learning: Shifting Relationships Between

Education and Working Life.................................................................. 217
Erik Kats and Jaap van Lakerveld
20 Evaluating Learning and the Work of a Researcher
in the Era of Lifelong Learning ............................................................. 229
Kristiina Brunila
21 Focus on Learners: A Search for Identity and Meaning
in Autobiographical Practices ................................................................ 239
Laura Formenti and Micaela Castiglioni

Part V Lifelong Learning and Bringing Learning Closer to Home

22 ‘Bringing Learning Closer to Home’: Understanding

‘Outreach Work’ as a Mobilisation Strategy to Increase
Participation in Adult Learning ............................................................ 251
Barry J. Hake
23 Lifelong Learning and Schools as Community Learning
Centres: Key Aspects of a National Curriculum Draft
Policy Framework for Malta .................................................................. 265
Peter Mayo
24 The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Learning Cities .......................... 273
Lynette Jordan, Norman Longworth, and Michael Osborne
25 Collective Dimensions in Lifelong Education and Learning:
Political and Pedagogical Reflections .................................................... 285
Françoise F. Laot
26 Reinstating the Invisible: A Proposed Framework
for European Learning Collectives........................................................ 299
George K. Zarifis and Maria N. Gravani

Index ................................................................................................................. 307

Contributors

Eva Andersson is a senior lecturer at the Department of Education and Special

Education, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research mainly concerns adult
education and popular adult education and the significance these study forms have
for individuals as well as for local communities. Within this field, she has also
studied ICT-supported distance education. Further, she has participated as a research
expert in conducting European studies on the adult education sector with specific
focus on the Nordic countries.
Fátima Antunes holds a Ph.D. in education/sociology of education and works as
an associate professor at the Institute of Education, University of Minho, Portugal.
Her recent work includes New Educational Order: Actors, Processes and
Institutions – Subsidies to Debate (2008, Portugal) and several publications on
education, Europeanisation and globalisation in Portuguese, Brazilian and English
journals. Her research and teaching interests focus on (European) education policy
analysis, public policies and state reforms, (sociology of) education and work and
vocational education and training.
Nils Bernhardsson obtained his degree in educational science and adult education
in 2006 at the University of Education, Freiburg, Germany. He is currently employed
as a researcher at the German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Centre for
Lifelong Learning, Bonn (Germany). His main interests are professionalisation of
staff in adult education, ethics and values in the context of adult education and
qualitative research methods.
Patrick Bettinger is a research fellow at the Johannes Gutenberg University of
Mainz and the University of Augsburg, Germany. His emphases lay on adult educa-
tion and media education, especially theories and research in teaching and learning
with digital media.
Simon Broek is a senior researcher at Panteia/Research voor Beleid, the Netherlands.
The main focus of his work concerns lifelong learning, adult education, European
policies related to qualifications (European Qualifications Framework) and mobility
(Lifelong Learning Programme). He is involved in many European and national

ix
x Contributors

research projects on education and labour market policies. Simon has a background
in philosophy.
Kristiina Brunila is an adjunct professor and works as a postdoctoral researcher in
the Unit of Sociology, Politics and Culture of Education, Institute of Behavioural
Sciences, University of Helsinki.
Bert-Jan Buiskool is a senior account manager at Panteia/Research voor Beleid (the
Netherlands). He is responsible for a high number of research projects and evaluations
for the European Commission, European Parliament and several member states in
the field of lifelong learning, adult learning qualifications and mobility. He is an
appointed member of the ‘Thematic Working Group’ on Quality in the Adult Learning
Sector of the European Commission. Bert-Jan has a background in economic
geography.
Micaela Castiglioni is a researcher and also teaches general pedagogy and adult
education at the University of Milano Bicocca, Italy, and coordinates a research
group on adult lives and educational processes. She collaborates in research projects
with public and private organisations in the fields of health, care and social work.
She is vice president of ‘Libera Università dell’Autobiografia’ (Anghiari) and
codirector of the series ‘Condizione adulta e processi formativi’, Unicopli (Milano).
José Tomás da Silva is an associate professor of psychology at the University of
Coimbra, Portugal. He is currently the coordinator of a research group at the Institute
of Cognitive Psychology, Vocational and Social Development (R&D unit). His
research interests are in the areas of career psychology, counselling psychology,
motivation and academic achievement. He is also involved in researching the impact
of cognitive-motivational constructs (psychological needs, achievement goals,
instrumentality and time perspective) on vocational development, school
performance and well-being.
Regina Egetenmeyer is a professor (Juniorprofessur) for lifelong learning at the
Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. Her emphases of research are
international and comparative adult educational research, informal learning in the
workplace and academic professionalisation in adult and lifelong learning.
Andreas Fejes is an associate professor in education at the division for education
and adult learning, Linköping University, Sweden. His research interests relate to
lifelong learning and adult education. Fejes is one of the founding editors of the
European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults and has
been the secretary of the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults
since 2007.
Laura Formenti is an associate professor and teaches general and family pedagogy
at the University of Milano Bicocca, Italy, and researches on vocational education,
family and socio-educational work. She is a co-convenor of the research network ‘Life
History and Biography in Adult Education’ and a member of the steering committee
of ESREA (European Society for Research on the Education of Adults), as well as
journals and series devoted to narrative and reflexive methods in education.
Contributors xi

Martin Gough attained his Ph.D. in philosophy some time ago and is currently a
lecturer in Higher Education and Academic Practice in the University of Kent Unit
for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching and the Centre for the Study of
Higher Education. He convenes the Postgraduate Issues Network of the Society for
Research into Higher Education and the South-East Branch of the Philosophy of
Education Society of Great Britain.
Maria N. Gravani is a lecturer in continuing/adult education at the School of
Humanities and Social Sciences of the Open University of Cyprus and coordinator
of the continuing education strand of the Master’s programme in Education Studies.
She previously worked in the UK (Bristol University, University College London),
in the Republic of Ireland (Trinity College Dublin) and in Greece (University of
Peloponnese, Hellenic Open University, General Secretariat for Adult Education).
Her publication and research interests engage such areas as continuing education,
lifelong learning, adult education, adult distance teaching and learning in university
and professional learning.
Paula Guimarães is an assistant professor of the Institute of Education of the
University of Lisbon, Portugal. She is also a member of the steering committee and
vice president of ESREA. Recently she has published on adult education policies in
the European Journal of Education, the European Journal for Research on the
Education and Learning of Adults (RELA) and Journal of Adult and Continuing
Education (JACE) as well as in Portuguese journals.
Barry J. Hake is a comparative and historical policy analyst in the area of lifelong
learning. He has worked at universities in a number of European countries and was
the founder and secretary of the European Association for Research on the Education
of Adults (ESREA) 1991–2007. He is retired and is now a consultant (Eurolearn
Consultants) working for the European Commission in the areas of lifelong learning
and intergenerational learning. He has a long-standing record of publications in
scientific journals, edited volumes of research papers and empirical research reports.
Alexandra Ioannidou is an adjunct lecturer at the Open University of Cyprus and
researcher. She worked as a project manager at the German Institute for Adult
Education in Bonn, as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Tübingen and as
an advisor to the Greek Minister of Education and Lifelong Learning in Athens. Her
research interests are comparative adult education, education policy, lifelong learn-
ing, educational governance and education monitoring.
Larissa Jõgi has a Ph.D. in adult education and is working as an associate professor
and as the head of Adult Education Department in the Institute of Educational
Science at Tallinn University, Estonia. Her current research interests include adult
learning, learning during the life course, emotional learning experiences and teach-
ing and learning in university. She is a member of the steering committee of the
European Society for Research on the Education of Adult (ESREA) and co-conve-
ner of ESREA’s Research Network on Adult Educators, Trainers and their
Professional Development (ReNAdET).
xii Contributors

Lynette Jordan is a lecturer on the Bachelor of Arts in Community Development

(BACD) at the University of Glasgow. She has worked with women’s community
organisations in Croatia, Turkey and Zambia. She recently worked with Hawler
Medical University in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq, providing academic development on
student-centred learning. She is currently PI for the EUROlocal project which pro-
vides a website for those interested in promoting and establishing learning regions
and cities.
Erik Kats is a sociologist of education. He works at the Centre for Research and
Development in Education and Lifelong Learning (PLATO) of Leiden University in
the Netherlands. His special interest as a lecturer and researcher is in the transfor-
mation of organisations in a knowledge economy and in the integration of learning
and working. He is especially involved in comparative research into practices in
vocational learning in diverse European countries.
Françoise F. Laot is a socio-historian, specialised in adult education and training.
She is a professor at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne in France and a
member of the Centre for Research on Employment and Professionalisation
(CEREP). She works on the history of adult (men and women) education and
training policies after WWII, on the links between the ‘social question’ and adult
education in the nineteenth century and on the history of educational research.
Norman Longworth has been a visiting professor at several European universities.
He was the project manager of seven European Commission lifelong learning proj-
ects and the author of influential books and web-delivered courses on Lifelong
Learning and Learning Cities and Regions. He is also the author of the European
Commission’s policy document on the Local and Regional Dimension in Lifelong
Learning, president of the European Lifelong Learning Initiative and consultant to
the European Commission, UNESCO and OECD.
Emilio Lucio-Villegas holds a Ph.D. in pedagogy with a thesis on participatory
research in adult education. His works are mainly focused on adult education.
Publications include books (as author or editor), chapters in books and articles in
journals in English, Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan. Since 2008, he is the head of
the ‘Paulo Freire Chair’ at the University of Seville.
Peter Mayo is a professor at the University of Malta where he teaches/researches
in adult education, sociology of education, comparative/international education and
political sociology in general. His many publications include the recent authored
books: Learning with Adults (with Leona English, Sense, 2012), Politics of
Indignation (single authored, Zero/John Hunt, 2012) and Echoes from Freire for a
Critically Engaged Pedagogy (single authored, Bloomsbury, 2012). He edits the
book series International Issues in Adult Education (Sense) and coedits the journal
Postcolonial Directions in Education and the book series Postcolonial Directions in
Education (Palgrave Macmillan).
Marcella Milana is an associate professor at the Department of Education, Aarhus
University, Denmark, and specialises in comparative and adult education. Her cur-
rent research focuses on the relations between globalisation processes and adult
Contributors xiii

education and the interplay between national and transnational levels. Since 2010,
she co-convenes the research network on Policy Studies in Adult Education, under
the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA). She has
recently gained Marie Curie Fellowship status and is currently based at the
University of California-Los Angeles (USA).
Stephen O’Brien is a college lecturer at the School of Education, University
College Cork. His publication and research interests engage such areas as educa-
tional policy studies; social inclusion and the theory of social capital; multicultural
education; curriculum and assessment; adult, community and continuing education;
and the theory and practice of learning. His latest research critically examines the
role of higher education in society.
Albertina L. Oliveira is an assistant professor of adult education and adult learning
and development at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University
of Coimbra, Portugal. Her research interests include adult education, self-directed
learning, epistemological development and well-being and quality of life of adults
and older people.
Michael Osborne is a professor of adult and lifelong learning at the University of
Glasgow and codirector of the Research Cluster in Social Justice, Place and Lifelong
Education. He is experienced in adult education, VET and higher education research,
development and evaluation. He is the director of the Centre for Research and
Development in Adult and Lifelong Learning within the Faculty of Education and
codirector of the PASCAL Observatory on Place Management, Social Capital and
Lifelong Learning.
Maria Paula Paixão is an associate professor of psychology at the Faculty of
Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. She
is the director of the Psychology Doctoral programme and subdirector of the Faculty
of Psychology and Educational Sciences. She has several national and international
publications on the topics of counselling psychology, lifelong guidance and coun-
selling and motivation and time perspective. She is a founding member of the
‘European Society for Vocational Designing and Career Counselling’.
Katarina Popović is an assistant professor at the Department of Andragogy,
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia; a researcher at the Institute
for Pedagogy and Andragogy of the same university; and a visiting professor at
several European universities. She is the vice president of EAEA (European
Association for the Education of Adults), president of the Serbian Adult Education
Society, coordinator of regional projects of German ‘dvv international’ and
editor-in-chief of the journal Andragogical Studies. She is also a member of several
relevant European and international organisations and member of International
Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame.
Simona Sava is a professor at the Faculty of Sociology and Psychology, Department
of Education Sciences, West University of Timisoara, Romania, and the director of
Romanian Institute for Adult Education (IREA).
xiv Contributors

Bernhard Schmidt-Hertha is a full professor for educational research with a focus

on vocational continuing education and on-the-job training at the University of
Tübingen, Germany. He studied educational research, psychology and sociology in
Munich, where he finished his Ph.D. in 2004. He is an editor of an online journal, a
reviewer for the German Research Association and different national and interna-
tional journals and a member of the ESREA steering committee.
Claudia Strobel-Dümer is an educational researcher at Socio-Educational
Institute of SOS-Kinderdorf e.V., Germany. She previously worked as a researcher
at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the Ludwig Maximilians
University, Munich. Her field of work include practical research and evaluation in
youth welfare services and research projects in the fields of children village fami-
lies, child protection and early support.
Despina Tsakiris is an associate professor in the Department of Social and
Educational Policy at the University of Peloponnese, and she has also worked at the
Hellenic Education Research Centre (1998–2005). She studied and lived in France
at the University of Paris X-Nanterre. Her background is on sciences education, and
she largely focuses her research on evaluation aspects in education and training.
Jaap van Lakerveld is an educationalist. He is the director of the Centre for
Research and Development in Education and Lifelong Learning (PLATO) of Leiden
University in the Netherlands. His field of expertise is learning. It includes learning
within educational settings as well as learning of professionals in work environ-
ments. He works as a researcher and consultant in in-service teacher education,
vocational and adult education and learning and human resources development.
Gun-Britt Wärvik Ph.D., is a senior lecturer at the Department of Education and
Special Education, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research interest con-
cerns the study of educational restructuring, subsequent institutional change and
governing technologies related to notions of performance and competence. Her
studies take a ‘bottom-up perspective’, meaning that the implications of restructuring
for occupational and professional knowledge are a main focus, which also includes
studies of the VET sector.
George K. Zarifis is an assistant professor of continuing education at the Faculty
of Philosophy, School of Philosophy and Education, Department of Education,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. His research interests focus on adult
educators’ training and professionalisation, university continuing education and
comparative examination of adult learning policies and practices in Southeastern
Europe. He is an elected member of ESREA steering committee and co-convener of
ESREA’s Research Network on Adult Educators, Trainers and their Professional
Development (ReNAdET).
Chapter 1
Introduction

Maria N. Gravani and George K. Zarifis

Lifelong Learning as a European policy initiative has not yet been proven as
beneficial as the European Commission might have expected when it launched
the ‘Memorandum on Lifelong Learning’ in 2000.1 Despite the strong rhetoric on
promoting the idea of lifelong learning in Europe and after over a decade of
ongoing adjustments, relevant European Union (EU) policies have neither
responded to nor have they fulfilled any concrete social demand or a coherent
attitude towards learning (as a mode of development) amongst Europeans. Policy
analysis so far (see English and Mayo 2012) explains very well the genuine drive
behind the construction of dubious terminology and the problematic application
of a series of political decisions that brought forward the semantics of globalisation
with terms and ideas like ‘citizenship’, ‘employability’, ‘social cohesion’ and
‘flexibility’. It is still hard for a generation that was literally brought up using in
their everyday language such terminology veiled under the benefits of ‘lifelong

1
The Memorandum opens by stating the case for implementing lifelong learning and notes that
promoting active citizenship and promoting employability are equally important and interrelated
aims for lifelong learning. It also argues that the scale of current economic and social change in
Europe demands a fundamentally new approach to education and training with lifelong learning as
the common umbrella under which all kinds of teaching and learning should be united. In response,
it highlights six key messages which offer a structured framework for an open debate on putting
lifelong learning into practice (European Commission 2000: 4). These messages are based on
experience gathered at European level through Community programmes and the European Year of
Lifelong Learning (1996) and are the following: new basic skills for all, more investment in
human resources, innovation in teaching and learning, valuing learning, rethinking guidance and
counselling and bringing learning closer to home.
M.N. Gravani
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Open University of Cyprus, Latsia, Cyprus
e-mail: [email protected]
G.K. Zarifis (*)
Faculty of Philosophy, School of Philosophy and Education, Department of Education,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Old School of Philosophy Building,
Office 208, GR-54124, Thessaloniki, Greece
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 1
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_1, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
2 M.N. Gravani and G.K. Zarifis

learning’, to contest the neo-liberal turn2 of the actual concept. The ‘Memorandum’
has tried to respond (probably very persuasively) to the ongoing debate amongst
European policymakers, social partners and scholars on the reasons why the time
is right to promote active citizenship and employability as two equally important
and interrelated aims for our societies. As such the Memorandum remains the most
influential but also the most dissimulated policy document that the European
Commission has produced, and as such it rests as a basis of any debate on lifelong
learning policies in Europe. Along the same line, the Communication on ‘Making a
European Area for Lifelong Learning a Reality’ that was released, a year after the
‘Memorandum’ (see European Commission 2001),3 became the modus operandi of
all education and training initiatives that were introduced thereafter. What these
policy documents really do is to legitimise the overemphasis on work, employability
and ICT. As English and Mayo (2012: 18) note, however, this legitimisation
indicates that the discourse is removed from a broad conception of education that
takes on board the different multiple subjectivities characterising individuals and
is gravitating around the notion of the knowledge economy. The current socio-
economic crisis, which still threatens the foundations of the European imagery,
has brought about by force a series of social and economic challenges for many
Europeans. After a period of gut reaction to what is forcefully regulated for most
of us by those defining the late neo-liberal state of mind, it is now the time to
contemplate on the validity of the semantics of globalisation and the authority
that resides behind them.
The purpose of this book is to critically reflect on the context in which lifelong
learning policies and practices are organised in Europe with the contribution of
people who are working in the field either as researchers or as policymakers.
Through a critical lens, the book reinterprets the core content of the messages that are
conveyed by the European Commission in the ‘Memorandum on Lifelong Learning’,

2
As it is so convincingly debated by Aspin and Chapman (2000: 2), lifelong learning’s meaning
– although it is used in a wide variety of contexts and has a wide currency – is still unclear. It is
perhaps for that reason that its operationalisation and implementation have not been widely
practised or achieved, and such application as it has had has been achieved primarily on a
piecemeal basis.
3
As it is stated in the relevant text (European Commission 2001: 2), the Communication contributes
to the establishment of a European area of lifelong learning, the aims of which are both to empower
citizens to move freely between learning settings, jobs, regions and countries, making the most of
their knowledge and competences, and to meet the goals and ambitions of the European Union and
the candidate countries to be more prosperous, inclusive, tolerant and democratic. This develop-
ment will be facilitated by bringing together within a lifelong learning framework education and
training and important elements of existing European level processes, strategies and plans
concerned with youth, employment, social inclusion and research policy. This does not imply a
new process, nor can it involve the harmonisation of laws and regulations. Rather, it calls for more
coherent and economical use of existing instruments and resources, including through the use of
the open method of coordination. In order to achieve the Lisbon aim of a knowledge-based society,
close links will be established between the European area of lifelong learning and the European
research area, particularly with a view to raising the interest of young people in science and
technology careers.
1 Introduction 3

the vehicle for all current developments in lifelong learning in Europe. With
references to research findings, proposed actions and applications to immediate
practice that have an added value for Europeans – but either do they not appear to
correspond directly to what is stipulated by the European Commission or they are
completely ignored as part of the lifelong learning process – the book offers an
analytic and systematic outlook of the main challenges in creating the ‘European
Area of Lifelong Learning’.

Scope and Significance

As Borg and Mayo (2005: 218) argue, the EU ‘Memorandum on Lifelong

Learning’ and a number of projects it inspired indicate, in no uncertain terms,
the extent of the distortion that has occurred with respect to the once humanistic
concept of ‘lifelong education’. Some of the humanistic considerations were
co-opted in the service of a document seeking to provide a humanistic facade to
what is, in effect, a neo-liberal-inspired set of guidelines. Today it is clear that
policymakers in countries, agencies and institutions across Europe are devoting
increasing attention to the notion of ‘lifelong learning’ as an idea to be promoted
in education policies but also as a strong foundation to underpin education and
training provision.
The real challenge however for today’s educational and learning policies in
Europe does not lie with the promotion of a narrative that prioritises the needs of the
market,4 but with the truthful delivery of a narrative that corresponds to valid learning
needs of Europe’s citizens. It has been over a decade since Preston (1999) was arguing
into the positivist narratives of lifelong learning as the Janus face.5 As she aptly put it,
lifelong learning
…is a mechanism of social control mediated by the market. As promoted in this context,
the word “learning” does not refer to those reflective incidentally acquired understandings
which enable us to navigate our daily lives. In most cases contemporary usage of the term
lifelong learning refers to the process of allowing ourselves to be exposed to pre-packaged
gobbits of knowledge, allowing ourselves to be assessed on the mastery of that knowledge,
accepting the implications of the resulting indicators of our performance for access to
the labour market and our resultant positioning within it. Lifelong in some contexts lives
up to its promise: the presentation of a variety of opportunities from the cradle to the
grave. In other contexts it more narrowly refers to work-related education and training
(Preston 1999: 562).

4
As Borg and Mayo (2005: 218) figuratively note as far as the concept of lifelong learning is
concerned, it is like old wine that has been placed in new bottles but has been adulterated in
the process. They further argue that the neo-liberal set of guidelines, contained in the
Memorandum, serves to heighten competitiveness in a scenario characterised by the intensifi-
cation of globalisation.
5
Janus (Iānus) was the Roman god of beginnings and transitions.
4 M.N. Gravani and G.K. Zarifis

The undebatable focus of European lifelong learning policies on the latter,

cloaked under an attractive vocabulary that was associated with personal develop-
ment, empowerment and citizenship, has gradually led to the uncritical recognition
of lifelong learning as Europe’s way towards economic development. The current
economic crisis as well as the lack of political vision for a social Europe is partly the
result of a persistent and ongoing rhetoric of the benefits of like policies that have
prevented people from asking the usual critical questions of who exactly has access
to it (lifelong learning that is), in what form, under what conditions and who gains
what from it.
Over a decade after the release of the Memorandum and the Communication on
a European area of lifelong learning, the dominant discourse in lifelong learning
(as a concept, as a policy objective but also as terminology) in Europe is essentially
framed within the human capital approach in which a pragmatist and also a systemic
approach are also engaged. Less apparent is the social capital approach, whereas the
ecological and ethical approaches (as extensions of the humanistic façade in the
relevant policy documents) are standing in the periphery of the discourse.
In the book contributing authors are looking critically at these types of discourse
with direct reference to the Memorandum. All chapters touch upon the contribution
of lifelong learning policy research in Europe and how it affects (or not) the current
lifelong learning perspective (a misleading yet commanding linguistic manifesta-
tion of Europe’s demand to become the world’s leading knowledge economy). For
the majority of the contributors, it does not come as a surprise that the way in which
lifelong learning is defined by the European Commission (2001: 33) – as an all
learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge,
skills and competences within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related
perspective6 – is obfuscating rather than elucidating on how learning contributes to
promoting employability and active citizenship and combating social exclusion.
It is in this respect that lifelong learning has become the ‘Trojan horse’ of Europe’s
own vision for prosperity.
The driving force behind most member states’ policies on lifelong learning so
far has been employability and adaptability to economic drifts and demands.
Especially today there is a growing recognition of the inevitable relationship
between education and the economic and social well-being of individuals as
something undisputable. This monosemantic7 approach has largely misguided
both policymakers and politicians who lost focus while orbiting their decisions
around conservative practices and old-school explanations of newfangled social

6
That is (…) not limited to a purely economic outlook or just to learning for adults. In addition to
the emphasis it places on learning from pre-school to postretirement, lifelong learning should
encompass the whole spectrum of formal, non-formal and informal learning. The objectives of
learning include active citizenship, personal fulfilment and social inclusion, as well as employment-
related aspects. The principles which underpin lifelong learning and guide its effective implemen-
tation emphasise the centrality of the learner, the importance of equal opportunities and the quality
and relevance of learning opportunities (European Commission 2001: 3–4).
7
By monosemantic, we mean the ‘single-mindedness’ or ‘unambiguous’ meaning of particular
traits that are attributed to learning as a lifelong process in European policy documents.
1 Introduction 5

anomalies that are directly related to, and occasionally explained based on, an
equally monosemantic interpretation of economic figures.
It is exactly this undisputed persistence on the relation between something so
profound as learning and something so mundane as economic figures that asks for a
closer look to policy research, and for the formation of an ongoing critical debate
on the benefits of lifelong learning for Europe’s citizens, as well as for a critical
examination of the structural and social changes that lifelong learning both as a
policy concept and as a principle has or has not brought forward in the last 10 years.
In times as decisive (in social and in economic terms) as the ones we are going
through today, a critical viewpoint of the practices and policies adopted by member
states – in an effort to culminate the European area for lifelong learning – and a
holistic approach to lifelong learning in Europe is essential.

Outline of the Book

The chapters in the book are organised into five parts that quasi trail the structure of
the Memorandum in order to debate and critically approach in separate sections the
core issues that Europe faces today in relation to the idea of making a ‘European
Area of Lifelong Learning’ a reality. The parts are as follows:
1. Part I: Lifelong Learning and New Basic Skills for All
2. Part II: Lifelong Learning and More Investment in Human Resources
3. Part III: Lifelong Learning, Innovative Teaching and Learning and Rethinking
Guidance and Counselling
4. Part IV: Lifelong Learning and Valuing Learning
5. Part V: Lifelong Learning and Bringing Learning Closer to Home
Part I of the book reflects on the first message of the ‘Memorandum’, the aim of
which was to guarantee universal and continuing access to learning for gaining and
renewing the skills needed for sustained participation in the knowledge society.
Contributing authors argue on whether basic skills – as a response to the crisis that
Europe faces – have become a ‘chimera’ of modern education, the role of computer
literacy as part of the new basic skills, the contribution of new basic skills to the
development of active citizenship and the relationship between new basic skills,
knowledge practices and judgement.
More specifically now in the second chapter of the book, Popović discusses the
notion of skills, basic skills and competencies and their relation to the broader
concepts of lifelong learning and knowledge society, as paradigmatic representatives
of educational policy. She argues that the idea of basic skills is not new, but in
the contemporary European context, the ‘Memorandum’ emerged as the best
response to the challenges of the fast-changing society and economy. She notices
that the serious problem with skills is their value-free character, and that attempts to
include attitudes to the definition of skills are not grounded, while some of the
most important questions of human life, such as values, ethics and emotions,
6 M.N. Gravani and G.K. Zarifis

are untouched by skills. The real question for Popović is how to move from traditional
‘l’art pour l’art’ approach of non-pragmatic and remote-from-life-education to the
current, applicable one, without losing integral approach, value-based issues and
long-term perspective.
In the third chapter, Schmidt-Hertha and Strobel develop their analysis around
the concept of computer literacy as an important basic skill postulated in the
‘Memorandum’ and discuss the problem of digital divide between different groups
of people. The authors report on two qualitative studies in Germany that recently
investigated the participation of elderly people in digital technologies and the role
of intergenerational communication within this context. The results of the studies
contribute greatly to the discussion of lifelong learning policies in Europe and reveal
how far the goal has been achieved to enable all people to participate. Additionally,
the studies give helpful suggestions for further measures within this field.
In Chap. 4, Lucio-Villegas reflects on the process of building a democratic
citizenship beyond the construction of a hegemonic social cohesion, as it seems to
derive from the Lisbon Strategy and the ‘Memorandum’. He starts with the idea of
Enlightenment and John Dewey’s thought on democratic school, in an attempt to
define the skills to edify a democratic citizen from both the field and practices of
adult education and learning. The chapter presents the experience of the ‘Participatory
and Citizenship School’ in Seville, from 2005 to 2007, as an example for the
development of basic skills for active citizenship in Europe.
In Chap. 5, Gough claims that the emphasis, in the service of promoting lifelong
learning, in various national and European level government policy initiatives on
developing basic skills in their populations for the workplace and for other uses in
life has been, and is still, in different ways both appropriate and not appropriate. He
argues that it is appropriate if we place the emphasis on the term ‘skill’ as a form of
knowledge, and if we place emphasis on ‘basic’ in the context of providing a focus
for increasing life’s opportunities for those relatively dispossessed; it is inappropri-
ate if we are forced to pretend that skills are discrete, specific entities that can, along
with the people in possession of them, ‘transfer’ unproblematically from one learn-
ing context to another. It is inappropriate further if we were to treat skills as always
basic and technicist, as if lower knowledge levels are the limit of entitlement for
citizens, or always a-contextually generic. The English conception of ‘skill’ pro-
motes this inappropriate emphasis, which is also an economic and employment-led
perspective, fuelled by neo-liberal hegemony. Domination of the English language,
and hence prevalence of the English term ‘skill’, across the European Community
will be reinforcing this particular conception as if it were universally appropriate.
The key question concerning how we serve the appropriate policy for lifelong learn-
ing is ultimately an ontological one about the nature of skills. Certain amongst both
proponents and opponents of the skills agenda are stuck in a ‘realist’ mindset which
demands critique. It promotes, on the one hand, an unhelpful deficit model of skills
as discrete concrete requirements and, on the other hand, gives licence to the equally
unhelpful challenge that skills and higher knowledge attainments are worlds apart.
He concludes that reconceptualising skills as ‘knowledge practices’ enables us to
open up analysis of the term and avoid the unhelpful connotations. In turn, we can
1 Introduction 7

understand better how an agent can exploit knowledge from one context of use into
another and can develop judgement, the most important of all ‘skills‘, and get closer
to the ‘Good Life’.
Part II of the book reflects on the second message of the ‘Memorandum’, the aim
of which was to visibly raise levels of investment in human resources in order to
place priority on Europe’s most important asset: its people. The issues that are
debated in this part of the book include incentives and disincentives given and
approaches adopted by European governments to ensure mechanisms that encour-
age investment in human resources; lifelong learning and adult education policy
towards economic growth; tensions between two important aims of lifelong
learning – educational flexibility and predictability; the relationship between
lifelong learning and employability; the influence of governance on employability
and the influence of human capital theory in the mission and role of lifelong learning
and human action in the work activity.
In particular, in Chap. 6, Milana explains that the objective of ‘investing’ in
human resources expressed in the ‘Memorandum’ finds its raison d’être in the con-
ception that the acquisition of skills and knowledge at the individual level increases
a person’s productive value. Within this line of argument, economic investment in
skill upgrading amongst the adult population produces a return of investment in
terms of both economic and noneconomic benefits at micro, meso and macro levels.
Milana reviews available data and existing literature on governments’ approaches
and mechanisms to encourage investment in human resources and puts under criti-
cal scrutiny the potentials as well as the limitations of the human capital paradigm.
In Chap. 7 Guimarães and Antunes discuss the ways by which the EU lifelong
learning agenda, specifically the guidelines for basic skills, has been interpreted
according to the Portuguese realities, at national and local levels. They suggest that
basic skills for all, as intended in the framework of the European area of lifelong
learning, have somewhat loose roots on the cultural and civic dimensions of educa-
tion in a human and social development perspective. As they suggest competitive-
ness and social cohesion, the dual centrality of lifelong education and learning for
Europe, stated in the Lisbon Strategy, has been interpreted and translated in Portugal
through a dynamic imbalanced agenda fed by two major strands: the prosecution
of a social right long-time in debt to adult population and a search for so-called
employability and qualification, as a way to tackle Portuguese ‘distance’ from
European educational standards. According to these options that frame the EU
agenda, their chapter stresses adults’ understanding of adult education based on
research findings. These understandings are congruent with EU orientations; adults
see adult education as a promise for a better life. Thus, given the inconsistency of
lifelong learning, fulfilling this promise is a hard task to achieve.
In Chap. 8, Andersson and Wärvik discuss the new picture of vocational edu-
cation in Sweden in the light of the European policies on lifelong learning. In
their chapter, two issues are discussed: the extent to which the new picture
matches or not the ambitions outlined in the European lifelong learning policies
and the tensions and contradictions identified as permeating the new educational
reform in Sweden. The argument made is that the new reform implies a return to
8 M.N. Gravani and G.K. Zarifis

a previous school form with two tracks: one preparing for higher education and
one for vocational work. Moreover, it is argued that the organisation of upper
secondary education in Sweden is moving away from the lifelong learning imag-
ery towards one in which vocational education is in the centre. This is manifested
in the reduction of study hours in subjects close to the key competences related
to democratic and civic issues.
In Chap. 9, Fejes identifies that in the last couple of decades, there has been a
shift from speaking about employment to speaking about employability. He goes on
to analyse how discourses on employability are mobilised in the wider discursive
terrain of governance. A discourse analysis is performed inspired by the concepts of
governmentality and the enabling state. The analysis indicates that the individual is
constructed as responsible for their own employability, and the state and the
employer are construed as enablers. However, this is not clear-cut or deterministic
as diverse texts produce different kinds of positioning. The analysis helps to open
up a new space for thought and action.
In Chap. 10, Tsakiris seeks to explore the tenacious influence of certain capitalist
economic ideologies, which find application in the educational policies of lifelong
learning. The chapter focuses on the human capital as it is presented in education
policy texts, as an economic theory that seeks to explain human action in the work
activity. Emphasis is placed on the way this theory is interwoven with the mission
and the role of lifelong learning. Her analysis of the ‘Memorandum’ shows that the
strategy of defending human capital as a form of rationality is an imaginary social
construction which both in the project level and in the level of facts seems to invali-
date the defended form of rationality. The analysis reveals that the text contains
certain opposing or contradictory goals that are incompatible with those openly
advocated. In this sense, the ‘Memorandum’ is a social exemplar of how capital is
understood in the project of human action in work activity specifically and in the
social activity generally.
Part III of the book focuses on the development of effective teaching and learning
methods and contexts for the continuum of lifelong and life-wide learning, as well
as access to good quality information and advice about learning opportunities
throughout Europe (messages three and five of the ‘Memorandum’). This part of the
book revolves around the following issues: the meaning of ‘innovation’ and its rel-
evance to teaching and learning, the Memorandum’s understanding of professional
teaching and the link between teaching and learning methods on the one hand and
professional teaching on the other, the importance placed in certain European policy
documents on the professionalisation for adult learning staff and the changes that
have taken place over the years, a discussion on how adults as learners understand
learning and how understandings of learning differ throughout generations in the
life-course context and guidance and counselling services and their coordination in
Portugal in the light of the Memorandum.
More specifically in Chap. 11, O’Brien suggests that ‘innovation’ messages,
such as those that relate to teaching and learning in the ‘Memorandum’, need to be
seriously questioned. With specific attention to the message on teaching and learn-
ing and set within an Irish policy context, he argues that the strategy connects
1 Introduction 9

with neo-liberal meanings, standpoints and practices that oversee an incomplete

educational representation. He further debates that there are aspects to the
Memorandum that are to be welcomed but are chiefly diluted by the strategy’s
insubstantial analysis of education as a field of power – specifically, the concern that
education reflects and produces diverse interests and effects. The chapter responds
to a professed need to interrogate the educational sensibility of particular power
‘interests’ in education. The evidence presented indicates an over-representation of
the education-economy relation that obviates against education being seen as a
moral and social practice. Consequently, the chapter’s evidence indicates the need
to establish a stronger intellectual and teacher-professional presence at the educa-
tional ‘partnership’ table. Ultimately, O’Brien concludes that if there is to be inno-
vation in teaching and learning, this is best served, and can only be effectively
engaged, via a more complex and authentic representation.
In Chap. 12, Egetenmeyer and Bettinger question the close link between
teaching and learning methods on the one hand and professional teaching on the
other. Their chapter focuses on teachers and trainers in adult education. Under
the perspective of professionalisation, the chapter questions the role of teaching
and learning methods within the professionalisation of teachers and trainers in
adult education. The authors see a need for further development of the issue of
the Memorandum’s understanding of professional teaching. They argue that it
needs to go beyond teaching methods and the role of professionals in teaching
and learning scenarios. As adult education plays a central role in the realisation
of lifelong learning in Europe and has various target groups, a fixed set of teach-
ing methods is neither appropriate nor sufficient. In order to cope with the
demands in adult education, the authors suggest that a complex competence set
is necessary for professional teaching.
In Chap. 13, Sava reviews the relevant European documents from 2000 to 2010
aiming at identifying aspects of ‘professionalisation’ for adult learning staff. She
uses three sets of criteria to select the relevant documents, and her analysis points
out that in the last part of the decade, there is more emphasis on the need to profes-
sionalise adult learning staff, considering that the quality of professional behaviour
is seen as determinant for the quality of learning.
In Chap. 14, Jõgi identifies tensions between the understandings of learning
amongst educational policymakers and experts and adult learners and argues that
this tension brings misunderstanding and confusion in the educational policy
discussion. In her chapter she presents findings from a research study conducted
between 2004 and 2006 that used semi-structured interviews in order to discuss how
adults as learners understand learning and how understandings of learning differ
throughout generations in the life-course context. She concludes that these findings
help us understand and reflect on how unique and subjective personal learning
experience is, and how different are the attitudes and understandings of learning that
adults as learners bring to social and educational process.
In Chap. 15, Paixão, da Silva and Oliveira focus on guidance and counselling
services and their coordination in Portugal, in the light of lifelong learning policies
fostered in Europe. They present the history of guidance and counselling services in
10 M.N. Gravani and G.K. Zarifis

Portugal and critically discuss the implementation of lifelong learning and guidance
structures and services within adult education. They argue that in the case of
Portugal, the responsibility for guidance and counselling services is fragmented
across a number of ministries and governmental entities, some of which are created
and dissolved according to strictly political and governmental aspirations. Moreover,
the authors argue that gradual osmosis between structures of guidance provision, as
advocated in the Memorandum, is far from being a reality and that there is a state of
confusion both in terms of how policies are adapted and the structures developed
and also on how language is used to create new realities in the already existing ones.
Part IV of the book reflects on the fourth message of the ‘Memorandum’, the aim
of which was to significantly improve the ways in which learning participation and
outcomes are understood and appreciated, particularly in non-formal education and
informal learning. The issues that are debated in this part of the book include the
contradicting values inherent in the concept of lifelong learning and their impact in
the development of lifelong learning discourse, quality in adult learning and how
policymakers and member states approach quality in adult learning, the influence of
EU and OECD within the transnational educational space and the appearance of
new instruments of educational governance, the shifting relationships between
education and working life in the Netherlands, the influence of EU-project-based
work on learning and academic research in the era of lifelong learning and the
importance of autobiographical research in adult education.
In Chap. 16, Bernhardsson identifies that lifelong learning has so far been
implemented insufficiently. His main argument is that there are fundamental
contradictions between the values of the original idea of lifelong learning and
the values inherent to the concept currently in use. The chapter illustrates that
the development of lifelong learning and the reconstruction of the ‘Social
Imaginaries’ – on the basis of Charles Taylor’s theory – which emerged in the
policy discourse show that all political attempts of developing a comprehensive
system of lifelong learning cannot overlook anymore the fact that the core of
values which could carry or prevent such a system is being shaped by social
discourses and learning processes of individuals.
In Chap. 17, Buiskool and Broek identify a shift in the interpretation of what
‘quality’ in adult learning means and how policymakers approach the term. Their
chapter tracks the ways in which the concept of quality is used in relation to adult
learning. The authors conclude by arguing that the analysis of quality developments
in Europe is seriously hampered by the fact that until this moment no European-
wide overview of quality is available. Moreover, a critical reflection is lacking on
the issues and challenges that are specific to the adult learning sector in relation to
assuring quality of its providers and provision.
In Chap. 18, Ioannidou focuses on two influential actors of education policy
within the transnational educational space: the EU and OECD. She pinpoints the
appearance of new instruments of educational governance, which coincide with and
support an emerging governance model in the educational realm: the evidence-
based education policy. The author argues that education and education policy have
been set up and ran under the control of the nation-state since the origins of modern
1 Introduction 11

education systems. Even if this is still true to varying extent in many countries,
recently we witness a shift in the examination of issues concerning educational
governance. Regarding the governance of lifelong learning, Ioannidou claims that it
is the emergence of a transnational educational space that brings about a blend of
actors from different levels that interact in various patterns and influence policy
formation at the international as well as at the national level. This policy arena
shows characteristics of a multilayered system with horizontal and vertical policy
interweaving, with network-like structures from state and non-state actors and with
interaction patterns that are based more on coalitions, negotiations and mutual
adjustment rather than on hierarchical regulations.
In Chap. 19, Kats and van Lakerveld argue that the development of systems
of education is strongly connected to the development of industrial society.
Relationships between education and the vocational practice of people in the
companies and organisations where they work are however variable through the
times, and there is always some room between both spheres. By describing
shifts in the way vocational learning is situated in the growing room between
formal education and working life in the Netherlands, the authors go into the
way vocational learning relates to the traditional broad humanistic approach to
adult education and conclude that these shifts are not exclusively tied to specific
historic circumstances, neither are they irreversible, but have an actual meaning
for the debate on lifelong learning.
In Chap. 20, Brunila analyses how EU-project-based work represents a form
of power that regulates academic research linked to education in accordance to
lifelong learning discourse. She identifies that in Europe, funded projects with
economic aims and discourses for lifelong learning have permeated the public sector
and pinpoints the consequences by analysing project-based academic research in
the field of education in Finland.
In Chap. 21, Formenti and Castiglioni put learners, with their experience,
questions and knowledge, at the centre of the debate in adult education. As they
identify, the ‘Memorandum’ does not give any indication of the role of the learner
in developing self-reflective competence as part of the lifelong learning process.
Their chapter focuses on auto/biographical methods as ways to bring forth a new
perspective on identity and knowledge in adult education and research. The authors
conclude that from the subject’s point of view, telling the story of a learning experi-
ence, and thinking about it in due ways, is a means to value, celebrate and accompany
lifelong and life-wide transformation.
Part V of the book essentially reflects on the sixth message of the ‘Memorandum’.
This message addressed the need to provide lifelong learning opportunities as close
to learners as possible, in their own communities and supported through ICT-based
facilities wherever appropriate. The issues that are debated in this part of the book
include the theoretical and methodological issues involved in the development of
mobilisation strategies which are based upon locating learning closer to home, key
aspects of a national curriculum draft policy framework in relation to lifelong learning
focusing on Malta, the creation of learning cities and regions and collective dimensions
in lifelong education and learning with focus on France.
12 M.N. Gravani and G.K. Zarifis

More specifically in Chap. 22, Hake argues that while one of the key messages
in the ‘Memorandum’ stressed the need to bring learning closer to home and the
daily lives of European citizens, the Lisbon Declaration emphasised the need to
raise the levels of participation in adult learning in most of the member states.
His chapter focuses on the theoretical and methodological issues involved in the
development of mobilisation strategies which are based upon locating learning
closer to home and thus to raise levels of participation. As such, the chapter departs
from an analysis of the so-called articulation problem which involves the different
sets of assumptions about the relation between the supply of and demand for adult
learning. Hake’s subsequent analysis focuses on the prevailing patterns of participation
and non-participation in adult learning, the identified barriers to participation and
the potential effectiveness of different mobilisation strategies.
In Chap. 23, Mayo argues that a series of volumes providing guidelines, key
principles and aims for the Maltese national curriculum framework are currently the
target of debate and the focus of reactions by various stakeholders in education
including teachers who were asked to read the volumes and provide reactions in the
form of answers to a set questionnaire. According to Mayo, the dominant discourse
on lifelong learning, as adopted in the National Curriculum Framework, is one that
shifts the onus of responsibility onto the individual rather than the state and the
social collectivity. Learning and adequate provision for it become a matter of indi-
vidual rather than social responsibility. He concludes that the overarching notion
that emerges from the main policy documents thus far is that of lifelong learning for
employability and a narrowly defined notion of active citizenship which overlooks
the collective dimension of education for social change and which provides a very
problematic notion of individualised learning.
In Chap. 24, Jordan, Longworth and Osborne provide an overview of an aspect
of lifelong learning implementation that has waxed and waned in importance
over since the 1970s, the notion of creating learning cities and regions. The
authors provide a brief history of developments within the field of learning cities
and regions in Europe in recent decades and then focus on one particular project,
EUROlocal, which has sought to gather and analyse the current state of development
within the continent.
In Chap. 25, Laot discusses the pedagogical arguments for the collective
development of adult education in France. Drawing on sources from archives
from the 1950s and 1960s, she examines the different understandings and who
defended them from a political point of view. Her analysis reveals the fundamental
role attributed to the family circle (notably the couple) in these discussions. Then the
decline of intensity of these debates within the framework of the European area of
lifelong learning is examined, as well as their evolution or transposition into
other social spheres.
Chapter 26 is the concluding chapter of the book. In this chapter Zarifis and
Gravani review the main issues and challenges as these appear in the book and present
a revised framework for a ‘European Area of Lifelong Learning’ from the people and
for the people adopting a social capital approach and focusing on aspects of ethical
values in learning, learning quality, learning ecologies and learning collectives.
1 Introduction 13

References

Aspin, D. N., & Chapman, D. C. (2000). Lifelong learning: Concepts and conceptions. International
Journal of Lifelong Education, 19(1), 2–19.
Borg, C., & Mayo, P. (2005). The EU Memorandum on lifelong learning. Old wine in new bottles?
Globalisation, Societies and Education, 3(2), 203–225.
English, L. M., & Mayo, P. (2012). Learning with adults – A critical pedagogical introduction.
Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
European Commission. (2000). A memorandum on lifelong learning (Commission Staff Working
Paper, 30.10.2000, SEC(2000) 1832). Brussels: European Commission.
European Commission. (2001). Making a European area of lifelong learning a reality
(Communication from the Commission, 21.11.01 COM(2001) 678 final). Brussels: European
Commission.
Preston, R. (1999). Critical approaches to lifelong education. International Review of Education,
45(5/6), 561–574.
 Part I
Lifelong Learning and New
Basic Skills for All
Chapter 2
The Skills: A Chimera of Modern European
Adult Education

Katarina Popović

Introduction

The concepts of recurrent education, continuing education and permanent education

(introduced by the Council of Europe) began to appear in discussions from the 1960s
both in Europe and UNESCO. The learning to be approach of Edgar Faure and the
International Commission on the Development of Education influenced the European
understanding of adult education from the 1970s. This approach agreed with the
type of humanism that UNESCO’s policy was rooted in (having a person, its needs,
well-being and self-fulfilment at the core of its philosophy) but also in line with the
democratic vision of European society with equal opportunities, active participation
and autonomy of citizens and learners. Together with lifelong education, learning to
be influenced policy, legislation and practice of adult education in many European
countries, although OECD’s recurrent education seemed to respond to the need for a
more flexible relationship between education, training and work and thus to the
needs of fast technological development. Even the CoE’s recommendations from
1970 pointed out need for permanent education to meet the contemporary demands
of both social justice and economic progress (Council of Europe 1970).
Lifelong learning emerged as a conceptual framework able to balance these
approaches and was renewed as a concept with the European Year of Lifelong Learning
in 1996 and the White Paper on Teaching and Learning: Towards a Europe of Knowledge
in 1997, promising answers to the challenges of the coming millennium. Lifelong learn-
ing policy in Europe, as the dominant discourse which gained currency in the 1980s and
1990s after the other concepts had been slowly abandoned, seemed to be the only
approach including the ‘old’, somewhat naive humanism (believing in changing the
world through education) and the socio-economic needs of the modern times. The
increased speed of science, technology, economy and politics created new demands, and
in 2000 Europe experienced a paradigm shift in many areas, including education.

K. Popović (*)
Department for Andragogy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 17
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_2, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
18 K. Popović

Memorandum on Lifelong Learning: Message and Language

In 2000 it was obvious that Europe was influenced by global trends and reacted
quickly by changing its approach to education and learning: ‘The European Union
was confronted with a quantum shift resulting from globalisation and the chal-
lenges of a new knowledge-driven economy. The Union has today set itself a new
strategic goal for the next decade: To become the most competitive and dynamic
knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth
with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’ (European Council 2000:
1–2). These changes, new demands and new political and economic challenges
shaped the lifelong learning and adult education policy. This was further expressed
in the Commission’s Memorandum on Lifelong Learning1 in 2000, a document that
counts as one of the milestones of the development of European educational policy
and the Communication from the Commission: Making a European Area of Lifelong
Learning a Reality2 in 2001.
The main goal, ambition and tone of these texts expressed the conception in
which education was encompassing multiple purposes and dimensions. The rhetoric
of the Memorandum and the Communication was (and probably still is) an enticing
one; employability and social inclusion going hand in hand, the availability of
lifelong learning to everyone, the promotion of active citizenship and the promotion
of vocational skills and self-development; they were all supposed to pave the way to
a knowledge-based society, allowing full participation in social and economic
life for everyone.
The achievements of the Memorandum are undeniable, and a significant step has
been taken towards Europe as a common educational area. A number of aspects
have also been improved – the quality of adult teaching and education has increased,
professionalisation is progressing, there is a constant growth in research volume,
and mobility of learners and staff in adult education is higher than ever. Still, some
concepts, approaches and ideas are questionable and need to be analysed, because
they are persistent and represent the basis of the new European educational policy
in spite of obvious failures in many aspects, such as widening access to education,
increasing level of participation and so on. Skills and basic skills are such concepts,
even being transferred to the new main policy documents of the European
Commission (‘Europe 2020’ 2010a; ‘ET 2020’ 2009; ‘Agenda New skills for new
jobs’ 2010b).
The Memorandum represents an obvious attempt to balance human resources and
citizens, learning and training, self-development and new technologies, e-learning and
mobility. Even the six key messages have this multiple character, recognising the range
of the roles of a person and needs of both personal and socio-economic development.
But the overall goal stands for ‘the shift towards more integrated policies that combine
social and cultural objectives with the economic rationale for lifelong learning’

1
Hereafter Memorandum.
2
Hereafter Communication.
2 The Skills: A Chimera of Modern European Adult Education 19

(European Commission 2000: 9). The ongoing globalisation and international

influences, especially the OECD, supported this approach, which reflected the changes
in the socio-economic, political and demographic contexts and were seeking transna-
tional solutions for the growing national and global problems (such as changing
production, trade and investment patterns, high levels of structural unemployment,
densely populated urban areas and others).
Having both Commission’s 1993 White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness
and Employment and 1995 White Paper on Teaching and Learning: Towards the
Learning Society embedded in its approach – the Memorandum attempts to foster
the development of a coherent and comprehensive lifelong learning strategy, but
for some researchers:
… it was a neo-liberal set of guidelines that serves to heighten the member states’ and
candidate countries’ competitiveness in a scenario characterised by the intensification of
globalisation. (Borg and Mayo 2005: 218)

The focus of this analysis is the notion of skills, basic skills and competencies
and their relation to the broader concepts of lifelong learning and knowledge society,
as paradigmatic representatives of educational policy.
The notion is, of course, hopelessly vague, masking many different policy approaches, but
it captures something real and significant in modern policy trends…. (Green 2003: 2)

What does the language of the Memorandum reveal, and why is the language
important? We use it here as the main criterion for our research approach: discourse
analysis (combined with the interpretive approach), known as critical language
study (Fairclough 1989, 1992), because of its power to decode the paradigms behind
language. The starting premise is that the use of language is defined by the sociocul-
tural norms or meta-level factors and frames which regulate talk and through which
meaning-making occurs (Fairclough 1992), and, coming closer to the user, his lan-
guage is constructed by the policy discourse and educational paradigm. Even decod-
ing some formal aspects of language and relating them to the context may reveal
much about the discourse behind it. Therefore, the ‘language can be seen as a form
of action’ (Fairclough 1989: 9); thus, the critical language analysis opens a base for
the interpretation of planning elements and possible actions based on conceptual
premises in the text of document.
So, the language of Memorandum shows, at a first glance, the deep commit-
ment to lifelong learning. The term appears more than 130 times in the document,
nonformal and informal learning are mentioned around 10 times, citizens and
civil society many times, competitiveness just 7 times, employability 10 times;
similar quotes apply to the term ‘Communication’. Obviously, this discourse does
not deserve to be called ‘neo-liberal’ – it is not, at least not in its intention. But the
devil is in the detail, and the messages reveal a kind of naivety suggesting steps
and solutions that do not respond to the real nature of the proclaimed goals and do
not give a realistic direction of reaching them. The most important ‘detail’ – even
more, one of the pillars of the whole document – is ‘skills’ and ‘basic skills’,
being explicitly mentioned 27 times in the first message and at least once in
all other messages. But even more important is the conceptual and relational
20 K. Popović

analysis of these concepts. Moreover, the relevance, consistency and coherence

of the ideas around basic skills will be used as the criteria for a discourse and
interpretive analysis.

Conceptual and Relational Analysis

The Memorandum frequently uses the pair ‘education and training’, which might
imply the reduction of the understanding of education. Since ‘general education’
does not appear at all and ‘basic education’? appears just two times, the text thus
suggests that it is through ‘training’ and ‘skills’ that the ambitious goals defined in
the introduction to Memorandum could be fulfilled. It is still not clear how Europe
could move to the ‘Knowledge Age’ ensuring equal participation for everyone, full
employment and self-development of citizens. The knowledge component remains
rhetorically in the document, while the training component is clearly and defined in
detail through basic skills: ‘…this Memorandum defines new basic skills as those
required for active participation in the knowledge society and economy’ (European
Commission 2000: 10). Education remains in between, as taken for granted, imply-
ing a formal education system. How could the high expectations of a knowledge
society be achieved just by a skilled labour force? Creativity, innovation, responsi-
bility, capacity to face risks and uncertainties – all these traits and activities are
supposed to be implemented by trained and skilled people. The goals that Europe
sets for the future and the way they should be achieved are paved by undefined
knowledge, vocational training and skills reduced to basic ones; this is inconsistent
with the model of development given implicitly in the text.3 The problem of moving
from rhetoric to realistic development (from theory to praxis) is not analysed or
thoroughly mapped.
A further inconsistency is related to the new vision of society and ways to achieve
it. This should be (according to both Memorandum and Communication) a
knowledge-based, inclusive society with intelligent use of resources where people
live positively with cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity… participate in all spheres of
social and economic life… feel that they belong to and have a fair say in the society in
which they live (European Commission 2000: 5).

On the other hand, both documents point decisively to the ways of reaching it,
whereby one of the most important mechanisms is adaptation: individuals have to
adapt to changes… Europe’s education and training systems must adapt to the new
realities… adaptability of the workforce is crucial… employers demand adaptation
to new challenges and situations… the employability and adaptability of citizens
is vital for Europe… There is even the statement that the adaptation of lifelong

3
Development of learning organisations, use of creativity and innovation in all spheres of life, full
mobilisation of resources, active participation of each person in the shaping of Europe’s future – in
modern public life, especially in social and political life at all levels of the community….
2 The Skills: A Chimera of Modern European Adult Education 21

learning facilitators’ should be supported! (European Commission 2001: 12).4 The

adaptation to the individual needs of the participants, citizens and local communities
is also pointed out in both documents, but adaptation to economic needs and changes
is more strongly argued. The necessity of this kind of adaptation is clearly pointed
out as the only way for the new vision of Europe to function, while the adaptation to
the individual needs has a kind of l’art pour l’artistic touch – something which
should be done for the sake of itself and for some abstract humanistic purpose, but
not really necessary for an economically successful, functioning society. Obviously,
the important task of initiating social changes, participating actively in them and
taking them forward is not high on the European agenda. Even more so, people
educated and trained in skills will not be able or motivated to conduct such
changes, because they are expected mainly to learn how to adapt, which is raised to
the level of a generic skill: ‘Learning how to learn, to adapt to change and to make
sense of vast information flows are now generic skills that everyone should acquire’
(European Commission 2000: 11), while technological, social and political changes
come as an unavoidable vis major, beyond the influence of citizens.
The criticism points to the choice of non-relevant means to achieve these goals.
The desired kind of economy demands proactive, creative people and a kind of
education that will unlock people’s creative potential, demand deeper knowledge
and a higher level of cognitive and professional competences. In the context of
global competition, just acquiring skills will not make a crucial difference and peo-
ple who ‘have adapted’ will not be able to make the relevant change. Adaptation
preserves the set of given circumstances and supports a development that goes in
only one direction. It has a conservative character, because it does not allow one to
initiate changes, being thus directly opposite to the development agenda which is set
in the European documents.
Even the definition of lifelong learning adopted in the documents – with the aim
of improving knowledge, skills and competence – reveals the theoretical conception
and ideological approach on which it is based; it implies an increase in the amount
of information and development of abilities but no qualitative changes, transforma-
tion or personal development. It is not a philosophy of life and of development but
more an instrument to achieve some instrumental goals. Even if lifelong learning is
perceived as a continuum, it is rather a narrow one:
High quality basic education for all, from a child’s youngest days forward, is the essential
foundation. Basic education followed by initial vocational education and training, should
equip all young people with the new basic skills required in a knowledge-based economy.
(European Commission 2000: 7)

So, the proposed actions are not equally relevant for the two groups of objectives
outlined in these documents – firstly, promoting active citizenship and secondly,
promoting employability. The first objective is treated more on a declarative level,
and there are no further attempts to show concretely how it will be reached, while

4
Furthermore, DG Employment has today in its structure the unit called ’New Skills for New Jobs,
Adaptation to Change, CSR and EGF.’
22 K. Popović

the second objective is higher on the agenda and clearly justified. The documents
neglected the power general education, civic education or cultural education might
have for the defined purposes:
Education and training were also narrowed by the qualification-competence pairing,
which also forbade the adoption of broader and more complex conceptions of AE, and the
implementations of actions that encouraged the training of democratic, independent,
thinking, and critical citizens. (Lima and Guimaraes 2011: 109)

Still, the attempt to balance these two approaches is obvious throughout both
documents, specific target groups have been mentioned, as well as the intercultural
character of European societies and different ways and paths of teaching and learning.
Basic skills, as the fundamental idea and the leading mechanism, seemed to be in
accordance with these important aspects and tasks – but they turned out to be a
‘Trojan horse’, paving the way to a completely different approach, marked nowadays
with the dominance of vocational education and training, upskilling and reskilling,
qualifications and employability.

Difficulties Around the Concept of ‘Skills’

The concept of skills started to dominate European policy recently, not playing an
important role in European documents about lifelong learning until the Memorandum
and the Communication were launched. This was primarily due to the pressure from
the world of economy, to the need for global competitiveness and to the demands
from the changing technologies and labour market. The other reason was the
transnational influence, particularly from World Bank and the OECD.
Why is the notion of skills limited in its appropriateness for the area of education?
As the term comes from human capital theory, reflecting in its nature the world of
work, it is not really adequate for the world of education. The basic meaning of
‘skills’ is usually associated with manual skills, acquired in a short time, based on
very little knowledge and almost value-free. Skill refers to the capacity (in the begin-
ning just manual, later also cognitive or intellectual) of performing certain tasks
according to certain procedures. The attributes efficient, exact and routine are usually
added to skills. No matter if they are defined by various authors as the personal
ability of performing a task, or description of activities and ways of performing, they
have a strong behavioural character, and a bit a narrow reductionist meaning.
It is seldom that a concept makes such a successful carrier and has such impact
at both international level and among the EU members as skills did; to mention,
for example, the situation in the UK: the Department for Education and Skills
(DfES), the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and The National Skills Task
Force (see DfES 2004) have influenced the overall national agenda on skills.
Widely accepted, hardly ever critically reflected, further developed in many
aspects (basic skills, key skills, generic skills, high and low skills), skills have a
fascinating attractiveness for all those seeking a closer relation between education
and work, for more effectiveness and standardisation, for establishing procedures,
2 The Skills: A Chimera of Modern European Adult Education 23

quality criteria and measuring. This kind of popularity made ‘skills’ a kind of deus
ex machina for any problem, be it in the field of policy, research or practice.
Indeed, the introduction of this approach helped European education to
progress, raised many new issues and supported many developments in the field
of vocational education and training. It inspired new critical discussion about
traditional, old-fashioned and outdated approaches to learning and education,
which really could not meet the demands of the new, modern times. But coming
back to the question; does this approach have unlimited relevance and functionality
for the European agenda?
The variety of meaning attached to ‘skills’ and the numerous definitions and
approaches applied may suggest that it could be the answer to all problems in the
field of vocational education. But closer analysis of the context, relations and
interdependencies of the term shows that it is mainly about production, technology,
jobs and qualifications. One example from England, a country that adopted the
EU skills policy extensively, illustrates this: Although the book Skills in England:
The Research Report promises a broader approach, the starting definitions point
to the dominant paradigm:
Overall, we have sought to use four sets of proxies for skills: occupations (the actual jobs
that people do); qualifications (the level of certified competence that people possess);
individuals’ assessment of their own skills; and employers’ assessment of their skill
requirements. In assessing many aspects of skills in England we examine the evidence in
terms of sectors, occupations and qualifications. (Campbell et al. 2001: 3)

Looking closer to the Memorandum and the Communication, the skills are put
either in the context of mobility, labour market and employability or in something
which remains very much as a somewhat enriched traditional conception of basic
literacy: literacy, numeracy, ICT and ‘the others’, as they are called in the Memorandum
(European Commission 2000: 11). It is interesting that ‘the others’ mostly just remain
‘the others’, and if they are specified, they include entrepreneurship, foreign languages
and technology. Social skills are mentioned just marginally. It is much more than
language bizarreness when science is considered as one of the new basic skills in
the Communication: ‘…new basic skills, including entrepreneurship, science and
technology’ (European Commission 2001: 12).
The criticism towards a skills approach is even more justified when it comes to
the definition where ‘skills’ do include ‘knowledge’. Subsequent analysis shows
that the level of required knowledge does not allow raising the concept of ‘skills’
above that of ‘knowledge’ (even if the policy level might allow one to define
‘everything by everything’, the research approach could hardly define skills by
knowledge). Almost every activity of an adult person demands some kind or some
level of knowledge, it is not in the very nature of skills; knowledge is not differentia
specifica of skills. Therefore, the reductionist character of skills remains one of the
main points of criticism – it denies the integral, holistic approach to human being,
leaves less space for creativity, freedom, flexibility and critical thinking. This criticism
does not deny the usefulness and positive impact of the skills approach; it applies to
the attempt to raise skills to the highest level in the European policy, to the main
mechanism and all-encompassing concept.
24 K. Popović

Even more, the serious problem with skills is their value-free character. Similar to
knowledge, attempts to include attitudes to the definition of skills are not grounded, and
some of the most important questions of human life are untouched by skills – values, eth-
ics and emotions. It could be additionally argued that skills help the shift to the neo-
liberal approach through their feigned neutralism, since they do fulfil some goals and
do have certain functions, but in the domain of production rather than in the domain of
citizenship. Further on, skills are almost context-free and could not be transferred easily
from one setting to another – whether a work or life situation – and cannot be simply
related to the situation of the individuals, with their life context and the meanings they
give to it. An additional aspect is that a reductionist approach to skills helps to shift the
whole responsibility for education and learning process to an individual (not to an
employer, institutions or state) but without really giving people the opportunity to think
and reflect on their own learning goals, paths and preferences.
A serious attempt to overcome the difficulties of a skills approach is made by the
use of the term competences. Many authors use these words as synonyms, thus giving
an alibi to the shortcomings of skills, ascribing some qualities of the competencies
to the skills, which are not in the nature of skills. The competences indicate the
tendency to combine skills (including cognitive, social and personal), particularly
those not related to employment and employability and not exclusively outcome
oriented. The concept of key competences suggests this even more, trying to include
attitudes and elements of values in it.
This seems to be a perfect compromise. The Memorandum and the Communication
(European Commission 2001: 23) have announced ‘a shift from ‘knowledge’ to
‘competence”, opening thus the new ‘era’ – an attempt to integrate all aspects of
human being and life into a list of various competences. This ambitious task resulted
in a powerful skills/competencies combination: Together with vocational training,
ICT and soft skills became a deus ex machina that should enable employability, com-
petitiveness and adaptability. Soft skills (called also interpersonal/communicative
competences) are also meant to cover all personal (even if not strictly measurable)
abilities, traits, characteristics and qualities. Similarly, the concept of competences
was extended beyond its real capacity encompassing an extremely broad range of
areas: culture, aesthetics, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity and innova-
tion (OECD even adds terms like reflectiveness to the list). Common sense alone
would dictate that competences cannot be easily trained and transferred but have to
be developed through long-term processes and via complex learning experiences.
The terminology and conceptual confusion was increased by introducing expres-
sions like functional literacy and multiliteracies by some authors. For example,
these expressions should include also ‘historic and cultural literacy’ (Doukas 2003:
30), which is far beyond the standard meaning of skills and competencies.
The concept of competences also gains popularity and developed further, generic,
broad, intersectoral, transversal, creates an artificial, anthropologically strange
idea of the person, who consists of a set of implausible competencies, but with no
recognisable characteristics of a human being, whose performances – even in a
strictly professional setting – are also determined by emotions, motivation, satisfaction
and very much by a value system.
2 The Skills: A Chimera of Modern European Adult Education 25

Developments After the Memorandum and Communication

Both documents could be seen as milestones in European educational policy. They

adopt a balanced approach, a broad and all-encompassing understanding of teach-
ing and learning and an openness to the new tendencies in education and related
areas. This contains some elements of the best traditions of European education.
The set of messages in the documents was given favourably and with commitment.
On the other hand, these texts heralded a new development in this field, which was
becoming the dominant paradigm in European educational policy. It was the concept
of skills in these documents that announced the positivist, pragmatist discourse and
the prevalence of the labour-/job-oriented function of education and learning.
Ten years after that, developments progressed swiftly:
EU education and training policies have gained impetus since the adoption of the Lisbon
Strategy in 2000, the EU’s overarching programme focusing on growth and jobs.
The strategy recognised that knowledge, and the innovation it sparks, are the EU’s most
valuable assets, particularly in the light of increasing global competition. The Member
States and the European Commission strengthened co-operation in 2009 with strategic
framework for ‘European Cooperation in Education and Training’ (ET 2020), a follow-up
to the earlier ‘Education and Training 2010 Work Programme’ launched in 2001.
(European Commission 2009)

Appearing under the Lifelong Learning Policy title on the web portal of the
Commission, this document demonstrates one of the main contradictions of this
approach, since lifelong learning is supposed to be the main concept, but it almost
disappears from the text, which was not the case with the Memorandum.
Obviously, the shift from education to learning, which is a part of common rheto-
ric and generally accepted as factum est in the European area, was not really devel-
oped in its entirety as it was assumed. To put it another way, the process was like
peeling an onion, and lifelong learning remained as the outside layer, when every-
thing inside were turning more and more to skills and competencies. If the strategy
documents are taken as the illustration for the policy which is about to be adopted
or implemented, or even just made public at the rhetoric level, lifelong learning is
not a pillar of this policy at all. The titles of the new documents show that
(e.g. Agenda New Skills for New jobs, Education and Training 2020). But a closer
look reveals that education is still the dominant term, in two meanings: either in the
context of formal system (schooling), where the minimal use of nonformal and
informal education proves that formal education still widely dominates, or together
with training, which speaks strongly for the dominance of vocational education.
The fact that two strategic documents Europe 2020 and ET 2020 are accompa-
nied by an Agenda which has just the word skills in the title, leaving out other terms
related to education and learning (without having some new Action Plan on Adult
Learning), sheds the light on the central concept and main paradigm of these strat-
egies and dominant approach.5 Lifelong learning is obviously not recognised as a

5
Compare how OECD is putting the terms ‘education’ and “skills” as opposite poles in the title of
the book: ‘Skills, not just diplomas...’ (Sondergaard et al. 2011).
26 K. Popović

concept helpful for achieving the European goals for 2020, but education and
training together with skills are recognised as useful. ET 2020 does recognise life-
long learning as a fundamental principle, including adult learning, but in the
Agenda New Skills for New Jobs, they are hardly mentioned. If adults have such a
low rank as a target group in all these documents, then lifelong learning as the
overall title for the policy and programme is not justified. Adults disappear to a
certain extent from the scene, learning also – what remains dominantly is educa-
tion, training, formal system and young people as the prevailing target group.
Formal and/or formally recognised training and acquirement of skills turned out to
be not just the main instrument in the above-mentioned strategies, but they are
even raised to the paradigm level, appearing as the goal or key objective. Some
examples can be found in the documents, such as the title Agenda New Skills for
New Jobs or a quotation from it: ‘Implementing flexicurity principles and enabling
people to acquire new skills to adapt to new conditions and potential career shifts
will be key’ (European Commission 2010a: 16). The other example shows that
acquisition of skills even changes the importance of rank within the lifelong learn-
ing strategy: ‘The key importance of acquiring skills and competences throughout
the working life requires comprehensive strategies for Lifelong Learning’
(Agenda New skills for new jobs: 8). So, skills attained the status of the key objec-
tive, method and mean – the development that begun already with Memorandum
and Communication.
The following view illustrates the function of skills and competencies in the
actual European educational policy:
Europe 2020 boosts the idea of lifelong learning becoming both the global agenda and a
new ’fashion’, as argued by Field… Furthermore, it retails the relation between the educa-
tion, training, and economic development by granting adult education the status of an
instrument for human resources management, and by establishing complex technical
process for that link, especially after the adoption of the EQF. (Lima and Guimaraes
2011: 108)

So, skills and competencies achieved the central role in translating the philosophy
and concept of lifelong learning into a tool, i.e. a simplified, pragmatic list of
measurable abilities oriented to economic purposes.
Skills might be an important instrument in the global competition, but it is a
‘weapon’ that was produced elsewhere and imported under the pressure of economic
reasons into educational processes. As Lima and Guimaraes (2011: 108) state:
Lifelong learning favoured by European Union […] also met the demands of globalisation
and the economy. It therefore considered orientations that focused on encouraging the
adaptability of individuals, flexibility, competitiveness, and growth in the service of the
knowledge-based economy.

By imposing the concept of skills to the world of education, the world of

work has successfully replaced the narrative typical for education and learning,
thus disempowering the traditional educational concept. Terminology and
vocabulary proved to have power to subordinate the field or the group that they
2 The Skills: A Chimera of Modern European Adult Education 27

had been imposed to.6 Educational sector is thus developing (actively, engaged
and convinced) the ‘imported’ concepts and narratives, neglecting completely
its own field of responsibility, issues and problems that it should focus on.
By using skills and competencies, European strategies put learning into the
function of economy, implying that it was something that could be commodified or
measured quantitatively and therefore be transferred, sold or exchanged as a
product. No doubt education and world of work need a common understanding,
concepts and terminology enabling dialogue, but skills as a concept are introduced
from the world of production; therefore, they omit some of the most important
features of the learning and education process.
The risk of such a narrow development focusing on skills is twofold. The strength
of European education and learning policies could hardly lie in a concept which is
not rooted in the European tradition, not consequently integrated into the whole
policy (economic, social, educational) and not related to the achievement of overall
goals, especially not in the long run. One of the strong points of the European
tradition – close connections between general and vocational education and good
general education for all – is jeopardised now. The artificial separation which is
done for the sake of faster economic growth can harm both types of education
but also both sectors of society – economy (in the long run, because jobs are
becoming more knowledge intensive) and the inclusive society where personal
growth is seen as the value for both individual and the society. The artificial division
between general and vocational education does not withstand interrogation –
neither from a formal-logical nor a functional point of view. The attempt to
incorporate them under the umbrella of skills, as vocational and soft skills, basic
and high, generic and scientific is artificial and mainly disadvantageous for the
second group. The relationships between them has to be redefined, and some new
paradigms (not just mechanisms) for their functional connections should be found,
which is far more challenging (and more difficult) for educational policy than the
provision of basic or similar skills. It is perhaps easier to create a common approach
to problems like ‘skills shortage assessment’ than to address the question Europe
once shared with UNESCO – ‘How to live together?’7 But it does not make this
question less important.
Furthermore, there is a danger in the process of translating the European policy
at the national level. Considering the variety of approaches, traditions and learning
cultures, training could be easily understood as drill, and skills acquisition imple-
mented simply as short-term courses on elementary skills. Very strong orientation to
employment would certainly lead to the reduction of funding for any other kind of

6
The anthropology of gender focused a lot to the ways that vocabulary developed from the point of
view of male researchers influenced the whole area of anthropological researches, creating the dis-
torted picture of social development. Imposing narrative through vocabulary creates an illusion of
equality and ’cooperation’, while at the same time the group or field concerned loses the power to
develop its own concepts and to contribute genuine to the crosscutting issues and to ’cooperation’.
7
It is interesting that UNESCO is still very much trying to balance these two approaches - see for
example ‘Belém framework for action’ (UNESCO 2009).
28 K. Popović

education (such as civic education, intercultural and peace education), which is

embedded in the fundaments of European history and community and is an insepa-
rable part of its identity. Oriented to short-term goals, European societies will
not have long-term and common solutions for challenges like ageing societies,
mobile workforce, mixed societies, growing nationalism and aggression, fragile
democracies and so forth.
The global socio-economic crisis puts this discussion high on the global agenda;
approaches, paradigms and concepts have to be critically reflected and rethought.
The way this is done does not promise affirmative change because it contains a logi-
cal fallacy which shows the deep lack of understanding. Einstein has formulated it
in the following way8: ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking
we used when we created them’. Not just in Europe, but globally, only the
consequences of the crises have been addressed, not the causes and the question:
What education can do about that remains to be answered. Most certainly value-free
education, which is just a mask for vocational training in the function of a neo-
liberal economy, will not prevent any further crises – neither economic and mone-
tary nor social and value crises. Missing values is a more important challenge than
missing skills. Still adult education which is remote from everyday life and from
economic reality, being somewhat for its own sake, is not a good approach to address
the challenges of the modern time and the global world. But using skills and com-
petencies as the main instrument to respond to these challenges may lead to another
kind of impasse. As a matter of fact, Europe is already facing serious crises of its
value system, crises of identity and solidarity, combined with nationalism and
violence. The adult education response to these crises, in the shape of skills, is a
chimera – an illusion that is composed from fragments of learning and work but not
the most relevant and adequate fragments. The need to rethink and re-evaluate our
concepts and need to create new paradigms remains.

References

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8
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towards full employment. Resource document. European Commission. http://eur-lex.europa.
eu/lexuriserv/lexuriserv.do?uri=com:2010:0682:fin:en:pdf
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bel%c3%a9m%20framework_final.pdf
Chapter 3
Computer Literacy Among the Generations:
How Can Older Adults Participate
in Digital Society?

Bernhard Schmidt-Hertha and Claudia Strobel-Dümer

Introduction

The ability to participate in society is considered a central aim of every educational

process in the memorandum, and lifelong learning is seen as a way “to encourage
and equip people to participate more actively once more in all spheres of modern
public life, especially in social and political life at all levels of the community,
including at European level” (European Commission 2000, p. 5). Looking at con-
temporary ways of participating in modern societies, knowing how to deal with
digital media, especially the computer and the Internet, constitutes a crucial and basic
educational content. Digital media play a crucial role not only in accessing informa-
tion but also in communication in the private, the commercial, and the political
sector. Furthermore, the fact that many services – such as counseling, banking, or
administrative processes – are increasingly handled via Internet has a significant
impact on older people’s lives. For people who do not have access to a computer or
to the Internet, this development implies that they are excluded from a steadily
growing sector of social life. Active participation in social life and societal processes
is thus significantly limited, which is why the acquisition of just this ability to
participate is formulated as one of the foremost aims of media-pedagogical
approaches (Hurrelmann 2002).
Digital media thus constitute a significant content of education and learning
processes in every phase of life. At the same time, these media – the Internet, in
particular – provide rich resources for learning processes and thus offer the possibility
to support informal learning which can take place independent of institutional

B. Schmidt-Hertha (*)
Institute of Education, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]
C. Strobel-Dümer
Socio-Educational Institute of SOS-Kinderdorf e.V., Munich, Germany

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 31
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_3, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
32 B. Schmidt-Hertha and C. Strobel-Dümer

infrastructures within the educational system. Thus, modern information and

communication technologies on the one hand offer the chance to make up for infra-
structural disadvantages, when access to services and information does no longer
depend on local facilities; on the other hand, structures of inequality may well be
(re-)produced through the medial infrastructure. The more important it is to have
access to digital media for social participation and individual learning opportuni-
ties, the more problematic it becomes if entire groups of the population are excluded
from this use of digital media (Remtulla 2010, p. 309).

Computer Competence, Digital Divide, and Participation

Participation is an elementary component of civil society. Accordingly participation

is formulated as a central goal of European policy, as mentioned above. The memo-
randum also points on the revolutionary meaning of digital media for knowledge
societies (European Commission 2000, p. 7) and consequently claims IT skills as
one of the necessary basic skills for people in Europe (ibid. p. 10). We can observe
an increasing transfer of information processing, opinion making, and also learning
resources into digital worlds. This means the exclusion of people who don’t have
access to the Internet in many central parts of civil life and informational resources.
Looking at this, it seems only consequent, to make demands on fostering IT skills
for all. Nevertheless, in same way the question could be posed, if it is necessary or
beneficiary to bound participation in many fields exclusively to digital media
(e.g., evaluation of political ideas or products but also processes of daily living like
ticket sale). On the one hand, it can be criticized that many parts of daily life and
civil society depend more and more on the use of digital media; on the other hand,
it can be argued, developing IT skills in all social groups and generations is the only
way to cope with this irreversible development.
In current reality this trend means exclusion of parts of the population from more
and more important societal resources, named with the catchword “digital divide”
(Warschauer 2004). The divide between people with and people without access to
the Internet can essentially be discussed related to three aspects:
Firstly, on the global level, strong disparities between North and South are dis-
cernible. While large parts of the population of the rich and mostly industrialized
northern hemisphere have been provided with Internet access, large parts of the
population of the economically less developed countries of the southern hemisphere
remain excluded from participation in the World Wide Web (Warschauer 2004).
Secondly, in modern industrial societies another form of the “digital divide”
within society becomes apparent. Not so much the possibility to access digital
media, but rather the competence to use these media is unequally distributed among
the different social strata and milieus. While the number of users suggests a quite
thorough distribution of computer and Internet throughout all social milieus, the
ways in which these media are used differ significantly. For instance, some social
groups focus more on informational aspects of media while others prefer to use the
same media for entertainment (Pietraß et al. 2005).
3 Computer Literacy Among the Generations: How Can Older Adults… 33

Thirdly, there runs a digital divide between different generations – if diverse

studies on the use of digital media are reliable. Those born after 1980 grew up with
modern digital media; they use these media with great routine and naturalness due
to their medial socialization and are therefore also referred to as “digital natives”
(Trinder et al. 2008). In contrast, older adults, in particular, especially those born
before 1950, seem to be less familiar with the use of digital media (Hargittai 2002).
At least, the number of individuals not using the computer and the Internet is (still)
much higher among those older than 60 than among the younger age groups
(Jones and Fox 2009). This is due, on the one hand, to different socialization
experiences and, on the other hand, to habitualized media practices determined by
the use of media during adolescence. Following Karl Mannheim’s considerations on
generational location and on “generations in actuality” (Mannheim 1928), media
experiences in adolescence can be expected as crucial for media use during the
lifetime. It can be assumed that those media which played a crucial role during
adolescence as well as the respective patterns of media use will remain defining
during the later phases of a person’s life. This assumption was further substantiated
through empirical studies (Schäffer 2003). Looking at the aims formulated in the
memorandum (strengthening social participation and developing ICT skills), it has
to be seen as a great challenge not to exclude older people when information and
participation is more and more based on digital media.
Cultures of media practice specific to certain generations do not only have an impact
on the way media are dealt with or on the attitude toward media. These cultures also
correspond with the development of knowledge and competencies regarding the
handling of media. Knowledge about media and the ability to employ them effec-
tively can be considered essential prerequisites for media use and are closely linked
with the terms “media competence” and “media literacy” or – when referring to digital
media – “computer literacy”. Although these three central terms are sometimes used
as synonyms, different definitions apply to each.
Media competence is a term well established in European media pedagogy, in
the German literature, in particular. According to the concept evolved by Baacke
(1996), media competence comprises four fields:
• Media knowledge refers to basic information and knowledge about media and
media formats.
• Media use emphasizes more strongly the knowledge concerning the application
of media. The focus is on enabling people to choose and use appropriate media.
• Media design is, according to Baacke (1996), the ability to actively partake in the
design and production of medial contents. Nowadays, at times of an interactive
use of the Internet, media design is turning into a mass phenomenon and, thus, is
becoming a fundamental competency requirement in modern societies (Pikalek
2010, p. 151).
• Media critique comprises the skill to critically question medial contents and their
design, to recognize inherent manipulation strategies and manipulative intentions,
and to be aware of the influence of media on the social level (Remtulla 2010).
Empirical findings indicate that this ability to remain critical is more pronounced
among older adults than among the younger ones (Eshet-Alkalai and Chajut 2010).
34 B. Schmidt-Hertha and C. Strobel-Dümer

As a counterpart to the term competency, the concept of literacy is used above

all in American and internationally determined educational research; this term
originally referred to the skill to read and understand texts. In a broader sense,
media literacy refers to “people’s ability to access and process information from a
form of transition” (Potter 2011, p. 12). Thus, the concept of media literacy is not
limited to a certain medium but rather comprises almost all forms of medial
presentation, although most of the scientific discourses focus on mass media.
From a cognitive-psychological perspective, Potter (2011) argues that habituated
attentional processes, individual knowledge and the ability to deal with media are
central components of media literacy.
Computer literacy, on the other hand, refers exclusively to computer and Internet
applications and is therefore much easier to grasp empirically. Computer literacy
comprises the use of programs and applications in solving well-structured problems
(Bers 2010). Furthermore, there are indications that the development of computer
software (in the sense of media design, see above) may also promote meta-cognitive
competencies (Papert 1980).

Learning and Media Competency in Old Age: The Research

Projects CiLL and IGeL-Media

In the context of lifelong learning and the EU memorandum, which points on the
meaning of ICT skills in every age and for every social group, some central ques-
tions related to ICT use in higher age become significant. Looking at media use,
what differences between age groups and generations can be found? Is the ability to
develop media competence related to age? What are motives and barriers for older
adults to deal with digital media? To what extent is intergenerational learning a
meaningful way of developing media competence in higher age? All these questions
are addressed by different research projects, which will be presented briefly in the
following passages.
With regard to adults, the digital literacy model proposed by Eshet-Alkalai
(2004), which also takes into consideration socio-emotional aspects, provides a dif-
ferentiated alternative to the concept of computer literacy. Empirical studies revealed
that younger computer users could better orientate themselves in multimedia envi-
ronments and were faster in grasping graphically processed contents than older
users; however, these differences are clearly reduced after several years of computer
use. In contrast, older computer users showed a much higher performance with
regard to critical reflection and creative (re)organization of multimedia presenta-
tions. The gap between the age groups related to these aspects of digital literacy
actually increased with the growing experience in dealing with the computer in all
age groups (Eshet-Alkalai and Chajut 2010). The authors consider these findings a
clear proof of the ability to build up or broaden digital literacy in old age.
The results of the abovementioned study are thus consistent with geronto-
logical and cognitive-psychological studies on the ability to learn during old age.
3 Computer Literacy Among the Generations: How Can Older Adults… 35

It is by now beyond dispute that the ability to learn is not primarily a question of
age but rather can be maintained well into old age (Kruse and Schmitt 2000;
Schaie 2005). A prerequisite for this is that one never grows out of the habit of
learning and that the mental performance is practiced through cognitive activation
(Saczynski et al. 2002). Forms of learning and learning preferences change with age;
however, these developments differ considerably from one individual to the other.
They are determined, e.g., by biographical experiences and the current life situation
(Strobel et al. 2011), and it is due to these diverse developments that older adults are
an extremely heterogeneous target group for adult education (Schmidt 2010a, b).
This heterogeneity is reflected in the interest in dealing with digital media and
in the ways in which older adults choose to approach these media. The further
development of one’s computer literacy can be targeted or rather casual. The moti-
vational basis for learning processes then results from an actual challenge to act
(e.g., the necessity to solve a problem) or from a merely intrinsic interest (e.g., being
curios on new IKT). Computer literacy may be obtained in organized courses or
through informal channels, alone or together with friends or family members.
These different ways of learning and learning motives, learning opportunities, and
situations as well as the significance of computer literacy for older adults in every-
day life are the subject of several studies presently carried out in Germany. In this
contribution, results from two ongoing research projects – “Competencies in Later
Life (CiLL)” and “Informal Intergenerational Learning for Media Competence
(IGeL-Media)” – will be presented.
One of the components of the CiLL project is an extension of the national PIAAC
survey carried out in Germany. Within the framework of PIAAC, the Program for
International Assessment of Adult Competencies of the OECD, the competencies of
19–65-year-old adults in three different fields are surveyed through standardized
tests: literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in a technology-rich environment
(Schleicher 2008). The last mentioned field of competency – problem solving in a
technology-rich environment – essentially refers to the skill to solve everyday prob-
lems with the use of the computer or the Internet. Thus, the underlying competency
construct is closely linked to the concept of computer literacy or digital literacy
(OECD 2009). In the CiLL project, the abovementioned fields of competency are
surveyed among the group of 66–80-year-old adults in Germany by using the same
instruments. The competency tests, which are still being prepared, are supplemented
by qualitative data, some of which has already been collected. These qualitative
case studies primarily aim at clarifying in what way the competencies surveyed
are relevant to older people’s ability to deal with everyday life and what learning
opportunities the respective living environments provide for older people to develop
these competencies (Strobel et al. 2011).
IGeL-Media - a research project funded by the German Research Association
DFG (SCHM 2391/3-1) - focuses exclusively on the acquisition of media compe-
tency among those older than 60, with the emphasis on informal learning processes
triggered, for instance, through the exchange with children, grandchildren, or other
significant members of a younger generation. This approach is based on the assump-
tion that older adults mainly develop their competencies in dealing with digital
36 B. Schmidt-Hertha and C. Strobel-Dümer

media through the exchange with younger contact persons. Through a secondary
analysis of a representative survey on the interests in learning and further education
among older adults living in Germany (Schmidt 2007) and through qualitative
interviews with older people, these intergenerational learning processes and their
contribution to the acquisition of media competencies are to be revealed (Schmidt-
Hertha and Thalhammer 2012). So far, only first results of the secondary analysis have
been reported, while the qualitative results will not be available until the end of 2012.
In the following, we refer to the results of the secondary analysis of 2.142
standardized interviews with adults aged between 60 and 80 living in Germany,
carried out within the framework of the IGeL-Media project, as well as to the first
results of the case studies from the CiLL project. These case studies are mainly
based on qualitative guideline interviews which have been fully transcribed and
analyzed following the principles of qualitative content analysis (Mayring 2000).

Computer Literacy Among Older People

Throughout the different countries, it can be seen that younger generations are much
closer to digital media than the older ones. In practically all of the European coun-
tries – and also in non-European states – the percentage of computer and Internet
users in the older cohorts is clearly below average. Although, for the year 2010, the
percentage of Internet users among people older than 65 varied in the European
countries from 3 % (in Rumania and Bulgaria) to 64 % (in Luxemburg). While the
Scandinavian countries, in particular, belong to the lead group with more than 40 %,
the quota of the so-called silver surfers is below 15 % throughout all of the Southern
and Eastern European countries. At the same time, data from the Federal Statistical
Office (2011, p. 35) show that the growth rates in Internet users have been highest
among the older population groups during the last few years.

Computer Use Among Older Adults

According to the data collected by the German Federal Statistical Office (2011, p. 32)
for the year 2010, the percentage of Internet users among those aged 45–64 had
already reached 75 %, and that among adults older than 65 had reached 31 %, with a
clear upward trend. In the context of the IGeL-Media project, the point of interest
was not so much the percentage of users but rather in how far users and nonusers
differ with regard to their life situation and their environment. By means of a logistic
regression analysis, the influence of different factors was determined. Among these
factors were in addition to socio-demographic variables, attitudes, and lifestyles,
above all activities in the social field and leisure activities.
As was to be expected, both gender and educational level proved to be strong
predictors for computer use. Older adults are significantly more likely to be among
those using the computer if they are male and if they have higher school-leaving
3 Computer Literacy Among the Generations: How Can Older Adults… 37

qualifications than if they are female and have a lower education. About as important
as gender for the probability of computer usage is the influence of calendrical age,
even within the group of those aged 60–80. The influence of migration background
and of employment status, although statistically relevant, is much smaller than that of
the variables mentioned before. Nonetheless, older people with migration background
and those not or no longer employed use the computer less often than other older
adults. The most striking result of the regression analysis was that participation in
cultural activities and programs was as meaningful with regard to computer use as
was educational background or age. Older adults who regularly participate in cultural
activities or who are themselves active in the fields of music or art are much more
often among those using a computer than other older people.

Learning Processes: Why and How Do Older People Learn

to Deal with the Computer?

We are now faced with the question of why and how people who never systematically
learned to deal with the computer or the Internet (can) catch up on this in old age.
Here, the influence of educational and vocational biographies, hinted at above,
manifests itself, as is confirmed by first evaluations of the CiLL project. Persons who
actively used a computer during their vocational lives were able to acquire first
competencies through measures of in-service training or through the exchange with
younger colleagues. Often, interest was aroused through those experiences, and in the
following a computer was bought for private use. Especially these people who had fun
in dealing with the computer and who considered it to be a great asset improved their
computer literacy through adequate courses offered in adult education.
A somewhat different picture presents itself with regard to people who had no
contact with computers or the Internet during their working life. Here, the evalua-
tion of the case studies often reveals a strong rejection of or lack of interest in the
digital world. Frequently, persons from the immediate environment (especially
one’s own children and grandchildren) are drawn upon whenever information to be
found on the Internet is required.
Another group of older adults deliberately and specifically learned how to use
digital media once they had retired. Thus, they learn either by trial and error or by
attending a course of further education or – as was true for many of the cases
investigated – through the exchange with younger generations (again, above all,
children and grandchildren). Often, these individuals display a strong interest in
technology, and they are open to new things.
For many of the older people, contact with the younger generations can be cause
and motivation for dealing with the Internet at the same time. For instance, if the
grandchild studies in a foreign country and contact can be maintained through
e-mail communication, digital media become relevant for the grandparents, too.
In many instances, the motivation to deal with the computer and to learn how
to use digital media results from a consideration of their immediate usefulness.
38 B. Schmidt-Hertha and C. Strobel-Dümer

But also the life situation of older adults plays an important role. Seniors with an
active lifestyle and a stable social network seem to be more open toward the
computer (Strobel et al. 2011). Here, patterns for an active shaping of one’s life
take effect, which enable a person to learn something new and to ask for help from
people who accompany this process. The influence of the social environment
seems to be just as strong in this age group as IT is the influence of the individual
educational biography.
When looking at the results of the case studies, it becomes apparent that older
adults are much more careful than younger adults in dealing with the computer or
the Internet. Often, it is reported that, although the Internet is used as a medium to
gain information, websites which require a registration or the revelation of personal
data are avoided. Thus, a pronounced critical distance does not necessarily lead to a
complete rejection of specific medial applications. For instance, being skeptical
about security of e-business offers doesn’t always mean to avoid all forms of finan-
cial transfers via Internet but could lead to limited e-business activities exclusively
with well-known providers.

The Participation of Older Adults in Digital Worlds:

Challenges for Society and Science

The social inclusion of older adults and also of the very old in aging societies has to
be considered as one of the crucial challenges of the coming years and decades.
In this context, modern information and communication technologies may have
both integrative and ostracizing effects. On the one hand, they have the potential of
allowing partaking in many areas of both public and private life, independent of any
physical impediments or factors of mobility. On the other hand, generation-specific
habits of media use and a lack of access to a computer or the Internet often mean
that older adults, in particular, remain excluded from this increasingly more impor-
tant medium. The aim to promote participation in public life for all, like it is defined
in the memorandum on lifelong learning, is closely related to the use of digital
media. When public life is more and more transferred into digital worlds and at the
same time a significant number of people don’t have access to these media worlds,
this aim has to be missed. The partial coercion to use computer and Internet – e.g.,
when certain products or services are no longer available but online – is considered
impertinence by older people. It would be just as presumptuous to require older
people per se to have computer literacy on a specific level without considering their
respective individual living environments and the related everyday demands.
The results of the CiLL study that are available so far clearly show that many
older people like to resort to modern media if they recognize their immediate added
value. Communication with children and grandchildren has proven to be a further
source of motivation for dealing with modern media. Still, media use and media
competence must not become an end in themselves; rather, their relation to the
living environment of older people has to be meaningful and useful. An important
3 Computer Literacy Among the Generations: How Can Older Adults… 39

strategy to encourage more people to use ICT for participating in public life would
be to strengthen and support the development of media competence especially for
those groups which are excluded from digital worlds so far.
In order to support media use among older adults – depending on regional and
social background – two different approaches seem to be of significance. On the one
hand, participation in modern information and communication technologies can only
be made possible for older adults if both the infrastructural basis and certain economic
preconditions for Internet use are given. On the other hand, such participation
requires not only basic knowledge of how to handle this medium but also knowledge
of the risks and dangers connected with the Internet and about possible ways of
minimizing these risks. While the first requirement describes a sociopolitical challenge,
the second points to a task of adult education. Not only is it necessary to offer
adequate educational programs for older people but also informal learning processes
within the social environment have to be initiated and supported. These self-controlled
learning processes can, for instance, take place in self-organized computer groups or
on Internet forums which, in turn, can be initiated and accompanied by educational
institutions. One such initiative which specifically promotes self-controlled learning
among older adults is, for example, the EU project PALADIN (www.projectpaladin.eu).
This project focuses on the development of instruments which are meant to provide
older people as well as professionals and institutions working in this field with
printed material and support resources.
Finally, it has to be noted that the differences revealed in the context of media use
are not differences between age groups but between generations. Future generations
of older adults are already much more familiar with digital media and have integrated
these quite naturally in their everyday lives. Thus, for the future, it can be assumed
that among the very old generations, too, computer and Internet applications will be
used in various ways and that the opportunities of social participation connected
with these will become more and more important.

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Chapter 4
Basic Skills for Becoming a Citizen

Emilio Lucio-Villegas

Introduction: ‘It Is Always a Good Time to Learn’, What?

This chapter aims to re-examine the concept and practice of an education focused
on people as citizens. Against the narrow idea of people as workers – if they can
have a job – or consumers, I think that education must be useful to encourage people
to take part in social and community life.
In the scope of the current policies and practices in Lifelong Learning, I will only
focus on those related to Active Citizenship and will present the experience of the
Participatory and Citizenship School developed in the city of Seville (Spain) from
2006 to 2007 as an example of other perspectives that allow us to create – or better
re-create – different practices on adult education and learning beyond the suffocating
pressure for training disciplined workers.
In the last 10 years, one of the most interesting and surprising achievements in
education and learning has been the diverse attempts for a gradual unification of
educational policies in the European Union. As Lima and Guimarães (2011) state,
this is an important process that has moderated national sovereignty. ‘A Memorandum
on Lifelong Learning’ could be considered the foundational document of the
so-called Lisbon Strategy, primarily aiming to promote a ‘comprehensive strategy
on lifelong learning’ (CEC 2000, p. 6). The ‘Council Resolution of 27 June of 2002
on Lifelong Learning’ stresses that the main goal of this policy convergence is
‘to achieve a comprehensive and coherent strategy for education and training’
(OJEC 2002, p. 2). Lifelong Learning is defined as follows:
[A]ll learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge,
skills and competences within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related
perspective (CEC 2001, p. 9).

E. Lucio-Villegas (*)
Faculty of Education, University of Seville, Seville, Spain
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 41
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_4, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
42 E. Lucio-Villegas

The ‘Memorandum’, then, differentiates three types of learning: formal learning,

non-formal learning and informal learning (CEC 2000, p. 8). The Memorandum
also states the main aims for this common policy on lifelong learning through six
key messages, all of which stress on the importance of lifelong learning (CEC 2000,
pp. 10–20). These messages are meant to edify a ‘knowledge-based economy and
society’ (CEC 2000, p. 3) that will transform Europe into ‘the most competitive and
dynamic knowledge-based society in the world by 2010’ (CEC 2007, p. 2). The key
message, ‘New skills for all’, aims to ‘Guarantee universal and continuing access to
learning for gaining and renewing the skills needed for sustained participation in the
knowledge society’ (CEC 2000, p. 10). These basic skills for sustained participation
include IT skills, foreign languages, technological culture, entrepreneurship and
social skills. One of the goals of these basic skills is:
[T]o encourage and equip people to participate more actively once more in all spheres
of modern public life, especially in social and political life at all levels of the community,
including at European level (CEC 2000, p. 4, bold type in the original).

Basic skills are always associated with two different domains: active citizenship
and employability. As active citizenship is not presented as an objective in and of
itself, an important double discourse arises, distinguishing concept from practice.
This double discourse specifically concerns particular lifelong learning practices,
with the stronger discourse focusing on the labour market rather than citizens’ rights
and participation. Policymakers seem to have forgotten that education and learning
should span an entire lifetime, rather than using education just for job preparation
defined by competiveness. This is evident in the 2007 document ‘It is always a good
time to learn’, where the practices evidently become the dominant discourse.
‘The Action Plan on Adult Learning’ (CEC 2006) focuses on giving responses to
the following challenges: competitiveness, demographic change and social inclusion.
Responses to the last challenge, social inclusion, is meant to eliminate poverty
among marginalised groups. ‘The Action Plan’, however, does not reference active
citizenship. In fact, the discourse had been changed. The document ‘It is always a
good time to learn’ affirms the following:
A key element of the agenda proposed in Lisbon was the promotion of employability and
social inclusion through investment in citizens’ knowledge and competence at all stages of
their lives (CEC 2007, p. 2).

It has been forgotten, however, that the Lisbon Agenda ‘argues that promoting
active citizenship and promoting employability are equally important and interre-
lated aims for lifelong learning’ (CEC 2000, p. 4).
I think that the most powerful and important critique that can be made to lifelong
learning’s current policies and practices is that the aims of the education must be for
education itself. According to Dewey (1995), the most important achievement in a
democratic society is education’s role to encourage both personal and collective
development. However, lifelong learning’s policies subordinate these educational
aims to professionalisation and business. As Dewey (1995) states, in a democratic
society, learning and teaching cannot become mere resources to achieve aims dis-
connected from the educational means.
4 Basic Skills for Becoming a Citizen 43

On Citizenship and Participation

It is commonly argued that the concepts of citizen and citizenship were born in
Athens, during the period of ‘Classic Greece’. This is a myth that young people – at
least in Spain – learn at school. Citizenship is a concept that has been used
throughout history, and perhaps is still used in the present, to introduce differences
among people: owners and slaves; men, women and children; native and foreigner;
and others. These differences mark individuals ‘who were not allowed to participate
in the decision-making about the polis’ (Biesta 2011, p. 3).
The ideas of democracy and citizenship return in different historical moments.
I would like to stress the role of the Scottish Enlightenment, which included intel-
lectuals such as Hume, Robertson, Smith, Millar, Ferguson and others (Wences 2007).
As Devine (2003, p. 165) states:
[O]ver the century between 1680 and 1780 some 818 colleges – or university – educated
men came to the American colonies from Britain and Europe. About the third of this total
(211) had been educated at three Scottish universities, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Migratory movements shaped by educational needs went both ways: people from
the American colonies went to Europe to study in universities, including higher
education institutions in Scotland. They learnt from Smith, Millar, Ferguson and
others. Importantly, the teaching was in English, not Latin. According to Devine’s
figures, the first teachers in new colleges and universities throughout North America’s
New England were both educated and recruited from Scottish institutions. Beyond the
‘accusations of exceptionalism and chauvinism’ (Devine 2003, p. 171), the influence
of the Scottish Enlightenment is evident, for example, in the works of James Wilson,
one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence of the United States. According
to Wilson,
Rights are the outward expression of an inner truth available to all who are fit for life under
law. It is the inner truth, part of the very constitution of the human nature that makes govern-
ment possible. Thus government is not the source but the product of that exercise of power
and judgments available to a being capable of self-government (in Robinson 2011, p. 4).

One of the heirs of this democratic tradition is John Dewey. Perhaps it is very
hazardous to connect Dewey with the Scottish Enlightenment, yet it could be argued
that one of the sources of Dewey’s thoughts is the democratic tradition deriving
from Wilson and others. As Dewey states, learning for democracy is acquired while
living within a democratic environment such as the community.
Community refers to a democratic setting arising from one’s environment.
According to Raymond Williams (1985, p. 76), the notion of community ‘express par-
ticular kinds of social relations […] the warmly persuasive word to describe an existing
set of relationship, or the warmly persuasive word to describe an alternative set of
relationship’. Deriving from Williams, then, community is a public space where debate
takes place. A community is not homogeneous; on the contrary, the community is a
heterogeneous place where conflict is a fundamental part of quotidian living. It also
leads to the political understanding of citizenship (Biesta 2011). Thus, in the public
arena, debate, contradiction and deliberative democracy should be the norm.
44 E. Lucio-Villegas

Gaventa (2006) distinguishes four stages in the evolution of participation: first,

in the 1960s, the notion that communities could organise themselves to urge their
demands arose. Gaventa connects this period with Paulo Freire’s seminal work,
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970). Second, the expansion of NGOs in the 1980s
overlapped with the concomitant growth in programmes related to water, health,
agriculture and other fields. Both were understood as forms of development
defined by modernisation theory (Youngman 2000). This era also can be associated
with a new term: beneficiaries. Consequently, only participants of development
programmes were allowed to take part in communities, as all individuals were
not involved. Third, during the 1990s, the scope of community was made even
narrower with the introduction of another new term: stakeholder. According to
Gaventa (2006), this ambiguous word represents the abandonment of community
itself. Stakeholders are presented as ‘representatives of civil society’s private sector,
government, and donors, but not necessarily with any view to whether they indeed
represented the poor or excluded within these sectors’ (Gaventa 2006, p. 56, italic
type in the original). Lastly, by the late 1990s, there was a return to the first model:
participation as focused on exercising the rights of citizenship. On this account,
citizenship was understood as a practice and an engagement rather than as some-
thing defined by law. Thus, citizenship entails the following characteristics: the
existence of democratic institutions, the inclusion of disadvantaged people, the
obligation to protect and promote rights and a wide participation beyond the political
(e.g. participation in economic, cultural and social dimensions). Gaventa (2006)
defines this shift as one of participation, representing a change from opportunities
to rights, beneficiaries to citizens, projects to policies, consultation to decision-making
and micro to macro. This shift has other implications, not the least of which is the
inclusion of disadvantaged groups. Mohanty and Tandon (2006) describe partici-
patory citizenship as bringing previously excluded or marginalised social actors
back into the political arena:
Participatory citizenship offers an elaboration of both citizenship and participation. In this
elaborated version, citizenship is rescued from its universal legal status to include the dif-
ferential positioning of powerless groups (2006, p. 10).

According to Heller and Thomas Isaacs (2003), citizenship is defined by a

specific relationship between individuals and groups. Ideally, this relationship would
be constructed in an egalitarian manner. However, citizenship is subverted by social
differences (e.g. class, gender, ethnic and other differences). Hence, Santos (2003)
stipulates that participatory democracy is a redistributive democracy based on
egalitarian principles.
With this approach, participation is a strategic element of becoming a citizen,
but participation can also be hijacked: ‘Who speaks on behalf of whom? Who
sets the framework for participation? Who creates boundaries and dismantles
them?’ (Mohanty and Tandon 2006, p. 15). Managing these questions and
answers requires training, which is not only important for the acquisition of citi-
zenship but also for the maintenance of citizenship. When studying the partici-
patory process in Porto Alegre (Brazil), Santos (2003) concludes that training
4 Basic Skills for Becoming a Citizen 45

people by encouraging them to take part in the participatory democracy process

(in this case, a budgetary process) is fundamental.
Important here are also the works of Paulo Freire. Of particular importance
are his notions of codification and decoding, as well as his description of people
becoming literate. His concept of literacy goes beyond simply being able to read
words: people come to read to understand the world better. According to Freire, the
most important pedagogical issue for adult education (and for education in general)
is to start from peoples’ own daily lives and, from this standpoint, encourage them
to reflect on their own realities. Codification, decoding and dialogue allow people to
‘recognize the situation in their own lives’ (Kirkwood and Kirkwood 1989, p. 140).
In this process, individuals become more aware of their problems, desires, resources,
potentialities and their own expertise.
In the experiences considered by Gaventa, I stress those linked with the Participatory
Budget – the most well known in Porto Alegre (Brazil) – as well as others, such as
the Popular Planning Campaign in Kerala (India). This last is important in terms
of linking participation to training in order to participate. The ‘Kerala’s model’
(Thomas Isaacs and Franke 2005) is very stimulating because one of the most
important goals to develop the Participatory and Citizenship School was to poten-
tiate training as a key element to the development of democracy.
The background of Participatory Budgets offers up a diverse analysis based
on politics, participation and descriptions of both methodologies and experi-
ences (e.g. Avritzer 2003; Lucio-Villegas et al. 2009; Santos 2003). Looking for
educational results, one interesting work is the analysis performed by Lerner
and Schugurensky (2007) on the Participatory Budget in Rosario, Argentina.
According to the authors, it is possible to differentiate four different assets that
lead to both learning and changes in people’s participation (pp. 92–95): first,
increased knowledge relates to people becoming more aware of their citizen
rights; second, changes in skills address how to ‘monitor governments’ actions,
contact government agencies and officials’ (p. 93); third, changes in attitudes
translate to increased self-confidence; and lastly, changes in practices lead to
people becoming more committed to community life.

Participation in Process

Following the model of Porto Alegre (Brazil), Seville’s City Hall, in Spain, launched
the Participatory Budget as an experiment to manage people’s participation in
public issues concerning the city. The experimentation ran from 2003 to 2007.
One of the main problems that arose was that people had considerable difficulty in
understanding the decision-making processes that they had previously been
excluded from. City Hall decided to confront this problem with a specific adult
education programme (2005–2007), which broadened to include social movements.
By its second year, the programme included the development of the Participatory
46 E. Lucio-Villegas

and Citizenship School. The primary goal here was to help people to overcome
obstacles that made participation difficult in participatory budget activities.
Towards this end, it was important for people to learn how to research their own
communities, undertake a project, translate the project into official documents,
fill out forms and present a proposal in a public forum. As previously mentioned,
the programme adopted a model derived from the Popular Planning Campaign in
Kerala (Thomas Isaacs and Franke 2005).
Adult education is uniquely suited to the study of citizenship. However, adult
education is a broad concept related to diverse educational tasks and educational
spaces. From a Gramscian perspective, adult education is a contested space, a battle-
field between hegemony and counter-hegemony, each seeking to prevail over
the other. In this case, it is the success of the ideas of participatory democracy and
representative democracy that are at stake.
According to Santos (2003) as well as Thomas Isaacs and Franke (2005), I sug-
gest that education is essential to both edify and strengthen participatory democracy
and citizenship. Consequently, the adult education programme mentioned has
integrated participatory democracy into the classroom and has constructed a
corresponding set of teaching materials. These teaching materials improve literacy
skills, encouraging people to participate. The link between literacy skills and a
democratic education to help people to participate was able to achieve this by
selecting a few generative words (Freire 1965), such as desire, necessity, democracy
and participation. By starting with these words, as well as with people’s real
situations (in their own communities and in their neighbourhoods), individuals not
only became more aware of their situations and resources but also simultaneously
improved their literacy skills by enlarging their vocabulary. As Freire (1970) states,
through dialogue people become more aware of their reality in the double
perspective of ‘naming the world, or saying your own word’ (Kirkwood and
Kirkwood 1989, p. 141, italic type in the original). For instance, when doing a
household budget (itself an exercise in numeracy), people can also reflect on the
larger municipal budget because the concept of budget is not far from a domestic
budget where people should decide their own priorities deriving from the money
that they have available. By doing this, people discover how the money that the
City Hall collected from their taxes is spent – or wasted.
Now, I will focus on the Participatory and Citizenship School. The major goal
here was to achieve a democratic balance inside social movements but also to create
democratic practices at a community level. While Offe (1990) suggests that
new social movements have a nonhierarchical structure, this did not seem to be
empirically true. The Participatory and Citizenship School, then, sought to change
the structure of social movements in order to edify a democratic power within
social movements:
In the arena of more visible power – who participates with what effect in public processes –
the capacity building strategy may be about strengthening the abilities of the relatively
powerless groups […] to have an impact on such processes, through improved advocacy
skills, organization, and research (Gaventa 2006, p. 63).
4 Basic Skills for Becoming a Citizen 47

It is also important to stress that individuals do not participate alone but participate
in organised groups aiming to articulate specific claims.
In short, the school was devoted to empower people by teaching them skills to take
responsibility for research so that their work might transform their communities and
associations. As Dewey (1995, Chapter XI; see also Dewey 1938) notes, people learn
by doing. Applying this in a relevant way, then, people learn to participate by partici-
pating, and individuals who participate become citizens. However, participation needs
to take place in venues where people can learn from their own practices, which can
then bring about changes both in spaces and procedures (conscientização in the
Freirean way). Usually this transpires in scenarios where people live their everyday
life. Thus, this process of conscientização can take place through non-formal learning.
It ‘may be provided in the workplace and through the activities of civil society
organizations and groups (such as in youth organizations, trades unions and political
parties)’ (CEC 2000, p. 8).
To summarise, the Participatory and Citizenship School in Seville during the time
of the Participatory Budget experiment was planned and organised through 14 courses
that amounted to 24 h, spanning 2 weeks from Monday to Thursday, usually in the
evening. The courses focused on participation, conflicts, mediation skills, community
analysis and, finally, the development of a community project. In short, every course
was divided into four components: (1) definitions of community problems, (2) a
reflection on democracy and citizenship at both a macro (community) and micro
(association) level, (3) the development of a project (4) and, finally, a section on how
to look for and manage resources. Courses took place in community centres located in
different districts around the city of Seville. This became a very important issue: these
public places were, at that time, privileged spaces in terms of public and popular
participation. The average number of people who attended the courses was 12, with
the prerequisite that participating students had not had previous roles in leading
association groups. Another important aspect of each course was that the collective of
participating associations was heterogeneous. For instance, a course might include a
flamenco association, a fishing club, an immigrant workers association, a neighbours
association and a cyclist group. An outcome of this process was that membership in
these different groups created networks in each district. Finally, two courses were
addressed to specific groups: a gypsy women’s association and adults attending an
adult education school.
The Participatory and Citizenship School has also produced a teaching
material entitled Projecting Dreams. Projecting Dreams is an attempt to present
a journey of learning from the social constructions of problems and the making
of both community projects and actions, to produce changes in communities.
This teaching material is meant to support the courses, as well as encourage
people to take part in more democratic social movements aimed at edifying
participatory democracy.
Finally, the evaluation of these courses was generally positive, but the change in
the municipal government did not allow the people involved to change and/or
enlarge the courses.
48 E. Lucio-Villegas

Conclusion

Popular education is linked to the struggle for social justice. As Freire stipulates,
our starting point must always be people’s real situations. Through the process of
conscientização, people can interpret, understand and change their world. Hence, as
I suggest in this paper, the essence of popular education is the making of people into
citizens, ‘the idea that the democratic experiment should be understood as a process
of transformation’ (Biesta 2011, p. 5, italic type in the original). Popular education
is linked both to communities and to people’s everyday lives, as the neighbourhood
becomes a classroom. The places and spaces for education certainly extend beyond
the restrictions of lifelong learning policies and practices. As Lima states:
In education, managerial speeches have been occupying the position previously assumed by
educational theories and pedagogical thinking, building narratives of a managerial type that
legitimize a new social order based on the market, the private sector, economic competition
and in client-centred management (2000, p. 243).

According to this critique, nowadays the most relevant issue seems to be the
reduction of training to dedicate it only for employment. As Olesen points out:
‘In the last couple of decades, the needs for work competence-building have tended
to prevail over traditional forms and rationales of adult education and training in
developed western societies’ (2010, p. 4).
Lifelong learning policies and practices seem to have become a kind of race for
competitiveness and not for people´s development. Following Lima (2000), this
race aims at delivering diplomas according to a ‘countable paradigm’.
At present time, in this age of financial crisis, Europe seems to be more a place
of merchants and consumers than the birthplace of the ideas of democracy and the
cradle of the Enlightenment. I think that we need to rethink the lifelong learning’s
policies – only focussed on employment – and promote a shift to focus it on the
building of democracy and citizenship.
What are the skills needed to become a citizen? As Biesta (2011, p. 5) states, ‘as
long as we see citizenship as a positive, identifiable identity, we can indeed see the
learning involved as a process of knowledge, skills and dispositions that are needed
to bring out this identity as citizens’.
Some of these skills are related to the acquisition of literacy skills, but sometimes
they do not include the acquisition of oral skills or public speaking. In a participa-
tory democracy, the process of deliberation is very important. These deliberation
processes are usually oral performances; they involve speaking in the public arena
and presenting one’s own ideas and proposals to others. This means, then, that par-
ticipatory democracy also involves people improving their capacities to speak in
public arenas, as well as strengthening their ability to organise speeches with respect
to alternative and/or antagonistic ideas.
On the other hand, as the Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos
(2003) notes, participatory democracy is a complicated system of rules. As men-
tioned above, people do indeed have difficulties understanding the processes of
deliberation and, presumably, its rules. Training and learning are not only significant
4 Basic Skills for Becoming a Citizen 49

means of overcoming these difficulties, but educating disadvantaged individuals on

educational processes connect them to exercise their rights. Generally, to need
means to lack something that one must have or that one must obtain. However, people
tend not to think that needs are also rights. The right to participate, then, must be
guaranteed:
In situation of highly unequal power relations, simply creating public spaces for more
participation to occur, without addressing the other forms of power, may do little to affect
pro-poor or more democratic change. New public spaces will simply be filled by the already
powerful (Gaventa 2006, p. 63).

The challenge of the Participatory and Citizenship School – as a model of other

educational practices – was to encourage people to fill up the public spaces in a
learning process for the edification of a participatory democracy.

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Chapter 5
‘New Basic Skills’, Nonbasic Skills, Knowledge
Practices and Judgement: Tensions Between
the Needs of Basic Literacy, of Vocational
Education and Training and of Higher
and Professional Learning

Martin Gough

Policy Emphasis on Skills and Lifelong Learning

Across Europe

The European Commission’s (2000) ‘Memorandum on Lifelong Learning’, defines

new basic skills as those required for active participation in the knowledge society
and economy’ (sec. 4.1, p. 11). Field (2006, pp. 11 and 17) explains that EU policy
on lifelong learning, when it had got round to formulating one, before and since the
issue of the Memorandum, has been driven by economic concerns, to increase
competitiveness rather than to enhance citizenship or other facets of a ‘Good Life’1
for people. This is, however, a fact not in any way occluded in the Commission’s
own publications and therefore needing revelation, with one such opening:
‘Over the last four years the overall performance of the European economy
has been disappointing.[…] Few European countries score high on competitiveness
and performance’.2 The Memorandum itself spells out similar priorities.3

1
This phrase is, of course, handed down to us from Aristotle through his concept of Eudaimonia:
‘human flourishing’ (White 1997) is a modern equivalent alternative.
2
c.f. Tessaring and Wannan (2004, p. 3); they go on (pp. 5 and 23) to advocate that job-related
skills and competences, not just academic excellence, are the key to progress.
3
‘[…] to ensure that people’s knowledge and skills match the changing demands of jobs and
occupations, workplace organisation and working methods’ (sec. 1, p. 5); ‘The driving force that
brought lifelong learning back onto policy agendas in the 1990s has been the concern to improve
citizens’ employability and adaptability’ (sec. 3.2, p. 9); ‘Europe has moved towards a knowledge-
based society and economy. More than ever before, access to up-to-date information and knowl-
edge, together with the motivation and skills to use these resources intelligently on behalf of oneself
and the community as a whole, are becoming the key to strengthening Europe’s competitiveness
and improving the employability and adaptability of the workforce’ (sec. 2, p. 5).
M. Gough (*)
Education Studies, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH, UK
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 51
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_5, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
52 M. Gough

We can acknowledge that explicit policy does also promote wider social and
personal, rather than just work-oriented, goals.4
However, it may not be just incidental happenstance that the result of policy
debate has encouraged the presumption that ‘those who will not upgrade their skills
[…] do not deserve support from the rest of us’ (Field 2006, p. 6). This presumption,
coupled with work and the economy being the primary concern, is one where the
individual worker is seen as responsible for their own work-related development
and is certainly how the UK government policy has taken forward its own national
agenda,5 through exploitation of the fervour around lifelong learning at the European
level. The UK approach could be seen as reconceptualising work as being the most
important part of you, the individual, the main thing that should concern you.6
The implications of this are that if it is social and personal goals which motivate you
then ultimately you want to fulfil them through work and will want to improve
your work performance to enhance your goals.
The clue to critique of this lies within the richer conceptual framework of life-
long learning and the understanding of learning generally (as opposed to just from
within the resources of economic, political or sociological analysis). And recogni-
tion, through cross-lingual comparison of concepts, of problematic issues inherent
in attempts to achieve a European Qualification Framework (EQF) for occupa-
tional competence highlight the clue. The EQF would consider key terms for
vocational education and training (VET) as prima facie equivalent across different
national languages and systems. However, many such terms in any one language
have no equivalent in another or cannot strictly be translated and hold the same
connotations.
To illustrate, the term ‘knowledge’ in English does not in itself allow explicitly
for the distinction between systematic and nonsystematic knowledge captured in the
German terms Wissen and Kenntnis. In general, the UK perspective does not pro-
mote the notion of the worker, even as ‘competent’, being able to direct their own
work and make sound judgements within it, favouring compliance in the workplace
and shunning the use of intelligence.7 Kompetenz in German and competénce in

4
c.f., subsequently: European Commission (2001), Eurydice and CEDEFOP (2001). Indeed, a
‘Eurobarometer’ survey shows that this better reflects people’s motivations to engage in future learn-
ing (van Rens and Stavrou 2003, p. 19); c.f. Davies (2001). Aside from varieties of individual motiva-
tion, the Memorandum does ‘not take account of learning as a social, collective activity’ (Summers
2000, p. 231). Arguably, any humanistic language is largely rhetorical, even pre-Memorandum: ‘the
EU’s action programmes are relentlessly vocational, utilitarian and instrumental in their emphasis’
(Field 1998, p. 8).
5
Field (2006, pp. 79, 161–163). This approach amounts to short-term, on-the-job specific skill
development, at the expense (as in Germany, for instance) of investment in initial formal training
setting the individual up properly with a broader working competence: Dehmel (2005, p. 62).
6
And so for you to be responsible for and to fund as well, skills talk being about individual respon-
sibility and not the State’s, according to this realization of neo-liberalism: Borg and Mayo (2004,
2005, p. 20).
7
c.f. Winch, ‘Skill – a concept manufactured in England?’ Chapter 6, in Brockmann et al. (2011),
p. 88.
5 ‘New Basic Skills’, Nonbasic Skills, Knowledge Practices and Judgement… 53

French do have the connotation of the worker being intelligent enough to make
judgements autonomously. The most important term for current purposes is ‘skill’,
and, whilst this can connote a broad ability, such as an occupational capacity, it
normally connotes a specific task ability; the term Fähigkeit in German by contrast
includes not just the broad occupational but also extra-functional personal and
social capacities, with Fertigkeit being reserved for the more specific and function-
al.8 The prevalent conception of ‘skill’ in the UK links it to tasks where performance
of that task is observable and measurable, so with bias towards ostensive behaviour
in typically manual functional tasks.9 This urge for measurability in turn encourages
further the process signalled by Adam Smith of analysis rather than synthesis, the
specifying further still in simpler terms of the tasks to be done, and which in their
specificity can be observed more easily. This leaves a fragmented view of work and
the occupation when reassembled as just the bundle of those ‘skills’, the sum of its
mechanical parts.10
The non-UK reader might agree with the above account and yet be satisfied that
it describes fairly a problem for the UK conception of its own domains of education
and of work: the terms translated back into the other languages could keep their
connotations and so maintain, unbothered, the more holistic conceptions of knowl-
edge for work in, for instance, Germany, the Netherlands and France.11 Unfortunately,
it is not so easy for the non-UK world. The Anglo-Saxon tradition, still drawing
from the Rylean legacy, has introduced and embedded the vehicle of learning out-
comes as a way to account for success in learning (and so success in teaching too).
One of the features of learning outcomes is the placing of emphasis upon outputs of
the process and paying less attention to inputs, i.e. how the learning is effected, such
as through national culturally established education systems. Furthermore, as
regards VET at least, the form of the learning outcomes in the UK is driven by
labour market interests rather than educational concerns.12 The learning outcomes
approach has been adopted as a way to recognise knowledge, skills and compe-
tences across the labour market Europe wide, as the realization of the goals of
the Memorandum, and so it is no surprise, then, that this approach has infected the
French, German and Dutch systems,13 if not others’. Now that it has the opportunity,
the EQF translates terms such as ‘skill’ from the English using the intellectually

8
c.f. Hanf, ‘The changing relevance of the Beruf’, Chapter 4, in Brockmann et al. (2011), p. 57.
9
Regrettably inspired by contributions to Western thought such as from Gilbert Ryle: Winch, ‘Skill
– a concept manufactured in England?’ Chapter 6, in Brockmann et al. (2011), pp. 90–93.
10
Reflection upon which would become redundant: Brockmann, Clarke, Winch, Hanf, Méhaut and
Westerhuis, ‘Interpretive dictionary: competence, qualification, education, knowledge’, Chapter
10, in Brockmann et al. (2011), pp. 180–184.
11
c.f. Méhaut, ’Savoir – the organising principle of French VET’, Chapter 3, in Brockmann et al.
(2011), pp. 45–46; also Griffiths and Guile (2004, p. 63).
12
c.f.: Winterton et al. (2006, p. 17); Clarke and Westerhuis, ‘Establishing equivalence through
zones of mutual trust’, Chapter 9, in Brockmann et al. (2011), p. 138.
13
c.f. Westerhuis, ‘The meaning of competence’, Chapter 5, in Brockmann et al. (2011), p. 81.
54 M. Gough

more impoverished and reductionist option amongst terms in other languages, for
instance, Fertigkeit rather than Fähigkeit.14
The linguistic and conceptual imperialism of English seems to be the problem,
for all, not just the UK. This demands a proper consideration of the nature of
‘skill’, by means of the English language, in order to uncover the flaw in the ana-
lytic reductionist thinking behind the policy developments now infecting all of
Europe. An alternative conception of ‘skill’ in the English context is then the means
for revising such policy.

What Skills ‘Are’

One of the problems with the term ‘skill’, in the English language at least, is its
ambiguity. It is used on the one hand to describe an attribute of an individual agent
and on the other hand to refer to procedures which the agent performs for a task.15
So, for instance, I could say ‘you have the skill of sawing wood’; at the same time,
we might say ‘sawing wood is a skill’. This externalising of skills, the latter sense,
makes them seem especially thing-like, as separate from our personal identity and
somehow acquirable from the external world to become our instrumental posses-
sions. Even if we say that the primary usage of the term ‘skill’ is the former sense,
as an attribute of a person if it is anything, the analytical reductionist view given to
us by Adam Smith encourages us to consider skills as a multitude of discretely
identifiable aspects of the person, of their body at least.
The ontological classification I give to this view of skills is ‘naïve realist’. Naïve
realism about skills, then, is a view which maintains that skills are some sort of
independently existing and identifiable entities, different from other entities, and
they would primarily be alluded to explicitly by means of noun terms. For most
realists, the identifiable entities which are skills are abilities acquired or formed in
the bodies of persons for conducting various practical activities.
The drive, fuelled by the (false) assumption of realism, to be increasingly spe-
cific, and to specify all that would be relevant for work, leads some subject leaders
across VET and higher sectors, such as in nursing,16 to include intrinsically worthy
educational outcomes such as understanding and moral values in the list of skills.

14
Méhaut and Winch, ‘EU initiatives in cross-national recognition of skills and qualifications’,
Chapter 2, in Brockmann et al. (2011), suggest (pp. 30–31) that and this is probably a political
decision, given licence by the conceptual bias prevalent in the UK usage against autonomy in the
workplace (once English is granted dominant language status, a prior political decision in turn).
The political decision would ostensibly be aimed to benefit employers who would want a compli-
ant workforce, although, ultimately, such a policy will benefit no one, in terms of facilitating
neither the Good Life universally nor the higher potential of workers to be more productive.
15
c.f. Winch, ’Skill – a concept manufactured in England?’ chapter 6, in Brockmann et al. (2011),
pp. 99–100.
16
c.f. Winch, ’Skill – a concept manufactured in England?’ Chapter 6, in Brockmann et al. (2011),
pp. 90–93.
5 ‘New Basic Skills’, Nonbasic Skills, Knowledge Practices and Judgement… 55

This illustrates well how the realist is in a logical muddle, since these are neither
skills nor ‘things’. On a more holistic conception of nursing, and of any other occu-
pation, we can say that doing it well requires care. It may happen that students
(of many disciplines) do learn about the general importance of caring as a discrete
topic and act more morally subsequently. But this is the wrong way to understand
the ‘caring professions’. Graduates do not transplant into the new work context the
general virtue of caring: the point is that workers should care about their work and
how well they do it,17 and this requires a high degree of autonomy in directing that
work and a work environment conducive to this. The introduction of values into
such ‘skills’ lists should make us suspicious that employers are taking further
advantage of the political climate to demand that educational institutions form
their students by the time of graduation with the ‘right’ attitudes or virtues, such as
being humbly compliant. It may be that the more you decide to comply, the more
competitive you appear to be for the labour market, but at the same time the more
you lose your important values. Likewise, motivation cannot, even in a realist
framework, be a skill (Winterton et al. 2006, p. 44), even if being motivated makes
for better work in the event.
The realist way of thinking leads policymakers to identify for special attention a
sub-degree-level ‘skills sector’. True, if there is a shortage of skilled plumbers in a
country or area, then there is a shortage of plumbers. And the education or training
required for this work does not have to be higher education degree level. One prob-
lem with this situation, however, is that it creates, or, rather, bolsters, a false division
between the world of ‘skills’ for ‘skilled’ work and higher levels of attainment for
more prestigious work.
Instead of taking one side, I disagree with both proponents and opponents of the
skills agenda on grounds of the ontology which they share.18 I reject their realism
about skills as entities transferable eo ipso into new situations19 and adopt ‘irreal-
ism’ instead. With irrealism, we use the problematic word as an adjectival term
instead of a noun term and place skills firmly in the category of being attributable to
an individual agent, and intrinsically linked to their actions, rather than being

17
In nursing this would mean caring for a patient as a person with feelings and with a biological
welfare, but, rather than just having consideration for the person as an end in itself, the nurse needs
to focus on carrying out the job of work conducive to that end in the medical context; thus the
caring is analogous to the context of the plumber caring for good design and maintenance of a
plumbing system. Winch correctly emphasises just this point, that care to do the job well is what
matters, but then expands this view fallaciously to claim that the important task to this end is
ultimately to cultivate the virtues of general living to make ‘the way one exercises a skill in
this sense […] partly constitutive of one’s character’ (ibid., p. 100).
18
Lum (2009, pp. 22–24) adopts the same stance as I do against what he calls the ‘orthodox’ view
of skills shared by the skills ‘lobby’ and certain opponents of it.
19
As if via an automatic mechanistic process: Winterton et al. (2006, p. 8). We need to wrest the
concept of skill away from the automaton conformity fetishists – with apologies to Erich Fromm;
but not to opponents of the skills agenda, e.g. Maskell and Robinson (2001, Chapter 5), Furedi
(2004) and Rowland (2006, Chapter 4), who are yet beguiled by this conception of skills per se.
56 M. Gough

detached entities: formally, to say ‘person A has skill X’ is equivalent in meaning to

saying ‘A is skilled at doing X’.20
Against the opponents of the skills agenda, the above accounts for how the lan-
guage of skills is at home in higher learning and thinking as it is in manual activities,
once we have cleared away the metaphysical obfuscation about the nature of skills
presented to us by the realists.21 The whole point of this debate is, or should be, how
we can talk about people doing activities competently. Those activities lie on a mul-
tidimensional spectrum: if they are ostensibly behavioural, they will still variously
contain intellectual or other mental components; and some activities will be mainly
intellectual or otherwise mental, whether, for instance, working out directions for
travelling or interpreting Martin Heidegger. These will all be ‘skills’, understood as
a figurative term in the irrealist framework, and will lie on one dimension of the
spectrum between basic and nonbasic skills, therefore.

Knowledge Practices and Judgement: Resolving the Tensions

Despite my argument above offering qualified support on behalf of the skills agenda,
the English term ‘skill’ will forever carry connotations of remedial educational
provision and sub-degree-level manual work. So I propose that we endorse the
alternative term ‘knowledge practice’.22 This helps us place the focus on practice as
a concept without dispensing with a (high or low level) cognitive framework. The whole
(as well as an aspect) of an academic discipline is a (knowledge) practice, and the same
is true for nonacademic relatively physically active domains such as plumbing or
football. This allows us to get away from Adam Smith’s legacy of analytical
specification, where skills have to be discrete parts, and to say that it makes more
sense to speak (in English!) of being skilled in your occupation taken holistically.
If this is right, then a more intellectual (i.e. cognitively challenging) education23
makes for the better worker, in exercising good judgement,24 as well as for the better
in any other respect. This is also why ‘skills talk’ in the mouths of people who want
and have the power to get you to do things or to do things to you is inevitably suspi-
cious, when the drift is one of downplaying the importance of subject disciplines in

20
So I still draw from Ryle but more appropriately, I would say! I illustrate irrealism further in
Gough (2011), section on ‘Dimensions of (knowledge) practices’.
21
Albeit perhaps attributable ultimately to the quirk of language which encourages us all to use
primarily the noun term in English.
22
c.f. Barnett (1990, p. 42) uses this term in his own way and others more recently.
23
And, arguably, of a humanistic rather than technological sort, a point implicitly entertained by
Chisholm et al. (2004, p. 34).
24
I go into greater detail explaining the dimensions of knowledge practices and how the key dichot-
omies of discursive/nondiscursive, thin/thick and primary/secondary explain the place of judge-
ment and the translation of ‘skills’ from learning environment to context of use, with the illustration
of academic Philosophy as one such, in Gough (2011).
5 ‘New Basic Skills’, Nonbasic Skills, Knowledge Practices and Judgement… 57

their own terms and one of promoting employability as if that were achievable only
by means other than learning academic subjects. The Memorandum declares: ‘The
new basic skills […] are IT skills, foreign languages, technological culture, entre-
preneurship and social skills’ and goes on ‘this is not a list of subjects or disciplines
as we know them from our schooldays and beyond’ (sec 4.1, pp. 10–11). Throughout
the document it highlights the importance of ‘knowledge and skills’, as referred to
together, but ultimately to force a contrast between them and give predominance to
the latter. As Field notes, our attempts to articulate key skills reduce to ‘a rather
instrumental minimum of literacy and numeracy skills combined with some
familiarity with the new technologies’ (2006, p. 152), alongside that investment in
provision of basic skills gives proportionately higher economic returns than in higher
education provision (2006, pp. 140 and 160). Although Field supports such investment
as a good ceteris paribus, it also demonstrates that a mainly economic model
will always go against what would be a greater emancipatory potential of the higher
education experience.25 It is a way of policymakers saying that you can have your
lifelong learning but only by learning basic technicist ‘skills’ components applicable
to less prestigious work.
My alternative stance claims that intellectual learning and acting through attuned
judgement are not out of place together, whether in professional or sub-degree-level
work and learning, or anywhere else, these being knowledge practices, on a spec-
trum containing much variety, all deserving of prestige and resourcing. The ‘new
basic skills’ are worthy in themselves, but the failure to promote subject knowledge
means ultimately that the authors do not really value human flourishing through this
policy initiative. The list of skills, and the sentiments of the rest of the Memorandum,
should be reconceived so that they celebrate higher knowledge as well, and so
higher knowledge practices, which happen to enhance economic productivity
anyway. This would enhance the opportunity for the individual, as a good worker,
to pursue the Good Life and serve as a richer and more appropriate conception of
lifelong learning.

References

Barnett, R. (1990). The idea of higher education. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher
Education & Open University Press.
Borg, C., & Mayo, P. (2004). Diluted wine in new bottles: The key messages of the memorandum.
LLinE: Lifelong Learning in Europe, 9(1), 18–25.
Borg, C., & Mayo, P. (2005). The EU Memorandum on lifelong learning. Old wine in new bottles?
Globalisation, Societies and Education, 3(2), 203–225.
Brockmann, M., Clarke, L., Winch, C., Hanf, G., Méhaut, P., & Westerhuis, A. (2011). Knowledge,
skills and competence in the European labour market: What’s in a vocational qualification?
Abingdon: Routledge.

25
And perhaps the ‘hysteria’ (Borg and Mayo 2005, p. 213) around ICT shows that it is something
of a fetish; c.f. Clarke and Englebright (2003).
58 M. Gough

Chisholm, L., Larson, A., & Mossoux, A.-F. (2004). Lifelong learning: Citizens’ views in
close-up: Findings from a dedicated Eurobarometer survey. Luxembourg: Office for
Official Publications of the European Communities.
Clarke, A., & Englebright, L. (2003). ICT: The new basic skill. Leicester: NIACE.
Davies, P. (2001). New tasks for university continuing education and EUCEN. LLinE: Lifelong
Learning in Europe, 6(1), 6–7.
Dehmel, A. (2005). The role of vocational education and training in promoting lifelong learning
in Germany and England. Oxford: Symposium Books.
European Commission. (2000). A memorandum on lifelong learning. SEC(2000) 1832. Brussels:
European Commission.
European Commission. (2001). Making a European area of lifelong learning a reality. Brussels:
European Commission.
Eurydice & CEDEFOP. (2001). National actions to implement lifelong learning in Europe.
Brussels: Eurydice.
Field, J. (1998). European dimensions: Education, training and the European Union. London/
Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Field, J. (2006). Lifelong learning and the new educational order (2nd ed.). Stoke-on-Trent:
Trentham Books.
Furedi, F. (2004, September 24). It’s now no longer critical and nor is it thinking. The Times Higher
Education Supplement, 58. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26
&storycode=191406. Accessed 9 July 2012.
Gough, M. (2011). Education as philosophy, philosophy as education and the concept of practice:
Considerations of disciplinarity arising out of learning and teaching development work.
Discourse: Learning and Teaching in Philosophical and Religious Studies, 10(3). http://prs.
heacademy.ac.uk/publications/discourse/10_3.html. Accessed 9 July 2012.
Griffiths, T., & Guile, D. (2004). Learning through work experience for the knowledge economy:
Issues for educational research and policy. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the
European Communities.
Lum, G. (2009). Vocational and professional capability: An epistemological and ontological study
of occupational expertise. London: Continuum.
Maskell, D., & Robinson, I. (2001). The new idea of a university. London: Haven Books.
Rowland, S. (2006). The enquiring university: Compliance and contestation in higher education.
Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.
Summers, J. (2000). A memorandum on lifelong learning commission staff working paper. LLinE:
Lifelong Learning in Europe, 5(4), 230–232.
Tessaring, M., & Wannan, J. (2004). Vocational education and training: Key to the future: Lisbon,
Copenhagen, Maastricht, mobilising for 2010. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of
the European Communities.
van Rens, J., & Stavrou, S. (2003). Lifelong learning: Citizens’ views. Luxembourg: Office for
Official Publications of the European Communities.
White, J. (1997). Education and the end of work. London: Cassell.
Winterton, J., Delamare-Le Deist, F., & Stringfellow, E. (2006). Typology of knowledge, skills and
competences: Clarification of the concept and prototype. Luxembourg: Office for Official
Publications of the European Communities.
 Part II
Lifelong Learning and More Investment
in Human Resources
Chapter 6
Incentives and Disincentives to Invest
in Human Resources

Marcella Milana

Introduction

The Memorandum on lifelong learning states that its second objective is to ‘visibly
raise levels of investment in human resources in order to place priority on Europe’s
most important asset – its people’ (EC 2000, p. 12). As well as outlining this
objective, the Memorandum on lifelong learning also suggests possible ways for
member states to increase the annual per capita investment in human resources.
These include specific agreements between social partners for the continuation of
employee training, as well as incentive measures to support individual investment
in training and education. Both options identify the need to adopt cofinancing
arrangements as a means of creating shared responsibility between the state, private
enterprises, social partners and individuals.
The objective of ‘investing’ in human resources clearly finds its raison d’être in
the notion that, at an individual level, the acquisition of skills and knowledge
increases a person’s productive value, an idea that is grounded in human capital (HC)
theory, and which still informs much of the debate in adult education today. Within
this line of argument, economic investment in skill upgrading among the adult popu-
lation produces a return on investment in terms of both economic and noneconomic
benefits at micro, meso and macro levels. Accordingly, human resource management
(HRM) researchers argue that a competitive advantage at enterprise level can be
achieved ‘by putting people first’.
The scope of this chapter is to critically examine the arrangements that
European governments, in dialogue with trade unions and social partners, have put
into place to encourage employers to invest in education and training. In doing so,
this chapter reflects on the potential benefits and limitations of the HC paradigm for

M. Milana (*)
Department of Education, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 61
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_6, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
62 M. Milana

‘Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning’, at a time when European countries

are being strongly affected by the economic crisis.
This chapter is divided into four sections. Following this first, introductory
section, in section “Investing in an organisation’s most valuable asset: its human
capital”, I address the relations between HC and HRM, in order to shed light on
what underpins the political interest to invest in human resources. Against this
background, in section “Participation in formal or nonformal education and
training of employed people”, I look at the rate of participation in education and
training by employed people and the main job-related obstacles identified by
people who wished to, but did not, participate in such arrangements. In section
“Governments’ contribution (if any) to support employers’ investment in educa-
tion and training”, I review the relation between public policy and investment in
human resources, with a specific focus on the multiplicity of arrangements in
place in selected European countries (i.e. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France,
Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United
Kingdom), which aim to increase employer investment in employee training.
Finally, in section “Concluding remarks”, I conclude with few remarks on the
previous analysis. I suggest that the most beneficial government arrangements
are those that favour HRM strategies built on a shared social commitment towards
workers’ development. These have the potential to increase employer expendi-
ture on employee training, and also to produce a better return on investment in
education and training for both enterprises and individuals.

Investing in an Organisation’s Most Valuable Asset:

Its Human Capital

HC theory was first developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, thanks to the con-
tribution of a limited number of economists, who were mostly concentrated around
two Northern American higher education institutions: the University of Chicago
(Becker 1993; Schultz 1960, 1961) and Columbia University (Mincer 1958, 1974).
Since then, HC theory has spread across geographical borders and academic disci-
plines. Furthermore, it has reached out to the policy environment and still informs
much of the policy debate surrounding governmental arrangements to encourage
employer investment in education and training.
Originated by an interest in the return rate of investment in education and training,
the early studies in HC research were concerned with ‘activities that influence future
monetary and physic income by increasing the resources in people. These activities
are called investments in human capital’ (Becker 1993, p. 11).
The above studies were grounded on the belief that HC, contrary to other forms
of capital, is embodied in people, and that ‘earnings mainly measure how much
workers had invested in their skills and knowledge’ (Burton-Jones and Spender
2011, p. xiii). These beliefs have led to extensive analysis of investment in HC,
which aims to understand people’s behaviour from an economic point of view, given
6 Incentives and Disincentives to Invest in Human Resources 63

that investment in education and training is considered a rational response to a

calculus of expected costs and benefits (Becker 1993).
HC theory does not deny nonmonetary benefits of investment in people; in fact,
it also recognises other types of investment in supporting knowledge and skills that
form a person’s HC. Nonetheless, HC theory still claims, from a macro economic
perspective, that investment in education and training is the most powerful factor in
explaining economic growth. This claim is grounded on two beliefs: firstly, that high
technology plays a significant role in many jobs in modern societies, but, secondly,
that the specific knowledge and skills required to cope with advancements in high
technology are difficult to acquire outside the education and training system.
However, an increased interest in HC theory is also the result of convergent
views, which link information, knowledge and job productivity, and which arose
through the predicted shift to a post-industrial society (Bell 1973) and the rise of
knowledge workers (Drucker 1959), in other words, employees who work primarily
with information or develop and use knowledge in the workplace for the benefit
of the organisation. This gave rise to the idea that an organisation’s knowledge
represents the most relevant economic and strategic resource, which was widely
accepted in the 1990s and laid the foundation of new practices in the workplace,
such as knowledge and human resource management, as we shall see.

Rethinking Human Capital

Traditional economic theories identify physical capital as a homogeneous, quantifi-

able and measurable object of study. Accordingly, capital is considered a factor of
production that is itself an output of other productive activities and is owned by
some party of the production process. HC theory first applied and expanded this
notion to include a form of capital that is embodied in people. The analogy between
physical capital and HC assumes that HC can be the output of working and personal
experience, but it is primarily the output of education and training, which is owned
by the workers. However, while the investors of other forms of capital may not
participate in productive activities, the owners of HC must work in the productive
activity; thus, a higher HC renders workers more productive (Blair 2011).
Several scholars have questioned the validity of such an analogy, as well as
its instrumental approach of reducing people to commodities. Thus, over time,
researchers have argued for the concept of capital to be revised so as to apply to all
productive resources, thereby recognising the importance of existing connections
between types and forms of tangible/physical and intangible/nonphysical capital
(Burton-Jones and Spender 2011). According to this argument, whether it is consti-
tuted by a knowledge representation, i.e. a tool, or by embodied knowledge, i.e.
people, Lewin (2011) argues that capital is always knowledge based. This way of
conceptualising capital not only emphasises all type of resources as capital, it also
stresses that, although all forms of capital are intrinsically involved with knowledge,
in HC, this knowledge is inalienable (Lewin 2011, p. 146). In doing so, it also
64 M. Milana

highlights that the development of capital in general and, in particular, in HC is never

the product of autonomous workers, but rather the result of workers’ interactions.
This way of rethinking HC theory shifts the focus away from a strictly quantitative
analysis, which still informs much of HC research (cf. Hartog and Maassen Van Den
Brink 2007), towards a qualitative approach to theorising the knowledge economy.
This is achieved through, what Burton-Jones and Spender (2011) call, an ‘HC-based
theory of the firm’. This theory distinguishes ‘between the human capital that char-
acterizes efficient markets and that which characterizes productive organizations’
(Burton-Jones and Spender 2011, p. 8). When it comes to investments in HC, this
approach seems more suitable to reintegrate economic and practice perspectives.
In fact, while traditional economic perspectives consider HC as a mere factor of
production, an ‘HC-based theory of the firm’ views HC as a result of learning
processes – occurring through organisational practices – which bring HC into play.
Furthermore, it also presents human resource management (HRM) as a critical factor
that cannot be reduced to performance measurement and rational goal setting.

Human Resource Management

As with HC theory, this field of research and practice find its roots in the Northern
American context, which still heavily influences it. In fact, HRM emerged in the
mid-1980s as a development of personnel management (PM), thanks to the contribution
of a group of scholars based at the Harvard Business School (Beer et al. 1984).
PM represented an established approach to the management of people in planned,
stable economies; hence, it distinguished between management and strategic plan-
ning within an organisation. By contrast, HRM considers the management of people
as a serious organisational activity, which is intertwined with the business strategy
of an organisation in at least two ways. First, HRM contributes to the achievement
of an organisation’s strategic objectives. Second, HRM’s decisions depend on the
organisation’s business strategy (Rowley and Jackson 2011). In other words, HRM
represents ‘a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organiza-
tion’s most valuable assets – the people who are working there, who individually
and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives’ (Armstrong 2006, p. 3);
hence, from the employee’s recruitment to the employee’s future development,
HRM – like HC theory – emphasises human resources.
In practice, HRM covers diverse domains of activity, which Rowley and Jackson
(2011) categorise as:
• Employee resourcing, dealing with decisions relevant to recruitment and selection
• Employee rewards, concerned with decisions about payment and promotion
• Employee relations, dealing with perceptions, processes and institutions of
relations between employers and employees
• Employee development, concerned with decisions about increasing skills
and competences of individuals and teams, mostly through ‘on-the-job’ and
‘off-the-job’ training
6 Incentives and Disincentives to Invest in Human Resources 65

With this in mind, I shall now look at participation rates in education and training
among the employed (as a proxy for employee development), using the Adult
Education Survey (AES) data for the EU-27 and Turkey.

Participation in Formal or Nonformal Education

and Training of Employed People

According to the AES, almost 40 % of employed people aged 25–64 participated in

formal or nonformal education and training during the last 12 months preceding the
interview, i.e. 2007. However, participation rates at national level vary extensively
(cf. Fig. 6.1). The highest rates of participation (60 % or more) are found in Sweden,
Finland and Norway. However, relatively high rates of participation (40–60 %) are
found in other Northern European countries (the United Kingdom, Denmark), as well
as in a number of countries scattered in Central and Eastern Europe. By contrast, but
with the exception of Cyprus and Malta, participation rates are far below the EU-27
mean in Southern Europe, especially in Greece, Hungary and Romania (below 20 %).
The AES also collected information on how the education and training was
funded. Unfortunately, only data on individual expenditure can be accessed publi-
cally (cf. Fig. 6.2). The greatest individual expenditure (200–400 EUR) occurs
primarily in countries showing the highest or relatively high participation rates,
such as Norway, Denmark, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Cyprus and Malta.

90.0

80.0

70.0

60.0

50.0

40.0

30.0

20.0

10.0

0.0
EU27
BE
BG
CZ
DK
DE
EE
GR
ES
FR

CY
LV
LT
HU
MT
NL
AT
PL
PT
RO

SK

SE
UK
NO
CH
HR
TR
SI

FI
IT

Fig. 6.1 Employed people aged 25–64 by participation in formal or nonformal education and
training, reference year: 2007 (%) (Source: Eurostat, Adult Education Survey, 2007)
66 M. Milana

450

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

SI
IT

FI
EU27
BE
BG
CZ
DK
DE
EE
GR
ES
FR

CY
LV
LT
HU
MT
NL
AT
PL
PT
RO

SK

SE
UK
NO
CH
HR
TR
Fig. 6.2 Individual expenditure by employed people aged 25–64 for participation in formal or
nonformal education and training, reference year: 2007 (Euro) (Note: Missing values for FR, IT
and CH; Source: Eurostat, Adult Education Survey, 2007)

It is interesting to notice, however, that equal individual expenditure also occurs in

countries like Greece and Portugal (300–350 EUR), where participation of employed
people in education and training is low.
It is also worth considering the job-related obstacles that were perceived by the
population aged 25–64, who wished to, but did not, participate in formal or non-
formal education and training (cf. Fig. 6.3). The major job-related obstacle is a
conflict between training and work schedules, with a European mean of 35 %, which
increases to 40 % or more in various Southern and Eastern European countries, as
well as in Finland and the United Kingdom. A second job-related obstacle is the
lack of employer support, perceived, on average, by 15 % of the population, with
important exceptions in Denmark, Lithuania, Hungary and Romania (28 % or
more). It is worth noticing that, although this type of obstacle is ill-defined – as it
leads to different interpretations at an individual level – it generally makes reference
to a lack of economic support by the employer to cover expenditure for participation
in education and training, as well as to the impossibility of negotiating time off work
for the same purpose.
To recapitulate, in Europe, almost one out of two employed people aged 25–64
participated in formal or nonformal education and training in 2007. However,
participation rates vary extensively across countries, from 79 % in Sweden to less
than 10 % in Romania. On average, individuals contribute 200 EUR to the total cost.
In the majority of cases, a higher level of individual expenditure is positively
correlated with participation rates, with only a few exceptions (Greece and Portugal).
Approximately one in three of the European population aged 25–64, who did not
6 Incentives and Disincentives to Invest in Human Resources 67

60.0

50.0

40.0

30.0

20.0

10.0

0.0
EU27
BE
BG
CZ
DE
EE
GR
ES
IT
CY
LV
LT
HU
NL
AT
PL
PT
RO
SI
SK
FI
SE
UK
NO
HR
TR
Lack of employer's support Training conflicted with the work schedule

Fig. 6.3 Respondents aged 25–64 who wanted to but did not participate in formal or nonformal
education and training, by job-related obstacles, reference year: 2007 (%) (Source: Adult Education
Survey, 2007)

participate in education and training but wanted to, addressed conflicts between
education or training and work schedules as a major obstacle; while less than one in
six explicitly addressed the lack of employer support.
Having dealt with perceived obstacles, participation rates and individual investment
in education and training among employed people, I shall now move my attention
to government–employer arrangements, which stimulate employer investment in
education and the training of employees.

Governments’ Contribution (if Any) to Support Employers’

Investment in Education and Training

European governments, in dialogue with trade unions and social partners, have put
into place a multiplicity of arrangements to increase employer investment in education
and training. Billet and Smith (2003, 2005) identify four purposes for governments
to introduce such policies. These purposes are not mutually exclusive:
– A shift of expenditure from the public to the private purse
– Equity in expenditure and funding
– Development of skills
– Strategic development of skills
68 M. Milana

A shift of expenditure from the public to the private purse is often an implicit
policy purpose that may result in the imposition of mandated training levies, which
are often resisted by employers and their associations. However, it is also possible
to make the expenditure more attractive for the employer and, therefore, to alter the
employer’s view on the value of such expenditure. Equity in expenditure and funding
is an alternative policy goal for governments to ensure that the diverse need for skill
development across industry sectors is met and costs for skills development are
shared across enterprises and workplaces. Related to this is the goal for governments
to leverage skills development, in order to secure a better balance between the demand
and supply of skilled work at national level. This goal is generally achieved by
improving the quality of skill development, as well as by increasing the commitment
in skills development by enterprises. Finally, government policy may also aim at
maintaining national competitiveness through the development of new types of
skills and the increase in knowledge creation and sharing, via the education and
training of employees (Billett and Smith 2005).
Although specific policy purposes may differ, government policy is always
concerned with how best to encourage employer expenditure for employee training
and is, ultimately, dependent on the nature of the market failure for which the
government intends to adjust (Trendle and Siu 2005). A market failure exist, for
instance, when the employee’s demand for education and training decreases in
the face of capital constraints, together with uncertainty regarding the future
salary gain, which will result from undertaking additional education and training
(i.e. capital market imperfection). Alternatively, a market failure may arise when
skilled workers earn less than their marginal product; in this scenario, the wage gain
from additional education and training is lower and so is the employee’s desire to
invest in it (Stevens 1996). Finally, market failures may also result from an asym-
metry of information between employees and providers on the type and quality of
the education and training supply.
In order to adjust for market failures, European governments have set in place
diverse mechanisms for prompting employer investment in education and training.
These mechanisms include both incentives and compulsory measures. Incentives
relate to government cofinancing of the education and training of employees or tax
incentives for employers investing in education and training. Compulsory measures
comprise the creation of sectorial training funds with residual government subsi-
dies, revenue-generating levies remitted to the government budget for training or for
training institutions and levy exemption schemes, in which the government fixes the
percentage of payroll employers that must take advantage of employee training.
Gasskov (2001, p. 36) has mapped incentives and compulsory measures in place
in various European countries and, on this basis, distinguishes between the following
typologies, which are not mutually exclusive:
• Countries in which governments have introduced compulsory financing of training
by employers (e.g. Denmark, France and Ireland)
• Countries in which governments offer tax exemptions to training enterprises
(e.g. Belgium and Germany)
6 Incentives and Disincentives to Invest in Human Resources 69

• Countries in which enterprises have no legal obligations regarding training and

its financing (e.g. the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom)
• Countries in which employers voluntarily take significant responsibility for
financing of employee training (e.g. Germany and Switzerland)
• Countries in which employers and unions set up training development funds
under the training clauses of collective labour agreements (e.g. Belgium,
Denmark and the Netherlands)
Gasskov’s (2001) mapping also devotes ample attention to subsidised schemes
set in place by governments to cofinance enterprise training with the aim of main-
taining or increasing the level of training for specific targets. These are targets for
which the enterprise is not solely responsible and, therefore, targets that are not
prioritised; they include educating those employees at risk of unemployment, as
well as imparting transferable (as opposed to company specific) skills to the unem-
ployed. In addition, governments sustain employer investment in human resources
through tax-related incentives, which include the exemption of all training facilities
from property and land tax and the possibility for companies to deduct training
expenses from their total taxable revenue.
More recently, Smith and Billett (2004) suggested a different categorisation
of government–employer financing arrangements aimed at encouraging greater
employer investment in employee training. This categorisation distinguishes
between:
1. Laissez-faire systems (e.g. the United Kingdom)
2. High employer commitment systems (e.g. Finland, Denmark, Germany and
Norway)
3. Sectorial training funds (e.g. the Netherlands)
4. Levy schemes (e.g. Austria and France)
In laissez-faire systems, governments impose only a limited number of regulations
on employers to train employees. These systems are characterised by a low-skill
equilibrium, work simplification and deskilling in a mass-production environment,
with persistent skill shortages as proof of market failure in education and training
(cf. Ashton and Green 1996). An example of this type of system is the United
Kingdom, where ad hoc government initiatives to increase employer investment in
employee training have, apparently, benefitted only those employers already investing
significantly in this area. Unfortunately, such ad hoc initiatives have not encouraged
employers with little or no commitment to employee training to begin or increase
investment in this sphere (Smith and Billett 2004).
By contrast, in high employer commitment systems, there are legal obligations
on employers to provide employee training, even if the employer is primarily
responsible for the cost. Typical examples of countries in which this system pre-
vails are Germany and Denmark. According to Gosskov (2001), employers in
both of these countries assume a high degree of responsibility for employee train-
ing at either initial or continuing education levels. In Germany, this is exemplified
by the dual system for the initial vocational education and training of youngsters.
70 M. Milana

This scheme is organised and funded by the federal government, the state (Lander)
governments and employers, through their associations. However, when it comes
to the continuing education of employees, legal obligations are insufficient to
increase employer investment in training, which means that employees, as opposed
to employers, are left to finance much of their continuing vocational training.
Denmark is a different case. In Denmark, the employer commitment to employee
training is rooted in a combination of governmental, financial support and a strong
role for social partners; together, they reach a consensus on the importance of
training at enterprise level. However, high employer commitment systems can
also be found in countries that do not impose legal obligations on employers, such
as Norway and Finland. In these countries, employer investment is guaranteed
through a common, social desirability for worker development via employee
training (Smith and Billett 2004).
Sectorial training funds are characteristic of those countries in which either the
government or the employers have established training funds based on industrial
agreements between social partners. This model is exemplified by the Netherlands,
where sectorial training funds have been established as a result of a national agree-
ment on wages. Over time, these have become the basis for a strong social partnership
and the foundation for regulating established, diverse employment-related aspects
(Smith and Billett 2004). Other countries are following this example, albeit at a
relatively slower pace (e.g. Italy).
Finally, in countries such as France or Austria, levy schemes represent the
key mechanism for boosting employer investment in employee training (Smith and
Billett 2004).
Smith and Billet (2004) conclude that policy mechanisms adopted by govern-
ments to increase investment in employee training are still limited, and, without the
employer’s voluntary participation in cofinancing and/or increasing investment in
employee training, these schemes remain largely ineffective.
In short, the literature on public policy to encourage employer investment in educa-
tion and training highlights that an institutional responsibility of governments to adjust
for market failures is often combined with an implicit goal to shift expenditure for
education and training from the public to the private purse, which is much in line with
neoliberal policy approaches to education and training in general. To this aim, some
governments assume stronger regulatory functions than others, although this does not
necessarily result in higher employer commitment towards employee training.

Concluding Remarks

The new way of thinking HC, as interconnected with other types and forms of
physical and nonphysical capital, takes HC to be an essential part of an enterprise’s
assets. However, simply emphasising its presence does not guarantee an enterprise’s
success. Consequently, Nahapiet (2011, p. 78) suggests redirecting the attention of
HC research ‘from exclusive interest in individual attributes to include the emergent
features of social relations and social interactions’.
6 Incentives and Disincentives to Invest in Human Resources 71

In the meantime, the return of investment in education and training at individual

level has been put into doubt by the simple observation that a general rise in
investment has de facto been accompanied by a universal worsening of working
conditions. This has been documented by Brown et al. (2011). Accordingly, these
commentators denounce the existence of ‘a race to the bottom’. In other words, they
claim that competitive advantage enterprises look after highly educated and trained
workers to which they can offer low wage jobs!
These observations, by themselves, do not deny the need for governments to
provide incentives for employers to invest in employee training; they rather suggest
that higher investment in the education and training of workers, although important,
is not sufficient. Furthermore, they acknowledge that employee development
decisions are not only influenced by government interventions but also by the type
of HRM strategy adopted within a given organisation.
Several approaches to HRM can be found in the relevant secondary literature.
Among these approaches is the so-called European model, proposed on the basis of
international comparisons of human resource practices in European organisations
(Brewster 1995; Brewster et al. 2004). The model differentiates between the
environment and the organisation and considers the interconnections that exist
between and within them. The environment is constituted by the international
context (which includes the European Union), the national context (with its cultural,
political, economic and social characteristics) and the national HRM context (which
refers to labour market structures, industrial relations, trade union representation
and existing opportunities and/or support for education and training). The organisation
is constituted by the corporate strategy of a given company, its HRM strategy
(i.e. employment, involvement and rewards policies) and its HRM practice
(i.e. employee selection, appraisal and development).
Although the European model does not include distinctive factors, such as the
diverse availability of skills and qualifications at national level or the degree of
employee participation in decision-making processes (Rowley et al. 2011), it none-
theless reflects a certain degree of integration that results from adopting common
EU legislation, without denying the differences between countries and clusters of
countries, which are the manifestation of their historical and cultural traits.
For example, in countries such as Finland or Norway, which are characterised by
a broad employer commitment to employee training and the highest education and
training participation rates in Europe, it is a shared sociocultural desire for worker
development, rather than fiscal or financial measures by the government, which has
had the most positive impact on employer expenditure on education and training.
However, a closer look at other countries, such as Germany or Denmark, which also
boast high participation rates in education and training, questions whether a clear-
cut distinction between neutral and intervening governments can capture the com-
plexity of the phenomenon under consideration. In fact, the ‘voluntarism’ of German
enterprises is indirectly sustained by tax exemptions, as well as by compulsory
measures, such as training levies by the German government. In Denmark, collective
labour agreements go hand in hand with the compulsory financing of training
programmes (introduced by the Danish government) and a governmental contribution
to the sectorial funds established through collective bargaining.
72 M. Milana

In light of the above, it is reasonable to suggest that the most beneficial

institutional or legislative arrangements are those that favour HRM strategies
that are built on a shared social commitment towards employee development
(as opposed to those which favour a ‘race to the bottom’ approach). Such approaches
have the potential to encourage employer expenditure on employee training but
also to enable both enterprises and individuals to gain a better return on investment
in education and training.

References

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Elgar Adelaide: National Centre for Vocational Education Research.
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to education (3rd ed.). Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press.
Beer, M., Spector, B., Lawrence, P. R., Quinn-Mills, D., & Walton, R. E. (1984). Managing human
assets. New York: Free Press.
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Billett, S., & Smith, A. (2003). Compliance, engagement and commitment: Increasing employer
expenditure in training. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 55(3), 251–269.
Billett, S., & Smith, A. (2005). Enhancing enterprise expenditure on VET: Policy goals and
mechanisms. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 57(1), 5–23.
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Jones & J.-C. Spender (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of human capital (pp. 51–70). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Brewster, C. (1995). Towards a European model of HRM. Journal of International Business
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Brewster, C., Morley, M., & Mayrhofer, W. (2004). HRM in Europe: Evidence of convergence.
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Brown, P., Lauder, H., & Ashton, D. (2011). The global auction. The broken promises of education,
job and incomes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Burton-Jones, A., & Spender, J.-C. (Eds.). (2011). The Oxford handbook of human capital. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
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EC. (2000). Memorandum on lifelong learning. Brussels: Commission of the European Communities.
Gasskov, V. (2001). Government interventions in private financing of training. Geneva: International
Labour Organization.
Hartog, J., & Maassen Van Den Brink, H. (Eds.). (2007). Human capital: Advances in theory and
evidence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lewin, P. (2011). A capital-based approach to the firm. In A. Burton-Jones & J.-C. Spender (Eds.),
The Oxford handbook of human capital (pp. 145–161). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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(pp. 71–95). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Rowley, C., & Jackson, K. (Eds.). (2011). Human resource management: The key concepts.
London/New York: Routledge.
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& A. P. Pinnington (Eds.), International human resource management. London: SAGE.
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Chapter 7
An Inconsistent Policy: Lifelong Learning
and Adult Education Policy Towards
a Competitive Advantage

Paula Guimarães and Fátima Antunes

Introduction

This chapter focuses on the ways in which the EU lifelong learning agenda,
specifically the guidelines for basic skills, has been interpreted according to the
Portuguese realities, at national and local levels. We suggest that basic skills for all,
as intended in the framework of the European area of lifelong learning, have
somewhat loose roots in the cultural and civic dimensions of education from a
human and social development perspective. Competitiveness and social cohesion,
the dual centrality of lifelong education and learning for Europe, stated in the Lisbon
Strategy, have been interpreted and translated in Portugal through a dynamic, imbal-
anced agenda fed by two major strands: the prosecution of a social right for a long
time indebted to the adult population and a search for so-called employability and
qualification as a way to tackle Portuguese distance from European educational
standards. According to these options that frame the EU agenda, this article also
stresses the adults’ understandings of adult education which come out in the research
findings presented later. The data analysis shows that these understandings are
congruent with EU guidelines; adults see adult education as a promise of a better
life. Thus, given the inconsistency of lifelong learning, fulfilling this promise is a
hard task to achieve.

This paper was written within the research project “EDUQUAL - Educar e Qualificar: o caso do
Programa Novas Oportunidades” (PTDC/CPE-CED/105575/2008) funded by the Foundation for
Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCT - in Portuguese). In addtion,
this article was developed with the support of Centre of Research in Education (in Portuguese
CIEd), University of Minho, and also financed by National Funds by the FCT in the scope of the
project Pest-OE/CED/UI1661/2011.
P. Guimarães (*)
Institute of Education, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
e-mail: [email protected]
F. Antunes
Institute of Education, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 75
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_7, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
76 P. Guimarães and F. Antunes

A Rationale for Interpreting Adult Education

Policies Under Development

On a first level, in the context of globalisation we have witnessed the emergence

of international and supranational organisations such as the European Union
(EU). This organisation is increasingly intervening in several domains, in par-
ticular that of education. In this arena the production of guidelines that are being
adopted by many member states has taken place. National policies may show a
wider or narrower convergence towards supranational orientations. The lifelong
learning guidelines fostered by the EU are interesting examples of this policy
production effort on a mega scale, even if the adoption of such proposals at a
national level has been questioned by several authors (cf. Field 2006; Antunes
2008, among others).
On a second level, the guidelines produced by the EU for lifelong learning have
been appropriated by the various nations according to historical development trends
and to the characteristics of the adult education systems and projects in each country.
It seems that a reinterpretation of lifelong learning has taken place in the framework
of the processes by which national public policies are produced (cf. Antunes 2008;
Lima and Guimarães 2011).
On a third level, much research has shown that the adoption of national pub-
lic policies for adult education has involved a reinterpretation by local actors
such as the promoters of forms of provision. In this case, quite often several
conceptions of adult education run through the reproduction and the giving of
new meaning when devising and understanding a public policy. It is at this stage
that a public policy may reveal ambiguities and contradictory trends due to
conflicts between goals set at supranational and national levels and outcomes
actually accomplished (cf. Sá 2009; Alves 2010; Guimarães 2011; Lima and
Guimarães 2012).
On the one hand, these various reinterpretations have led to several lifelong
learning developments in the different countries, owing to the national or regional
realities of adult education. On the other hand, according to the EU the diversity of
national interpretations has led to inadequate outcomes, with respect to the goals
established by the Lisbon Strategy (2000), for instance (cf. Commission of the
European Communities 2005). In fact, in some cases, including that of Portugal,
lifelong learning seems to be achieved locally under an inconsistent policy that is
in need of new educational approaches such as that of critical education. Adult
education in our country is based on priorities that barely express national aspira-
tions and realities, focused on raising school participation (basic and secondary
certification) rates in line with European guidelines for competitiveness and
employability. Thus, the outcomes achieved do not go beyond convincing adults
that lifelong learning is important. Furthermore, the results are not translated into
effective changes in people’s lives and the way they perceive their intervention in
Portuguese society and the economy.
7 An Inconsistent Policy: Lifelong Learning and Adult Education Policy… 77

The European and Portuguese Agendas for Basic Skills:

National Aspirations and Reinterpretation

The chronology of the relaunch of a public adult education policy and system in
Portugal (cf. Melo et al. 2001b) is in tune with some important supranational devel-
opments. The programme Project of Society: To Know+ (in Portuguese Projecto de
Sociedade: S@ber+) was part of the 1998 National Plan for Employment,1 the
Portuguese government’s answer to the European Employment Strategy (1997).
This programme also concerned the lifelong learning strategy that was formulated
for the first time to supplement the 2001 National Plan for Employment. On the one
hand, the strength of the European Employment Strategy and the Lisbon Strategy
was unavoidable given the adoption of lifelong learning as a crucial policy for the
priorities of competitiveness and social cohesion; likewise, the Education and
Training 2010 Programme and the basic skills for lifelong learning framework must
be considered (cf. Hozjan 2009). On the other hand, the first movements and pro-
grammatic documents for the mentioned relaunch stemmed from the devastating
diagnosis on adult education sector (made public during the electoral campaign
before the elections of 1995, in which the low schooling levels of the Portuguese
population were stressed), from the European Year of Lifelong Learning events of
1996, as well as from the participation of the Portuguese delegation at the V
CONFINTEA in Hamburg in 1997 (cf. Melo et al. 2001b). Additionally, the
Referential of Key Competences (Alonso et al. 2000; Gomes 2006), the conceptual
and procedural frameworks that have underpinned adult education forms of provi-
sion, was the basis for major innovations and forms of provision of adult education
policy – the recognition, validation and certification of competences and adult
education and training courses (AET courses). These two forms of provision were
initially run as experimental pilot projects in 2000. This establishment was simulta-
neous with (and not just a derivative of) the debate on A Memorandum on Lifelong
Learning (2000), the Communication of the European Commission on Lifelong
Learning (2001) and the Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in
Education and Training 2010 that was framed by the Lisbon Strategy. Therefore,
several connections between supranational agendas, especially the EU one, within
the adoption of lifelong learning guidelines and the building of the framework of

1
Adult education is probably the educational domain in which the Portuguese democracy has done
less and most weakly since 1974. An adult education public policy and system were never built,
although some trials were made in the last decades. This is very well expressed by the idea that adult
education has had in Portugal (and this is all the more true today, August 2012) ‘a sinuous process’
and is ‘a blocked project’, as argued by Melo et al. (2001b). In 1998, this so-called relaunch prom-
ised to be a serious effort to build such a policy and system, as we shall see further. For more details,
see ‘Relaunch of the programme ‘Project of Society: To Know+’ for adult education and training for
lifelong learning’ (cf. Resolução do Conselho de Ministros 59/98, April 8th 1998). http://www.igf.
min-financas.pt/inflegal/bd_igf/bd_legis_geral/Leg_geral_docs/RCM_059_98.htm. (Accessed 28
February 2012).
78 P. Guimarães and F. Antunes

basic skills became clear. These guidelines were essential both for the European
political priorities that were directed at the education systems of member states and
for economic and employment policies. It is also evident that the definition of an
adult education policy was driven by deep-rooted social and historical experiences
and aspirations, through relations and structural processes, institutional resources,
social actors, interest groups and communities and their interpretations of the
Portuguese realities2 (cf. Antunes 2008, 2011).
We can thus argue that the emphasis on basic skills since the 1990s made room
for two decisive and interrelated thrusts in adult education policy. The first one
involves the development of only three (formal) dimensions from the multifaceted
universe of adult education and training. The second thrust involved the adoption of
Referential of Key Competences, frameworks that were technical and political
instruments of regulation of adult education forms of provision.
So, in accordance with the first option, it has been fostered: (1) the educational
recovery of large numbers of Portuguese who had not being offered access to the
system of formal education for several decades, apart from compulsory education;
(2) vocational training directed at supporting the conversion of the Portuguese
economy towards a progressive opening to global markets; and (3) the recognition
of prior learning, as it was considered that knowledge possessed by adults, specifi-
cally those adults who were already in the labour market, ought to be formally
validated and valued.
The focus of the three aims mentioned assembled, in a quite unbalanced and
inconsistent way, concerns with social justice, human resource management
principles and attributing a more humanistic meaning to adult education policy.
Following this reasoning, the appropriation of the lifelong learning strategy pro-
posed by the EU since the mid-1990s and the definition of the adult education
policy in Portugal were based on a discourse that emphasised an ‘unacceptable
educational deficit’ for democracy. Education was a social right to which the
adult population had repeatedly been denied access by the elites (Melo 2004).
The most evident outcome was a significant variance between the patterns of

2
This expression underlines an effort to understand the density of the sociohistorical and political
Portuguese context, which makes this country the poorest country among the richest ones, in
Europe and the world. This reality includes several aspects such as: (1) a democratic regime and a
welfare State built after the 1970s within the economic crisis, when other welfare States were
already in crisis; (2) around 1/3 of the population (five million) spread throughout the world as
emigrants and which nowadays has half a million immigrants, mostly from former Portuguese
colonies in Africa and Eastern European countries; (3) some health standards (e.g. child mortality)
at the top of the richest and most developed countries in Europe and the world, with a public uni-
versal health system built after the 1980s; (4) the highest inequality indicators in wealth distribu-
tion in the EU; (5) one of the highest poverty rates of Europe; (6) the participation rates in higher
education consistent with the EU average; and (7) an absolutely isolated negative situation in
Europe on adult population rates, namely, people that completed secondary education, and young
people’s secondary schooling attendance rates. That expression was consecrated in seminal works
on educational policies by Stephen Stoer (1982, 1986), one of the most prominent Portuguese
sociologists that for around 30 years (1978–2005) studied the Portuguese realities, specifically in
what concerned education and social change.
7 An Inconsistent Policy: Lifelong Learning and Adult Education Policy… 79

education in Portugal and those in other European countries. Moreover, the

so-called return3 of lifelong education took place in the EU and in Portugal dur-
ing the second half of the 1990s, at a time when the sociopolitical climate was
favourable, both in terms of turning back to education as a human and social
right pertaining to the development of individuals and communities, as well as
its classification as a private and individual consumer product which is subject
to the terms of trade (Afonso 1998). These two strands have been in action
through conflicts, defeats and compromises between different protagonists, pro-
posals and courses of action. In fact, the idea of an ‘ambivalent policy dynamic’
expresses the unbalanced presence and influence of those tendencies.
After that, an ambivalent policy dynamic has been under development. At first the
adult education policy adopted after 1999 was seen as a global proposal for the build-
ing of a public basic education and training system within a multidimensional social
programme, overcoming some managerialistic barriers imposed by EU guidelines. But
providing more without having to build up a public system of adult education seemed
to have been the decision, when in 1999 the ‘To Know+ Programme for the Development
and Expansion of Adult Education and Training 1999–2006’ (Melo et al. 2001a) was
developed (cf. Antunes 2008, 2011; Sá 2009). In fact, the development of this pro-
gramme had progressively moved away from humanistic proposals that had been pro-
posed both in the mentioned document and previously in ‘An Educational Commitment
in Participation of All: Strategy Document for the Development of Adult Education’
(Melo et al. 1998). Still, adult education came across as a State policy, which gave it
visibility to a sector that until then was not known in Portugal (cf. Guimarães 2011).
Since then, this sector was referenced in political programmes by succeeding
Governments; it became more and more an object of political marketing, highly
politicised and increasingly relevant in the context of modernisation, the conversion
of a globalised economy and the qualification of the workforce. It became clear that
the growing importance of adult education was undertaken by the Portuguese gov-
ernment in the framework of lifelong learning, mostly according to human resources
management interpretations advocated by the EU. So, proposals aimed at adults
benefited from funding through the European Social Fund. If this policy was deemed
to have an educational value, as was the perspective of the Strategy Document and
To Know+ Programme, it was thus seen as a social, economic and employment
policy, as was evident in the New Opportunities Initiative adopted after 2005
(Iniciativa Novas Oportunidades 2005). Therefore, in recent years, this policy was
mainly framed by modernisation and managerial aims, within a national strategy of
human resources management and social control orientation. In political discourses
the focus on competitiveness and social cohesion led to an emphasis on qualifica-
tion and pedagogism (cf. Lima 2007; Guimarães 2011; Lima and Guimarães 2011).

3
This ‘return’, in the EU context concerned new meanings given to ideas preferred by the
UNESCO in the 1970s, such as lifelong education and learning; in the Portuguese context, it
referred to a political pattern of intermittent adult education plans developed since 1974, when the
Democratic Revolution occurred, whose programmes were abandoned almost as soon as they
were implemented.
80 P. Guimarães and F. Antunes

Methodology and Research Techniques

Within this framework, this chapter aims to value the meanings of the strong social
visibility and priority given to lifelong learning in the last decade and to adult edu-
cation. The reasons for this focus include the discussion of the reinterpretation of
lifelong learning made by the adult education policy locally, namely, the analysis of
ideas expressed by learners concerning their recent educational pathways when
most of them were not traditional participants in adult education activities. Following
this perspective the analysis of similar trends as outcomes of the EU orientations is
considered, as well as the policy recontextualisation, made by the Portuguese State
and socio-educational actors, as a result of national educational specificities.
Therefore, this debate allows us to ask if and how the Portuguese realities and the
ambivalent political dynamics (between a multidimensional social policy and an
economically driven policy) are expressed by learners in what refers to lifelong
learning (specifically when learners involved in adult education and training courses
were considered).
We have opted for a discussion based on the opinions of adults who had joined
AET courses (one of the two main forms of provision being promoted in the last
decade4) and which we based on the question:
– What conceptual understandings of adult education policy were at stake when
courses that involved mainly long-term unemployed adults were considered?
The empirical data analysed came from qualitative research, and the central
methodological strategy was based on a case study of adult education policy
(cf. Guimarães 2011). The aim was to investigate the way that a public policy, which
was legally defined and which consisted of certain educational processes and official
procedures, could influence the modes of thinking and acting of local participants.
For this reason, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten individuals
who attended these courses in a non-governmental organisation. These interviews
focused on various aspects. The data presented here concern the representations of
these individuals regarding these provisions – in essence, the reinterpretation or
local appropriation given to that public policy. In this chapter, we highlight adults’
motivation for following these courses, as well as their expectations concerning the
impact of learning on their lives.

Lifelong Learning as an Investment

The AET courses can be attended by adults who have not completed basic and
secondary education (equivalent to 4, 6, 9 and 12 years of schooling). In this way

4
Apart from these courses other provisions include the recognition, validation and certification of
competences and modular training courses (cf. http://www.anq.gov.pt. Accessed 2 November 2011).
7 An Inconsistent Policy: Lifelong Learning and Adult Education Policy… 81

such courses allow those who attend to gain a school certificate.5 This is in line
with the aims of remedying the low rates of school education recorded by the
Portuguese population and improving basic skills, as sought by the EU (cf. Council
of the European Union 2003).
In certain situations, these courses can lead to a professional qualification, in the
case of basic training and technological training courses allowing people to get a
vocational qualification level 1, 2, 3 or 4, in accordance with the current typology to
date adopted by the EU. Therefore, the main aim of the latter courses is ‘the (re)
integration or progression in the labour market’.6 The vocational component of this
provision represents an innovation in public adult education policies in Portugal,
which, in the past, was mostly about giving a second opportunity within the formal
education (cf. Lima 2008; Guimarães 2011, among others). Additionally, these
courses are based on a modular training model and draw on guidelines for key com-
petences (such as the Memorandum on Lifelong Learning) and training standards
that are part of the National Catalogue of Qualifications and thus the European
Qualifications Framework. The vocational dimension of these courses accomplishes
the aim of enhancing the vocational qualifications of the population, a fundamental
concern for the country in the context of converting the economy and for the priorities
established by the EU under the Lisbon Strategy.
Moreover, with these courses the aim is to develop a type of training based on a
reflexive process and competences acquisition.7 This achieves the purpose of recog-
nising prior learning and valuing education and individual training paths, according
to EU guidelines, but it also concerns more humanistic approaches in adult educa-
tion. Therefore, the Referential of Key Competences embodies the aim of consider-
ing knowledge acquired through experience as a basis for formal recognition and at
the same time gives a useful answer to longstanding demands from pedagogues and
educational activists. At the same time, the Referential of Key Competences is a
technical and political instrument that regulates different forms of provision (recog-
nition, validation and certification of competences; AET courses; and Modular
Training Actions, recently established). It is, in fact, directed at the dissemination of
basic skills for lifelong learning towards economic growth and employment in the
EU (as stated in the Lisbon Strategy).
According to data collected, based on a qualitative approach of how adults
themselves discuss the issue in the interviews, these aspects made the combination
of school certification and professional qualification within AET courses quite

5
Those over 18 years of age can attend these courses equivalent to years 4, 6, 9 and 12 of school-
ing. These courses provide a school certificate and in some cases a professional qualification and
last for a minimum of 100 h and a maximum of 2,390 h (cf. http://www.anq.gov.pt. Accessed 2
November 2011).
6
For more information see http://www.anq.gov.pt. Accessed 11 February 2011.
7
This can be achieved by means of the module entitled Learn Autonomously (basic education
level – 4, 6 or 9 years of schooling and in some cases a professional qualification) or by means
of a Reflective Learning Portfolio (secondary education level and in some cases a professional
qualification).
82 P. Guimarães and F. Antunes

attractive for the adults involved.8 The vocational training component consisted of
a training module in a real work situation context. On the one hand, this module
enabled them to have (renewed) contact with the world of work, in a more pro-
tected environment, as it was framed by a contract guaranteed by local promoters
and by an educational and training relationship. On the other hand, because these
courses highlighted the education, training and learning dimension, as well as the
discussion of what was learned, which, in an actual work situation (with little or no
qualification), would probably be given little value.
These circumstances contributed to the dual appreciation given by respondents
to justify their attending this course. Following the aims of professional qualifica-
tions and school certification, the reasons identified were, firstly, those which related
to the exercise of a profession and after that, reasons connected with an educational
certification. The urgency of entering the job market was highlighted. In a context
in which they felt increasingly less prepared, the growing importance of a (stronger
professional) curriculum vitae represented an important goal. These reasons resulted
in the very utilitarian nature that these trainees gave to adult education, emphasising
a ‘culture of work’9 (Imaginário et al. 2002). They also show the social recognition
of the school certificate, which takes on a profoundly instrumental and localised
character (cf. Ávila 2008).

Adult Education Unquestioned

Interviewees were individuals of working age who were unemployed at the time of
enrolling in the AET courses.10 In this way and with all the ensuing economic and
social problems as well as the disappointment, they felt towards education and train-
ing as being opportunities to break the cycle of poverty and social exclusion that
many of them found themselves part of, led them to feel deeply unmotivated at the
beginning of the course. However, the vast majority of adults already had work
experience. For many of them, contact with the world of work had taken place in
their adolescence and was characterised:
1. By the intermittent nature of irregular periods of work and unemployment,
usually after doing seasonal or occasional jobs, often in sectors where higher
levels of schooling and professional qualification were not required
2. By diversity, in areas where they worked and the types of tasks performed – in
this scenario, the idea of a professional career was simply not appropriate

8
This model was based on both a technical component which favoured the acquisition of a profes-
sional qualification as well as another that would lead to a school certificate. These components
came about as ‘means to obtain essential requisites for a more successful integration in the work-
place and in subsequent training opportunities’ (Decree Law nº 1083/2000, 20 November).
9
As opposed to a ‘school culture’ that had school as a learning environment that was valued by
society.
10
Most of those interviewed had been out of work for over a year.
7 An Inconsistent Policy: Lifelong Learning and Adult Education Policy… 83

3. By job insecurity, owing to the absence of contractual agreement or to the

existence of short-term contracts
Therefore, associated to the benefits of the diploma, many trainees stated that ‘it
was always good to have a qualification’ that ‘it was better to have completed a
course of study than not to have’, even if they were not always able to expound on
the reasons for such a belief:
There is a girl who is working with me, who is only doing weekends. She is a single
mother and is going through a divorce. And it is very difficult to find a job, isn't it? And I
told her: ‘why don’t you go to [the local association] and see if there is an EFA Course
which you can get onto?’ – because she has only done the 6th year – ‘and you can get a
good foundation for your future’. And then she came; actually there wasn’t a course, but
at least she tried. But I always advise this, because I think this is one of the best things
there is. [Amanda]11

The evidence that ‘everything changed in society’ and that it was important ‘to
have foundations for the future’ in order to have another vision of hope in life, such
as the symbolic recognition of a certificate or diploma, contributed highly towards
getting back a personal sense of achievement and an increase in self-esteem. In
addition, when questioned about the effects of training (achieved or expected), the
new concepts of self-awareness were constantly being transformed into life-
changing possibilities that, in the absence of other economic and employment poli-
cies to back them up, more often than not turned into life opportunities which were
not fulfilled.12 The following extract from an interview highlights this attitude:
I have already had the occasion to say (to friends), and even to people who have a job, that
they should, absolutely, get more training, do a course and develop more skills. Because
there it is, there’s an age-old idea that ‘knowledge does not take up extra place’ and ‘the
greater the range of knowledge, the more doors can open’, isn’t that true? If we have this
experience and we can pick up a few ideas, we can then certainly compete and have more
opportunities. [Helena]13

Interestingly, there was an uncritical acceptance of the benefits that education

and training of adults could bring to the most disadvantaged social groups and indi-
viduals. Once special importance was given to ‘finding a job’. Moreover, work
seemed vital for an effective change in the lives of these individuals, and, in this
articulation between the types of knowledge developed and adult education, the
latter materialised as a complementary aspect to employment. Thus, respondents
seemed to be examples of people who ‘had been left behind’, who were irrelevant
to economic development, who seemed to be incapable of reflection and were
unwanted either on a cyclical or permanent basis (Bélanger and Federighi 2001;

11
Alias name for learner interviewee 1.
12
Following a similar line of thought, recent studies into the New Opportunities Initiative (cf.
Valente et al. 2011) point to the fact that ‘career progress or employment prospects did not occur’
in the case of those who had been granted certificates by the above-mentioned forms of educational
provision. Moreover, this idea has already been referred to in previous studies (CIDEC 2007,
among others).
13
Alias name for learner interviewee 4.
84 P. Guimarães and F. Antunes

Field 2006). For many of these people, unemployment was not just a ‘temporary
anomaly’ (being temporarily out of a job) but a permanent state. For this reason,
they were regarded (and often saw themselves) as a problem for contemporary soci-
eties and for the taxpayers (Bauman 2005). In this context, adult education had a
weak role within social and economic development. Therefore, we believe that for
adults, these courses were a missed opportunity in terms of the flowering of educa-
tional courses aimed at promoting civic participation and social emancipation and
in initiatives in which they actually took a leading role.

Final Thoughts

In this chapter we have discussed the ways in which the EU’s lifelong learning
agenda, specifically the guidelines for basic skills, has been interpreted according to
the Portuguese realities. This reinterpretation involved an ambivalent policy
dynamic, where different strands and understandings about adult education and life-
long learning conflict and compromise with an unbalanced presence and influence,
since 1998; so, particularly since 2001,14 we witnessed the adoption of aims that
stressed remedying the low school education rates of large segments of the popula-
tion, the rise of vocational qualifications in the context of economic conversion and
the recognition of prior learning. At a local level, the way specific actors, such as
adults involved in public provision, understood and intervened in adult education
were consistent with EU guidelines and national policy aims. However, none of the
EU guidelines nor any of the aims established by the Portuguese state contained any
critical meanings and intentions to effectively transform the living conditions of
peoples, which were affected by drastic economic and social changes and faced
difficult and precarious situations.
The interviewed adults saw adult education through the acquisition of basic
skills as a promise of a better life. Thus, as we intended to suggest and show, ful-
filling this promise is hard given the inconsistency of the lifelong learning policy,
on officially established goals, forms of provision developed and outcomes
achieved. It is therefore important to question lifelong learning and adult educa-
tion in light of humanistic and critical education concerns. It is not just lifelong
learning (and adult education) that fails to achieve the outcomes established under
the Lisbon Strategy. Apart from promises related to economic growth, employ-
ment and social cohesion, goals such as the promotion of civic participation and
social emancipation are non-existent, although in fact they would make more con-
sistent supranational and national policies for adult education. We argue that the
paramount societal challenges brought by complex fast-changing, multicultural

14
After the June 2011 elections and after the external troika (International Monetary Fund,
European Central Bank and European Commission) intervention initiated in May 2011, adult edu-
cation and lifelong learning have been given an ostensive denial from the newly elected Portuguese
government in charge.
7 An Inconsistent Policy: Lifelong Learning and Adult Education Policy… 85

and knowledge societies (and economies) ask for more (not less) democratic and
empowering European social policies and education. So we have a serious prob-
lem, when European political elites take their decisions in favour of an economy
and social policies that fabricate and turn their back to the growing millions of
unemployed and poor people in rich Europe. Of course the need for an integrated
and global public policy, that may include goals devoted to economic growth and
human resources development but also others of a humanistic nature, of personal
and social development and of social emancipation and change, becomes an
essential issue for the Portuguese (and European) context.

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Chapter 8
Vocational Education: The Tension Between
Educational Flexibility and Predictability

Eva Andersson and Gun-Britt Wärvik

Introduction

Vocational education in Sweden has been the subject of several changes in recent
years. In 2011, the upper secondary school was reformed, and there are now two
separate qualifications, one preparing for higher education and the other for
vocational work. Further, apprenticeship education at the upper secondary level
has been introduced, which implies that all vocational programmes are provided
either as school-based education or as workplace-based apprenticeship education.
The responsibility for both alternatives lies, however, with the upper secondary
schools. In addition, a new form of education at the post-upper-secondary level
(higher vocational education – HVE in the following text) has been established.
For almost half a century, education policy has been intertwined with discourses
on lifelong learning. This chapter aims to analyse and problematise the new picture
of vocational education in Sweden in the light of the European policies on lifelong
learning. The chapter discusses two issues. In what ways does the new picture
match or not match the ambitions outlined in the European lifelong learning policy
and what tensions and contradictions can be identified as permeating the new edu-
cational reform? These issues relate to the motives behind the recent Swedish
reform interpreted from the directives, official reports and government bills preced-
ing the reform. Our main argument is that the new reform implies a return to a
previous school form with two tracks, one preparing for higher education and one
for vocational work. Further, that the organisation of upper secondary education in
Sweden is moving away from the European lifelong learning policy where voca-
tional education is concerned. This is, for instance, manifested in the reduction of

E. Andersson (*) • G.-B. Wärvik, Ph.D.

Department of Education and Special Education, University of Gothenburg,
Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 87
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_8, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
88 E. Andersson and G.-B. Wärvik

study hours in subjects close to the key competences related to democratic and
civic issues, for instance, the Swedish language. The educational life courses for
those who have chosen a vocational programme risk being less flexible and more
predictable.
Before discussing our analysis, we will present a brief overview of vocational
education in Sweden and its historical development.

The Development of Vocational Education in Sweden

Vocational education has its roots in the guild system, principally organised in the
form of apprenticeships. A few technical schools and handicraft schools were
started up in the nineteenth century, but it was not until the 1918 school reform that
Sweden got an integrated vocational education system consisting of apprenticeship
schools, workshop schools and vocational continuation schools (Lindberg 2003).
Vocational education was, however, separated from general upper secondary
academic education.
The 1970 upper secondary school reform marked a transition in the development
of the Swedish vocational education. The existing school forms were now inte-
grated in one organisation, a unified upper secondary school. However, a division
between the general academic programmes and the vocational programmes
remained. The vocational programmes lasted for 2 years in contrast to the general
programmes that lasted for 3 or 4 years. A few general subjects were added to the
vocational programmes, but there were no common courses for the two tracks. In
fact, an extensive reformation of the whole school system took place, including the
introduction of the 9-year compulsory school in 1962. These reforms should be seen
against the backdrop of a political debate that started as early as in the 1940s and
was embedded in ideas of an expansion of the welfare state. After the 1970 reform,
vocational education became an educational policy issue rather than an issue for
labour market policy (Lundgren 2007).
In 1994, yet another new upper secondary school reform was launched. The
reform stipulated that all programmes should be 3 years long, and that all vocational
programmes should include general subjects parallel with the vocational subjects.
All upper secondary school students studied the general subjects.1 At the same time,
all study programmes, vocational as well as general, qualified for higher education.
The idea was to make the educational system accessible to students from different
social backgrounds in order to realise potential of lifelong learning for all (Lundahl
et al. 2010). A new curriculum, the same for both the vocational and the general

1
The common subjects for all the study programmes were mathematics, natural science, religious
instruction, Swedish, English, civics, sport, aesthetics, courses chosen by the individual and a
larger project assignment.
8 Vocational Education: The Tension Between Educational Flexibility… 89

programmes, specified an ethical and democratic foundation on which the whole

school system should be based. This reform can also be framed by periods of
economic decline in the 1970s and early 1990s with rising unemployment, and thus
education offered meaningful activities. However, general education was explicitly
included in the discourses of the growing knowledge economy, the multicultural
society and technological developments that fuelled the demand for highly compe-
tent and flexible workers. The schools were also encouraged to provide programmes
adapted to local needs in order to increase flexibility for the individuals as well as
for the local communities.
The right-wing alliance that came into power in 2006 launched the most recent
upper secondary school reform, implemented in 2011. The reform reintroduced
apprenticeship education and once again made a distinction between general pro-
grammes leading to higher education and vocational programmes that do not.2 As
we will discuss later, in many respects this reform is a return to the situation before
1994 (Lundahl et al. 2010). However, according to the Education Act (SFS
2010:800, ch. 20, § 19), the students who have graduated from a vocational pro-
gramme have a legal right to complete their studies in municipal adult education
(komvux)3 in order to qualify for higher education studies. Short-term initiatives in
the form of extra places for vocational education for adults, both school-based and
in the form of apprenticeships, have also been introduced by the government, moti-
vated by the labour market’s need for skilled workers (Government Bill 2009:43;
Government Bill 2010:2016).
A new post-upper-secondary education (HVE) was launched in 2009
(Government Bill 2008/09:68). This educational form is not a part of the higher
education system, despite its name. It is a school form in its own right, under the
authority of The Swedish National Agency for HVE. The length of the courses
varies from 6 months and up, and the content is specific to the current labour
market demands. The idea is that the students should quickly establish themselves
in the labour market.4 All upper secondary school programmes, general as well as
vocational, qualify for HVE.
Figure 8.1 summarises changes in the Swedish school system from 1970 and
onwards.

2
It is worth mentioning that there is also a new teacher education system in Sweden, launched in
the autumn of 2011. Students studying to be teachers in vocational subjects no longer study
together with students who will be teachers in general subjects. Furthermore, the vocational
teacher education no longer leads to a bachelor’s degree as it did before. The new teacher education
programme strengthens the division between vocational and general upper secondary school
programmes.
3
The municipalities are responsible for the organisation of komvux, but most often these education
programmes are provided by private contractors.
4
HVE was preceded by advanced vocational education, a similar form of education that started as
a pilot project in 1993.
90 E. Andersson and G.-B. Wärvik

Post-upper HE HE HVE HE +
secondary HVE

Upper GE VE GE VE AE GE
secondary, three
years

Upper VE
secondary, two
years

Between the years 1970−1994 1994−2011 2011−Onwards

Fig. 8.1 Changes in the Swedish school system at the upper secondary and post-upper-secondary
level (VE vocational education, AE apprenticeship education, GE general education, HE higher
education at universities and university colleges, HVE higher vocational education)

Vocational Education in the Light of Education Policy

and Labour Market Policy

Education policy often has the features of a “world movement” (Meyer et al. 1992).
However, no matter how compelling and forceful this policy may be, it is always
“refracted” in national education policies. Refraction is a metaphor that indicates
that a policy idea in the shape of a similar globalised initiative can end up in a num-
ber of dissimilar national directions (Goodson and Lindblad 2011). Thus, to under-
stand tensions and contradictions in the 2011 Swedish upper secondary school
reform, it must be situated in a policy context of the national development of
vocational education.
Education policy has been intertwined with discourses on lifelong learning for more
than 50 years. Rubenson (2009) sees this period as a tension between two competing
paradigms, humanism represented by the UNESCO and economy or global capitalism
represented by the OECD. Documents from the European Union (EU) contain both
paradigms, but not presented as conflicting. In the Memorandum on Lifelong Learning
(European Commission 2000, p. 5), the European Commission points out “two equally
important aims for lifelong learning: promoting active citizenship and promoting
employability”. There is also an assumption that employability will lead to full employ-
ment, which, in turn, will lead to active citizens since “…having paid work underpins
independence, self-respect and well-being, and is therefore a key to people’s overall
quality of life” (European Commission 2000, p. 5). This is a far-reaching goal. In a later
EU document, On the new skills for new jobs (European Union 2007), there is, how-
ever, no doubt that the function of education and education policy is to serve the labour
market. Thus, it is clear that education policy and labour market policy have become
fully intertwined in the European lifelong learning policy.
A European Union argument is that the objectives of full employment, job quality,
labour productivity and social cohesion can better be achieved if they are reflected in
8 Vocational Education: The Tension Between Educational Flexibility… 91

clear priorities: to attract and retain more people in employment, to increase labour
supply, to improve the adaptability of workers and enterprises and to increase invest-
ment in human capital through better education and the development of skills and
competences (European Union 2007). The EU documents identify eight categories
of key competences: (1) communication in the mother tongue, (2) communication in
foreign languages, (3) mathematical competence and basic competences in science
and technology, (4) digital competence, (5) learning to learn, (6) social and civic
competences, (7) sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and (8) cultural awareness
and expression (European Commission 2007; European Union 2006, 2011a).
According to the EU recommendations, the key competences “… provide added
value for the labour market, social cohesion and active citizenship by offering flexi-
bility and adaptability, satisfaction and motivation” (European Union 2011b, p. 1).
Strengthening the key competences is expected to result in flexible individuals who
can move between branches and workplaces and therefore are more employable
in the labour market and also better prepared to become active citizens in the
knowledge society.
The development of the Swedish upper secondary school system from 1994 was
in many respects in line with what was later recommended in the lifelong learning
documents from the EU. The common core of general subjects for all upper second-
ary school students, and that all programmes should provide qualifications for
higher education, involved an educational flexibility for the young people. We could
argue that the Swedish school system in many ways was ahead of the EU recom-
mendations. However, the most recent school reform in 2011 goes in the very oppo-
site direction. The number of general subjects is reduced and as is the number of
teaching hours. The content of general subjects has been considerable reduced, and,
for instance, mathematics is oriented towards the specific vocation (Lindberg 2011).
Less time is also given for elective courses and for the Swedish language. Vocational
education has once again turned towards narrower competences, further strength-
ened by the fact that it only qualifies students for HVE. The vocational programmes
on both levels are focused on explicit labour market demands in narrowly specified
fields. The latest reform means that the students have to choose a vocational track at
a young age, thereby narrowing their educational opportunities later in life.
Educational flexibility is no longer a salient feature. This break in the organisation
and content of vocational education has not (so far) been followed by a break in the
lifelong learning policy documents.

Educational Life Transitions: From Flexibility

to Predictability?

The European lifelong learning policies can be seen as a tool to push national
governments and authorities to create activities that make it easier for individuals
to flexibly change their life courses in order to adapt to different changes in soci-
ety. Research on life transitions also shows that people’s life courses have gone
92 E. Andersson and G.-B. Wärvik

from being socially based, predictable and linear in modern society to be more
individually based, diverse and non-linear in the postmodern era (Field 2009;
Ecclestone et al. 2009). Historically, life transitions were few and predictable,
from being a child to starting working, getting married, having a family and
finally retiring. With reference to theorists such as Giddens, Bauman and Beck,
Field (2009) argues that transitions nowadays are the defining characteristics of
everyday life, and that this development has been supported by international
organisations such as the OECD in order to make the workforce more flexible
and mobile. Life courses have also become increasingly elective and fragmented.
In recent decades, being flexible, mobile and equipped to constantly make indi-
vidual choices has been seen as a way for individuals – as well as governments –
to adapt to a rapidly changing global labour market. Education has played a
central role in this development. Ecclestone et al. (2009) investigate the main
characteristics of transitions depicted in policy, practice and research. They argue
that there have been political attempts to manage transitions more effectively in the
form of “de-standardisation and increasing non-linearity of youth transitions,
together with the individualisation and complexity of many life course transi-
tions for adults” (ibid, p. 3). With reference to Colley et al. (2003), Ecclestone
et al. (2009, p. 4) point to some critical aspects of the policies in this field, i.e.
tensions between “images of flexible, self-managing, self-aware ‘portfolio’
workers and people’s ability to deal with transitions without professional help”.
The development of people’s life courses matches in many respects the formula-
tions of what is desirable according to the EU documents on lifelong learning.
According to the research on transitions, individuals have become more flexible and
mobile, and their non-linear life courses should suit the labour market’s needs as
emphasised by the European Commission. But if this is the case, how can we then
understand the recent changes in the Swedish school system?
The aim of the new upper secondary school is to provide a good foundation for
work and continued studies as well as for personal development and active citizenship
(SFS 2010:800). The new upper secondary school reform was preceded by an official
report from the Swedish government (SOU 2008, p. 27). Two problems were pre-
sented in the report. One was the problem of national equivalence in a decentralised
school system. The other was the problem of dropouts. The numbers of students grad-
uating with a pass credit were too low. As recently as in 2001, the former government
appointed a commission in order to broaden the recruitment to higher education and
increase the diversity of students in higher education in relation to social background,
gender and ethnicity and to facilitate the transition from upper secondary school to the
universities and university colleges (Government Bill 2001:935). The recent reform
contradicts these intensions by dividing the students into two separate tracks.
The new education system in Sweden seems rather to be a tool to control the
students’ educational life courses and make them more predictable. This is a labour
market policy developed with the ambition to satisfy the unpredictable conditions
created by the global economy. This is done in terms of flexibility for the individuals,
but the more narrow educational tracks, laid down by the state, might make their life
courses more predictable.
8 Vocational Education: The Tension Between Educational Flexibility… 93

In a study of transitions from vocational education and training to higher

education in the UK, Hoelscher et al. (2009, p. 88) argue that the new labour policy
sees employees as “actors striving to make themselves marketable in a more flexible
labour market”. Further, they claim that the role of the state has changed from
regulating the labour market to ensuring that individuals develop human capital.
But in their empirical study of students with a vocational background studying in
higher education, they found that these students were “…tracked institutionally into
less prestigious HEIs” (ibid, p. 91). The new HVE in Sweden is at risk of becoming
that less prestigious educational form to which the students from vocational
programmes will be tracked.

Tensions Permeating the Education System

We will now discuss three tensions, related to the motives behind the new upper
secondary school reform, and the other educational changes discussed above, as
these can be interpreted by reading the directives, official reports and government
bills. These are as follows: (a) the tension between keeping general and vocational
programmes together or separate, (b) the tension between “general and generic
competences” and “work-specific” competences and (c) the tension between flexi-
bility and predictability. The tensions identified are in many ways intertwined.
Nevertheless, we think it is constructive to discuss them one by one.

Keeping All Programmes Together Versus Separating

the Vocational Programmes in Their Own Track

Keeping general and vocational education separated is a break in the trend of

Swedish educational development (Nylund and Rosvall 2011). This is also true of
the post-upper-secondary level. One explicit reason for this change is to prevent too
many dropouts and to improve the students’ performance. But why did the government
choose to create two separate tracks in order to achieve this?
Going deeper into the government bill (2008/09:199, pp. 36–37, our translation)
on the new upper secondary school, the changes are motivated by the arguments that
“the vocational programmes are too theoretical and many students have a hard time
completing their education”; therefore, “the upper secondary school must be
designed so that it appears meaningful for all young people and motivate them to
make an effort”. The same kinds of reasons are also behind vocational education
and apprenticeship education for adults (Andersson and Wärvik 2012). These state-
ments can be interpreted in two ways. Either the government believes that not all
students have the mental ability (intelligence) to reach the goals in the general sub-
jects at a certain level, irrespective of how much help they get from school, or that
some students will not be able to reach those goals with the help they can get within
the budgetary framework.
94 E. Andersson and G.-B. Wärvik

The government also seems to believe that all students having difficulties in
reaching the goals in the general subjects prefer vocational subjects and find those
subjects more meaningful. This can also be interpreted in two ways: either the
government thinks that students are either theoretically or practically oriented or it
believes that the vocational subjects are easier in every respect. This is, however, not
further elaborated in the bill.
It also lies reasonable to believe that other, more hidden, reasons have been
considered. Keeping vocational and general education apart can, for instance, be
legitimised in a discourse on the necessity of creating elite universities in order to
compete in the international comparisons. To screen out those students not inter-
ested in competing on this level at an early stage can be rational from such a
perspective. Since it is easier to be eligible for a vocational programme, one can
expect students with low grades to choose such a programme and thereby sort
themselves away from the universities. Differentiating between students at an early
age has also traditionally been proposed by the conservative parties (Lundgren 2012).
It is, however, interesting to notice that fewer students applied for a vocational
programme in 2012, after the reform had been launched, than was the case in the
earlier upper secondary school.

Values Connected to Citizenship Versus

Work-Specific Competences

All the programmes at upper secondary level aim to give a good foundation for
work and continued studies as well as for personal development and active citizen-
ship (SFS 2010:800). Examples of values are democracy, human rights and equality
between the sexes. These values should, according to the curriculum, permeate all
the programmes and all subjects; but how the values are to be implemented is not
formulated. However, the values are not repeated in the goals of the different pro-
grammes; nor are they repeated in the goals of the subjects or in the description of
the courses within the subjects. This means that the teachers have to be aware of
these values so that they will be taken into account in the designs of the courses and
the individual lessons. One can be specifically concerned about the position of these
values in the apprenticeship form where most of the education is mediated by work-
ing life supervisors without a proper teacher training. In many respects, it seems as
the responsibility for the less motivated students is handed over to working life and
the trade and industry.
As mentioned above, the time and content of general school subjects have been
largely reduced in the vocational programmes since these are adapted to the
vocation in question. The government argues that the changes will motivate the
students and make them more employable in the labour market (Government Bill
2008/09:199). It is clear that the government believes that vocational subjects are
more motivating than general subjects and apprenticeship education is the most
motivating for those students at risk of dropping out or leaving upper secondary
8 Vocational Education: The Tension Between Educational Flexibility… 95

school without the grades required for graduating. The government also hopes
that the workplaces will “take care of” those students who are in the weakest
position on the labour market, almost a social function. According to the Swedish
independent public service debate, the upper secondary schools, private as well as
municipal, have had great difficulties in finding apprenticeship work placements
for the students (svt.se 2011).
Nylund (2010) argues that the aim of vocational education as it appears in the
official report (SOU 2008:27) is to reproduce existing power relations in society
and make them more effective by producing employable, ready-to-work workers
with competences that match the needs of the labour market. His argument is sup-
ported by a large survey conducted by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprises
in 2007. Seven of ten enterprises answered that they have had difficulties in
recruiting new employees due to the applicants’ shortage of work experience
(Svenskt Näringsliv 2010). Six of ten enterprises mentioned shortage of people
with the “right” education. However, the report does not say anything about what
is meant by “right”, for instance, what kind of skills and competences the enter-
prises are looking for. Small enterprises stated more often than large ones that
they failed to recruit due to lack of competent applicants. One explanation might
be that narrow work-specific competences are more highly valued by those
employers since they cannot afford to pay for too much staff training or to provide
workers with in-service training.

Flexibility Versus Predictability

One of the problems with the previous upper secondary school, pointed to by the
government, was the large number of local programmes and courses. As a result,
students, parents and employers have difficulties in understanding the different
types of education (Government Bill 2008/09:199). However, the government also
stresses the importance of keeping the upper secondary school flexible and taking
into account local and regional needs. This contradiction is close to that of general
and specific competences. Too general and flexible workers may be less loyal to
their employers and may move to other enterprises if they do not feel sufficiently
challenged. On the other hand, these employees can be expected to work more inde-
pendently and have the ability to grasp large working processes. However, this
dilemma is probably more problematic for the representatives of the labour market
than for the government.
Viewed from the government’s point of view, an education system with relatively
stable programmes in the long term may be easier to understand than an open
course-based system. Short-term initiatives, like the ones offered by adult educa-
tion, provide, on the other hand, more flexibility to adapt to changes in the (local)
labour market. The short-term vocational adult education initiatives can also be seen
as a lack of trust in the municipalities’ ability to prioritise between their different
areas of responsibility and their ability to decide what education programmes to
96 E. Andersson and G.-B. Wärvik

arrange and when. These initiatives are thus a way for the state to regain some
control over how tax money is spent. It is, however, too early to say if a break in the
trend towards decentralisation has taken place.

Concluding Remarks

In this chapter, we have discussed how the Swedish education system at upper
secondary and post-upper-secondary level has changed in the last 10 years. From
having been an education system with a large number of general subjects, the system
has now been divided into two types of qualifications, targeting two different student
groups: the highly motivated who are supposed to choose a general programme and
the less motivated who are expected to choose a vocational programme. This can be
related to the government’s challenging task of coping with conflicting problems and
interests. The government seems to stress that what is needed by the labour market
is more vocational subjects. As we discussed earlier, the European Commission
instead points in the opposite direction and stresses the key competences as important
for an efficient labour market and, in the long run, for lowering the unemployment
figures. In this respect, Sweden is moving away from the lifelong learning
policy. This is being done with the intention of keeping students from dropping
out of school and increasing the number of students graduating from the upper
secondary school.

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Chapter 9
Lifelong Learning and Employability

Andreas Fejes

Introduction

Lifelong learning has emerged as a policy area and a policy concept during the last
two decades. In Europe, lifelong learning is especially connected to the Memorandum
on Lifelong Learning, published by the European Commission (2001), which posi-
tions lifelong learning as a central policy concept in the realisation of the commis-
sion’s strategies. As a concept, lifelong learning partly replaces former concepts
such as adult education (Lindeman 1926), and lifelong education. Lifelong learning
have become the dominant manner in which to speak about the education and learn-
ing of adults in policy terms. The shift from speaking about education to speaking
about learning signifies a shift in how citizens are construed. For example, during
the late 1960s and early 1970s, the concept of lifelong education attained a central
position within policy discourse. The catchword was, according to Rubenson
(2004), personal development where people were to ‘make themselves’ instead of
‘being made’. This concept was a humanistic definition of education and was, for
example, produced through the Faure report, Learning to Be, published by UNESCO
(Faure 1972). In the report, we can see how lifelong education is related to a positive
humanistic notion of progress and personal development. Individual development
was by Faure seen as good for society. This type of discourse construes a public
concern for education, and education is seen as a way in which to meet and manage
the changing future. As Rubenson (2004) argued, the idea was that lifelong educa-
tion would enable people to control and adapt to change.
During the 1990s, we can see how the concept of lifelong education was replaced
by lifelong learning within the policy texts. Lifelong learning was used by UNESCO
in 1994 as a midterm strategy for the coming years, and the OECD (1996) published

A. Fejes (*)
Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Division for Education
and Adult Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 99
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_9, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
100 A. Fejes

the report Making Lifelong Learning a Reality for All. Lifelong learning also became
a cornerstone in Jacques Delors’ white paper on competitiveness and economic
growth within the European Union in 1994, and the European Commission then
declared 1996 as the European year of lifelong learning. In 2001, the European
Commission (2001) published their Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (The
Lisbon Strategy), which positioned lifelong learning as a central policy concept in
the realisation of the commission’s strategies, which had the goal of shaping Europe
into a knowledge-based society. The policy indicated a shift from a humanistic to an
economic discourse (cf. Fejes and Nicoll 2008; Rubenson 2004). In 2010, the
Lisbon Strategy was replaced by a new policy agenda (European Commission 2010)
that further outlined a long-term strategy for lifelong learning that included an ini-
tiative aiming to integrate work and education as a lifelong learning process. At the
same time, talk about lifelong learning and a ‘research, education and innovation’
triangle in European policy (European Commission 2009, p. 2) suggested that there
was a new emphasis on the relationship between knowledge production and lifelong
leaning in the contemporary discourses of governing. This new emphasis suggests a
shift from positioning lifelong learning as a support for creating a knowledge-based
economy to positioning lifelong learning as an integral part of the work and knowl-
edge production processes (Nicoll and Fejes 2011).
The shift from speaking about education to speaking about learning can be seen
as problematics of governing which is a situation in which the issues regarding
government are problematised (cf. Fejes and Nicoll 2008). Today, learning is dis-
cursively inserted into practices that were not previously construed as practices of
learning. Learning is related to not only formal schooling, such as adult education
institutions or universities, but also, for example, the workplace, family life, media,
crime prevention and health promotion. Thus, in a Foucauldian-inspired reading of
these changes, there has been a reconfiguration of the relations of power, which has
effects in terms of what type of subject is defined as desirable and the type of gov-
ernance that is operating (cf. Fejes and Nicoll 2008).
While education often refers to a relationship between the educator and the stu-
dent (a relational concept), learning refers to an activity that a person can do by
herself/himself (cf. Biesta 2006). This relational aspect can also be seen in the use
of the term ‘adult learner’ (cf. Fejes 2006). Therefore, the argument here is that
learning becomes an individualised and all-embracing activity at the same time that
it becomes the responsibility of the individual. Learning is something that is always
taking place, and each and every citizen needs to take responsibility for learning and
for acquiring knowledge that will be helpful in directing one’s life towards self-
fulfilment and towards the good of society. Life has been colonised to become a life
of learning.
This discursive shift from education to learning is related to a reconfiguration of
the relationship between the public and the private. Instead of a public concern for
education as a way in which to control and plan the future, there is now a concern for
learning as a way in which to manage a future that we know nothing about except
that it is constantly changing (Fejes 2006). A society that is construed as constantly
changing does not need to rule governed citizens but rather flexible and adaptable
9 Lifelong Learning and Employability 101

citizens. The management of learning is conducted by constantly encouraging the

citizens to make their own individual choices (concerning learning); thus, the citi-
zens are shaped to become ‘free’ and active subjects (Fejes and Dahlstedt 2012; Fejes
and Nicoll 2008). This encouragement is conducted through numerous practices. As
argued by Biesta (2006), these shifts in discourse have transformed lifelong learning
from a right to a duty and responsibility. All of the citizens who participate in learn-
ing activities accept that they are indeed learners and, as such, that they are in con-
stant need of learning. What is needed is citizens who develop a constant ‘will’ to
learn. The shift, thus, not only brings with it a focus on learning but also on the
learner. More than previously, educational policy positions the learner as responsible
for her/his own learning (cf. Fejes 2010).
Closely connected to discourses on lifelong learning and the repositioning of the
learner in terms of responsibility are discourses on employability. A couple of
decades ago, employability emerged as discourse, which replaced the previous way
of describing the workforce (cf. Clarke and Patrickson 2008; McQuaid and Lindsay
2005). Instead of speaking about a shortage of employment and describing the citi-
zen as employed or unemployed, policy now spoke about a lack of employability
and the citizen came to be described as employable or not employable (Garsten and
Jacobsson 2004) or in need of employability skills. Employability is currently used
as an explanation, and to some extent a legitimation, of unemployment (cf. Fejes
2010). This kind of discourse positions the citizen as responsible for her/his own
employment, and less emphasis is placed on structural inequalities and problems in
the labour market. Thus, discourses on employability and lifelong learning seem to
signify a shift in terms of how government is conducted and how the citizen is posi-
tioned as a subject of government. The aim of this chapter is to analyse how govern-
ing operates in the present time through discourses on lifelong learning and
employability. A special interest is directed at what kind of citizen is being shaped
through such discourses and how such discourses is taken up and shaped by those
who are their target.

Theorising and Analysis Government

As my interest is in analysing how governing operates within discourses on lifelong

learning and employability, the analysis was conducted drawing on a governmental-
ity perspective (cf. Foucault 2007; Fejes and Nicoll 2008). Governmentality
emerged in Foucault’s (2007) later writings. Here, government is analysed as some-
thing more complex than the government of the nation state: it involves the govern-
ment of ourselves, the government of others and the government of the state. Further,
there is a focus on liberal mentalities of governing. Liberalism is not seen as an
ideology that can be related to a specific political party. Instead, liberalism is seen
here as a mode of governing or ideas about how governing should be conducted.
Foucault (2007) argues that during the last few centuries, there has been a
shift in rationalities of government and how governing operates in society – from
102 A. Fejes

a situation in which society was planned through legislation and repression to a

situation where governing is conducted by the citizens themselves. Here, the
notion of freedom is important. The governmentality of today is dependent on
the freedom of the citizen. The starting point within such rationality of governing
is that the freedom of the citizen is both a prerequisite and an effect of governing.
Without the freedom to choose, there is only a situation of constraint, and thus
there is no governing.
There is a different notion of the state related to such a perspective – a decentred
state. The state is not an a priori actor who does things. Instead, it is seen here as an
epistemological pattern of assumptions of how governing should operate (cf. Fejes
and Nicoll 2008). In his writing, Rose (1999) has called the contemporary state the
‘enabling state’. An important aspect of such a state is providing the opportunity
(enabling) for citizens to make choices in accordance with her/his wishes and
desires; thus, the political ambition to govern coincides with individual dreams and
aspirations. Here, freedom is both the prerequisite and the output of governing.
Based on the above, this chapter will draw on a governmentality perspective to
analyse how discourses on lifelong learning and employability are mobilised in the
wider discursive terrain of governance. How does governance operate, what subject
is produced and, more specifically, how are these discourses taken up by those who
are their target?
The chapter is part of a wider project on how the learning adult is being shaped
and fostered through discourses and practices of lifelong learning. The argument
pursued connects to prior policy analyses of policies on lifelong learning (e.g. Fejes
2005, 2006, 2008a; Fejes and Nicoll 2008) and analyses of interviews and observa-
tions within elderly care work (Fejes 2008b, 2010, 2011, 2012; Fejes and Andersson
2009; Fejes and Nicoll 2010, 2011; Fejes and Dahlstedt 2012). The latter empirical
material is related to an in-service training programme for workers in elderly care
(health-care workers, HCA) who were provided the opportunity to, during work
hours, have their prior learning recognised in order to receive a certificate from the
health-care programme on upper secondary school level. Previously, working as an
HCA required either no formal competencies or a 10-week course in care work.
Although people with little or no education are still employed, employers (munici-
palities and private companies) increasingly advertise for licensed practical nurses
(LPNs) instead of HCAs. Employment as an LPN normally requires a health-care
certificate or equivalent. The increasing demand on formal education means people
already employed as HCAs do not meet present-day requirements for new employ-
ees, leaving them unemployable if they decide to change employers (Fejes 2010),
thus excluding them from the labour market. Thus, the in-service training pro-
gramme provided some HCAs with the opportunity to meet the present-day qualifi-
cation requirements.
As the specific focus of this chapter is on how transnational discourses on life-
long learning and employability are shaped and taken up by those who are their
target, an analysis of both policy documents and interviews has been conducted.
In order to identify transnational discourses on lifelong learning and employabil-
ity, policy papers written by the EC and the OECD on those topics were analysed
9 Lifelong Learning and Employability 103

(EC 2001, 2007; OECD 1998, 2005). Interviews with 14 care workers, working at
6 different nursing homes, were analysed in order to identify how discourses on
employability and lifelong learning were taken up and shaped by those who are
their target (for more elaboration on the entire empirical material, see, e.g. Fejes
and Andersson 2009).
Policy papers and interviews have been analysed as text, drawing on a discourse
perspective (Foucault 2007; Fejes 2006). By analysing texts and focusing on state-
ments, it is possible to see how the world is constituted in the specific practice
analysed. More precisely, the analyses have focused on what is being stated, how it
is being stated and what is being constituted through such statements.

Travelling Discourses

If we turn to policymaking in the EU, we can see how a more flexible labour market
and measures for making work pay are seen as response to the challenges of globali-
sation. Such measures should be combined with employment security and invest-
ment in human capital as a way to improve employability (EC 2007, p. 11). Citizens
should be offered the opportunity to participate in training, thus becoming better
prepared to get a job. Similar ideas are raised by the OECD, which argues for the
need of investment in human capital to manage ourselves in the knowledge-based
economy. Human capital is proposed as a solution to present and future problems
within the knowledge-based economies. A truth is constructed about the future,
which needs to be managed by creating citizens who are flexible, adaptable and
constant learners; thus, there is an emphasis on the responsibility of the individual
to become such a subject (OECD 1998, p. 3).
We can also see how the EU documents construe a more flexible labour market as
a solution to unemployment. Further, human capital and lifelong learning are advanced
as a way to face the uncertain future. However, there is a noticeable difference in the
focus of the EU as compared to the OECD. The OECD (1998) discourse on employ-
ability is more economically driven than the EU discourse. For example, the focus of
the OECD is on the knowledge-based economy, instead of the knowledge-based soci-
ety promoted by the EU (2001). Further, according to the OECD (1998, p. 9) human
capital is foremost an investment in skills that can be utilised to increase economic
prosperity and employability. However, it is also recognised that social issues such as
equal distribution of skills are important (OECD 2005, p. 1).
However, even though aspects of equality are raised, the framing for such discus-
sions is within an economically driven discourse where the main goal is an overall
good economic performance. The economic discourse is present in the EU policy
texts. However, such a discourse is also closely related to ideas about social cohe-
sion. Social inclusion and personal fulfilment are emphasised as important goals in
connection with employability and lifelong learning. Even though economic goals
are important, learning for personal or civic purposes is stressed as a ‘good’ goal in
itself (EC 2001, p. 9).
104 A. Fejes

Despite the differences between the OECD and the EU discourses on employability,
we can see how subjects are positioned in a similar way in terms of responsibility for
their employability. Flexibility and adaptability are emphasised in the OECD texts as
something that should be an individual characteristic. Adaptability signifies a subject
who is responsible for being adaptable to new and changing circumstances in the
labour market. The citizen needs to train and retrain, to be mobile and flexible as a way
to be able to keep herself/himself employable. Such a connection between adaptability
and employability is also clearly emphasised by the EU where ‘the employability and
adaptability of citizens is vital for Europe to maintain its commitment to becoming the
most competitive and dynamic knowledge based society in the world’ (EC 2001, p. 6).
To sum up so far, discourses on lifelong learning and employability operating in
the EU and OECD documents include ideas about economic prosperity and develop-
ment, social cohesion and equality and flexibility and adaptability of the citizen. Even
though there seem to be a consensus perspective promoted via these documents where
the state, the employer and the individual are all positioned as being jointly responsi-
ble for creating the ‘good’ future, where lifelong learning and investment in human
capital are central, it is still the individual who is positioned as responsible for becom-
ing adaptable and flexible as a way to become/remain employable. One could say that
there is a responsibilisation of the individual (Rose 1999). The individual needs to
take responsibility for using the opportunities for lifelong learning, by means of edu-
cation and in-service training, offered by the state and the market, thus transforming
herself/himself into an employable person. The role of the state is then more distanced
than was previously the case (Fejes and Nicoll 2008; Fejes 2006). Now, structures for
supporting the individual in her/his own choice are created instead of collectively
planning the future by means of legislative measures and regulations.
Turning to the interviews with those working in elderly care, we can see how a
statement repeated in the interview transcripts is the idea that the municipality and
the private companies (where the interviewees are employed) have changed their
demands on their employees. Now, they are demanding that all their personnel
should have the higher qualification of the two levels most common among the
employees. The new requirements create a future threat, which needs to be tackled
by means of more education and learning. In the following statement by one care
worker, we can see how such an idea is created when she describes why she partici-
pates in the programme.
Foremost to secure your job…To secure your job in the future, to avoid being kicked out
when one becomes…, I am 44 years old. If this home were privatised, I might feel that I
don’t want to stay here. I want to be employed by the municipality, and then I wouldn’t
stand a chance of getting a job in the municipality, I think, only with [the lower level quali-
fication]. (Sofie)

Such statement constructs a strong individual responsibility. The individual her-

self construes future threats in terms of not being able to continue as an employee in
the future. Such threats should be faced by updating one’s qualification. Such state-
ments can also be interpreted as a way of handling future risks within the framework
of which competencies need to be increased as a way of participating in the compe-
tition for new jobs. Here there is a risk of the nursing home being privatised
9 Lifelong Learning and Employability 105

(operated by a company instead of the municipality) and the risk of not having the
right qualifications. Other statements support the idea about risk. For example, as
expressed by one care worker:
Because I…now I believe, now I’m this old. But I think in this way, you never know with
the municipality. Without notice – poff, and then we are privatised. And it will probably not
get better now when we have a right-wing government because then every nursing home
should be privately run. And I believe this will lead to them saying that they only want
LPNs. And I mean, it’s not…it’s a requirement, I understand that the requirement should be
an LPN. So, partly, and then I wanted to study to become an LPN. Yes, I think it’s fun! Very
hard, but fun. You are happy every time you have taken an exam. (Jasmine)

Here, we can see how the care worker identifies risks of not being qualified as an
LPN, something she relates to the politics of the conservative government. On the
other hand, she construes the qualification of LPNs as an ideal sought after by her-
self. In other words, these statements construct an idea of risk and self-responsibility.
The handling of risk is the responsibility of the individual. Each person should make
their own calculation of risks in the future, and education and in-service training can
be a tool to counter those risks.
Despite the role of self-responsibility, there is also to some extent a responsibili-
sation of the municipality and the state. They are the ones positioned as responsible
to make possible participation in in-service training. Several statements in the inter-
views with the care workers concern the necessity of financial support as a condition
for participation in in-service training. If the in-service training for the care workers
had not taken place during paid workdays financed by the municipality and the
state, participation would have been limited, according to the interview participants.
For example, as expressed by Beverly:
Yes, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t have participated if it hadn’t taken place during
working hours. It was about seizing the opportunity when offered. To participate in the
education. Otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the initiative to apply for participation in a
regular programme, thus having to take time off work to be able to study. I wouldn’t have
done that. (Beverly)

Through such statements there is a responsibilisation of the individual, at the

same time as the individual is positioned in relation to the employer and the state.
The latter two are constructed as enablers making it possible for the individuals to
realise their wishes – in this case, to increase their employability and to make some-
thing interesting and fun.

Final Remarks

In the last 30 years, there has been a shift from speaking about employment to
speaking about employability (Garsten and Jacobsson 2004). The discourses on
lifelong learning and employability have been taken up in several areas such as
education and labour market policies. In this chapter I have argued that an indi-
vidual responsibility of the citizen to become and stay employable is constructed
106 A. Fejes

through transnational policymaking on lifelong learning and employability.

Further, I have illustrated how those working in elderly care themselves take up
and produce similar discourses by positioning themselves as responsible for their
own employability.
In one way, the responsibilisation of the individual can be seen as illustrating
how a different mode of governing has emerged than was previously the case. One
could say that the role of the state is redefined from being a distributor of resources
to offering services (Garsten and Jacobsson 2004), or as Rose (1999) argues, there
has been a shift from a social state to an enabling state, where the state should make
it possible for the citizen to make active choices. The employer is partly positioned
in the same way – making it possible for the individual to stay employable in rela-
tion to the workplace in which she/he works. Thus, the individual is positioned as
responsible for making use of the opportunities offered as a way of transforming
herself/himself into an employable citizen.
Another way to phrase these changes is that the state has become distanced from
the governing practice. Governing should now be conducted via each citizen’s ‘free’
choices. This is particularly visible in the statements analysed from the interviews
with health-care workers. Here, participation in in-service training is construed as
desirable in relation to the future even though it is voluntarily to participate. In this
way, we can see how there is no need for governing to operate through legislative
measures. Instead, governing can operate powerfully through discourses on lifelong
learning and employability by enabling active choices.

Acknowledgements The research on which this chapter is based was made possible by a grant
from the Swedish Research Council.

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Chapter 10
Human Capital and Human Action in Lifelong
Learning: Questions Concerning the Revival
of a Seemingly Obvious Theory

Despina Tsakiris

Introduction

The financial crisis plaguing EU countries today is an occasion to analyse the

functioning of its underlying economic, political and social institutions. The mem-
ber states’ recessional economies seem to lead – openly or not – to a questioning of
the whole undertaking of uniting Europe and primarily of the legislative, political,
economic and social institutions upon which it was founded.1 People thus find
themselves before a political situation where uncertainty and the unpredictability of
how things will develop leave them helpless and frightened of the declaration of
economic catastrophe.
In view of these circumstances, this chapter seeks to explore the tenacious influ-
ence of certain capitalist economic ideologies, which find application in the educa-
tional policies of lifelong learning. More specifically, interest is focused on the idea
of human capital as it is presented in education policy texts, as an economic theory
that seeks to explain human action in the work activity. In these texts, emphasis is
placed on the way this theory is interwoven with the mission and the role of lifelong
learning. The theory of human capital, which was formulated by the two Nobel
prize-winning economists Theodore Schultz (1961) and Gary Becker (1964), has
returned to the discourse of supranational bodies (the EU and the OECD), aiming at
laying down policies concerning the mission, role and organization of education in
general and of lifelong learning in specific.

1
I am referring to the statements made by the European Heads of national and supranational
authorities in Greece in the spring of 2012 during the pre-election campaign, aiming at creating a
government able to deal with the “financial crisis” the country is experiencing. These statements
concerned the hypothetical political scenario of Greece exiting the Eurozone.
D. Tsakiris (*)
Department of Social and Educational Policy, University of Peloponnese, Korinthos, Greece
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 109
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_10, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
110 D. Tsakiris

In this chapter, I attempt to shed light on the social significations of lifelong

learning promoted through this particular economic theory in order to highlight the
way meaning is given to human action and to elucidate the organizational elements,
which triggers the motivation of human resources and potential. In this context, I pro-
vide a general overview of the basic institutional texts that establish lifelong learning
as an economic strategy, and I refer to the basic principles on which the theory of
human capital is founded. I then present the social critical approaches levelled at this
theory. Finally, I highlight the social significations of the economic rationalism that
the theory of human capital proposes, illuminating the imaginary dimensions the logic
of “capital”, which has been promoted as the uncontested regulator of human action.

Lifelong Learning as an Economic Strategy

The value of lifelong learning is nowadays undisputed. A series of official documents

bear witness to its acceptance and establishment as an institution.2 This paper focuses
on the EU Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (2000), precisely because this text
is used as a springboard for further discussion and action since it states that lifelong
learning is no longer merely one aspect of education and learning, but is the guiding
principle of all actions over the whole spectrum of education. In the Memorandum
one may ascertain not only the institutional recognition and establishment of lifelong
learning but its primacy in dealing with recessional economies as well as with their
political, social and cultural repercussions.
However, statistics reveal that only one-third of the EU population aged 25–64
participates in lifelong learning and formal, non-formal or informal training, mainly
motivated by the option of choosing a better career or advancing its career. For the
remaining two-thirds of the population, family obligations and heavy workloads do
not foster their involvement in the learning process (Alison 2012).3 At the same
time, over the last 20 years, there has been a considerable reduction in vocational
training as state-subsidized programmes have seen a corresponding decrease. The
same applies to further training budgets in the business sector.
With the onset of the financial crisis, the economic upheaval in public spending
drove EU members to slash lifelong learning budgets and mainly to weaken further
education programmes targeting employability, given that these types of programmes
are not easily transferable and, as such, are unprofitable.

2
Also see:
– Lisbon Treaty (European Council 2000)
– Lifelong Guidance Expert Group-LGEG, 2000
– EU Official Journal C 295 05/12/2003
– Keeley (2007)
– EU Official Journal C 119 28/05/2009
3
Eurostat statistics. See: http://epp.eurostata.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/
lifelong_learning_statistics
10 Human Capital and Human Action in Lifelong Learning… 111

In the midst of the crisis, there is a dearth of data (qualitative and quantitative)
allowing for a review of the selected strategies’ repercussions in the field of life-
long learning. Nonetheless, the emerging trends beg the question of how far the
advocated rationalistic strategies for lifelong learning (EU Commission 2000),
such as that of human capital, express a form of rationalist thinking that truly
serves the stated aims or is simply a construction that conceals certain goals that
are incompatible with those openly advocated. This can be ascertained primarily in
the EU Commission’s six key messages contained in the Memorandum on lifelong
learning, which refer to (a) the announced aims in education for the active involve-
ment of citizens in learning and society as well as the boosting of employability
and (b) the means of achieving these aims, where it is mentioned that “education
and training systems should adapt to individual needs and demands rather than
the other way round” (p. 8). It is in this context that we need to understand “what
counts as investment” (p. 12) in human resources and the way “to ensure the
replenishment of the skills pool” (p. 12). More specifically, while it seems that on
the rhetorical level the reference to knowledge capital contained the various fields
of knowledge necessary for the citizens’ active participation in society as well as
the improvement of employability and reduction of unemployment, in fact the
subject of capital investment knowledge become those skills meet requirements
just labour market. Apparently, the problem is not promoting employability through
investment in learning, but it is basing learning on the rationale of human capital,
which, despite not being expressed as such, is, nonetheless, implied by the claims
this approach makes.

Governing Principles of the “Theory of Human Capital”

and Critical Approaches

The theory of human capital has undoubtedly enjoyed particular success in the past
and present. With the Lisbon Treaty, the concept of “capital” defines the aspirations
of educational policy.
The ruling educational doctrine clearly mentioned in Brian Keeley’s book,
Human Capital: How What You Know Shapes Your Life (Keeley 2007), is based on
the concept of human capital. This plays a crucial role in the pursuit of strategic
goals because it gathers together the knowledge, skills, competencies and personal
qualities that facilitate the creation of personal, social and economic prosperity
(OCDE 2001, p. 18).
According to Laval (2003), the success of this theory in supranational organiza-
tions is due to the fact that it advocates “long-term development” on the other hand,
but mostly because it is an economic rationalization of education expenses that was
acceptable to national and supranational decision-makers.
The return of human capital to the fore of economic theories is of particular
importance in this chapter not so that we can juxtapose it with other economic
112 D. Tsakiris

theories4 but so as to illuminate the significations of the reappearance of the specific

conceptual context, which holds a prominent place in institutional discourse. As
Poulain (2001) mentions, human capital is acknowledged as a category of practice
and a commonly accepted interpretation of the relation between humans and their
work and remuneration. It is from this perspective that we place particular emphasis
on the way in which human activities take on meaning through the theory of human
capital with the ultimate aim of illuminating its influence on the social signification
of lifelong learning.
As the contemporary proponent of this neoclassical theory, Schultz (1977)
defined human capital as all the skills, knowledge and competencies that allow for
improvement in human production. Developing this notion further, Becker (1993)
placed emphasis on the relationship between educational level and income pro-
ductivity as well as on the relation between the amassment of human capital and
economic development.
The theorists of human capital (Becker 1975; Willis 1986) view the productivity
of education as a working theory that is formulated not to explain salary differences
but to clarify the gap between real economic development and that which arises
from production factors. According to human capital theorists, this difference
is explained by the qualitative development of the work factor, which is attributed
to education and experience.
Based on the above, one may ascertain that in this neoclassical theory there is a
cause and effect relationship between education and remuneration. However, this
relationship raises the issue of its validity concerning economic reality because, as
Poulain (2001) mentions, any remunerative differences amongst earners are mainly
due to the size of the capital stocks (Knowledge) and not to “rental fee” paid by
employers per unit of stocks.
The critical approaches levelled at the theory of human capital is not only limited
to the economic issues this theory raises but also concerns issues raised by the soci-
ology of education, which are related to the theory of selection. The proponents of
the selection theory (Bourdieu and Passeron 1964, 1970; Baudelot and Establet
1971; Bowles and Gintis 1976) dispute the fact that education increases the produc-
tivity of the earners. This dispute is linked with the view that education aims not at
producing suitable competencies and skills but at spotting and selecting those earn-
ers who already possess these skills. The sociologists of education maintain that by
employing the rhetoric of equal opportunities, schools propagate social inequalities,
thus serving its selective function.
Laval (2003), on the other hand, holds that economists define human capital
as that stock of knowledge which is of economic value and is embedded within
the individual. The term “human capital” includes many privileges that the indi-
vidual can take advantage of in the work market and can be recognized by
employers as potential sources of value, such as physical appearance, manners
and the health of the individual. More specifically, this term possesses the

4
Such as the theory of distribution regarding the functions of profits or the theory of development
emphasizing domestic development and the economy of development. See Poulain (2001).
10 Human Capital and Human Action in Lifelong Learning… 113

advantage of translating and rationalizing the shortcomings of the equation

between the school diploma and employment at a time when there is an infla-
tionary increase in the number of degrees, thus justifying employers’ selections
when the assessment of earners’ employability is based on unofficial criteria,
such as social background (Laval 2003).
From an economic standpoint, of course, this view comes under question given
that school is proven to be a very costly mechanism if its role is limited only to
pinpointing those who possess suitable skills and businesses do not shape the hier-
archy of salaries in accordance with the hierarchy of the educational system. We can
therefore assume that through schools there is a reward regarding the payback of the
skills produced by the educational system (Poulain 2001). The question is how the
individual gains this reward and through which manipulations the state ends up
managing it.

Analysis of the Conceptual Context of the Theory

of Human Capital

The concept of human capital and specifically its theoretical construct appeared in
the 1960s when economic development was linked not only to production factors
but also to the quality of manual labour, which was attributed to workers’ educa-
tional level.
In this socio-economic context, the idea of investing in capital is highlighted, an
idea that Schultz maintains is that the formation of a human model, which can be
perceived by observed phenomena, can be explained as a component of the indi-
vidual’s action. The same applies to the construction of cognitive concepts, which
should agree with categories of practice, such as that of human capital.
At first glance, Schultz’s reappearance in institutional discourse seems to occur
in order to emphasize the quality aspect of labour and to stress the role of the indi-
vidual in relation to the education/productivity/remuneration triad at the foundation
of the neoclassical theory. Acknowledging something like this on the part of the
political and economic powers, however, constituted in essence the legitimization of
an individualistic perception5 and by extension the neo-liberal theory with which
the individualistic perception finds itself in full agreement. It is worth noting that its
legitimization was not solely the result of political and economic powers but also of
other groups, which, theoretically at least, counterbalance the above powers, such as
labour unions, which adopted the conceptual context of human capital in their
phraseology and practices (Laval 2003).
The term “human capital” is essentially a metaphor for the idea of investing in
knowledge. As a metaphor, however, it creates a misleading translation of the idea
of investing in knowledge precisely because its semantic core is exclusively linked

5
We see this mainly in Becker, who maintains that human capital is a private commodity that
yields profit to the person who owns it.
114 D. Tsakiris

to productivity profits. In brief, we might say that the semantic content of the above
concept implies that individuals possess those potentialities that they must culti-
vate and develop throughout the course of their lives in order to increase their
productivity and by extension their financial gains and social privileges. Hence,
acquiring this capital is to the benefit of the individual, a benefit which is based on
a rationale of utility. Precisely this utilitarianism presupposes that the choice of
occupation as well as development or reconversion is one dimensional; ergo the
sole motivation in the choice of occupation is financial. In other words, according
to the above rationale, what is pushed aside and ignored is the projection of the
individual into the future through representations formed in relation to circumstan-
tial social conditions and values, but mostly in relation to the way individuals com-
prehend their actions by means of their personal and social history. When this
rationale of utility finds application in lifelong learning, it implies that individuals
opt for and become involved in the learning process as a rationalistic effort to
acquire higher financial gains. The intensity of the effort seems to be defined by the
reward expected from the investment in question. In a similar way, the funding of
the training procedure is also dependent on the expected profits and the utility of
the acquired skills (Laval 2003).
These utilitarian views of education have a major influence on dominant represen-
tations. They create a double standard in the field of education for those who are
acknowledged as cost-efficient and those who do not perform well. This rationale also
defines lifelong learning, where those who benefit from training are the executives and
not the simple employees. Hence, the rhetoric concerning equal opportunities seems
to be refuted as well because it contradicts the defence of the rationale of utility.

Τhe Imaginary Significations of the Return of the “Capital”

Rationale to Lifelong Learning

By calling upon the theory of human capital, economic organizations laid the ideo-
logical foundations of a new order of things in education, an approach that essen-
tially depersonalized the individual because it took it for a rationalistic and unbiased
being. Despite the fact that in 1993 Becker himself condemned the claim according
to which people are regarded as machines from the point of the human capital
theory, in reality what Becker maintains is that according to this theory, the immaterial
wealth of individuals, that is, their intelligence and their skills, are transplanted into
the heart of economic and social progress.
We have already mentioned numerous times that the concept of human capital is
based on a utilitarian rationale. There is, however, the question of how this school
of thought came into being and which imaginary significations shaped its content.
In the nineteenth century, Bentham formulated his utilitarian philosophy, main-
taining that happiness is the only thing people can aspire to (Liechti 2007). Utility
is defined as pleasure and satisfying desire. In this sense, utility constitutes from
this point on a unit of measurement that allows for the assessment of pleasures.
10 Human Capital and Human Action in Lifelong Learning… 115

The cardinal rule of utility is proven to be his famous “felicific calculus”, the algorithm
Bentham formulated to show that any amount of pleasure corresponds to a level
of happiness. These “elements”, as Bentham called them, are the database for
calculating one’s personal well-being.
This theory was later developed by Mill, who, through the prism of morality,
defined two concepts to provide the basis for utilitarianism: pleasure and the absence
of pain (Liechti 2007). According to utilitarianism, the concepts of pleasure and the
absence of pain are not purely sensory manifestations and thus are not part of an
intuitive approach. On the contrary, as part of the Epicurean tradition, they are
considered the expression of intelligence and, as such, fall within the jurisdiction of
rational thinking, that is, they are considered rationalistic skills that can be defined
in relation to the utility they provide (Sen 2000, p. 32).
In addition, the choices (be they beneficial or not) individuals make, they do so
in connection to the environment to which they belong or have access, in relation to
their preferences, which reflect a myriad of various and different social influences
and are more or less random from an economic perspective (Castoriadis 1997).
Based on the above, we can see that in utilitarianism, the individual ceases to
exist as a subject, that is, a psychical being with representations, intentionalities,
desires and emotions; the individual is seen as a being of idealized rationalism and
makes his/her decisions based on financial motives. What is curious about the
theory of human capital and especially about decision-makers who have revived it
in politics is that they seem to disregard History, Sociology, as well as Psychology,
Psychoanalysis and the Psycho-sociology of Groups and Organizations, the sci-
ences, that is, that showed that no one functions as a unit in order to judge what is
useful or not. The individual is born, brought up and dies within an organizational
context. The theories of organization precisely demonstrated the mutual influences
of humans and organizations, each theory expressing in this way a different ideo-
logical perception of humans and organization.6
Ever since 1913, Sigmund Freud proved in his work The Claims of Psycho-
Analysis to Scientific Interest the significance of the unconscious not only for the
individual but for society as a whole (Freud 1953). In his works Totem and Taboo
(1912–1913) and Moses and Monotheism (1939), he highlights how the uncon-
scious plays a definitive role in the whole spectrum of human behaviour and in the
way social bonds are forged either in the context of a whole society or of an organi-
zation or group (Freud 1955, 1964). As Enriquez (2003) indicatively mentions,
Freud’s contribution allowed us to comprehend the evolution of the social bond
when he describes that individuals do not exist outside the social milieu and are
constantly torn between the expression of their personal desires (recognition of their
desires) and the need to identify with others (i.e. the desire for recognition).
Based on the above we are led to a series of questions: Why has this instrumental
rationalism become dominant as compared to any other form of thought? Why is it
covertly and through unconscious mechanisms plaguing the individual and social
strategies as well as decision-making procedures concerned with education and

6
For an analytical description of the theories, see: Petit (1979).
116 D. Tsakiris

particularly lifelong learning? What are the conscious or unconscious intentions

underlying human action so that it is lent meaning by the theory of human capital?
How can we put up a strong resistance to the infiltration of an economic rationale of
human action in area of lifelong learning?
According to Castoriadis (1997), the boundless expansion of faith in a rational-
istic mastery of social and economic processes led political theory to a backslide in
the field of economics, which in this phase is embodied in the neo-liberal and mon-
etary dictates of capitalism. A context is being formed within which the meaning of
work is being destroyed, the role of humans in the production process of work and
knowledge is being obliterated and the role of the state is becoming dismantled.
Perhaps it is strange to be speaking still of “rationalistic economy” at a time
when the rate of unemployment in Greece is near the 21 % mark and the only solu-
tion suggested is the reduction in inflation and budget deficits. Even more curious is
the ideological regression plaguing Western societies for one to three decades now.
As Castoriadis mentions, the criticism made between 1930 and 1965 by the scholars
of economic policy of the Cambridge school of thought have either been hushed up
or forgotten, while the reintroduction of certain political views, such as that of
human capital, appears on the scene as self-evident and well-meaning.
For Castoriadis, the capitalist system is the only social system that produces an
ideology according to which it is self-proclaimed as a rationalistic social system. In
other words, capitalism has not only legitimized rationalism but elevated it to an
institution.7 This becomes even more interesting when the legitimization and inclu-
sion of this rationalistic approach in institutional discourse is established as non-
negotiable, that is, self-evident.
It is not possible to answer the question why this form of rationalism dominated
the existing system because, according to Castoriadis, this trend cannot be inferred
from any historical or economic analysis. We can, however, link it to another domi-
nant trend: that of mastery. Capitalism’s propensity for mastery differs from other
similar trends one finds in other social systems whose primary aspiration was to
conquer others. This particular trend of capitalism concerns society as a whole and
not just the economy. It extends to education, justice and politics, for example,
and it makes use of rationalized extremes (Castoriadis 1997, p. 37). This is why
Castoriadis maintains that this impulsion towards an endless expansion of rational-
istic mastery is of core significations in the capitalistic system.
The dominant social imaginary significations that governs the theory of human
capital and the utilitarian rationale on which it is founded are the continual effort to
present the economic system in the applied field of lifelong learning as a field of
“scientificity” that is both inevitable and the best. Castoriadis (1997) says indica-
tively that it is impossible even if one did map exercises in order to go from the
reality of oligopolistic markets to general equilibriums, improving something other
than the profits of the oligopolies or, more specifically, of the groups that rule them.

7
Castoriadis says that every society legitimizes and lays down its institutions. The question is to
which degree each society allows for a questioning of its institutions and hence their potential
contestation.
10 Human Capital and Human Action in Lifelong Learning… 117

Of course, in the existing system all activities are defined as economic and the
results of these activities are regarded as “products” whose assigned value is given
only in economic terms. Even when the existing system displays interest in other
noneconomic activities – such as civic duty, interest and participation in public
affairs, social justice and solidarity – not only do they not overshadow the domi-
nance of the individual’s economic interests, but they constitute a rationalization or
an excuse in order to conceal the submission of all human activities to economy. An
indicative example is the labelling of lifelong learning as an economic and cultural
strategy, initially adopted by the Lisbon Treaty and established by the Memorandum
on Lifelong Learning. More specifically, by claiming that through investing in
human resources enables people to “manage their own ‘time-life portfolios’”, the
memorandum promotes an individualistic perspective and attempts to rationalize
the involvement of industrial corporations in lifelong learning by calling on moral-
istic motives such as “introducing a European award for particularly progressive
companies” (Memorandum, Key message 2, p. 12) and “progressive employers”
(Memorandum, Key message 2, p. 13). This attempted social simplification cancels
out the specific ideological superstructure for “investment in knowledge”. The text
in question essentially presents the individual as able “to contribute to the cost of
their own learning through special savings and deposits” (Memorandum, Key
Message 2, p. 12). In other words, the text places the individual in an economic,
social and political setting where prosperity and a balanced distribution of incomes
prevail. This scenario, however, is in stark contrast with the recessional economic
state of many countries plagued by unemployment, part-time employment, unequal
opportunities for accessing (quality) education, the low quality of general education
and training as well as people who display passivity and a lack of interest in civic
life (Memorandum, p. 4–5), features which were, in fact, the springboard for the
drafting of this Memorandum.
This, therefore, is how one might explain that, despite all the rhetoric in defence
of personal desires and aspirations and social needs, what the question ultimately
boils down to is:
How can investment in learning be made more tangible and transparent for the individual
and for the employer or enterprise, in particular by strengthening financial incentives and
removing disincentives? What are promising ways to encourage and enable individuals to
co-fund and take control of their own learning? (Memorandum, p. 13)

In the face of this pecuniary approach to lifelong learning and in spite of these
difficult times, a plethora of training programmes whose topic is the discontent
of professionals (educators, psychologists, social workers, therapists, etc.), who
are occupied with human relations. These are programmes through which the
participants attempt to deal with the complex professional daily reality, be it
educational, therapeutic, advisory or supportive, without promoting or seeking
profit (Blanchard-Laville 2001; Giust-Desprairies 1997, 2005; Cifali and Giust-
Desprairies 2006; Tsakiris 2010).
Of course, the criteria that will define the “product” of training (which sectors it
will pertain to, which aims it will serve, what its content will be, by which organi-
zational methods it will be implemented and what the cost will amount to) generally
118 D. Tsakiris

depend on the social imaginary significations that society itself has set (Castoriadis
1975). The social imaginary significations on which the economic rationalism pro-
posed by the theory of human capital is based show that all human action must or
should serve the idea of capital, which is considered either self-evident or impera-
tive even if reality contradicts it. It is, in other words, a fabrication and ultimately an
irrational contrivance. Of course, the question is whether this irrational contrivance
can be deconstructed in the social consciences of people and consequently delegiti-
mized as a dominant policy.
In conclusion, the analysis of the Memorandum on lifelong learning showed that
the strategy of defending human capital as a form of rationality is an imaginary
social construction which both in the project level and in the level of facts seems to
invalidate the defended form of rationality. The analysis revealed that the same text
as the hub contains certain opposing or contradictory goals that are incompatible
with those openly advocated. In this sense, the Memorandum is a social example of
how it is understood in the project of human action in work activity specifically and
in the social activity generally. As such it highlights the contradictions of the project
of human action known at this time which seems to motivate human action.
We are experiencing a sociohistorical conjuncture where there is a pronounced
imbalance of social dynamics. On one hand, we have the bankruptcy of left-wing par-
ties with the resulting loss of the influence once exercised by labour unions and their
transmutation into corporations; we have all levels of social life being bombarded by
client relations; we have the “privatization of the state” by these client systems and we
have a bureaucratic state. On the other hand, a conservative anti-revolution is taking
place, resulting in the revival of a savage and blind neo-liberalism (Castoriadis 1997),
where capitalist imaginary triumph in their most repugnant forms. It would be absurd
to claim that any economic memorandum could bring those countries diverging from
the initial criteria back to where they were or to a state of a harmonious division of
labour on the international level. It would also be absurd for one to defend the ratio-
nalism of any economic theory, such as that of human capital. Yet, however absurd the
defence of this theory’s rationalism may seem, even more difficult is it to undertake to
delegitimize it. And this is not because it warrants such specialized knowledge in
order to carry out the necessary analyses, but because it demands a social project,
which will allow individuals to “summing” their volunteered scientific (with or
without quotes) analyses, based on the criterion of a value system that advocates
the emancipation of human action through personal and social autonomy.

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 Part III
Lifelong Learning, Innovative Teaching
and Learning, and Rethinking Guidance
and Counselling
Chapter 11
Re-representing Education’s Image
and Status: In the ‘Interest’ of Pedagogical
Innovation

Stephen O’Brien

Introduction

The European Commission’s A Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (2000, p. 3)

sets out the vision for ‘a successful transition to a knowledge-based economy and
society’. Six key messages suggest ‘a comprehensive and coherent lifelong learn-
ing strategy for Europe’ (European Commission 2000, p. 4). This paper focuses on
the third message, namely, the strategy’s goal ‘to develop effective teaching and
learning methods and contexts for the continuum of lifelong and life-wide learn-
ing’ (ibid.). Such a focus does not preclude a relational critique of the other five
messages since, at their core, all share assumptions regarding the value of the
following: ‘skills-based’ knowledge, investment in the principle of ‘human capital’,
the efficacy of ‘learning outcomes’, a focus on equal ‘opportunity’ over-and-above
equal ‘conditions’ and equal ‘effects’ and the (intended) appeal to an inclusive
range of learners. The overall strategy was to have been, by now, fully imple-
mented (European Commission 2000, p. 3). This paper proffers an implicit assess-
ment of this profligate target. With specific attention to the message on teaching
and learning, it argues that the strategy connects with neo-liberal meanings,
standpoints and practices that oversee an incomplete educational representation.
Despite inadequate representation, productive power is ideologically, structurally
and culturally secured via loose connectivity at various supranational, nation state,
political interest, academic, media and wider societal levels. These levels cohere at
some point to cast education’s dominant image and status and enunciate new ways
to ‘innovate’ teaching and learning.
There are aspects to this Memorandum that are to be welcomed, not least the
commendable goals to: build an inclusive society with equal access to quality

S. O’Brien (*)
School of Education, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 123
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_11, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
124 S. O’Brien

learning; adjust the ways in which education and training is provided (including
how paid working life is organised); set out objectives for higher overall levels of
education and qualification; and seek and facilitate deeper forms of active citi-
zenship (European Commission 2000, pp. 4, 5). Such worthy goals are chiefly
diluted, however, by the strategy’s insubstantial analysis of education as a field
of power – specifically, the concern that education reflects and produces diverse
interests and effects (e.g. Bourdieu 1984, 1988, 1998). Here, education’s image
and status – how it is unremittingly interest-led and powerfully contested – is of
primary concern for this paper. Thus, whilst it is welcome to observe ‘questions
for debate’ accompanying each strategy message in the European Commission’s
A Memorandum on Lifelong Learning, this paper argues for further, wider enqui-
ries. Ultimately, if there is to be innovation in teaching and learning, the paper
concludes; this is best served, and can only be effectively engaged, via a more
complex and authentic representation.

A Vision of Lifelong Learning: Questions for Further Debate

Crucially, the Memorandum presents ‘two equally important aims for lifelong
learning – promoting active citizenship and promoting employability’ (European
Commission 2000, p. 5). Little is said about their relationship other than indicating
that the latter provides a ‘core dimension’ of the former and is ‘decisive’ in developing
European-wide ‘prosperity’:
For much of most people’s lives, having paid work underpins independence, self-respect
and well-being, and is therefore a key to people’s overall quality of life. Employability – the
capacity to secure and keep employment – is not only a core dimension of active
citizenship, but it is equally a decisive condition for reaching full employment and
for improving European competitiveness and prosperity in the ‘new economy’. (European
Commission 2000, p. 5)

The primacy of education’s ‘economic’ value is assumed here. This, in turn,

obscures other important (sociopolitical) questions that speak directly to the chal-
lenges of active citizenship. These questions include: How can dynamic economic
growth and social cohesion be strengthened? What and whose ‘knowledge, skills and
competence’ are being represented? Beyond ‘skills gaps’ recognition, how are diverse
educational opportunities, conditions and effects addressed? Is the economic revela-
tion ‘to raise demand for learning as well as its supply’ an adequate response ‘for
those who have benefitted least from education?’ (ibid., p. 8). Do proposed ‘public-
private initiatives’ and ‘new user-oriented learning systems’ include the interest of
marginalised learner groups? (ibid., p. 8). There is intimation in the Memorandum
that education is not all about employability:
Employability is obviously a key outcome of successful learning, but social inclusion rests
on more than having paid work. Learning opens the door to building a satisfying and pro-
ductive life, quite apart from a person’s employment status and prospects. (European
Commission 2000, p. 9)
11 Re-representing Education’s Image and Status… 125

Notwithstanding this (fleeting) recognition, ‘obvious’ economic value connections

are still securely established. Moreover, whilst there is no hesitation in revealing
that ‘learning opens the door’, the ‘door that opens learning’ (i.e. the portal of
access) remains firmly closed from view.
Similarly, when it extols the message of innovation in teaching and learning,
the Memorandum stresses the ‘obvious’ economic value of education. There are
commendable objectives that need not be imbued with such value, such as the
need to: challenge traditional systems of learning; reform initial and continuing
teacher professionalism; extend and practise open and participatory teaching
and learning methods; and encourage meaningful qualitative standards of prac-
tice (European Commission 2000, pp. 13, 14).1 But these objectives overlap
with those of clearer economic purpose that endorse the following: more user-
oriented learning systems; outcome-based learning approaches; and the ‘added
value’ of applied educational research (European Commission 2000, pp. 13–15).
Moreover, all these objectives, including those directed towards ‘innovation in
teaching and learning’, coalesce around an economic ‘sign value’ (Brancaleone
and O’Brien 2011). In this way, the primary focus is on teaching and learning as
technical, skills-based activities, where innovation implies effective methods of
service delivery (e.g. ICT-based pedagogies) and functional outcomes (e.g.
qualifications exchange in the marketplace). Challenging such pedagogical rep-
resentation remains key to challenging the lifelong learning vision presented in
the Memorandum.

Power Interest in Education’s Image and Status

Contestation around pedagogical representation speaks to the prevalence of power

interest in education’s image and status. Image here concerns itself with both
semiotics (e.g. how one imagines education; attaches meaning to it) and modus
operandi (e.g. how one practises teaching and learning). Status concerns itself
with distinction (e.g. Bourdieu 1984), particularly the prominence afforded to
certain educational positions (e.g. dominant perspectives on educational ‘effec-
tiveness’). Whilst image and status do not directly form practice, they can be
hugely influential – particularly if they garner structural support and cultural
endorsement. Accordingly, education may be viewed as a field of power that is
contested both symbolically and effectually. Emissary voices are ever-present,
sometimes cohering, other times contradicting each other’s evocative claims.

1
In making this point, I have deliberately chosen to alter certain terminology. The Memorandum
stresses the phrase ‘teacher training’. I have replaced this with ‘teacher professionalism’ to empha-
sise the importance of ‘craft’, in addition to/over, ‘skills-based’ knowledge forms. The
Memorandum also uses the term ‘qualitative benchmarks’. I use ‘qualitative standards’ in its stead
to demonstrate that such measures are intrinsically valuable and are ultimately irreducible to trans-
ferability. It is clear that language is key to any declaration of power interest in education.
126 S. O’Brien

Their resonating power interest may be more apparent or hidden from view.2
Notwithstanding their transparency, diverse interest groups powerfully invest in
education’s image and status and its associated pedagogical relations. Accordingly,
‘innovation’ in teaching and learning is shown to have different meanings, purposes,
parameters and actions. This paper examines some ‘innovation’ messages, nota-
bly those that relate to Irish university education. Critical analysis centres on
unveiling and articulating the power interests that lie within these messages.
The Memorandum concludes that an investment in people (‘Europe’s main
assets’) is best achieved by adapting (read synchronising) ‘education and training
systems’ (European Commission 2000, p. 6). Such supranational authority, so bound
up in the ‘lifelong learning’ message, has greatly shaped national policy agendas on
education. Changes have duly followed. The European Credit Transfer System
(ECTS) movement and the subsequent establishment of national qualifications
frameworks provide for a paradigmatic shift towards the measurability, transfer and
progression of outcome-based skills, knowledge and competences.3 In agreement
with Gleeson (2011, p. 3), the focus of such a shift has been on ‘curriculum as con-
tent’ and the mutual recognition of technical systems and award qualifications in
different jurisdictions, rather than on learning processes, teaching methodologies and
student-centred forms of assessment. The introduction of outcomes-based education,
in particular, complements regulatory approaches to teacher ‘competence’ and devel-
opment (e.g. European Commission 2004; OECD 2005; Tuning Project 2010). Such
a focus shift has largely resulted from neo-liberal pressures for increased (‘contrac-
tual’ forms of) accountability, alongside greater ‘quality’ control systems and the
expansion of ‘performance-based’ indicators (e.g. Sleeter 2007; Roberts 2007; Beck
2010). Gleeson and O’Donnabhain (2009) point to the Department of Education and
Skills’ Customer Service Action Plan as a good exemplar of an Irish policy response
to such pressures.
Education’s image and status increasingly reflect this select supranational inter-
est. Concomitantly, a particular pedagogical representation is produced. Standardised
forms of assessment bear strong emblematic and concrete influence. To illustrate,
international tests such as PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment),
PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Survey) and TIMMS (Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study) comparatively ‘rank’ national test
scores. From ‘common sense’ and ‘reasonable’ perspectives, these international tests
present a renewed focus on education with improved opportunities for innovative
(‘benchmark’) practices.4 ‘Commonsense’ assumes that the ‘outcomes’ of education

2
The forces that shape education’s image and status are difficult to fully articulate since they
assemble at a myriad of power-knowledge, structural and sociocultural levels. Such forces may
become more articulate at a point of some convergence between these levels.
3
In contradistinction to note 1 above, I have deliberately chosen to leave unchanged the language
terminology presented here. These terms resonate with a particular, managerialist/neo-liberal,
image of education (e.g. O’Brien 2012).
4
Of course ‘benchmarking’ is hugely problematic. For example, does one follow Finland or South
Korea for exemplar educational policies and practices? Both nations appear to perform well in
11 Re-representing Education’s Image and Status… 127

systems are pre-eminent, capable of being effectively measured and readily adopted
(O’Brien and Brancaleone 2011). A ‘reasonable’ perspective assumes that compara-
tive tests are unproblematic, or at least have the capacity to overcome their (inherent)
limitations.5 Whilst a more exhaustive critique of comparative standardised testing is
beyond this paper’s remit, it is clear that both assumptions are highly contentious.
Hitherto, however, they remain largely uncontested at official policy levels. The
power effects of standardised testing are especially neglected vis-à-vis their conse-
quences for how education is inexorably signified and positioned. The impact on
teaching and learning, including pedagogical ‘innovation’, is likewise neglected.
Despite this, structural authority continues to support the image and status produc-
tion of ‘tests’ and, concurrently, new pedagogical ‘truths’. Whilst the levels and
powers of structural authority vary, they may coalesce at some mutual educational
position. Further, as a loosely interconnected set of forces, structural authority may
not always be transparent. To illustrate, those with a particular power interest in
assessment are often presented as discrete/disconnected when, in reality, they have
(an equivalent or greater) power interest in education’s image and status, including
its constituent pedagogical character. Thus, it is possible (indeed necessary, from a
critical perspective) to identify test sponsors, designers and administrators as ‘inter-
ested’ power groups, e.g. the role of The Indicators and Analysis Division Directorate
for Education at the OECD in PISA and the function of The International Association
for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement with respect to PIRLS and TIMMS.
In this way, ideological, structural and cultural connectivity is exemplified in the
European Commission’s explicit position on ‘lifelong learning’ and the ongoing
work of international assessment organisations.
‘Change’, states the Memorandum, ‘can only come about in and through the
impetus of the member states’ (European Commission 2000, p. 5). In an Irish con-
text, the ‘connected’ state has advanced its response with the introduction of the
National Strategy for Literacy and Numeracy among Children and Young People
(DES 2011). This emphasises the primacy of outcomes-based education and its
regular test functions.6 The Educational Research Centre, established on the campus
of St. Patrick’s College of Education in Dublin, has positively welcomed this shift
to ‘national testing’ (Educational Research Centre 2011). Whilst it ‘officially’ rec-
ognises the importance of ‘classroom-based’ assessment (ibid.), as espoused by the
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (e.g. NCCA 2007), the interrela-
tionship between this formative/developmental model of assessment and more

international tests (as evaluated by ‘exam scores’), but they could not be any different in terms of
their philosophical, methodological and sociocultural construction!
5
To illustrate, comparative tests may overcome their (inherent) limitations via the cyclic improve-
ment of their apparatus, including the moderation of ‘hard’ statistics (e.g. introducing ‘ranges of rank
order positions’ and schools like ours data), the use of provisional statements (e.g. encompassing
such phrases as ‘all other variables being equal’) and an engagement with some qualitative measures
(e.g. ‘student motivation’ levels, ‘reading enjoyment’ indicators place etc.,).
6
Among its proposals for primary (elementary) schools is the compulsory requirement to imple-
ment, from 2012 onwards, standardised testing in reading and mathematics for all students in 2nd,
4th and 6th classes (i.e. ages 7–8, 9–10 and 11–12).
128 S. O’Brien

standardised forms, is not adequately engaged.7 The main ‘work’ of the Educational
Research Centre continues to be the development of standardised, diagnostic and
profile test systems. To illustrate, the centre analyses the results of state examina-
tions, monitors the ‘outcomes’ of education in areas of literacy and mathematics
(‘connecting’ with PISA, PIRLS and TIMMS) and develops new assessment instru-
ments. The authenticity of this work is not questioned here. But, crucially, the limi-
tations of standardised testing are largely neglected, including their potentially
negative impact on education’s image and status. Of course the work of the centre is
upheld by those (e.g. government, various schools and parents) who claim that the
system is made more measurable and visibly accountable. There is obviously some
basis to this argument and there are apparent benefits to various groups that uphold
such a position. But it is important to stress that ‘accountability’ takes on specific
meaning here, allied as it is to the understanding that a range of ‘output’ indicators
echoes comparable degrees of ‘performance’. Furthermore, the (oft unforeseen)
consequences of this association are manifest in individual schools and teachers
being increasingly orientated towards these outcomes. Likewise, ‘innovation’ in
teaching and learning is progressively framed by such values.
The Bologna process and Lisbon strategy exemplify the European Union’s commit-
ment to become the most competitive ‘knowledge society’ in the world (Lisbon
European Council 2006). The role of the university is core to this objective as it cap-
tures the so-called knowledge triangle of research, education and innovation.
Universities are thus seen as valued research and pedagogical environments that pro-
duce, accredit and transmit innovative knowledge, ultimately serving the expansion of
Europe’s competitive global status. This value position is frequently championed by the
European University Association (e.g. EUA 2004). Moreover, the European Commission
(2006) sees universities’ specific association with industry as key to the production of a
European knowledge economy. The OECD’s recent Economic Survey of Ireland 2009
similarly stresses advanced coordination with industry in the interests of increasing
‘innovation and wealth’. Irish politicians have readily borrowed and adopted this
position on higher education. Increasingly, they perceive their role as being ‘hands-
on’ in directing and managing the purpose and function of the university:
Our universities have a critical role to play as a dynamo energising our Smart Economy
with new ideas and creativity. Increased collaboration among our universities – joining
forces – greatly helps us to up our game in the intense ongoing global competition to come
up with new ideas, new products and new services. (Former Taoiseach/Prime Minister
Brian Cowen, Education Matters 2010, Feb 20)

Symbolic, and real, links between education and the economy are unambiguous
in the state’s habitual (and ‘imitative’) use of the phrase ‘smart economy’. Yet, a

7
The ’two types of assessment’ are said to ’share several features’ (The Educational Research
Centre 2011, p. 6), though this is not explicated further. The following is also presented: ‘The
immediate introduction of standards-based classroom assessments, without first establishing a
strong underlying knowledge base about classroom assessment strategies among teachers, may not
be successful’ (ibid.). This initial ‘problematising’ is welcome, but further elaboration on, and
investigation into, the statement’s conclusion is (regretfully) not provided.
11 Re-representing Education’s Image and Status… 129

fundamental contradiction persists in the state’s accommodation of the autonomous

role of the university (as secured in The Universities Act, 1997) and its verification
of the university’s (contingent) economic purpose:
I have no hesitation in firmly endorsing the need for our institutions to enjoy strong levels
of autonomy […] In terms of graduate education, we must ensure that our Doctoral gradu-
ates have not only in-depth knowledge of their chosen research area but also the broad range
of ‘workplace’ skills and competencies required by industry […] [We need] to maximise
the impact of our research results in terms of the commercialisation of that research and its
conversion into real sustainable jobs. (Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn,
Education Matters 2011, Nov 22)

Politicisation presents as a particular power interest in education. At a concrete level,

the financial dependence of universities on the exchequer ‘has given politicians and civil
servants the power to bend them to their own purpose’ (Fitzgerald 2010, p. 1). Actual
current spending on higher education has reduced by almost two-thirds between 2001
and 2005 (ibid.). Despite a 15 % increase in student numbers over the past 3 years, uni-
versities have 10 % fewer academic staff than 2 years ago and government grant funding
has been reduced by 9 % in that same period (Murray 2011 statistics). Economic auster-
ity and new public sector reforms are presented as the ‘rationalising rationale’ for this
diminution of resources. Such rationale has given rise to ideologically informed policy
decisions that subvert the role of education to the needs of business/industry, whilst
promoting state dynamism in facilitating people ‘back to work’. Whilst present resource
reductions are undoubtedly arduous, the exhortation to ‘do more with less’ precedes
more straitened economic times. Ireland has always operated an underfunded education
system.8 Looking outside for policy direction appears, in ‘good times and bad’, to con-
solidate the nation state’s compact fiscal position. The European Commission has long
argued for the efficient management of resources and the ‘rolling back’ of state invest-
ment in education to include ‘higher private spending’ and ‘incentives for more and
sustained investment from enterprises and individuals’ (European Commission 2003,
pp. 3–4). A parallel position is to be found in the World Bank’s promotion of the global
market economy (including the educational market economy) and the liberalisation/
privatisation of education services through the World Trade Organisation’s General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATs) (Robertson 2008). Shaped by this politicised
discourse, the ‘knowledge industry’ encapsulates an ever-expansive network of ‘learn-
ing services’. This encourages increased HE privatisation (e.g. Hibernia College in
Ireland) and ‘performance-based’ comparisons amongst educational providers (e.g. the
Russell Group in the UK). Moreover, an economic value for education is greater secured
via ‘fee’ payments and the depiction of students/learners as ‘consumers’. This is
exemplified by the Minister for Education and Skills’ recent encouragement to univer-
sity students to be ‘critical consumers’ of the education they receive:

8
On an OECD scale ranking overall education spending in relation to wealth or gross domestic
product, Ireland lies 27th of 31 countries surveyed. To illustrate how resource constraints operate in
practice, Ireland has already the second most overcrowded primary classrooms in the EU. Further,
Irish universities are operating at approximately 60 % of the funding available to their counterparts
in Britain and the rest of the EU. (all statistics from Flynn in The Irish Times, Feb 08, 2012a).
130 S. O’Brien

A bad restaurant doesn’t get repeat business. I think there has to be some response from the
user of the service provided in an open market economy like ours. People can exercise their
choice by moving to another supplier of the service. (Minister for Education and Skills
Ruairi Quinn, in Duggan, Sunday Independent 2012, Feb 5, p. 6)

The above sentiments by an Irish (Labour education) minister appear acutely

rooted in the neo-liberal zeitgeist. This ideological outlook is ever-more culturally
inscribed into civic arenas of society, including public education. Moreover, it
increasingly permeates individuals’ ‘life-world perspectives’ (Shutz and Luckmann
1973), fashioning for them particular possibilities and choices (Rose 1999).9
Emissary voices for greater ‘innovation’ in education are saturated in, what Stephen
Ball might call, the ‘discourse of business sensibility’ (e.g. Ball 2007, 2009). This
is clearly evident in a recent edition of ‘Innovation’, The Irish Times Business
Magazine (November, 2011), specially entitled ‘Saving Our Education System: The
reforms needed to make us competitive again’. As a compendium of articles and
commercials affirming the education-economy relation, they provide a curious role
for business/enterprise (particularly science and technology) in the drive to ‘inno-
vate’ a (supposed) moribund education system. One such article is written by an
academic so disposed to this ‘innovative’ task (Walsh 2011). As a former President
of the University of Limerick, Dr. Ed Walsh believes that ‘competition in the knowl-
edge economy is a global race for talent’ (Walsh 2011, p. 24). Citing PISA test
scores, he maintains that Ireland’s ‘international rankings […] have been plummet-
ing’ (ibid.). There is an impending need to ‘innovate’ education (and pedagogical
relations therein). Exhortations are thus made to, inter alia (Walsh 2011, p. 25):
• ‘Upgrade the performance of existing teachers by boosting in-service […] link-
ing outcomes to award of annual increments’
• Reform governance structures – particularly at National Council for Curriculum
and Assessment (NCCA) and university levels – to comprise a majority of board
members from the private sector
• Introduce a graduation tax system to enable the full introduction of university fees
• ‘Permit universities to compete in the market for international talent by removing
limits on individual salary offers, while imposing strict limits on average salary
levels within the university’10
The above ‘innovations’ are highly contentious. Crucially, they disregard the recent
signs and consequences of market failure. They also disregard extensive research cri-
tiquing the impact of neo-liberal change on educational institutions and the teaching
profession (e.g. Clark and Newman 1997; Ball 2003; Olsen and Peters 2005; Harris

9
Of course ‘choice’ (e.g. school choice) is central to neo-liberal lexicon and conceptual thought.
It is unsurprising, therefore, to see ‘choice’ being named (and therefore legitimated) in the minis-
ter’s quotation above.
10
Interestingly, the government’s recent finance bill (Feb 2012) ensures, under its ‘Special Assignee
Relief Programme’ (SARP), that highly skilled workers can be exempt from income tax (up to
5 years) on 30 % of salaries between 75,000 and 500,000 euro. Worker competition and attracting
‘the best human capital’ (key tenets of neo-liberal thinking) appear central to parallel ‘innovation’
messages.
11 Re-representing Education’s Image and Status… 131

2006; Clegg 2008). Moreover, the arguments presented are both paradoxical and
incomplete. To illustrate the former, Walsh (2011, p. 24) cites PISA as the rationale for
drastic innovation whilst, at the same time, decrying the ‘narrowness’ of the final sum-
mative state school examination and the ‘tyranny’ of [test score] appraisal for entry to
university (Walsh 2011, p. 24). Also, Finland, South Korea, Singapore and Canada are
jointly presented as ‘the world’s best school systems’ (Walsh 2011, p. 25), without due
regard for variation in philosophical, structural, sociocultural and methodological
substances. These distinctions are key to any attempt to establish equivalent ‘innova-
tion’ lessons for Ireland. Finland’s education system, for example, is characterised by
more: professional trust in teachers, extensive network supports, critical peer account-
ability systems and non-prescriptive approaches to school-based curriculum develop-
ment (e.g. Gleeson 2011). Finland is frequently presented as the ‘leader to follow’ in
terms of its productive ‘outputs’ but is hardly ever presented in terms of its qualitative
‘inputs’. Walsh’s arguments are incomplete too. As exhortations, they appeal to a
demand for ‘teaching excellence’, a system that does not permit ‘any student to fall
behind’,11 an ‘upgrade [of] the skills of those that teach’, ‘rigorous teacher assess-
ment’, etc. (Walsh 2011, p. 25). These exhortations are short on methodological
details, vague in their proposals for ‘how’ innovation is to be achieved. Moreover, they
mask vested power interests that seek to shape education’s image and status in a
particular, neo-liberal, direction.
It is important to acknowledge that not all business/enterprise perspectives are
captured by Taylorist forms of managerialism and crude ‘outcome’ approaches to
education. At the very least, ‘innovation’ necessitates creative independence, not
blind imitation, and professional trust/engagement, not suspicion/control. The pro-
liferation of interest groups in education is such that, even within one power base,
‘innovation’ messages frequently present as ambiguous and contradictory. Even
so, policy paradigms rely on social context for some coherence – specifically the
‘intersubjective level’ of social formations for ‘shared thought, language systems or
discourses’ – to become identifiable and embodied (O’Sullivan 2005, p. 66). In this
way, a circuitous intertextual quality is prevalent in Irish education’s diverse power
interest base. Recent addresses by university leaders to some of Ireland’s business
leaders illustrate this point well, with frequent cross-referencing to the primacy of
the education-economy relation (Barry 2011; Murphy 2011). Here, ‘innovation’ is
captured by the ‘enterprising’ character of university-industry partnerships12 (ibid.).
The education-economy relation is further consolidated by the national strategy for
Irish higher education (Hunt Report 2010) and by those seeking a new ‘technologi-
cal university’ status (Neavyn 2012). A ‘technological university’ is characterised

11
The language used here resonates with a particular authoritative stance on school and teacher
effectiveness (e.g. High Reliability Schooling and No Child Left Behind in the US; the work of
Ofsted and the Training and Development Agency for Schools in the UK).
12
To illustrate further, University College Cork now holds an annual Innovation Week (Innov8). In
the 2012 calendar, a ‘Bright Ideas Competition’ was organised. Guest speakers were invited from
business enterprises; an ‘entrepreneur of the year university lecture series’ was launched and
‘celebrity’ entrepreneurs (from the TV show Dragons’ Den) gave keynote presentations.
132 S. O’Brien

by the ‘professional readiness of its graduates and proximity to the world of work’
and the focus of its research and innovation ‘on application and enterprise’
(O’Cathain 2012, Feb 7). Whilst there are power divisions on the question of this
‘new’ university (Flynn 2012b), somewhat paradoxically all higher education
institutions appear eager to contest for business/industry partnerships. Beyond sym-
bolic alliance, practical gains are to be made from sourcing much needed funds
from agencies like Science Foundation Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. Higher level
institutions themselves have become culturally inscribed by this ideological/prag-
matic rationale, to the point where academics’ work (some more than others) has
been increasingly occupied by partnership/sponsorship concerns (e.g. Maguire
2011). Of course all academics are affected in some way by new managerial struc-
tures and power relations in the university (e.g. O’Brien 2012). This pervasive
impact would not be possible but for certain academics’ ‘buy-in’ to paradigmatic
change. In an Irish context, it is possible to imagine some manifestation of ‘free-
floating intellectuals’ (Mannheim 1949 cited in O’Sullivan, 2005, p. 66) positioning
themselves strategically and shifting allegiances in line with hegemonic constituen-
cies. In this way, various academics may actively participate in the types of politici-
sation and business/enterprise perspectives that sustain the dominant paradigm.
Thus, whilst a proliferation of power interest groups exist, a circuitous intertex-
tual quality prevails with respect to the dominant education-economy relation. As
above discussions demonstrate, there is loose connectivity here at various suprana-
tional, nation state, political interest and academic levels. Whilst this connectivity
may occasionally falter, through what Foucault calls ‘slippage’, it nevertheless pos-
sesses an intrinsic (economic) ‘rationality’ (Foucault 1978, 1997). Moreover, con-
nectivity popularly expands to the media via various public presentations, policy
statements, television, radio and newspaper coverage. What is produced is a general
‘acceptance’ that education (with particular focus on the STEM13 disciplines)
‘forms and informs our path to economic recovery’14 (Education Matters, Feb 12,
2012). This ‘innovation’ message very clearly ties education to jobs. Parents are
given an assumed responsibility for ‘steering’ their children towards sectors where
jobs are available:
The mammies and daddies of Ireland need to move away from the notion that future secure
employment is in the traditional professions such as medicine, law and teaching […] The
real opportunities for Irish graduates will be in technology, science and engineering, and
students with an interest in these areas must be encouraged to pursue courses in those fields.
(John Hennessy chairperson of the Higher Education Authority and former managing
director of Ericsson Ireland, in Donnelly, the Irish Independent 2012, Dec 30)

13
STEM denotes the collective disciplinary sphere of Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics. These subjects are popularly related to ‘innovation’ and ‘enterprise’ concepts.
14
This quote is attributed to the EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science (Maire
Geoghegan-Quinn) on the occasion of her speech at a Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) board
meeting on Feb 9, 2012. Ms. Quinn (who has helped develop a new 80 billion euro EU funding
programme called Horizon 2020) was invited by the chairperson of the SFI (a significant funder of
STEM disciplines in universities), Professor Pat Fottrell. Professor Fottrell is also chairperson of the
strategic planning group associated with the lead and development of ‘technology universities’.
11 Re-representing Education’s Image and Status… 133

Concomitantly, teachers and learners are given an assumed (‘contractual’)

responsibility to co-operate and secure a successful learning ‘product’. This peda-
gogical relation is thus shaped by ‘innovation’ messages circumscribed by couched
‘interest’ in such concepts as ‘accountability’, ‘performativity’ and ‘success’. The
‘internalisation of [the] externality’ of these messages, as Bourdieu (1977, p. 72)
might put it, leads to a type of (Foucauldian) ‘self surveillance’ whereby ‘the student
acts the good student, the teacher acts the good teacher, the school acts the good
school’ (Youdell 2006, p. 36). Wider media remains largely complicit in the
enunciation of this message, even fuelling its open broadcast. This it does via, inter
alia: insubstantial debate on the real purpose of education; the presentation of league
tables; acritical commentary on connected elements of educational policy and
practice; decontextualised ‘celebrations’ of parental, student15 and school ‘successes’
and general disinterest in ‘interested’ educational perspectives. Thus, the power
effects of the media, in loose connectivity with other aforementioned ‘interests’,
largely inauthenticate the image and status of education.

Re-representing Education’s Image and Status:

In the ‘Interest’ of Pedagogical Innovation

This paper suggests that ‘innovation’ messages (such as those that relate to teaching
and learning in A Memorandum on Lifelong Learning 2000) need to be seriously
questioned. This is easier said than done. Part of their ‘connectivity’ is contradictory,
much is tacit and hard to identify. Moreover, the greatest expression of their
reception manifests itself in their wide cultural endorsement in society. Though
‘interested’ power groups can never fully determine education’s image and status,
this paper demonstrates how loosely connected forces convene to shape ‘real’ practice.16
A range of individuals, perhaps unwittingly, reproduce (and sometimes realign)
this practice.
Of course, I write this paper with a particular ‘interest’ in how education’s image
and status is cast. As a professional educator and critical social researcher, I am
interested in questioning/challenging the representative scope of ‘innovation’ mes-
sages. This paper responds to a professed need to interrogate the educational sensi-
bility of particular power ‘interests’ in education. The evidence presented indicates

15
To illustrate, one student (Cillian Fahey) who achieved straight ‘A’ grades in his final state exami-
nation (The Leaving Certificate), made headlines when he sold his exam notes on eBay for 3,000
euro. He subsequently wrote a series of articles for the Irish Times (entitled ‘Secrets of My
Success’) outlining to (‘interested’) readers how to achieve top grades in different subject disci-
plines. He also began to work for a team of entrepreneurs who provide ‘comprehensive’ notes for
postprimary students via their website mocks.ie. On the 27 January 2012, Cillian Fahey appeared
on The Late Late – a popular Irish TV chat show that airs to (a weekly population average of
approximately) three-quarters of a million viewers.
16
An inauthentic representation, or ‘simulacrum’ (Baudrillard 1994), still produces ‘real’ educational
effects (Brancaleone and O’Brien 2011).
134 S. O’Brien

an over-representation of the education-economy relation that obviates against

education being seen as a moral and social practice (e.g. Biesta 2012). Consequently,
this paper’s evidence indicates the need to establish a stronger intellectual and
teacher-professional presence at the educational ‘partnership’ table. Intellectuals
and teacher-professionals have a (critically informed) role to play in challenging
consensual forms of partnership. Crucially, they are well placed to confront the
crude, inauthentic, order of education’s prevailing status and image.
Calls for an extensive public debate on the purpose of education, such as that
proposed by Tim Rudd at the Department of Education in the University of Brighton,
are now timely. In recognition of the state’s ‘interested’ position, he is calling for an
independent body to arbitrate diverse educational perspectives and disseminate
balanced findings in the wider public arena. The role of government is designed to
act upon these results. Such a worthy proposal transcends the educational sphere.
As Ireland’s President Dr. Michael D. Higgins reminds, there exists ‘an intellectual
crisis in society’ (Flynn, the Irish Times, Jan 26, 2012c). Intellectuals are now
challenged to ‘a moral choice, to drift into, be part of, a consensus that accepts a
failed paradigm of life and economy or to offer, or seek to recover, the possibility of
alternative futures…’ (Higgins, Feb 21, 2012). This brings great responsibility
to bear on those that enunciate ‘innovation’ messages. A Memorandum on Lifelong
Learning (2000) undoubtedly exercises its power to represent education along
these lines. But where education’s image and status falls short, re-representation is
required, not least in the ‘interest’ of pedagogical innovation.

Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the valuable contributions of Karl Kitching and
Tim Rudd who helped to critically review the substance of this paper.

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Chapter 12
Teaching Methods and Professional Teaching
in Adult Education: Questioning
the Memorandum’s Understanding
of Professional Teaching

Regina Egetenmeyer and Patrick Bettinger

Introduction

In its Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (Commission of the European Communities

2000), the European Commission presented a strategy for lifelong learning at the
beginning of the twenty-first century, which heavily focuses on the individual learner
and on methods of self-directed learning. This focus coincides with the lifelong learning
strategies of other international organisations such as the OECD and UNESCO. It sees
learning as an activity that ultimately remains the responsibility of individual learners:
In practice, the achievements of these [education and training, RE & PB] systems are
dependent … not least upon the efforts of individuals themselves, who, in the last instance,
are responsible for pursuing their own learning. (ibid., p. 5)

It sees “individual motivation to learning and a variety of learning opportunities”

(ibid., p. 8) as “ultimate keys to implementing lifelong learning successfully” (ibid., p. 5).
The Memorandum seems to consider the role of teachers and trainers as mar-
ginal. They appear within “Key Message 3: Innovation in teaching and learning”
with the objective to “develop effective teaching and learning methods and contexts
for the continuum of lifelong and lifewide learning” (ibid., p. 13). The Memorandum
emphasises self-directed learning and a new role for learning professionals:
Teaching as a professional role faces decisive change in the coming decades: teachers and
trainers become guides, mentors and mediators. Their role – and it is a crucially important

R. Egetenmeyer (*)
Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg, Faculty of Arts II, Institute for Education,
Professorship for Adult and Continuing Education, Oswald-Külpe-Weg 82,
97074 Würzburg, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]
P. Bettinger
University of Augsburg, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Institut of Media and
Communication Science, Media Didactis, Universitätsstraße 10, 86159 Augsburg, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 137
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_12, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
138 R. Egetenmeyer and P. Bettinger

one – is to help and support learners who, as far as possible, take charge of their own learning.
The capacity and the confidence to develop and practise open and participatory teaching
and learning methods should therefore become an essential professional skill for educators
and trainers, in both formal and non-formal settings. (ibid., p. 14)

This demand goes hand in hand with the requirement for innovative teaching
and learning methods. Therefore, the Memorandum sees high potential in ICT-
based learning technologies. To bring these new teaching and learning methods
into practice, the Memorandum requests teachers and trainers “to adapt, upgrade
and sustain” (ibid., p. 14) their skills. This is requested from all education and train-
ing practitioners:
… whether as paid professionals, as volunteers or as those for whom teaching activities are
a secondary or ancillary function (for example, experienced skilled tradespeople in the
workplace or community development workers). (ibid., p. 14)

Under the perspective of professional teaching, the main focus of the

Memorandum is on skills to develop and practise innovative teaching and learning
methods. This paper questions the close link between teaching and learning meth-
ods on the one hand and professional teaching on the other. Thereby the paper
focuses on teachers and trainers in adult education: under the perspective of profes-
sionalisation, the paper questions the role of teaching and learning methods within
the professionalisation of teachers and trainers in adult education. Subsequently, the
complexity of learning processes is scrutinised under the perspective of teaching
and learning research. Under the perspective of evaluation studies, the paper also
highlights empirical findings that deal with the effects of innovative teaching. These
perspectives end in the conclusion, which summarises the position of teaching and
learning methods within professional teaching in adult education.

Perspectives of Professionalisation of Adult Teachers

and Trainers

In the transnational European context, one can find diverse competence models for adult
learning professionals. Especially within European projects, diverse European experts
and stakeholders have developed competence models aimed, for example, at the valida-
tion and/or development of competences of teachers and trainers in adult education.
The projects “Learning 4 Sharing” (Carlsen and Irons 2003) and “A good adult
educator in Europe (AGADE)” (Jääger et al. 2006) identify 4 roles and 16 criteria,
which teachers and trainers in adult education should fulfil. As roles for teachers
and trainers in adult education, the projects formulate “teacher”, “guide”, “facili-
tator” and “trainer”. The listed 16 criteria are grouped into two areas: (1) personal
development, which is understood as the ethical dimension, and (2) professional
development, which is subdivided into the three dimensions of (a) knowledge,
(b) skills and (c) organisation. These three dimensions are attributed to the
organisational stage, the performance stage and the evaluation stage of learning
processes. In this model, “knowledge of methods in adult education (AE) and
learning” (ibid., p. 18) could be found as one criterion within the organisational
12 Teaching Methods and Professional Teaching in Adult Education… 139

stage of learning processes: “knowledge and ability to choose different ways of

teaching and learning according to the content of learning and participants’
interests, abilities and experiences”. However, you can also find indirect hints
towards teaching and learning methods within the performance stage: the “ability
to motivate for learning”, the “development of learning environment” and “skills
to activate learners” also require expertise in using teaching and learning meth-
ods. In this model, teaching and learning methods are integrated into a complex
competence setting of teachers and trainers in adult education.
The project “Learning 4 Sharing” refers to necessary variations in the use of
teaching and learning methods as well as its manipulative potential:
There is no one and only “salvation method” or “best for everything” method. The key word
we should bear in mind is – variation! The more methods you master, the more you are able
to vary. … In some way all of the methods are about manipulation. However, some of them
are more manipulative than others. The adult educator has to be sure to have his/her “ethical
compass” turned on. (Carlsen and Irons 2003)

The transnational project “VINEPAC” (Sava et al. 2008) developed a validation

instrument for teachers and trainers in adult and continuing education. This model
distinguishes between five competence clusters. It contains teaching and learning
methods within the competence “training programme delivery” in the competence
cluster “training management”. Within this competence, the validation instrument
considers the “… use suitable teaching strategies” as a performance criterion.
Within the entire concept of the validation instrument, using teaching and learning
methods seems to be only one small competence within a complex cluster of com-
petences. The instrument includes a knowledge base focused on adult learners and
group dynamics. It demands competences concerning needs analysis, the prepara-
tion of training programmes, training programme delivery and the use of technol-
ogy and resources. Furthermore, the model validates competences concerning the
assessment and validation of learning, motivation and counselling, as well as per-
sonal and professional development.
The study “Key competences for adult learning professionals” (Research voor
Beleid 2010) was carried out on behalf of the European Commission. The study
developed a competence model for adult educators. The basis of the model was
the analysis of academic and policy-related documents, job descriptions, job
advertisements, competence profiles and the learning outcomes of educational
programmes. These were accompanied by several expert workshops. As a result,
the model formulates seven generic and 12 specific competences. While the seven
generic competences should be fulfilled by all professionals working in adult edu-
cation, the 12 specific competences focus on requirements that an adult education
organisation should fulfil. Teaching and learning methods can be found within the
generic competences as “didactical competences”, which should be fulfilled by all
professionals “involved in the learning process or supportive in a managerial,
administrative way” (ibid., p. 11). This competence focuses on:
Making use of different learning methods, styles and techniques including new media and
awareness of new possibilities, including e-skills and ability to assess them critically: being
able to deploy different learning methods, styles and techniques in working with adults.
(ibid., p. 50)
140 R. Egetenmeyer and P. Bettinger

Compared to the other models, this model has the greatest tendency to see
teaching and learning methods as a technique that should only be used within
learning settings.
In contrast to these competence models, you can find, especially in the German
context, an approach that is strongly influenced by a professionalisation discussion
in an educational context. Based on this background, professionalism of adult edu-
cators is seen as a hermeneutic issue (cf. Egetenmeyer and Schüßler 2012). Based
on the assumption of a “technology deficit”1 of educational action, learning profes-
sionals are requested to challenge dubiety (Luhmann and Schorr 1982). Due to the
complexity of education and learning processes, professionals cannot act according
to a recipe or behaviour guidelines. There are no linear solutions for educational
demands. Rather, educational situations have to be interpreted by teachers and train-
ers. Hereby, the ability to approach cases hermeneutically is the basic requirement
for professional action.
Professionalism of adult educators consequently means “the ability to use broad,
scientifically based and diverse abstract knowledge which is adequate in concrete
situations. Or contrariwise: to acknowledge in just these situations which parts of
the knowledge could be relevant”2 (Tietgens 1988, p. 38). Gieseke (2010, p. 386)
defines professionalism as “differentiated handling of research results of the disci-
pline, together with interdisciplinary knowledge for the interpretation of an actor’s
situation in a specific practical field”.3
But there is another dimension within educational action, which has to be han-
dled by professionals in adult education: contradictions and antinomies (von Hippel
2011; von Hippel and Schmidt-Lauff 2012). Teachers and trainers in adult educa-
tion have to deal with situations that are characterised by unsolvable contradictions
on the level of knowledge, action and relationship. Therefore, the interpretation of
these situations can be understood as a core competence. Professional action is
thereby only possible on the basis of these interpretations.
From the perspective of professionalisation in adult education, the adaptation
of innovative teaching and learning methods is missing. Besides, the reflection of
the role of teachers and trainers in adult education, which is also mentioned in
the Memorandum as a complex understanding of the competences, is missing.
Furthermore, the Memorandum seems to have a technical understanding of the
adaptation of teaching and learning methods. From the background of the char-
acteristic of educational settings, this understanding ignores the complex needs
of educational settings.

1
Translated by the authors. Original in German, “Technologiedefizit”.
2
Translation from Egetenmeyer and Käpplinger (2011). Original in German, “Professionalität
heißt, auf die Kurzformel gebracht, die Fähigkeit nutzen zu können, breit gelagerte, wissen-
schaftlich vertiefte und damit vielfältig abstrahierte Kenntnisse in konkreten Situationen angemes-
sen anwenden zu können” (Tietgens 1988, p. 38).
3
Translation from Egetenmeyer and Käpplinger (2011). Original in German, “sondern den differ-
enzierten Umgang mit Forschungsbefunden aus der Disziplin und mit interdisziplinarem Wissen
zur Deutung von Handlungssituationen mit Handlungsanspruch in einem bestimmten Praxisfeld”
(Gieseke 2010, p. 386).
12 Teaching Methods and Professional Teaching in Adult Education… 141

Perspectives of Teaching and Learning Research

If we take a closer and more sophisticated look at the aspects of successful teaching,
we find a variety of factors. In the field of adult education, the range of tasks is quite
widespread. Applying innovative teaching methods is only one aspect of profes-
sional teaching and training. Also important for a sustainable learning success is
the quality of the relationship between teachers and learners (Wolf 2006) as well as
the influences of the learning community (Mandl et al. 2004), the correct fit of the
learning environment and the learners (Reinmann and Mandl 2006) and the teach-
er’s ability to consider various aspects linked to learning processes (Kraft 2006;
Illeris 2006).
By defining all personal relationships as depending on a specific history of inter-
action, Wolf (2006) states that these relationships always touch the present, the
future and the past. The author concludes that it is a crucial aspect in the educational
context of professional teaching to remember the history of interaction in order to
build a fruitful relationship between teachers and learners. In this perspective, pro-
fessional teaching increasingly depends on the teacher’s ability to adapt his or her
methods to the individual learning biography and learning experience. Consequently,
social bonding is the main factor affecting all future learning experiences. It is the
key to enduring educational productivity.
A similar statement is made by Mandl et al. (2004). The authors conclude that
learning always takes place in a community. This implies certain cultural and social
variables that influence the way we learn. Here, expertise is distributed in a specific
way among the different persons to whom learners are connected. These communities
can vary according to structural indicators (aims, microculture, interaction, organisa-
tional growth, life span and life cycles) and forms (learning communities, communi-
ties of practice, online communities and communities that enable continuing further
education). If we follow the authors and assume that communities have a great influ-
ence on the learning process, we should question whether and in which way innova-
tive teaching methods have an impact on the learning process.
Kraft (2006) takes a closer look at the meaning of learning in adult education and
finds that a broader understanding of the concept, including “personal and social
conditions of teaching and learning” (p. 212), has to be considered. In particular,
self-directed learning demands a lot more than just the application of innovative
teaching methods. Teachers and trainers are asked to support learners and keep in
mind that they are dealing with different and individual ways of learning. A stable
base of knowledge about adult learning and the ability to transfer this knowledge
into practice seem to be more important than simply testing new didactical methods
(cf. ibid.).
Reinmann and Mandl (2006) come to the conclusion that adapting teaching
methods to the learners is the most promising way for a functioning learning envi-
ronment. This adaptation can be realised in different manners, for example, by vary-
ing chronological interspaces, the way of adaptation or the purpose of adaptation.
Such a procedure is supposed to enhance the learning output.
142 R. Egetenmeyer and P. Bettinger

If we change our perspective from teaching to learning and consider theories

related to the constructivist paradigm, some of these theories point towards a more
or less humble influence of teachers on their learners. A constructivist view on
learning considers the acquisition of knowledge to be an individual and internal
process (cf. Pätzold 2011). It could thus be questioned how much those aspects that
ostensibly do not deal with concrete teaching and learning situations (e.g. setting
the right framework of the learning environment or the organisation and preparation
of courses) gain a greater role in the learning process. These factors appear increas-
ingly important in a constructivist view of learning. Looking at the Memorandum’s
recommendations, innovative teaching has to consider this in order to be effective.
In conclusion, the teacher’s ability of context-based abstraction and reflection is
considered to be an essential aspect for a fertile learning environment (cf. Faulstich
2003). These basic skills are a necessary foundation to foster teaching that ade-
quately enhances individual learning processes.
In conclusion, innovation as a key to successful learning should not only be
thought of in terms of teaching methods. Instead, a broader understanding of inno-
vation implying different aspects of learning appears to be helpful. Facing the lack
of empirical research in the field of innovative teaching, Mandl et al. (2004) propose
design-based research or use inspired research studies. These approaches appear to
give further insight into “how, when and why innovation in education can also in
practice show positive effects” (ibid., p. 74). In researching learning with consider-
ation to the close connection between theory and practice, the complexity of the
phenomenon can be handled appropriately and innovative teaching is constantly
evaluated and improved.
By defining three dimensions of learning, Illeris (2006) offers another perspective
on the complexity of the phenomenon. Besides the interaction between individuals
and their environment, learning occurs between the poles of recognition and emo-
tion. In this framework, the dimensions recognition, emotion and environment are
included in every kind of learning. Illeris, quite similarly to the community aspect
mentioned by Mandl et al. (2004), adds that his model of a learning triangle is always
embedded within a certain society. Here the question can be raised as to how innova-
tive teaching can influence the different dimensions. It appears, for example, that
emotional aspects of learning are most likely to defy direct methodological control.
The findings of teaching and learning research thus show the multiplicity of aspects
linked to the success of learning. Regarding the professionalisation of adult teachers
and trainers, they also show that it seems to be necessary to further discuss the idea of
what the application of innovative methods can – and especially cannot – achieve.

Perspectives of Evaluation Studies

Further insight into the connection of innovative teaching methods and professional
teaching can be found by taking a look at evaluation studies. Kehoe et al. (2004)
found that it is not necessarily an improvement for learners if they have the choice
12 Teaching Methods and Professional Teaching in Adult Education… 143

between alternative types of courses. Even if some of the students in this study seem
to benefit from new forms of teaching and assessment, the authors point out that
innovative teaching can lead to inferior learning results in other cases. Especially
when the didactical design involves ICT, it is important to keep in mind the indi-
vidual premises of the learners and their ability to engage in self-directed learning.
Further research indicates that, for example, the target group of elderly people
can be put off by the implementation of ICT in the learning context – even if they
are generally interested in learning with new media (cf. Gehrke 2008). As a result,
they withdraw from learning. In order to prevent such a distortion, a fundamental
role is seen in the preparation of courses, especially regarding the analysis of the
target group. This should also be considered when new media are going to be imple-
mented in learning contexts (cf. Weidenmann 2006). Professional adult educators
need to critically analyse the application of ICT in order to avoid an inconsiderate
following of trends. Particularly when it comes to the implementation of ICT, it is a
challenge for every professional to keep the diversity of the target group in mind to
really benefit from the potential.
In the course itself, empathy of teachers has proved to be a promising basis for
adapting teaching methods to the skills of their learners (cf. Tippelt and Schmidt
2009). For example, elderly learners can then integrate their own expertise and life
experience into the course. On the one hand, this serves as a valuable source for a
whole course; on the other, the learners gain confidence and feel esteemed.
Rindermann (2003) analyses a variety of national and international evaluation
studies in the context of higher education and refers to the question of which traits
characterise good lecturers and good lectures. He points out that structuring and
clarification are the main factors to be considered. In his multidimensional model of
successful learning, Rindermann underlines the multitude of influences. Referring
to higher education, the author states that “the quality of teaching in higher educa-
tion exceeds the quality of courses. It covers content aspects as well as target, pro-
cess and framework requirements …”4 (ibid., p. 237). In this respect, “good teaching
is not only achievable by particular didactically successful courses. Moreover, it has
to be integrated into an appropriate subject-related environment, a university and
adjuvant framework”5 (ibid., p. 237).
Evaluation research thus confirms that successful learning depends on a mul-
titude of impact factors. Innovative teaching can therefore be regarded as one
aspect among many that can influence our learning in a positive way. It is essen-
tial to remember that it takes more than developing and applying new methods to
obtain a sustainable basis for successful learning. Innovation is only useful when

4
Translated by the authors. Original in German, “Die Qualität der Lehre an Hochschulen geht über
die der Veranstaltungen hin- aus. Sie umfasst inhaltliche sowie formale Ziel-, Prozess- und
Bedingungsgrößen …” (Rindermann 2003, p. 237).
5
Translated by the authors. Original in German, “Gute Lehre ist nicht nur durch einzelne didak-
tisch erfolgreiche Lehrveranstaltungen erreichbar, sondern muss in ein entsprechendes Umfeld
eines Faches, einer Universität und förderlicher gesellschaftlicher Rahmenbedingungen einge-
bettet sein” (Rindermann 2003, p. 237).
144 R. Egetenmeyer and P. Bettinger

there is a clear improvement – in this case for the learners in adult education and
training – and it takes a further deepening of the professionalisation debate as
well as more empirical research on the subject to get a more profound picture of
the ways innovative teaching and learning success are connected. The argumen-
tation of the Memorandum falls short in suggesting a clear link between these
statements.

Conclusion

From the perspective of professionalisation, the application of methods for teaching

and learning only serves as one of many competences. A complex cluster of compe-
tences is necessary to provide professional teaching for adults. Research shows that
innovative teaching methods are less relevant than the appropriate adaptation of
methods. Teaching methods cannot be applied in a universal way; they have to be
adjusted to the target group, the topic, the framework and the situation to promote
success in the learning process.
The adoption of ICT-based teaching methods requires particular attention. There
are target groups that can be put off by such a learning scenario. This causes learn-
ing barriers that prevent an enhancement of learning.
Finally, the term “effectiveness” of methods does not seem to be the appropriate
choice in the context of innovative methods and professional teaching. Rather, “ade-
quacy” appears to be a helpful concept. Teaching and learning situations cannot be
planned in a technological manner but require individual adjustment to the particu-
lar situation. Thus, teaching and training methods can be seen as one condition
among others that have to be considered.
We therefore see a need for the further development of the issue of the
Memorandum’s understanding of professional teaching. It needs to go beyond
teaching methods and the role of professionals in teaching and learning scenarios.
Adult education plays a central role in the realisation of lifelong learning in
Europe. As adult education has various target groups, a fixed set of teaching meth-
ods is neither appropriate nor sufficient. To cope with the demands in adult educa-
tion, this paper shows that a complex competence set is necessary for professional
teaching.

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Chapter 13
From ‘Innovation’ to ‘Quality’: The Topic
of Professionalisation for Adult Learning Staff
in Selected European Policy Documents

Simona Sava

Introduction

Education plays an important role in European policymaking, as it is relevant not

only for the common labour market but also for the ambitious goal of developing
the most competitive knowledge society in a global perspective.
To achieve this goal by means of improving the competencies of the European
population and labour force, the European Commission has been active since the
Maastricht Treaty (1992) by launching programmes, organising debates and discourses
and structuring the field in papers, communications, action plans and comparative
and monitoring studies and reports. For this purpose, the professionals in education are
important conditioning factors, facilitating the competence acquisition.
My interest is related to the European policymaking for the professionals in adult
education, and I am trying to identify which aspects of ‘professionalisation’ can be
found in the relevant European documents and to what extent they are stressed. In
order to understand the principles and to be able to put the measures of the EU in a
certain framework, I will look at the relevant documents following more specific the
questions: which importance is put on the professionals and is there a change over
the years? To do so, my article will focus on the period between 2000 and 2010: this
period starts with the Lisbon Goals and A Memorandum on Lifelong Learning
which sets certain goals for 2010, and it ends with a summary of the achievements,
the new goals and the guidelines until 2020. Thus, it is also from the point of view
of the policymakers a defined decade which begins and ends, as the set goals are for
such period (see ‘Lisbon 2010’, ‘Europe 2020’).

S. Sava (*)
Department of Education Sciences, Faculty of Sociology and Psychology,
West University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 147
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_13, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
148 S. Sava

The selection of the documents to be analysed is based on three criteria: the

range of documents has to cover all members states, but also candidate states, the
character has to be summarising, aim-oriented towards promoting and stimulating
lifelong learning, and the concept has to be related to developing practice and to
initiating activities. According to these criteria, the content analysis will cover five
documents:
1. A Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (2000)
2. Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality (2001)
3. Adult Learning: It Is Never Too Late to Learn – Communication from the
Commission on Adult Learning (2006)
4. Action Plan on Adult Learning: It Is Always a Good Time to Learn (2007)
5. Renewed European Agenda for Adult Learning (2011)
The frame of interpretation will be to put the documents briefly in their historical
context, pointing out the main purpose of the documents and identifying the
paragraphs which are directly oriented to the professionals and the staff in adult
education, irrespective of their name (i.e. ‘facilitators’). As it will be pointed out
later on, in the documents from the beginning of the decade, the staff working in
adult education was mainly seen as trainers, teachers, mentors and facilitators;
from the second part of the decade, however, they are called ‘professionals’ or ‘adult
learning staff’ in a broader way highlighting the fact that the policy messages cover
all staff, not only the trainers, and that this staff should be professionalised or at
least considered as a professional group.

A Memorandum on Lifelong Learning

A Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (2000) had the explicit purpose to ‘launch

a European-wide debate on a comprehensive strategy for implementing lifelong
learning at individual and institutional levels, and in all spheres of public and
private life’ (European Commission 2000, p.3). The character of the Memorandum
was unique at that time as an important means of policymaking in the field of
education, which is – since Maastricht – part of the political agenda of the EU but
only in form of a so-called soft and open method of coordination. The member
states kept their autonomy in this crucial field so that it is not compulsory for them
any decision of any body of the EU in regard with education. The form of common
discourse to replace political decisions was not new, but very innovative in this
dimension and in the procedure: launching a paper with a certain aim, relaunching
it 1 year later with a supposed stronger message to be followed as it is including
the feedback of all the participating member states and it has the form of a common
compromise/agreement.
The Memorandum contains six ‘messages’ to ensure lifelong learning as a
guiding principle of provision and participation at education and training (E&T).
One of them was ‘the innovation in teaching and learning’ (message 3). The other one,
13 From ‘Innovation’ to ‘Quality’: The Topic of Professionalisation… 149

which is closely related to the work of the staff in adult education (AE), is message
number five ‘rethinking guidance and counseling’. Both messages describe the role
and the tasks of the people working in the field.
The new teaching role and methods are considered to be new and represent a
paradigmatic ‘shift’ from ‘the traditional way of teaching in the at least half a century’
(European Commission 2000, p.14); it is also meant for user-oriented learning
systems, with the independent learner in the centre and teachers with a more
supportive and facilitating role. In empirical and theoretical works related to the
educational systems, this ‘shift’ of paradigm is indeed considered to have happened
in the mid-1990s (Nuissl 2010). Since the document sees this development as a
new one, it calls for ‘innovations’ in teaching role, methods and integration of
counselling. The big innovation is seen in relation with the ICT use and related new
teaching methods, the collaboration of ICT technicians and teachers and databases
and the increase of counselling opportunities.
In order to sustain innovation, ‘applied educational research’ effort should be
raised so as to inform the practice about the missing knowledge on ‘how to generate
productive self-directed learning, […] how senior citizens best learn, how to adjust
learning environments’ (European Commission 2000, pp.14–15). It is interesting
that this idea of educational research is left out in further policy documents.
Besides ‘innovation’, two other terms are used as aims to be reached in relation
with the teaching and learning methods and contexts: the (improving) quality and
the effective performance. In this respect, ‘significant investment by Member States
to adapt, upgrade and sustain the skills of those working in formal and non-formal
learning environments, whether as paid professionals, as volunteers or as those for
whom teaching activities are secondary or ancillary function’ (European Commission
2000, p.14) should be undertaken. These desiderata can be found as ideas in the
further policy documents from the middle and the end of the decade (see the ones
analysed later on); the direct link to the Memorandum is not even mentioned. Since
an aim of the Memorandum was ‘to debate on a comprehensive strategy for imple-
menting lifelong learning’, it is highly important to research to what extent the
member states can report such investment and such priority action, mainly that such
message comes again in all the analysed documents, as direct solution for ensuring
the needed quality.
But when it comes further to the qualifications of the teachers and trainers, they
are mentioned as follows: ‘Training courses and qualifications for education and
training practitioners in non-formal sectors […], in adult education or in continuing
training are under-developed everywhere in Europe. What can be done to improve
this situation, including through European co-operation?’ (ibid., p.15). ‘What can
be done to modernize and improve initial and in-service training for guidance and
counseling practitioners? Where are the most urgent needs for enriched training?’
(ibid., p.18).
The openness of these questions shows that there is hardly any concrete idea about
the specific lack of competences and the appropriate ways to solve the given under-
development. It is mentioned, in a rather vague way, that something should be done.
Unfortunately, this vague way is kept in the further documents, possible reasons for
150 S. Sava

such situation being either the lack of research in this area to feed the content and
suitable practices or the lack of reliable experiences which have been proven efficient
and, therefore, might be extended to a large scale or the missing concrete point of view
and the determinate willingness to act from the policymakers.
Taking a look at the priorities of the messages, the Memorandum puts the innova-
tion in teaching and learning in the third place and the improvement and fostering
of counselling in the fifth. This will change after the feedback of the discussions in
the member states. This changed priority might be indirectly foreseen from the
wording used in the Memorandum as the appellative attached to the counsellors is
‘professionals’, but teachers and trainers are seen only as practitioners who need to
upgrade their skills and knowledge. Such different naming can be understood also
because of a long period of practice in teaching and learning, but a rather limited
one in counselling, a new complex service to be set up in a systematic way and
performed therefore by specialised people, specially prepared in this respect.

Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality (2001)

This document has been completed and published 1 year after the Memorandum,
only a short period if we were to take into consideration the large consultation
process (over 12,000 stakeholders from around Europe; see European Commission
2001, p.8). It unites the revisions done by the member states to the Memorandum.
The order of the messages is now changed: information, guidance and counselling
are on the second place (behind ‘valuing learning’), whereas ‘innovative pedagogy’
comes at the end as the sixth message. Obviously the national debates prioritised the
messages differently compared to the original Memorandum.
The consultation feedback confirms the shift from ‘knowledge’ to ‘competence’
and from teaching to learning (ibid., p.23), as well as the growing importance of
guidance and counselling in a system of education, in which learners find their own
individual pathways.
The information, counselling and guidance (ICG) are seen as an integrative part
of at least three building blocks of the lifelong learning strategy, the ‘facilitating
access to learning opportunities’, ‘creating a learning culture’ and ‘partnership
working’. ICG as support service accompanying the individuals amongst the educa-
tion and training system needs to develop and enhance its quality, concrete actions
being pointed out in this respect in the document. But the counsellors are mentioned
only indirectly, in relation to the quality of the service, as ‘guidance workers’ who
need a training (ibid., p.18). There is no mentioning about their competencies or
about the professionals to run these services, but only about the fact that the envis-
aged European Guidance Forum will reflect on the ‘quality of guidance provision,
with a view to developing common guidelines and quality standards for guidance
services and products’ (ibid., p.18).
Concerning the ‘innovative pedagogy’ priority of action, the innovation is very
much related to the ICT potential for supporting learning. This aspect is stressed further
13 From ‘Innovation’ to ‘Quality’: The Topic of Professionalisation… 151

in the document (ibid., p.27) while listing the indicators for measuring progress in
lifelong learning: ‘innovative pedagogy (e-Learning is particularly relevant in this pri-
ority)’. The innovation comes also from the paradigmatic shift from teacher to learner,
from the changed roles of the teachers, seen as ‘learning facilitators’ (see the glossary
in Annex 2, p.33), and requires different competencies for teachers, as well as further
training. This time the term ‘competence’ is used as such, and, in order to master it,
concrete fields of needed training (i.e. in ‘multicultural competences’ – p.24) or
exchange of experience are mentioned. In this respect, not only the financial resources
of the Socrates or Leonardo da Vinci programmes are put in place by the Commission
but also the Commission commits itself to ‘contribute to the construction of a common
framework of reference for the competencies and qualifications of teachers and train-
ers’ (ibid., p.24), pointing out that the member states should make ‘development oppor-
tunities accessible to learning facilitators’, mainly to the ones in non-formal adult
education, where the formal training is not a requirement, but an improved quality of
training is needed. Later on, it can be noticed that the commitment of the European
Commission was partly fulfilled, with the study done in 2010 under the coordination of
Research voor Beleid, ‘Key competences for adult learning professionals – Contribution
to the development of a reference framework of key competences for adult learning
professionals’, complementing more specific for the adult educators the general devel-
opment of the ‘European Framework of Qualifications’ (EQF). But the structure of
qualifications is not set up yet, and neither is the way of how this may be done. The later
documents are just mentioning generally that the member states should set up effective
systems of initial and continuing professional development.
Also, the financial resources are made available for researching the way adults learn
and for developing ‘efficient and effective pedagogic approaches for various groups of
learners’ (ibid., p.30), in the first Annex, with the research proposals until the end of
2003 the ones sustaining the innovative pedagogy being amongst the first ones.
The document is more concrete than the Memorandum on good reasons: it is no
longer oriented to structure a discussion, but to structure real activities in the member
states, based on their feedback. That is why the document mentions concrete divisions
of roles in this agenda, both of the Commission and of the actors from state/regional/
local level. The document shows a rather clear view of the reality in the field and the
variety of stakeholders to be involved, pointing out in a more direct manner, on one
hand the gaps (i.e. lack of training (opportunities), lack of enough research input for
developing innovative pedagogy and enabling teachers and trainers in this respect)
and on the other hand the responsibilities and the roles each (institutional) actor should
play in the attempt to improve the practice of fostering adult’s learning.

It Is Never Too Late to Learn (2006)

This document follows the activities in the field of adult education which have been
realised in the years after the Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a
Reality, which was actually the first ‘action plan’ in lifelong learning. It points out
152 S. Sava

the achievements made in the last 5 years and gives perspectives for the remaining
5 years until the end of the decade in 2010.
Amongst the messages of the document, the question of staff and professionals
gained a higher priority than before (part of the 2nd message), and it is much more
concrete in pointing out the needs of this professional group, both for career
prospects and for professional development. They are seen as determinant of quality
and emphasised as focus in relation to adult learning (see the title of the second
message, ‘Ensuring quality of the adult learning’).
The role of the system of education is pointed out much stronger than in the
earlier documents, and the paradigmatic shift from teacher to learner is reconsid-
ered, as it is noticed that ‘poor quality of provision of adult learning leads to poor
quality of learning outcomes’ (European Commission 2006, p.6). Therefore, ensur-
ing quality in adult learning is discussed more differentiated from the teaching
methods and the didactic setting until the quality of providers and of the delivery,
the quality of staff being a distinct factor. Above all there is pointed out the strong
relation between staff competences and the aim of higher quality of teaching and
learning: ‘The professional development of people working in adult learning is a
vital determinant of the quality of adult learning’ (ibid., p.7).
In the didactic setting, the ICT disappeared totally, and it is not talked anymore
about innovation, but about learning outcomes, and how to ensure them. In order to
make ‘explicit’ the ‘intended learning outcomes’ (ibid., p.6), a concrete stipulation
is made in the document, showing the need of the politicians for tangible and mea-
surable results and concrete mentioning of what teachers provide to the public and
to the learners. Furthermore, concrete learning support resources are to be made
available to the learners, meaning that the work of the teachers and trainers should
be better documented and made visible and more easily measurable/controlled. So,
one might argue that such stipulations are not meant to only support the learner or
to guide him/her but to ensure a better control on the quality of provision and pro-
fessional behaviour of teacher in the classroom.
Compared with the former documents, not only the need for training and compe-
tence development is pointed out here, but the heterogeneity of the group is also
described and the challenges for a system of training as different professional path-
ways are undertaken and are to be recognised, valorised and integrated. In this
Communication the other categories of ‘adult learning staff’, not only the teachers
and trainers, are acknowledged, and all the ‘adult learning personnel’ is taken into
consideration. The counsellors are not mentioned anymore distinctly, and the coun-
selling as a whole is less stressed, being pointed out only at the end of message one.
The ways to become a professional, as well as the career perspectives, are seen as
elements of a system which has to allow a status and working condition of a higher
quality. Concern is expressed therefore not only about more in depth analysis of the
work done by them and on the different routes to becoming practitioner in this field
but about the needed training and qualification, as ‘little attention has been paid to
defining the content and processes for initial training of adult learning staff, and…
the profession is not always recognized within formal career structures. … Member
States should… put in place initial and continuing professional development
measures to qualify and up-skill people working in adult learning’ (ibid., p.7).
13 From ‘Innovation’ to ‘Quality’: The Topic of Professionalisation… 153

Arguing at this macro-system level, the needed research is not related anymore
to didactical innovation but to providing the needed data for evidence policy-
making (ibid., p.9), like ‘defining the content and processes for the training of adult
learning staff’ or describing the needs for continuing professional development
and upskill, for instance. Also, benchmarks, frames of competencies and instru-
ments are needed to recognise and integrate the different professional paths into
‘formal career structures’.
Financial resources, concludes the second message, should be used for improving
the teaching materials and for qualifying and up-skill people working in adult learn-
ing’ (ibid., p.8), as preconditions for the quality of learning. However, better quality
assurance mechanisms are also demanded, for a better checking of the provision.
It could be foreseen that these concrete contributions to the discussion, which
have been already running in some member states at this time, would have some
follow-ups in the action plan that has been launched on the basis of this document
1 year later.

It Is Always a Good Time to Learn (2007)

In this Action Plan on Adult Learning, concrete actions are drawn (for 2008–2010)
at the policy, governance and delivery levels, in order to implement the messages
launched in the Communication on Adult Learning in 2006.
The topic of quality of teaching and learning is in this document, the main point
of the argumentation. Even more, the paradigmatic shift is moving back to teaching,
as the role of the teacher in supporting and stimulating adults to learn is recognised
(mainly of the ones with limited study skills): ‘the quality of staff is crucial in moti-
vating adult learners to participate’ (European Commission 2007, p.9). Such con-
sideration is to be seen, however, not only as a recognition of the importance of the
teacher in the relation teacher-learner but also as a demand for the teacher moving
the responsibility on the teacher’s shoulders to attract adults to learning, as the
figures show that adults do not participate in lifelong learning by themselves.
In order to ‘improve the quality of provision in adult learning sector’ (the title of
the third priority of action), the main concern is represented by the quality of the
staff which is seen as the most important conditioning factor. If in the Communication
from 2006 ensuring quality of adult learning on four different coordinates (teaching
methods, quality of staff, quality of providers, quality of delivery) was discussed, in
the Action Plan, the didactic settings and teaching methods are left out, and the
concern is moved towards the institutional aspects ensuring the quality of provision.
The provision is seen in a wider way (not only of courses), and, therefore, the staff
ensuring it is distinctly mentioned: ‘management, guidance personnel, mentors and
administration’ (ibid., p.9). Thus, the former wording of ‘teachers and trainers’ is
changed with ‘adult learning staff’, being explicitly mentioned who they are, beside
the teachers and trainers, as all of them have their role in provision. As wording
‘adult learning professionals’ is also used, suggesting not only the need for the
better understanding of this group of professions but also its more systematic
154 S. Sava

regulation, once it is aimed to set professional standards for the personnel performing
them (at a certain qualitative level).
For improving the quality of provision, concrete actions are foreseen for 2008
(comparative studies), for 2009 (standards for adult learning professionals) and for
2010 (research on the development of quality standards for providers).
The study on Adult Learning Professions in Europe (ALPINE) (see Research
voor Beleid 2008) shows on one hand the need to map the landscape of existing
occupations fostering the learning of adults (distinctly enumerated here), as still too
little is known in a systematic way, and, on the other hand, points out the solution of
promoting the learning from each other and capitalising on existing good practices.
The comparative analysis on adult learning professions covers not only the systems
of training and qualification but also their status and payment, meaning that deeper
understanding of the system and context of their work as well should be provided.
In this way, more coherent basis for policymaking can be ensured, and also the
building up on existing positive developments, without neglecting them by ‘innova-
tions’, paradigmatic shifts and so on, now left out.
Two of the three distinct actions to be undertaken in this period concern the adult
learning staff, showing the importance attached to them in the quality of provision
frame, but also the need for a better understanding and also standardisation of the
profession. However, the attempt of the Commission to develop standards for adult
learning professional until 2009 is one of concern, taking into account the heteroge-
neity of this professional group and the specificity, for instance, of those working in
liberal adult education, compared to the ones working in vocational education. Not
only the variety and specificity of the work the professionals perform in different
sectors of adult education make such attempts difficult, but also one can question to
what extent it is needed: can everything be standardised? Who defines a profes-
sional and by what standards? With what authority does the Commission decides
upon the professional profile of a particular group?
Although it is difficult to put standards, the main effort carried in these 3 years
was spent on developing standards and the research on the development of quality
standards. This is a cautious way of acting, but irrespective of the sensitivity of this
aspect, the coherence of acting at all levels of policy circle, including the evaluation
and monitoring, in order to ensure the aimed quality, can be noticed.

Renewed European Agenda for Adult Learning (2011)

This document resumes the performances of the previous decade, welcoming the
fact that ‘quality assurance has been raised as an important issue in adult learning
and strides are being made in developing the professional profile and training of
adult learning professionals’ (European Council 2011, p.5). Coherent and comple-
mentary to the actions undertaken in the previous action plan, for the period 2012–
2014, the priorities of acting are very much comparable, with the Improving the
quality and efficiency of education and training in the second place (ibid., p.15).
13 From ‘Innovation’ to ‘Quality’: The Topic of Professionalisation… 155

Amongst the next steps are strong desires for the quality of teaching staff; therefore,
effective systems of initial and continuing professional development (CPD) are to
be put into place. The further training is not meant to be an arbitrary one, but one
done against a competency profile to be set and with carefully established career
steps and levels of expertise which a coherent system of CPD should include. As
policy measure, the mobility of adult education staff is mentioned.
The group of professionals is now not anymore the prerequisite for the quality of
provisions and learning; they have the need of quality for their own learning, the
right to have a qualified training, etc. Actually now the professionals are considered
to play an important role in building up the lifelong learning.

Conclusions

The analysis of the documents launched at European level in this decade concerning
the adult learning professionals pointed out different positions stressed towards this
group of professionals having the role to sustain adult learning. Thus, it can be
noticed that in the last part of the decade, there is more emphasis on the need to
professionalise adult learning staff, considering that the quality of professional
behaviour is seen as determinant for the quality of learning. This need comes as a
solution to failing to attract 12 % of adult population to lifelong learning, thus better
qualified staff being needed in this respect. Therefore, the last three documents
emphasise more the needed steps towards a professional way of acting and for
ensuring the competent adult learning staff.
This paper itself focused only on these documents, mapping in a wider way the
efforts spent at European level for adult learning professionals, directly or indi-
rectly. One can say that the actions cover all the policy circle, from the studies aimed
to ground the policymaking (see ‘ALPINE Report’ 2008, and the consecutive one
done by both Research voor Beleid in 2010 and ‘Key competences for adult learn-
ing professionals’), formulating visions and setting policy agenda in different policy
documents (as in the documents analysed) and putting in place tools and instru-
ments for implementation (i.e. Europass, European Qualification Framework)
and financial measures (see the grants available within the Lifelong Learning
Programme) (Ferreira-Lourenco 2009), undertaking a close monitoring within the
Progress reports or evaluation and impact studies (see the study on ‘Achievements
and results of implementing the Action Plan’ or the one of ‘West Scotland Colleges’
in 2011). However, it is not clear to what extent such studies are used in further
policy documents, neither if we can talk about a coherent evolution, as far as even
the previous documents are mentioned, it cannot be derived that the new policy
documents are built on lessons learnt, and impact analysis.
Nevertheless, in spite of all these efforts and developments, the questions
launched as debate in Memorandum ‘What can be done to modernize and improve
initial and in-service training for …practitioners? Where are the most urgent needs
for enriched training?’ are still not answered in a convincing way, and it is not clear
156 S. Sava

how the ‘effective’ initial and CPD systems to be established by the member states
might look like. Instead, the solution recommended is learning from each other with
the help of staff mobility. The vague mentioning can be a reason for which the mem-
ber states did not put in place such systems, and neither a wider training resources
system for (up)skilling the adult learning professionals (see Sava 2011; Nuissl and
Lattke 2008). It is to be seen if at the end of 2014 more concrete steps will be taken.

References

Commission of the European Communities. (2000). A memorandum on lifelong learning. Brussels:

SEC(2000) 1832. http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc/policy/memo_en.pdf
Commission of the European Communities. (2001). Making a European area of lifelong learning
a reality. Brussels: COM(2001) 678. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=
COM:2001:0678:FIN:EN:PDF
Commission of the European Communities. (2006). Adult learning: It is never too late to learn –
Communication from the commission on adult learning. Brussels: COM(2006) 614 final. http://
eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2006/com2006_0614en01.pdf
Commission of the European Communities. (2007). Action plan on adult learning: It is always a
good time to learn – Communication from the commission on adult learning. Brussels:
COM(2007) 558. http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/adult/com558_en.pdf
Commission of the European Communities. (2011). Action plan on adult learning: Achievements
and results 2008–2010. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/
doc1288_en.htm
Ferreira-Lourenco, M. (2009). Achievements and challenges for adult education in Europe in the
last decade. Journal of Educational Sciences, 2(20), 10–15. Timisoara: Ed. Universitatii de
Vest; interview done by Simona Sava; www.resjournal.uvt.ro
Nuissl, E. (2010). From teaching to learning and back. In S. Sava (coord.). 10 ani de dezvoltare
europeana in educatia adultilor – Realizari si provocari in atingerea obiectivelor “Lisabona
2010”, volumul celei de-a treia Conferinte nationale de educaţie a adultilor [10 years of
European development in adult education – Achievements and challenges in reaching the ai
Member States of “Lisabona 2010” – the volume of the 3rd national conference on adult
education] (pp. 33–38). Timişoara: Ed. Eurostampa.
Nuissl, E., & Lattke, S. (Eds.). (2008). Qualifying adult learning professionals in Europe.
Bielefeld: W. Bertelsmann Verlag.
Research voor Beleid. (2008). ALPINE – Adult Learning Professionals in Europe. A study of the cur-
rent situation, trends and issues. Zoetermeer. http://ec.europa.eu/education/more-information/doc/
adultprofreport_en.pdf
Research voor Beleid. (2010). Key competences for adult learning professionals. Contribution to
the development of a reference framework of key competences for adult learning professionals.
Zoetermer. http://ec.europa.eu/education/more-information/doc/2010/keycomp.pdf
Sava, S. (2011, November). Towards the Professionalization of Adult Educators. Andragogical
Studies, Journal for the Study of Adult Education and Learning, 2. Belgrade: Cigoja Stampa.
The Council of the European Union. (2011, November 17). Council Resolution on a renewed
European agenda for adult learning. Brussels 16743/11. http://register.consilium.europa.eu/
pdf/en/11/st16/st16743.en11.pdf
Treaty on European Union (92/C 191/01), Maastricht, 1992. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/
dat/11992M/htm/11992M.html
West Scotland Colleges. (2011). Grundtvig study: In-service training; analysis of provision of and
participation in Grundtvig in-service training activities. Glasgow. http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/
llp/studies/analysis_exploitation_results_grundtvig%20_lot2_en.php
Chapter 14
Being an Adult Learner and Learning
Through Life

Larissa Jõgi

Introduction

Lifelong learning has been extensively researched and discussed in different

contexts. The concept of learning also is a central issue to the lifelong learning
policy context. Numerous discussions and studies, articles, books and reports have
been published all contributing to the discussion, interpretation, development,
analysis, reports and suggestions in regard to learning. My intention as a researcher
is to write a chapter for this book in order to value and respect adults and their
learning by presenting their voice as learners. Having a voice – a presence, power
and agency – means having the opportunity to speak one’s mind, be heard and
counted by others and, perhaps, to have an influence on the processes and out-
comes (Cook-Sather 2006, 364). Research by Fielding (2001) highlights that by
eliciting the learner’s voice, learners will feel that their views are being taken more
seriously. Listening to adult voices as learners means that we recognise, respect
and understand them also as the main stakeholders in lifelong learning and educa-
tional policy. An increased sense of respect will in turn make them more inclined
to reflect and discuss their learning and provide the tools to influence what, why,
how, where and when they learn.
Based on studies conducted in Estonia, I can state that there are tensions between
the understandings of learning among educational policymakers and experts and
adult learners (Aava 2010; Jõgi et al. 2007, 2008a, b). As the different counterparts
understand learning, they often do not hear and understand each other’s. And in
turn, this tension brings misunderstanding and confusion in the educational policy
discussions.

L. Jõgi, Ph.D. (*)

Department of Adult Education, Institute of Educational Science,
Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 157
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_14, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
158 L. Jõgi

Educational policymakers and experts understand “learning as a tool for economic

change and development” and talk about “learning for future work and competitive
economy”. A individual is phrased “as a kind of capital” (Aava 2010, 6) and “learning
support is important because adult learners are not prepared for lifelong learning”
(Jõgi et al. 2007, 127). The understandings of learning among educational experts
are narrow, limited by their professional practice and legitimised through policy.
However, adult learners experience learning in a broader manner (Jõgi et al. 2008a,
36), which is significantly different from the kind of lifelong learning that is central
in current lifelong policies (Biesta 2008).
I concur with Peter Jarvis and Mads Hermansen that there will be no future
development, consensus and constructive relationships without dialogue, conversa-
tion and social interaction between these two counterparts – adult learners and adult
learning policymakers (Jarvis 1992, 2011; Hermansen 2005).
In this chapter, I will present some meaningful findings from the study “Andragogical,
social and psychological factors that co-influence the readiness for learning and
activeness in training in the context of lifelong learning in Estonia”1 by discussing how
adults as learners understand learning and how understandings of learning differ
throughout generations in the life-course context. Some results from the study were
originally presented in the 5th ESREA international conference “Adult Learning and
the Challenges of Social and Cultural Diversity: Diverse Lives, Cultures, Learnings
and Literacies” in order to present ongoing research (Jõgi et al. 2007, 104–119).
By writing this chapter, I would like to encourage educational policymakers,
experts and adult educators to listen and value adults as learners. This kind of study
also helps us as researchers and educators to understand the entity of the life of adult
learners, their learning experience as well as their era and generation and learn from
them. This chapter focuses on understandings of learning and adult learner experi-
ences of learning in the life-course context.
Empirical data for the study was collected between 2004 and 2006 using semi-
structured interviews and analysed between 2006 and 2011. The interviews were
based on a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire and open conversations.
Fifty-five interviews were conducted with 41 women and 14 men of different ages
and educational levels from 9 Estonian counties and 5 cities. It was important that
different generations from different counties were represented. For empirical analysis,
five interviewees were chosen from seven age groups (21–30, 31–40, 41–50, 51–60,
61–70, 71–80, 81–90). The youngest interviewee was a 20-year-old woman and the
oldest, a 99-year-old man. All interviews were analysed separately in the context of
the individual life course in order to understand the differences and uniqueness in
understandings of learning. The interpretation of the empirical data was based on a
hermeneutic-phenomenographic approach, holistic perspectives and inductive analy-
sis (Marton and Booth 1997; van Manen 2001). The phenomenographic approach

1
Research project “Andragogical, social and psychological factors that co-influence the readiness
for learning and activeness in training in the context of lifelong learning in Estonia” was granted
by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research (2004–2006). Research was conducted at the
Department of Adult Education (Institute of Educational Science, Tallinn University).
14 Being an Adult Learner and Learning Through Life 159

sees learning comprehension as a social construction and interpretation (McLeod

2002; van Manen 2001). Subjective comprehensions make it possible to analyse and
understand the essence of learning, the development understandings of learning and
the attitudes towards learning (Alheit 1994). The analyses of the interviews involved
a process in which we were looking for structurally significant differences or a
structural individual nexus in understandings of learning, which belongs to a par-
ticular lived experience, which becomes part of contextually related experiences
(van Manen 2001, 37).
For this chapter, empirical examples from 11 interviews were chosen from age
groups 21–30, 31–40, 51–60, 61–70, 71–80 and 81–90 in order to illustrate under-
standings of learning.

Learning in the Context of the Life Course

Our understanding of how adults from different generations experience learning is

based on the following theoretical views (Alheit 1994; Hermansen 2005; Field et al.
2008; Miller and Boud 1996; MacKeracher 2004):
• Learning is a holistic process; there is continuity between life and experience.
• Learning is connected with time, life and experiencing self.
• Learning is socially, emotionally and culturally constructed.
• Experience is a foundation for learning.
• Life experience, life course and learning experiences form understandings of
learning.
Any learning has its starting point in something that has to do with existence and
life (Hermansen 2005, 29). Learning takes place in the context of the life course and
is seen as social and a personal development process, which occurs throughout
sociohistorical time.
The life course can be defined as the sequence of positions of a particular person
in the course of time and provides a framework for studying and understanding
learning as phenomena at the nexus of social pathways, developmental trajectories
and social change (Elder et al. 2003, 10).
The life-course perspective is based on the following set of principles (Elder
2002):
• Personal development and ageing are lifelong processes.
• People are actors with choices that construct their lives.
• The timing of events and roles, whether early or late, affects their impact.
• Lives are embedded in relationships with other people and are influenced by
them.
• Changing historical times and places profoundly influence people’s experiences.
The life course is stage-like; each person experiences a number of transitions,
events and turning points in life. Adults accumulate experience and learning over
160 L. Jõgi

their lifetime; therefore, learning is a socially determined life-wide and lifelong

process including socialisation. The life-wide dimension of learning makes it pos-
sible to understand learning more extensively – individuals learn in different fields
of life and also learn to be themselves (Jarvis 1992, 32).
We proceed from the viewpoint that a person and generation is influenced by
events, social changes and life transformations connected to social roles, social
positions, age, relations, life experience and processes in society, which in turn
influence the development of learning experiences.
Through an adult’s experiences about their learning, it is possible to understand
the entity of learners and the essence of the development understandings of learning
during the life course and in social and educational contexts (Jõgi and Karu 2004;
Field et al. 2008).

Understandings of Learning

Based on findings, it is possible to point out one typical pattern in development of under-
standings of learning. The younger generation (21–30-year-old interviewees) associate
learning with knowledge and skills, practical things and acquiring something.
Learning is acquiring new knowledge, that I can connect and use in my work. (Riina, 28)
Learning is acquiring knowledge, but the understanding of learning also changes as
studies become more practical, and the older the person gets, the more conscious learning
becomes. (Laura, 20)

It is important to this generation that whatever they learn is useful. Their life
experience is too short for reflecting, remembering and analysing. They have not
experienced so much life or work experiences, transformational events, and do not
have enough personal resources and learning skills. Their comprehension of learn-
ing is normative, habitual and has no meaning yet.
Later generations (31–40-, 51–60-, 61–70-, 71–80-year-olds) perceive learning
in a broader sense as development, relationships, discovering, creating as well as
personal growth and life opportunities.
Learning is definitely discovering your own individuality followed by strengthening and
perfection. During the last two years I have discovered that I have found the courage to
challenge myself. (Katrin, 30)
I am like an oak tree. Oak is a strong tree, grows slowly and doesn’t break easily. I have
tested myself many times in life – will I break or not? Can I handle it? (Regina, 74)

Learning is integrated into everyday life; it is life wide. Learning is life; learning
is a way of life which influences apprehensions, values, beliefs, life course, educa-
tion, work and professional career.
I have learnt that everything is temporary…life itself, new relationships, new situations
have all required me to move from one work place to another and required me to learn.
(Vaike, 56)
Learning makes you to stay in society/…/. Being constantly knowledgeable of what’s
going on in society; it is an attitude. (Mare, 67)
14 Being an Adult Learner and Learning Through Life 161

The support of parents, home and family is very important when choosing study
and learning opportunities.
When I was a child, my FATHER was very important to me, I didn’t see much of my
mother. She only told me to decide by myself…. Now, my partner has supported my studies
which is very important to me. I just don’t want to be a housewife or identified only as a
mother of three children. (Liina, 36)

School and high school remind people of a place where learning and studies
were not very meaningful. School is perceived as being important for life and the
development of self, but school is not a place where people see themselves as con-
scious learners. They remember a couple of teachers, who influenced their appre-
hensions and the development of their world view. School is seen and talked about
as something negative, compulsory; teachers are associated with negative emotions.
All this is remembered and talked about in later years.
I was afraid of my high school Estonian language teacher. I was good at Estonian language,
but I was constantly terrified because of her screaming and yelling. When the class was
over, the feeling of relief was amazing. Until the next day of course. (Rita, 31).
Unbelievable, yes. The better I felt, the better the results I got. In elementary school, I
studied a lot, but the teachers there were very strict and even a bit abusive. I wish they had
been a little bit more humane and friendly. I remember that in physics class nobody new
much and the teacher just yelled out our family names: “Sokk, Sütt, stand, sit, F”. You
couldn’t think, you just listened and hoped that your name wouldn’t come up. (Elvi, 56)

Study and continuing learning supports individual development, self-actualisation

and managing life and work.
People participate in training programmes to make a better life for themselves. I have
understood that I haven’t had a big career and I won’t ever have it. I want to have a job
which offers satisfaction and so I can manage my life. (Vaike, 56)
I once understood that the teacher is the one who knows and tells how things really are.
Now I have a different understanding. I have reached the conclusion that the result is not as
important as the process. The process of… did I reach the result and how we explain our
opinions. (Raivo, 66)

The more experienced the person is, the more she/he senses or values learning
opportunities in informal situations and in life itself without defining themselves as
learners.

Uniqueness of Understandings of Learning

How we conceptualise the self is foundational to how we conceptualise learning (Clark

and Dirkx 2000). The examples from two different generations (Heleri, 22 years old,
and Arno, 99 years old) present generational differences: (1) in the positioning of the
self as learner and (2) in understandings of learning. The meanings of learning were
extracted from the empirical data and classified according to types under categories of
meaning. The following categories were set in the two interviews with Heleri and
Arno: learning as self-reliance and capability, understanding of self as a learner.
162 L. Jõgi

Heleri’s (student, 22 years old during the interview) and Arno’s (former farmer
and blacksmith, 99 years old during the interview, died in 2005) understandings of
learning were different, unique and were interpreted accordingly. Differences in
understandings of learning are influenced by experience, differences in a person’s
life course and the social framework of situations in life.
Arno was born in 1907 (1907–2005), experienced more than four periods of radi-
cal political, economic and social change in Estonia: first the Estonian independent
republic (1918), World War II (1941–1945), two deportations to Soviet labour
camps in Siberia (1941, 1949) and the restoration of the Republic of Estonia in
1991. The most meaningful and transformational events for him were experiencing
the Soviet labour camps and the restoration of the Estonian Republic. Arno experi-
enced learning as life, as a life experience and a social process, where there are a lot
of changes, difficulties and learning. Arno learned to be and feel free.
Arno’s learning experience is influenced by the life he has led and by finding
his place in that life. For Arno, learning is connected to life, learning is lifelong,
life is learning.
Life is learning. Learning starts from childhood, when a child starts to learn, he learns for
life and learns it throughout his life until he dies. A person learns until he dies; to death, yes,
it is important that you stay calm. That you don’t have so many prejudices…I am happy
with everything./../(Arno, 99)

Arno has experienced dispositional barriers. Simply existing is difficult at his

age, but it is more important than knowing.
I don’t have learning obstacles, but may be they don’t show./…/, but my memory isn’t good
and walking is difficult, I would be more active, it’s difficult being like this… I am not
capable of much any more, I don’t have a good memory any more. I put something in one
place, it is there for some time, but when you turn around, it’s not there any more (laughs).
I haven’t thought about it that much. (Arno, 99)

For Arno learning gives strength to live and learn. He uses words like “teacher”,
“treasure” and “wealth” as metaphors for learning.
Life experience is a teacher, a treasure and wealth… I am a learner that learns from life and
experience. (Arno, 99)

Heleri was born in 1984. Since Heleri was born after 1980, she grew up with new
information technology and social media. She has experienced two meaningful
events: graduation from high school and her first job. Heleri sees the need to acquire
knowledge; she is used to learning like she did at school.
I can’t really vocalise it, this job I have, I have to learn new things all the time. When I came,
I could only do so much with the computer. (Heleri, 22)

Learning is acquiring knowledge and she is the one who acquires the knowledge,
knowing is important.
It’s when I don’t know anything, but I want to know and then I acquire that knowledge.
When you decide that you know about a lot of things, it is a very powerful feeling. I think
that people who know a lot of things are very interesting to listen to and then I think what
kind of a feeling it is to look down on people in terms of knowledge. Looking down not in
14 Being an Adult Learner and Learning Through Life 163

a negative context, but they see things more broadly. I think it must be a great feeling.
(Heleri, 22)

For Heleri, learning is tiring, learning is a burden. She uses the word sickness as
a metaphor for learning. Heleri’s experience of learning is influenced by the experi-
ence of school studies, which was “difficult, frustrating and tiring”.
…I have this nature that I like to learn, but when it gets too much, I get tired. Now, for
example, I don’t want to study. I flee from it now and I fight with myself. (Heleri, 22)

Heleri’s and Arno’s apprehensions of learning are based on life events, episodes,
life course and learning experiences and are influenced by interpretations of experi-
ences during their childhood, work and studies (Heleri) and adulthood, transforma-
tional events, social situations and life itself (Arno). Heleri’s apprehensions of
learning are knowledge centred and influenced by normative beliefs and little chal-
lenges. Arno does not connect learning with knowledge or studies, but with life,
experiences and himself. Arno’s apprehensions differ because of his “life wisdom”,
his unique set of values and life experience.

Conclusion

It is vital to understand adults as learners and value their learning experiences in

their life course. Learning in the context of the life course can be understood as life
based and a constant process connected to life; learning is personally meaningful
and significantly different from “economised” learning. Learning is understood
and talked about differently by different generations. Understandings of learning
are constantly changing during life, intertwined with life, where one of the dimen-
sions that is not dependent on the life course is understanding learning as acquiring
skills and knowledge:
• Understandings of learning are always subjectively unique, non-recurring,
meaningful and socially designated in the context of the life course (Krueger
et al. 2006).
• Understandings of learning are influenced by interpretations of events experi-
enced during childhood, school years, work, transformational events and through
interpretations of life and the person herself/himself.
• Understandings of learning develop through life.
• Changes in understandings about learning last throughout life.
• Self-reliance and an understanding of one’s self as a learner increases as life
experiences increase.
Influences from the social environment and the support of home and family
are crucial in life. People, who have experienced success and support in their
lives, their studies and their learning, including support from home and family,
their employer and their organisations, wish to continue and do continue their
studies actively.
164 L. Jõgi

The younger generation perceives learning as knowledge and acquiring knowledge.

However, with more experience and a deeper understanding of self, the more life
wide and complex a person’s experiences of education and work become. The
more people have life experiences, more significant events and transformative learning
experiences in their life, the more they understand and value learning possibilities and
learning. Hence, they learn more, want to learn more and are more active in life.
The generational differences associated with positioning self as learner and
understandings of learning help us to reflect how different is personal learning expe-
rience and how different are understandings and expectations of learning, which
adults as learners bring to educational and social process.

Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge with much appreciation all interviewees

and my colleagues Katrin Karu and Kristiina Krabi from the Department of Adult Education at
Tallinn University for significant discussions and continuing cooperation. The all have my sin-
cerest gratitude.

References

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London: Cassell.
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Chapter 15
Perspectives on Guidance and Counselling
as Strategic Tools to Improve Lifelong
Learning in Portugal

Maria Paula Paixão, José Tomás da Silva, and Albertina L. Oliveira

Introduction

This chapter focuses on guidance and counselling services and their coordination in
Portugal, in the light of the lifelong learning policies that are fostered in Europe and,
in particular, the Commission’s Memorandum as part of the broader initiative for the
development of an European area of lifelong learning. Although we embrace the
need to provide to all citizens with access to ‘good quality information and advice
about learning opportunities throughout Europe and throughout their lives’, as
stated in the Memorandum (p. 16), we will show that this objective is far from being
fulfilled in Portugal. This can be partially explained by the services’ different ori-
gins and also by the traditions of the two more relevant disciplines (psychology and
education) that informed their creation, as well as by the current political and ideo-
logical context prevailing in Europe.
Guidance and counselling are umbrella concepts which have different meanings
in diverse life and political contexts. Following Gysbers’ (2008) suggestion, after
his thorough analysis of specialised literature on this topic, we will use the words
guidance and counselling combined in order to encompass all the terms currently
used in documents discussing lifelong learning policies (e.g., vocational guidance;
vocational counselling; information, advice and guidance; career development).
For the purposes of this chapter, we will refer to guidance as ‘a range of activities
that enables citizens of any age and at any point in their lives (lifelong) to identify
their capacities, competences and interests, to make meaningful educational,

Albertina L. Oliveira contributed equally to this chapter.

M.P. Paixão • J.T. da Silva • A.L. Oliveira (*)
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra,
Coimbra, Portugal
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 167
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_15, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
168 M.P. Paixão et al.

training and occupational decisions and to manage their individual life paths in
learning, work and other settings in which these capacities and competences are
learned and/or used (lifewide)’ (CEDEFOP 2005, p. 11). Likewise, counselling ‘is
a generic term that refers to a relationship between two or more people in which one
person facilitates the growth and development of others in order to help them deal
with their problems more effectively’ (Glasser and Fine 2004, p. 519).
Guidance and counselling policies have a tremendous impact on individuals’
ability to adjust to both voluntary and involuntary transitions which citizens face
throughout their entire lifespan. As Fouad and Bynner (2008) have pointed out,
involuntary transitions are often accompanied not only by personal obstacles and
difficulties but also by obstacles in the form of opportunities as well as by insti-
tutional obstacles. Thus, guidance and counselling services are expected not only to
support citizens in their lifelong voluntary transitions but clearly to help reinforce
their internal and external resources during involuntary transitions, particularly in
target underprivileged groups.
This chapter is organised in three main sections: we start by addressing the
history of guidance and counselling services in Portugal, then we will discuss the
implementation of lifelong learning and guidance structures and services within
adult education in Portugal, and finally we will take a critical stance on a recent
proposal addressing the creation of a comprehensive system of lifelong education
and guidance policy.

Notes on the Context of Guidance and Counselling Services

in Educational Institutions and Public Employment
Services in Portugal

The history of guidance and counselling in Portugal can be viewed taking into
account two separate levels of analysis. If, from the theoretical point of view, the
developments in Portugal were comparable to those of other international contexts,
the established political power, from the mid-1920s until the late 1970s, never created
the favourable conditions for the emergence of a sound practice encompassing
the needs of both children and adults (Duarte et al. 2007). In fact the roots of guid-
ance and counselling services can be found in a historical period that ranged from
the mid-1800s to the beginning of the First World War. However, the events that
occurred from the 1920s onwards were critical for the development of the guidance
and counselling practice in Portugal, and especially of its career strand (Abreu 2003),
since it had a bright start during the 1920s, in close connection with the creation
of experimental psychology units within the higher education institutions of
Coimbra and Lisbon.
In the field of vocational guidance, the most important fact was that, in 1925, a
professor of general psychology at the University of Lisbon, Faria de Vasconcelos
15 Perspectives on Guidance and Counselling as Strategic Tools… 169

(1880–1939), founded the Portuguese Institute for Career Guidance and Counselling
(IOP) following the widespread theoretical and methodological movement of
psychological testing.1
In the period following the Second World War, there was a progressive delay of
Portugal relative to other European countries and the United States of America.
Career guidance and counselling in school contexts didn’t exist until the late 1960s.
It was not until the early 1960s that the political authorities started to foresee the
need to provide guidance and career interventions, via the implementation of two
political measures: training of former school teachers, during a brief period, to
deliver vocational guidance services to pupils attending the third cycle of basic
education, and the creation, in 1965, of the National Employment Service under the
auspices of the Ministry of Labour.
During the 1970s and early 1980’s, these measures were further strength-
ened through two initiatives: (1) the creation, in 1979, of the Institute of
Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP, PES) by the Ministry of Labour and
(2) the reintroduction of technical-vocational studies in the educational system,
(1982–1983). In this new system, Occupational Guidance Counsellors (COPs) began
to carry out their activities, predominantly for the purposes of increasing vocational
training and occupational opportunities among adults, as well as the production,
classification and dissemination of occupational information for prospective career
deciders and workers. These counsellors were mostly psychologists and others with
major studies in social sciences. Later on, they focused predominantly on
unemployed adults and young people seeking first employment.
It was in the mid-1980s that school psychologists with a specialised training in
career guidance and counselling entered the regular school system in Portugal for
the first time. Following the publication in 1986 of a new law redesigning an educa-
tional system adapted to a democratic ideology (Lei de Bases do Sistema Educativo)
which extended compulsory education until the age of 15, Psychological and
Guidance Services (PGSs) were created, in 1991, under the Ministry of Education
in order to provide information and advice to students facing critical decision points
for their future educational path. In 1997, the career of PGS psychologist was finally
institutionalised in schools.

1
During Vasconcelos’ leadership a number of important activities were undertaken, in accordance
with the theoretical and methodological tenets of the vocational guidance, then dominant,
namely, (1) the publication of a large series of occupational monographs and (2) psychological
assessment and guidance of pupils attending formal education whenever required, mainly within a
research focus.
In fact, his model of career guidance and counselling was similar to the one operationalised by
Parsons (1909) in its Vocational Bureau: “Knowing the skills that characterize an occupation and
the aptitudes that an individual has, it must be determined whether this individual is suited for the
job he wishes to follow, and if not, what profession he should pursue instead. Therefore, the problem
lies in the knowledge that we have about an individual and in what is known about occupations and
the labour market” (Pinho 1986, p. 8, quoting Vasconcelos, 1928).
170 M.P. Paixão et al.

In the last years of the twentieth century, there was a huge increase in the recruitment
of guidance experts. As Abreu (2003) commented, ‘these quantitative changes were
not without influence on qualitative improvements in educational practice also
relevant to many schools, in which psychologists could collaborate as catalysts of
work teams, in developing projects of renovation of educational practice in schools
and its relations with the surrounding community’ (p. 155).
However, the staffing of PGSs in schools slowed down in the first decade of the
twenty-first century, and, consequently, the counsellor-student ratio is still very high
and uneven, especially considering that compulsory education has been extended
until the 12th grade, as a result of the New Opportunities Initiative,2 having as target
population students in secondary education and the adult population without
certification equivalent to that level.
Considering more specifically guidance and counselling services for the adult
population in education and training in Portugal, solid roots seemed to be planted
when the National Agency for the Education and Training of Adults (Agência
Nacional para a Educação e Formação de Adultos, ANEFA) launched the first
network of Centres for the Recognition, Validation and Certification of Competences
(CRVCC) in 2001. As we will see later, what looked like a bright beginning, at least
in the field of Adult Education, has disappeared, a prisoner of a functionalist orien-
tation that increasingly took place. The changes were very similar to those that
happened in the European and international contexts concerning the increasing
importance given to the concept of lifelong learning. As we know, although estab-
lished as a priority by the European Commission (2001) to achieve the Lisbon political
aim of a knowledge-based society, the concept of lifelong learning is not new.
However, since the beginning of the 1990s, a change in the meaning of this concept
started to emerge. As is recognised in the Global Report of Adult Learning and
Education (UNESCO 2009), the Delors Report (1996), addressing the challenges
posed by education and training policies, ‘marked the shift from the use of the term
‘lifelong education’ in the Faure Report to ‘lifelong learning” (p. 22), which was
reinforced by several events and initiatives such as the meeting of the Ministers of
Education of OECD countries, in 1996, under the theme Making Lifelong Learning
a Reality for All. However, this shift, framed within the notion of human capital, has
been developed and maintained ‘on principles of instrumental rationality that consider
the outcomes of learning primarily in terms of use-value’ (UNESCO 2009, p. 22),
reflecting a narrow and functionalist interpretation of the human being, certainly not
oriented towards human liberation and critical awareness and reflection.
In Portugal, precisely in the 1970s, the perspective of lifelong education was
conceptualised as a framework to guide the transformation of the educational and
training systems, encompassing several dimensions, including guidance. Simões’
model (1979) envisioned education as continuously accessible to every human
being across their lifespan and at the same time oriented towards the promotion of
personal autonomy and empowerment. Such a system was conceived as integrating

2
This initiative was launched in 2005 by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour and
Social Security.
15 Perspectives on Guidance and Counselling as Strategic Tools… 171

the following four key elements: the permanence of education, equal opportunities,
guidance and self-direction. Therefore, some of the dimensions mentioned in
the model have been considered by the European policies of this new century
(CEC 2000), like the emphasis on valuing non-formal and informal learning by
its formal accreditation; others are still in need of being further developed and
implemented either in Europe or in Portugal.

Implementation of Lifelong Learning and Guidance

Structures and Services Within Adult Education in Portugal

A huge step towards the implementation of lifelong education and guidance in

Portugal happened in the domain of adult education when, in 1997, the Secretary of
State for Education and Innovation asked for the creation of a task force of
Portuguese specialists to present a ‘strategy document for the development of adult
education’ (Melo et al. 1998). This valuable paper recommended that the State must
take on various responsibilities, and among several proposals it strongly highlighted
the creation of an organisational structure specifically for adult education – ANEFA.
Among other tasks assigned to ANEFA was the setting up of a system of formal
validation of prior learning for adults that was meant to be a truly innovative public
structure in Portugal, which had been lacking for a long time. Indeed, in 2001 the
National System for the Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of prior learning
(NSRVCC) was created by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour
and Social Security under the coordination of ANEFA, giving rise to the first network
of Centres (CRVCC).
Despite the dissolution of ANEFA in 2002, with the corresponding dilution of
the adult education identity, the NSRVCC has been maintained and enlarged and it
continued to function from 2007 onwards under the responsibility of a new agency
(National Agency for Qualification, ANQ) in the context of the New Opportunities
Initiative. Launched in December of 2005, this initiative presented a strategy for
national education and training in Portugal aiming to increase the qualification level
of the population based on two goals: (1) to strengthen vocational and technical
paths as realistic options for young people and (2) to develop basic and secondary
education and vocational training for the active population. However, the sound
principle stressed by ANEFA of cooperating and establishing strategic liaison with
several partners and institutions at different levels has been maintained. For instance,
the activities developed by the ANQ have been organised in strong cooperation with
social partners and organisations from the civil society as well as with the Institute
of Employment and Vocational Training.
Thus, from 2005 onwards, a process of vast reforms took place in Portugal cov-
ering basic, secondary and higher levels of education and training. One of the main
components of this ongoing process is the National Qualifications System (NQS)
which has reorganised vocational training within the educational system and the
labour market to give rise to the national qualifications framework, following the
172 M.P. Paixão et al.

European Qualifications Framework principles. The NQS intends to ‘ensure that all
Portuguese citizens will achieve education at 12th grade level’ and its purpose is ‘to
integrate all qualification systems and all sectors, and to establish a national qualifi-
cations framework to improve access to qualifications and progression, in order to
respond to the needs of civil society and the labour market’ (Pires 2011, p. 3).
One of the main axes of the NQS is the New Opportunities Centres (Centros
Novas Oportunidades, NOCs), which replaced the previous NSRVCC. In 2005
there were only 98, and in order to implement the government goal of qualifying
one million adults up to 2010, they expanded rapidly, reaching in April 2010 a total
of 454 centres scattered throughout the country. As will be seen later, this expansive
movement has represented an important step towards making guidance services
continuously and locally accessible to NOCs adult target population, as recom-
mended in the Memorandum. Thus, in terms of basic and secondary education and
training and regarding validation processes serving the adult population, NOCs are
still the national structures that provide guidance and counselling services as well as
skills assessment and certification at a local level for adults, although another
transition is taking place just now to replace them with Centres for Qualification
and Professional Training at the end of 2012.
In spite of the recent extinction of many NOCs, it should be stressed that the
work of the technical teams in these structures is developed in an integrated manner:
all the centres are using a digital platform which enables information to be
constantly updated regarding education and training offers, the validation processes
at national level and the situation of each adult benefiting from the Cemtres’ activ-
ity. Thus, the Integrated System of Information and Management of Education and
Training Offer SIGO is the current political device developed to support information,
advice and guidance networks. Therefore, in the context of the NOCs, guidance staff
provide advice and guidance locally to all adults who want to reach a certification
of basic or secondary education. They aim ‘to establish the candidate’s profile and
to determine adequate follow-up steps as part of the intervention’ (Pires 2011, p. 8).
The possible paths are twofold: guidance towards further education and training or
towards a process of accreditation of prior learning. However, concerning the
first path the problem arises when the legal regulations emphasise the orientation
to a course of qualification achievable at a local level, but the education and
training offerings are not sufficient to address the interests, characteristics and
expectations of adults, resulting in an inadequate orientation to the second path
(process of accreditation).
Also from a critical standpoint, it should be stressed that the qualification require-
ments for counselling and guidance staff are very general. The regulations establish
that guidance staff should have, in addition to a degree in higher education,
knowledge about educational and training on offer to the adult population and about
techniques and strategies for diagnostic evaluation and guidance. In the case of
validation practitioners, the regulations vaguely require that they have knowledge
about methodologies appropriate for adults as well as experience in the adult and
training domain. Although many of these professionals have a degree in psychology
or in educational sciences, it should be highlighted that in most cases the specific
15 Perspectives on Guidance and Counselling as Strategic Tools… 173

training in guidance and counselling principles and techniques is clearly insufficient,

since there are no formal requirements beyond any higher education degree.
Concerning access to guidance and counselling services for all in a perspective
of lifelong learning, Portugal is far from having reached the necessary articulation or
integration of its various structures and services. Although for the active population
without a formal certification, the structure and services were well developed at
national, regional and local levels; the qualification requirements of the counselling
professionals, as was said above, are inadequate; and the adults in need of a deeper
psychological counselling support have not been adequately guided to suitable
services, since the system was not meant for that purpose. Furthermore, since we
are now facing a step back with the significant reduction of the CNOs as a consequence
of the recent political changes, we may say that not only are the professionals’
qualifications inadequate but also that they are indeed very few.
In the case of higher education, each institution is completely autonomous
concerning the creation and organisation of guidance and counselling interventions,
as well as in their definition, meaning that liaison with other structures at different
levels of education is very poor or even absent.
Regarding guidance and counselling services for older people, including those
entering retirement, there are also no official structures under the lifelong and
lifewide framework to give them support, which compromises the accessibility of
guidance and counselling services for everyone as stated in the Memorandum.
‘Senior Universities’3 and ‘Universities for Older People’ have been in a process
of expansion in the last decade in Portugal and still are growing. However, the
initiatives came out of the grounding in the civil society, and the seniors that benefit
from them are mainly those in more favourable positions in society, better educated
and with a good socioeconomic position and status. Thus, an effective dimension of
guidance and counselling services should be available, safeguarding equal opportu-
nities for all, supporting the process of growing and learning beyond the retirement
frontier up to the end of life, in a perspective of a lifelong integrated education
system. Such a system would considerably improve the opportunities for an active,
wise and fulfilled ageing process but still needs to be constructed.

Towards a System of Lifelong Education and Guidance

Policy in Portugal

According to Watts (2005), a need is evident in many countries for stronger

mechanisms to provide coordination and leadership in articulating a vision and
developing a strategy for delivering lifelong access to guidance and counselling.

3
These institutions have as their target population people over 50 years old and are usually created,
managed and organised by seniors. The topics studied are very diverse depending upon the seniors’
interests and the teachers are volunteers. Currently there are 175 in the entire country comprising
30,000 senior learners.
174 M.P. Paixão et al.

That is clearly the case for Portugal, where responsibility for guidance and counselling
services is often fragmented across a number of ministries and governmental entities,
some of which are created and dissolved according to strictly political and govern-
mental (and not expert) views.
As a matter of fact, regarding our national guidance and counselling services, we
are currently faced with distinct services, operating in different ways, as mentioned
above, with almost no intercommunication (ANQ 2011a, b). To overcome this
situation, the ANQ presented a proposal of a Lifelong Guidance System (LLGS) to
a panel of guidance and counselling experts (Van Esbroeck et al. 2011).
This proposal, although quite innovative, has some serious limitations in its
scope, once it is quite ambiguous in relation to the main objectives as well as to the
preferential target groups of the guidance and counselling services (Guichard 2003),
namely, to what social questions these services will mainly respond and also who
formulates them (politicians, employers, educators). As is stated in the experts’
report,’ the goals and frame of reference acknowledge both sides of the two alterna-
tive visions for guidance, one focused on humanistic sensitivities and the other
focused on economic/technological realities. However, it should be noted that the
documents lean toward emphasizing the economic needs of the state over a human-
istic vision of the individual’ (p. 5). As a matter of fact, if we carefully analyse both
the content and the language used in the proposal, it becomes quite evident that the
supply-side approach clearly dominates the demand-side approach of the LLGS to
be created: the importance ascribed to the construction of a more realistic view of
the labour market in Portuguese society is overemphasised in relation to other
relevant societal goals, such as the reduction of existing social barriers and forms of
discrimination, the reinforcement of social cohesion and citizenship education and
personal development promotion.
We should also underline the fact that tensions between the experts operating
within different systems are quite visible in the presentation of the above-mentioned
proposal, since it integrates three distinct and mutually exclusive organisational
models (integration, articulation and coordination), each directly linked to the
dominant views and presumptions of the different guidance and counselling
providers. Nevertheless, it represents the first comprehensive and consistent effort
to create a National System of LLGS not directly focused on specific transitions and
their short-term outcomes, with a common competence framework allowing
intercommunication among subsystems.
However, issues and aspects to be improved are, for instance, stronger recognition
of the diversity of career challenges across the lifespan; the competence framework,
which needs further elaboration; and the consideration of ethical issues. The inten-
tional and systematic incorporation of ICT in guidance and counselling services, as
recommended in the Memorandum, although widely considered a relevant and
mandatory tool to provide good quality and timely career information and to assist
citizens in the decision-making process, is not sufficiently addressed in the proposal.
Concerning terminology, the panel proposed the term guidance to be replaced by a
more comprehensive term such as career services. This new term would also
improve communication and networking among specialists to achieve an integrated
15 Perspectives on Guidance and Counselling as Strategic Tools… 175

perspective and functioning of coordinated career services at a national level. An

ambiguous issue, already alluded to, concerned the specific training that should be
provided to the career professionals operating at different intervention levels. Also,
the question of quality assurance mechanisms was not mentioned in the proposal.
Very recently, in February 2012, the National Government restructured the ANQ,
creating the ANQEP, whose mission is to coordinate vocational training for both
young people and adults with the accreditation of prior experiential learning proce-
dures. One of the main attributions of this Agency is, once again, to assure the
management and articulation of the network of providers of career information and
guidance services. Taking into account the political developments that have been
lately taking place in Portugal as well as the European Union, it is not surprising
that of the two main aims for lifelong learning envisioned in the Memorandum –
promoting active citizenship and employability – this newly created Agency has
clearly privileged the latter (in a supply-side logic, as explained above), precisely
via the creation of new formal learning structures in big and concentrated school
groupings, sometimes encompassing more than 20 different schools which are
almost always located in medium-sized cities. Gradual osmosis between structures
of guidance provision, as advocated in many guidance and counselling policymaking
documents (and in the Memorandum itself), is far from being a reality. In many
ways, the successive scattered measures which the last governmental offices have
been inclined to implement show the state of confusion caused by the recent para-
digmatic changes, both in terms of how the policies are adapted and the structures
developed and also on how language is used to create new realities in the already
existing ones. This current state of affairs, where reaching towards satisfying the
guidance needs of large groups of citizens is becoming more difficult, can, in the
long run, undermine access to guidance and counselling services to potential clients,
in general, and to underprivileged groups, in particular. Looking back to main
achievements regarding guidance and counselling in Portugal in the last decade, we
realise that there is a long way to go in order to implement the innovative ideas
presented in the Memorandum. We are currently facing many political and structural
challenges, and uncertainty prevails on the horizon. We hope (but are also very
sceptical!) that the measures adopted to solve the pressing problems in the short
term (e.g., very high unemployment rates) do not blind political decision-makers in
their commitment to strengthen lifelong guidance services for all.

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for Lifelong Learning.
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Quarterly, 54(1), 66–76.
 Part IV
Lifelong Learning and Valuing Learning
Chapter 16
Contradicting Values in the Policy Discourse
on Lifelong Learning

Nils Bernhardsson

Introduction

In the countries of Europe, a system of lifelong learning is under construction

(Brödel 2011). This is reflected in recent developments: The professionalisation of
staff working in adult and continuing education is ongoing and currently realised in
different research projects all over Europe (Bernhardsson and Lattke 2010); skills
that learners have acquired outside of educational institutions are being certified
through the use of so-called learning portfolios (Harp et al. 2010), and new learning
places are being created to extend the opportunities to support learning far beyond
the existing educational institutions (Stang and Hesse 2006; Tippelt and Reich-
Claassen 2010). These developments are significantly influenced by A Memorandum
on Lifelong Learning, which was published by the European Commission in 2000.
The Memorandum was initiated to encourage the member states to operationalise
lifelong learning within their political agenda. It led to a series of subsequent docu-
ments and actions, which aimed to facilitate the proposed operationalisation. In
retrospect, 11 years after the Memorandum was published, Europe is still far from
realising this relatively long-awaited Area of Lifelong Learning (European Council
2010). It is bemoaned that the six key messages of the Memorandum can be imple-
mented only with great difficulty by the individual countries. As reasons for this,
different political interests and social issues within individual member states have
so far been cited as the main determining factors for success where lifelong learning
policy is concerned (BMBF 2001; European Council 2004).
It seems to be a consensus that lifelong learning has so far been implemented
insufficiently. I assume that the main reasons for this are contradicting values which
are inherent in the concept of lifelong learning. The aim of this paper is to analyse

N. Bernhardsson (*)
German Institute for Adult Education, Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning, Bonn, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 179
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_16, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
180 N. Bernhardsson

exactly these contradictions. I will argue that lifelong learning is a concept which is
at the centre of a “policy of values” [Politik der Werte] (Joas 1999, p. 16). This
policy seeks to combine community-based values such as solidarity and tolerance
with more liberal values, such as utility orientation, flexibility and self-realisation.
In this paper I will show how lifelong learning in the course of its development
became a concept that carries with it a certain brand of policy, and my main
argument is that there are fundamental contradictions between the values of the
original idea of lifelong learning and the values inherent to the concept currently in
use. The way in which these contradictions do exactly hamper the construction of a
sustainable lifelong learning system requires a more comprehensive analysis and
can only be lightly touched upon in this chapter.
In order to describe the development of lifelong learning, I will firstly outline the
concept of Social Imaginaries developed by Charles Taylor (2002, 2004). Based on
the concept I will then proceed with a description of the development of lifelong
learning in terms of the political discourse from the 1970s until today. This develop-
ment took place in a first phase in the 1970s, in an intermediate phase in the 1980s,
where no extensive discussion on lifelong learning took place, and in a second phase,
which began in the mid-1990s and lasts until today (Ioannidou 2010; Kraus 2007).

Approaching Values

For the following approach to values, a pragmatist understanding becomes relevant:

Pragmatism is a philosophical school which stands for a certain understanding of
the way in which humans acquire knowledge (Biesta and Burbules 2003). A basic
pragmatist precondition is that knowledge is always connected to action. The main
focus of pragmatism lies on the interaction of humans with their environment and in
connection to this, the acquirement of knowledge. According to Joas (1999), also
values and the commitment to certain values evolve out of actions. For grounding
the evolvement of values in an action theory perspective, Joas refers to the works of
Charles Taylor (1989a, 1991) who describes how personal identities are shaped
through the confrontation with society. In accordance with Joas’ interpretation of
Taylor’s work, I am using the concept of “Social Imaginaries” (Taylor 2002, 2004),
for identifying the values that are in the policy discourse on lifelong learning.1
Using Social Imaginaries it is possible to reconstruct values that are implicit in
discourses. Social Imaginaries are broader objectives summarising certain ways of
thinking that are shared within society. They are composed of complex and unstruc-
tured processes, based on experience, as well as emotion. This creates no fully artic-
ulated “understanding of the whole situation within which particular features of our
world become evident” (Taylor 2002, p. 107). Social Imaginaries are never fully

1
For Social Imaginaries and lifelong learning, see also Rizvi (2007).
16 Contradicting Values in the Policy Discourse on Lifelong Learning 181

articulated and therefore have the potential to give sense and legitimacy to everyday
activities. Furthermore, Social Imaginaries are implicit and normative; implicit,
because they are embedded in theories, practices and events, and normative because
they convey basic normative notions and images that are constitutive for society.
Consequently, Social Imaginaries have more depth and are much broader than mere
scientific, political and intellectual patterns and models, which are examples used in
presentations and publications to depict the social reality (Taylor 2004, p. 23). These
Social Imaginaries are therefore designed to hide values that should be realised by
the introduction of certain norms. Only in this way, the norms have the necessary
potential to structure everyday life. This allows revoking the intended values of
official descriptions and critics.
This contradictory logic of values is also inherent in the discourse of lifelong
learning. In the following, the concept of Social Imaginaries will be used for a
detailed description of this value question. It serves as a concept for reconstructing
the broad objectives which have been underlying education policy on lifelong
learning since the 1970s and how they have evolved.

The Political Discourse on Lifelong

Learning: First Wave (1970s)

In international education policy debates the topic of lifelong learning first emerged
in the 1970s, through the terms “Permanent Education” and “Recurrent Education”.2
Both concepts called for a massive reform of the educational system and strove for
a new, more humane society (Kallen 1996). The aim was to raise the social partici-
pation in broad parts of the world, especially in developing countries. The Social
Imaginary was characterised by creating a more humane society through increasing
the investment in education and was mainly based on two assumptions. The first
assumption was a social humanistic view, with humankind’s innate desire to learn
at the centre (ibid.), and the second one was a particular assumption about the
opportunities of political influence on economic issues.
The concepts of Education Permanente and Recurrent Education which emerged
in the early 1970s were based on fundamental ideas which evolved in the 1960s
(ibid.). The 1960s was mainly characterised by the understanding applied that
the state acts as an economic actor through providing goods and services and thus
takes care of the social welfare of its population. The theoretical structure of this
central pillar of the Social Imaginary was provided by the political economics
of John Maynard Keynes. According to his economic philosophy, the right

2
The expression Permanent Education was introduced by UNESCO on whose behalf the so-called
Faure-Report “Learning to Be – The World of Education Today and Tomorrow” was released in
1972 (Faure et al. 1972). Recurrent Education has been introduced by the OECD through the
report: “Recurrent Education: A Strategy for Lifelong Learning” (1973).
182 N. Bernhardsson

conditions for growth and employment could be created through a good management
of demands.3
Both assumptions, the targeted management of demands as well as the politically
progressive ideal of humanism shaped a Social Imaginary in which it seemed
possible to extend social participation and to create a more human society through
a targeted reform of the educational systems. This Social Imaginary of the 1960s
represents the values of both original concepts of lifelong learning – Education
Permanente and Recurrent Education.
The idealistic spirit of both concepts, however, had little effect on the actual
educational policy of UNESCO and OECD. The objective of the humanisation of
society through education and training was replaced by “more realistic” objectives,4
which had very little in common with the originally required radical changes in
society (ibid.). With the onset of the economic crises in the 1970s and the resulting
rise of unemployment in the 1980s, the required radical social changes seemed to
be too utopian and no longer feasible. Supposedly solid cornerstones of society, the
national priority of full employment had to be increasingly abandoned, because
the reasons for unemployment could not be seen only in economic cycles, but in
other factors such as the inflexible structure of the labour market which now moved
to the centre of political attention (Garsten and Jacobbson 2004).
In summary it can be emphasised that it came to a contradiction between
ambition and reality. This conflict between the ethical issues of the two original
concepts of lifelong learning (Education Permanente and Recurrent Education) and
the requirements of reality was resolved by dropping lifelong learning from the
political agenda. In the following “intermediate phase”, however, issues that had
considerable influence on the way in which lifelong learning was reactivated in the
mid-1990s were discussed.

The Political Discourse on Lifelong Learning: Intermediate

Phase (1980s)

In the late 1970s, it became obvious that contradicting ethical issues can’t be solved
by leaving out conflicting topics like lifelong learning: Increasing political frustra-
tion and problems of social cohesion were observed. This provided the impetus for
the so-called liberal-communitarian debate in which the moral foundations of mod-
ern society were basically tested and discussed by many philosophers (e.g. Gutmann
1985; MacIntyre 1984; Rawls 1971, 1985; Sandel 1982, 1984; Taylor 1985, 1989b).

3
For a critical discussion of the so-called time of Keynesianism, see Skidelsky (2009). Skidelsky
argues that the fundamental concepts of Keynes have only been applied in a very reduced and
shortened manner in this time.
4
This concerns the understanding that lifelong learning should be aimed on solving more specific
social problems like the drastically increasing unemployment in the 1970s and 1980s.
16 Contradicting Values in the Policy Discourse on Lifelong Learning 183

In the liberal-communitarian debate which was triggered by John Rawls’ Theory of

Justice (1971), it was intensively discussed which set of values was suitable for
maintaining moral institutions that guaranteed freedom (Honneth 1993). In order to
keep the order of democratic societies, it was debated whether more community-
based, so-called communitarian values, or more liberal values, such as benefits
orientation, flexibility and self-realisation should have normative priority. During
the discussion, however, both positions were approaching each other. It was recog-
nised that for the preservation of liberal-democratic societies, a shared horizon of
values is needed that links the liberal principle of equality and freedom with a
collective good (ibid.). “Communitarians” and “liberals” agreed that the liberal
principles of freedom and equality can only be realised in connection with commu-
nity-based values. The change in direction that Rawls gave his liberal theory of
justice can be seen as the core of the process of rapprochement between the two
positions and the development of a common horizon of values. Rawls no longer
attributes maximum freedom and economic equality as principles of justice that are
based on an original contract situation within which socially prejudiced subjects
negotiate a contract (ibid.). Within his new interpretation, Rawls replaces the
original contract situation by a real situation, in which actual citizens of Western
democracies, who already acquired common value commitments, participate.
Therefore, the normative enabling of contract-based individual experiences of
justice requires the prerequisite of commonly shared values (Rawls 1985).
The idea of merging communitarian and liberal values has influenced European
politics immensely and transported the promotion of a particular Social Imaginary:
“a balance between the logic of competition and globalization on the one hand and
the production of meaning, solidarity and belonging as the preconditions of social
and political stability on the other hand” (Vorländer 2001, p. 8). This Social
Imaginary was expressed through the politics of the so-called third way (Giddens
1998).5 The biggest challenge of this “politics of values” (Joas 1999, p. 16) consists
in finding the “right balance between competition and solidarity” (Larsson 1996,
p. 724). The difficulty is that this balance cannot be universally defined with
validity for all social contexts. However, as a point of reference for finding the
right balance within specific contexts, the issue of employability resulted from
liberal-communitarian debate (Vorländer 2001).
In the first half of the 1990s, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development 1994) as well as the EU (European Commission 1993) published
strategy papers whose objective was to increase employability in the member states.
The OECD first relied on the deregulation of existing structures (Jacobsson 2004).
The recommendations included, for example, the reduction of wage costs for the
creation of jobs and the introduction of performance-related pay systems to make it
possible to increase the employability, by providing a “pricing of productivity” for
the individual employees (Garsten and Jacobsson 2004, p. 9). The EU argued, how-
ever, that a mere deregulation of the structures in the market sense was not enough,

5
In the UK Tony Blair started the so-called third way strategy, and in Germany Gerhard Schröder
launched the policy “der neuen Mitte”.
184 N. Bernhardsson

but should go hand in hand with targeted promotion of professional training and
development of human resources over the entire working life of individuals
(Jacobsson 2004). Within the EU, the ability and willingness of people to learn
anew and relearning are seen as prerequisites for the improvement of employability.
As a consequence, the OECD extended their political strategy to enhance employ-
ability through acknowledging that learning and knowledge management play an
important role next to the deregulatory measures (ibid.). In this way, the topic of
lifelong learning came back on the agenda. However, this time lifelong learning had
a different objective. Instead of the humanisation of society through the reform of
educational systems, it was now used to preserve the liberal-democratic societies
through a skilful mediation between competition and solidarity between people.
Since the mid-1990s, international organisations have been trying to achieve this
Social Imaginary through the operationalisation of lifelong learning in educational
programmes.

The Political Discourse on Lifelong Learning: Second Wave

(Mid-1990s Until Today)

After the academic discussion of contradictions between different fundamental

ethical issues of modern societies in the intermediate phase, lifelong learning
came back on the political agenda. This time the political organisations based
lifelong learning mainly on liberal and economic issues, without reflecting the
emerging contradiction to the original humanistic version of the concept: Lifelong
learning was (re)discovered with the aim to implement new employment concepts
(European Council 2001). The OECD presented its development of the Recurrent
Education concept with the report Lifelong Learning for All (OECD 1996), and the
European Union published the Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (European
Commission 2000). A central feature of both documents is the increased focus on
informal learning processes that occur outside the educational institutions, e.g.
within the workplace. Learning and working are no longer clearly held in separate
areas as previously but come together in one action (Kraus 2001). Therefore, in this
second phase, a shifting occurs from the concept of education as organised learning
in educational institutions towards the concept of learning as individual learning
processes (Kraus 2007). Another important feature is the strong focus on employment
and the so-called job skills (Kraus 2006). By the notion of employability, lifelong
learning becomes a new objective. An instrumental rationality is inscribed to life-
long learning, which is functionalising the learning. The Social Imaginary of an
amalgamation of competition and interpersonal solidarity which was established
within the intermediate phase was further operationalised through assigning this
functionality to lifelong learning.
Rizvi (2007, p.126) describes that, here, a Social Imaginary of “social efficiency”
has prevailed. The central pillar of the original versions of lifelong learning, the
demand-driven competition and the humanistic view of people characterised as
16 Contradicting Values in the Policy Discourse on Lifelong Learning 185

studious were replaced by other economic assumptions and a different view of human
beings. In order to respond to the crisis of western democracies in the 1970s, OECD
and EU changed their priorities towards low inflation and budget discipline, as well as
towards structural reforms. The demand-driven economic policy has been replaced by
a supply-oriented economic policy which prefers a state that stays as far as possible
out of welfare funding and that focuses on instrumental values such as competition
and economic efficiency. The central idea of such a policy is global competition
(Jacobsson 2004). Even when it comes to the image of humanity, social efficiency is
now central. According to Bröckling (2007, p.143) the upcoming image of humanity
can be described as “anthropology of the homo contractualis”. This anthropology
argues that humans have a contractual nature and regulate the exchange with others on
mutually binding agreements. The actions of humans are thus always negotiations.
The negotiation is the key aspect that distinguishes humans as social beings. A corre-
sponding rhetoric of contracts is mainly determining the discourse on learning and
employability in companies. It tends to combine the demands of the market with the
demands of social security through introducing concepts like the “New Social
Contract” (Lombriser and Uepping 2001). Another approach which aims on reconciling
market issues with security issues is the flexicurity approach which has mainly
achieved success in Denmark and the Netherlands (Kronauer and Linne 2005).

Conclusion

In summary, it can be stated that it is being attempted to establish lifelong learning

as a means to increase social efficiency. As a result, learning in itself is not at the
centre of educational policy; instead it becomes only relevant in a particular and
limited purpose. This intended form of learning serves the purpose to create
economically meaningful active persons, who feel responsible for their own
employability. Furthermore, we must distinguish between a propagated and an
actually realised Social Imaginary. The propagated goal aims on identifying a
balance between liberal (more economy related) values and communitarian values
for all the social contexts of society. Conversely, the Social Imaginary, which has
been realised within education policy, excludes questions of social cohesion.
Paradoxically, however, it views them as essential for economic productivity.
The description of the development of lifelong learning and the reconstruction
of the Social Imaginaries which emerged in the policy discourse show that all
political attempts of developing a comprehensive system of lifelong learning
cannot overlook anymore the fact that the core of values which could carry or
prevent such a system is being shaped by social discourses and learning processes
of individuals. This creates issues for the field of educational sciences and adult
education. Lifelong learning has an ethical dimension which requires an increased
attention to ethical learning processes and their methodical framing, organisation
and monitoring which are the key elements of all teaching, learning and counselling
interaction (Fuhr 2011).
186 N. Bernhardsson

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Chapter 17
Quality in Adult Learning: EU Policies
and Shifting Paradigms?

Bert-Jan Buiskool and Simon Broek

Introduction: Increasing Attention for Quality

in Adult Learning

Improving the quality of Adult Learning provision is included as a key priority in

European documents published since the Memorandum on Lifelong Learning in
2000. By studying the work done by the European Commission on quality in life-
long learning since 2000, an assessment is made on the development of European
Commission’s thinking on, conceptualisation of and approach towards quality in
Adult Learning. This chapter identifies a shift in the interpretation what quality in
Adult Learning means and how policy-makers approach quality. Hence, this chapter
does not depart from a theoretical, academic conceptualisation of quality, but tracks
the way in which the concept of quality is used in relation to Adult Learning.
In doing so, the Memorandum (European Commission 2000a) will be considered as
the baseline, the 2007 Action Plan (European Commission 2007) as the inter-
mediate result and the renewed European Agenda for Adult Learning published in
December 2011 (Council of the European Union 2011) as the current stage of
thinking. By discussing these three official documents and relevant additional work
(such as European studies published, peer learning activities and consultations
organised in this policy-making context), this chapter sketches the developments in
quality thinking in Adult Learning since the publication of the Memorandum.
The 2000 Memorandum on Lifelong Learning emphasises the importance of life-
long learning for building an inclusive society where quality learning is accessible
for all. In addition, lifelong learning is regarded essential for achieving higher
overall levels of education and qualifications in all sectors, to ensure high-quality
provision of education and training and at the same time to ensure that people’s

B.-J. Buiskool (*) • S. Broek

Ockham - Institute for Policy Support, Utrecht, The Netherlands
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 189
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_17, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
190 B.-J. Buiskool and S. Broek

knowledge and skills match the changing demands of jobs and occupations,
workplace organisation and working methods. This means that lifelong learning
should underlie all educational sectors, not only strictly Adult Learning offering
equal opportunities for access to quality learning throughout life to all people, and
in which education and training provision is based first and foremost on the needs
and demands of individuals (European Commission 2000a).
The importance of high-quality provision is mentioned several times in the
Memorandum. Firstly, it is mentioned in relation to basic education: ‘High quality
basic education for all, from a child’s youngest days forward, is the essential
foundation. Basic education followed by initial vocational education and training,
should equip all young people with the new basic skills required in a knowledge-
based economy. It should also ensure that they have “learnt to learn” and that they
have a positive attitude towards learning’ (European Commission 2000a, p. 7).
Secondly, it is mentioned in relation to basic skills: ‘Member States’ formal educa-
tion and training systems – whether initial, further/higher or adult/continuing – are
responsible for ensuring that each and every individual acquires, updates and
sustains an agreed skills threshold. Non-formal learning domains also have a
very important role to play in these respects. This all requires the assurance of
high quality learning experience and outcome for as many people as possible’
(European Commission 2000a, p. 11). Thirdly, it is mentioned in relation to
innovation in teaching and learning. Here it is stated that ‘Quality of learning
experience and outcome is the touchstone, including in the eyes of learners them-
selves’ (European Commission 2000a, p. 13). On top of that, ‘improving the quality
of teaching and learning methods and contexts will mean significant investment by
Member States to adapt, upgrade and sustain the skills of those working in formal
and non-formal learning environments, whether as paid professionals, as volunteers
or as those for whom teaching activities are a secondary or ancillary function’
(European Commission 2000a, p. 14). Fourthly, quality in provision is mentioned in
relation to guidance and counselling.
The 2006 Communication It Is Never Too Late to Learn emphasised the impor-
tance of ensuring the quality of provision by suggesting that Member States should
invest in improving teaching methods and materials adapted to adult learners and
put in place initial and continuing professional development measures to qualify
and upskill people working in Adult Learning. It further recommends the introduc-
tion of quality assurance mechanisms and the improvement of delivery (European
Commission 2006). According to the 2006 Communication, poor quality provision
of Adult Learning leads to poor quality learning outcomes addressing the need for
policy action improving the quality of Adult Learning provision. However, this
Communication also indicated that quality is a multifaceted concept, which makes
it difficult to provide a common approach and policy answer to it. Improving quality
of provision includes action on information and guidance; needs analysis; relevant
learning content matching actual needs and demands; delivery; learning support;
assessment approaches; and recognition, validation and certification of competencies
(European Commission 2006).
17 Quality in Adult Learning: EU Policies and Shifting Paradigms? 191

The 2007 Action Plan on Adult Learning It Is Always a Good Time to Learn, in
implementing the key messages of the 2006 Communication, goes a step further
and indicates that although quality of provision is affected by policy, resources,
accommodation and a host of other factors, the key factor for quality Adult Learning
is the quality of the staff involved in delivery (European Commission 2007).
Whether it concerns teachers, counsellors, managers or supporting staff, they are all
crucial in motivating adult learners to participate (Research voor Beleid/PLATO
2008; Buiskool et al. 2009). The importance of working on the quality of Adult
Learning provision is reaffirmed by the 2008 Council Conclusions (Council of the
European Union 2008). The Council recognises that there is a need to ‘ensure the
efficiency, effectiveness and quality of Adult Learning, with the aim of increasing
active participation in such learning, especially among disadvantaged groups, of
attracting sufficient public and private investment to this area, and of encouraging
the private sector to consider such learning as a key component of workplace and
business development’ (p. 11). In addition, the Education and Training strategic
framework 2020 (Council of the European Union 2009) includes a strategic objec-
tive for improving the quality and efficiency of education and training (Objective
number two (p. 3)).
Finally, the Council Resolution on a Renewed Agenda for Adult Learning 2012–
2014 sets out priorities for action in the period 2012–2014 including actions with
regard to improving the quality and efficiency of education and training (Council of
the European Union 2011). The title of ‘priority area 2’ puts together ‘quality’ and
‘efficiency’ (‘improving the quality and efficiency of education and training’). It is
suggested that Member States need to focus on developing quality assurance
systems for providers, improve the quality of staff, look into the issue of viable and
transparent financing of learning, develop systems so that learning provision better
reflects labour market needs and finally intensify cooperation amongst different
stakeholders. Although shifts might be noticeable already, before clearly identifying
them, first additional material concerning Commission thinking on quality in Adult
Learning will be examined.

Commission Studies and Policy Documents in the Field

of Adult Learning

Within the framework of the Action Plan on Adult Learning, various initiatives have
been taken to boost quality of provision and to stimulate Member States to take
action. Quality has been the subject of various studies, workshops and working
groups of the Commission, of which the most relevant are summarised below.
– The Commission study on Adult Learning Professions in Europe (Research voor
Beleid and PLATO 2008) studied Adult Learning professions in Europe (in the
non-vocational Adult Learning sector) on a number of issues such as their
192 B.-J. Buiskool and S. Broek

employment situation, the tasks they carry out and the educational background
they have.1
– The study Key competences for Adult Learning professionals (Research voor
Beleid 2010; Buiskool and Broek 2011) builds further on the Adult Learning
Professions study and made a European-wide inventory of competence profiles,
competence requirements and educational programmes for becoming an Adult
Learning professional.2
– The study on enabling low skilled to take their qualifications ‘one step up’
(University of Florence 2010) identified key factors underpinning good practices
in this area, emphasising the need to attune systems and didactics, counselling
and guidance to the specific target group to deliver quality Adult Learning.3
– Quality comes along with monitoring and evaluation as well. Without knowl-
edge about effects of policy measures, it remains difficult to see what works and
what does not work. The study Assessment of the Impact of Ongoing Reforms in
Education and Training on Adult Learning (PPMI 2010) laid down methods to
measure the impact of reforms.4
– The study on European Terminology in Adult Learning for a common language
and common understanding and monitoring of the sector (NRDC 2010 )
examined key concepts in relation to quality in Adult Learning and mapped
available data sources to monitor the sector.5

1
It was concluded that Adult Learning staff conduct a variety of tasks and that there is a variety of
educational pathways leading to the profession; there is no clear view on standard competences or
skills needed to fulfil the professional tasks in non-vocational Adult Learning (NVAL), partly due
the diversity of the field, and that a large group works under precarious employment conditions.
Recommendations on the basis of the study included amongst others: developing (European)
competence profiles for staff working in the sector, focus more on in-service training since people
often start working in the sector 10–15 years after their initial educational training, pay more
attention to continuous professional development (internal and external) evaluation and set up an
independent body for quality standards (national and European level).
2
Based on this inventory a set of key competences was identified taking into account the variety of
contexts in which Adult Learning professionals work and the variety of tasks they conduct.
3
The findings and recommendations of this study and the results of a number of peer learning
activities and a workshop on Priority Action 3 of the Action Plan (increase the possibilities for
adults to achieve a qualification at least one level higher than before (‘go one step-up’): European
Commission 2007) were incorporated in a set of concrete policy and practical guidelines for
organising quality Adult Learning provision facilitating basic skills development of adults
(see www.kslll.net/Documents/Basic%20skills%20guidelines.pdf).
4
The follow-up study on Ongoing Reforms II (Research voor Beleid 2011) subsequently reviewed
reforms from the perspective of what are effective ways to mobilise adults to participate in
learning. Quality of provision (in all its dimensions) was considered to be one of the six major
‘mobilisation strategies’. Research shows that not only more flexible forms of provision but also
the enhanced quality of provision and staff can lead to decreased numbers of dropouts in Adult
Learning (Schuller and Watson 2009).
5
The study identified four subfields of quality, namely, validation of learning; accreditation and
evaluation of provision; professional development of teachers and trainers; and finally, innovative
pedagogy.
17 Quality in Adult Learning: EU Policies and Shifting Paradigms? 193

Other studies and reports drawn up outside the scope of the framework of the
Action Plan portray a particular emphasis on quality as well. For instance, the
CONFINTEA VI regional report (Keogh 2009) emphasises that public authorities
play a crucial role in the governance of Adult Learning and assessing the account-
ability of systems and providers through establishing regulatory frameworks,
setting quality standards, certifying adherence to these standards and making
information on providers’ performance against explicit indicators available to
service users. Also it concludes that in general, public authorities are more inter-
ested in the quality of provision when public funding is involved, but that they also
have a role to play – in the interests of effectiveness and consumer rights – where
Adult Learning is privately provided, often with multisource funding.
Furthermore, the Belém Framework for Action (UNESCO 2009a), the final
document of the international conference of CONFINTEA VI adopted on 4 December
2009 in Belém, declares that ‘Fostering a culture of quality in Adult Learning
requires relevant content and modes of delivery, learner centred needs assessment,
the acquisition of multiple competences and knowledge, the professionalisation
of educators, the enrichment of learning environments and the empowerment
of individuals and communities’ (p. 6). Delegates to the conference committed
themselves to the development of these quality requirements in their respective
countries.
In addition, one Commission study prior to the implementation of the Action
Plan is particularly relevant, namely, the study on Local Learning Centers and
Learning Partnerships (Research voor Beleid and PLATO 2005). This study
analyses successful learning centres and the conditions for qualitative partnerships.
It analysed what constitutes a quality learning environment (it should be motivative,
rich and reflexive), and it studied in depth the conditions for organising this quality
learning environment (quality content, financial resources, quality of staff, public
relations and, finally, partnerships). Quality staff brings continuity, flexibility, a
balance between a core team and incidental staff and a balance between content
expertise and process expertise. In addition, the staff composition should mirror the
target group, meaning that it is of a similar cultural, ethnic, language and work domain
composition. Furthermore, besides quality of staff also, funding is mentioned as an
important element or determinant of quality and continuity.
Finally, a study conducted in the Nordic countries on ‘Systematic quality assur-
ance in Adult Learning, Nordic tiles in a mosaic’ (Faurschou 2008) established a
framework for assessing quality in Adult Learning and took as reference point the
Quality Assurance Model – The Common Quality Assurance Framework for VET
(see European Commission 2010). The framework provides a number of steps and
related questions that can be asked at all levels (ministries, study and educational
organisations as well as schools, departments, individuals and lectures), to rationalise
processes with the aim to improve the quality.
Besides these studies, a number of workshops and conferences, as well as
many other initiatives in the area of quality, have been initiated in recent years
by the Member States. In some cases these initiatives have been supported by
194 B.-J. Buiskool and S. Broek

European programmes, such as European Social Funds (ESF)6 and the Lifelong
Learning Programme (LLP).7 Another interesting development with regard to
quality in Adult Learning is the establishment of the European Lifelong Guidance
Policy Network (ELGPN)8 on quality of guidance. This network addresses the
development of quality assurance systems for guidance services from a user
perspective and the need for an evidence base for developing policies for guidance
provision. The network gathers good practices, initiatives and developments from
across Europe and aims at developing a proposal for a common EU framework for
quality assurance from a lifelong guidance perspective.
All in all, the studies conducted and meetings organised support National and
European level policy makers to further develop their thinking on quality in Adult
Learning. In addition, they look closely to what happens in other educational
sectors.

Developments of Quality Initiatives in Educational Fields

Other Than Adult Learning

As has been mentioned already in the Memorandum on lifelong learning, lifelong

learning should enclose all educational sectors (Field 2006). In addition to this, it
appears to be very difficult to clearly demarcate the ‘Adult Learning field’ from
other educational fields, since a lot of Adult Learning takes place in other sectors,
such as higher education (HE), vocational education and training (VET, including
both in-service and continuing VET) and general education (see Research voor
Beleid 2011; Van Dellen and van der Kamp 2008). As a consequence, the issue of
quality crosses sectoral borders and therefore potential measures should take
account of initiatives in other sectors. At European level major steps have been

6
See, for instance, governmental programmes in Portugal to increase participation in Adult
Learning and to increase educational attainment (New Opportunity Initiative). Also, in the new
Member States (Poland, Romania, Hungary), ESF is used to build better Adult Learning structures,
for instance, to target disadvantaged groups (e.g. Roma).
7
With regard to the latter, both the Leonardo da Vinci and the Grundtvig sub-programme contrib-
uted to developing tools and measures to improve quality. Interesting projects are, e.g. Validating
Mentoring 2 (Project Number: LLP-LDV-TOI-07-BG-166007), i2i – Internship to industry
(Project Number: LLP-LdV/TOI/2007/SE/1291), Assessment, Visibility and Exploitation of non/
in-formally acquired competencies of EXperienced EMPLOyees in Enterprises (Project Number:
LLP-LdV-TOI-2007-TR-051). Development of a validation framework for mentoring: evaluating
the achievements of disabled and disadvantaged people (Project Number: BG/05/C/F/TH-83300),
European Fundraising Accreditation and Training (Project Number: EUR/05/C/F/PP-84711), and
Quality management of Peer Production of eLearning (Project Number: 134009-LLP-1-2007-1-
FI-LEONARDO-LMP). A selection of best practices are analysed and presented (2012) in the
QALL project.
8
http://ktl.jyu.fi/ktl/elgpn
17 Quality in Adult Learning: EU Policies and Shifting Paradigms? 195

taken in the last few years establishing quality standards and guidelines within
HE and a quality reference framework in VET.9 In addition, also with regard to
quality in school education, developments have been initiated. In discussing
the developments in the three sectors, the most relevant to Adult Learning are
discussed first:
The European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for VET (EQARF) was
approved in 2009 (see European Parliament and the European Council 2009).
EQARF provides a European-wide system to help Member States and stake-
holders to document, develop, monitor, evaluate and improve the effectiveness of
their vocational education and training (VET) provision and quality management
practices.10 The EQARF framework consists of a quality circle consisting of four
parts – (1) planning, (2) implementation, (3) evaluation and (4) review – and
contains ten guidelines for working on quality, such as rules for deciding who
offers VET provision, the roles and responsibilities for different parts of the VET
system, the information and data, the role of a communication strategy, to pilot
initiatives and value success, use feedback to improve VET, provide clarity over
funding, ensuring quality assurance covers all aspects of VET provision and
ensure VET is founded on a strong involvement of external and internal partners
and relevant stakeholders.
In its Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher
Education Area (ENQA 2009), the ENQA in cooperation with EUA, EURASHE
and ESIB11 and endorsed by the ministers of education of the Bologna signatory12
makes a distinction between (1) internal quality assurance within HEI, (2) the external

9
The Education and Training 2010 work programme launched in 2001 and its follow-up, the
strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (“ET 2020”) adopted by
the Council in May 2009 are the European strategy and co-operation in education and training.
The first phase of the development of a Reference Framework focused during 2001–2003 on devel-
oping common principles and tools. This was organised in the European Forum on Quality in VET
(2001–2002) and in a Technical Working Group on Quality in VET (2003–2004). A common
quality assurance framework (CQAF) was presented in Maastricht in 2004. The second phase of
the work focused on consolidation and further development of tools. ENQAVET was founded in
October 2005 and continued to December 2009, where the activities were continued in the EQARF
and in the ECVET Recommendation. Developed by Member States in cooperation with the
European Commission, the Reference Framework has in 2009 been adopted by the European
Parliament and the Council. It is a key element in the follow-up of the Copenhagen Declaration
and the ongoing work in renewing Europe’s education and training systems. The adoption and
implementation of the Framework in the participating countries is voluntary. The name EQAVET
has been used since 1.1.2010.
10
The EQARF builds on the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), the European Credit for
VET (ECVET) system and previous European quality assurance systems (such as the Common
Quality Assurance Framework – CQAF).
11
ENQA, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education; EUA, Association
of European institutions of higher education; EURASHE, European Association of Institutions in
Higher Education; and ESIB, European Students’ Union
12
See European Ministers of Education meeting in Bergen in May 2005.
196 B.-J. Buiskool and S. Broek

quality assurance of higher education and (3) finally the quality assurance of external
quality assurance agencies.13
In 2000, indicators for measuring quality of school education have been
developed. The indicators can be used to identify issues which should be examined
in greater detail, and they give Member States the opportunity to learn from one
another by comparing the results achieved. Indicators on attainment include issues
such as progress in mathematic skills, reading competences and ICT. Indicators
on success and transition include school dropout rates and completion of upper
secondary education. Indicators on monitoring of education include evaluation
and steering of school education. Finally, indicators on resources and structures
include indicators such as participation in pre-primary education (European
Commission 2000b).
In comparing quality assurance in VET, HE and school education, it can be
noticed that all three initiatives contain a degree of freedom in determining how
quality is measured. Foremost, existing initiatives should not be replaced, but the
guidelines for both VET and HE should improve existing practices. Also, the
guidelines include a general quality cycle and improvement perspective, based on a
general evaluation perspective: (1) setting clear goals and rules and defining roles
and responsibilities, (2) implementing measures to improve and monitor quality of
provision (e.g. quality of staff, resources, support structures), (3) evaluating results
of the provision (e.g. assessment of students, collecting feedback) and (4) reviewing
the evaluation and drawing conclusions towards improving the practices.
Quality assurance in Adult Learning sector could take into account these
above-mentioned developments. This is in line with the outcomes of the European
Commission Workshop on Quality (European Commission 2010) that concluded
that cooperation with other education and training sectors could provide good
learning experiences about what can be considered as quality structures and
processes, such as the higher education sector and the VET sector. Structures, such
as the EQARF and ESGs, could be further developed going beyond sector models
and transferred into an integrated learner-focussed model for quality assurance. On
the other hand, the distinct characteristics of the Adult Learning sector should
be kept in mind while accessing the quality in the sector. Providers should have the
opportunity to choose processes and tools that are best suitable with their specific
situation. Moreover, the role of stakeholders, such as social partners, is stressed in
order to ensure confidence in the outcomes of Adult Learning. In addition to this,
quality monitoring is required to review progress in the sector.

13
Internal quality guidelines include (1) policy and procedures for quality assurance; (2) approval,
monitoring and periodic review of programmes and awards; (3) assessment of students; (4) quality
assurance of teaching staff; (5) learning resources and student support; (6) information systems;
and (7) public information. The external quality assurance emphasises the importance of report-
ing, periodic reviewing, follow-up procedures and system-wide analyses. Furthermore, external
quality assurance agencies should have an official status, have the resources necessary, should be
independent and should be accountable.
17 Quality in Adult Learning: EU Policies and Shifting Paradigms? 197

In addition to the quality frameworks as developed for HE and VET, an even

more important development in recent years is the implementation of the European
Qualifications Framework (EQF)14 and subsequent National Qualifications
Framework in the Member States.15 According to the updated monitoring study of
CEDEFOP (2011), approximately 17 countries have completed their referencing
reports, linking national qualifications to the eight levels of the EQF. The EQF
initiative is built upon the following key elements: qualifications are described in
learning outcomes; qualifications are issued by competent bodies; and qualifica-
tions can be regarded as ‘currency’ in which people, institutions and employers
should have trust. Given this conception of qualification, the institutions offering
qualifications, diplomas or certificates (either through initial education or validation
of non-formal and informal learning) should be trustworthy and hence have
mechanisms for quality assurance. This counts for all institutions where learning
takes place and even more when it concerns the learning of adults.

Quality Developments at Member State Level

When reviewing the developments at national level, it is still true that there is a wide
diversity of quality management systems and procedures. This amongst else due to
the wide variety of Adult Learning settings and providers ranging from upper
secondary, vocational, higher and liberal education provided by different stake-
holders, leading to a fragmentation of quality approaches. In general, quality assurance
is regulated at system level when public money is involved and when the learning
results in a formal qualification. In these cases Adult Learning is, if not always,
regulated by legal frameworks and has accreditation systems and institutions and
monitoring or evaluation instruments. In addition, in the formal sectors staff
requirements are more often legally determined (Eurydice 2011). When it concerns
nonpublicly financed Adult Learning providing non-formal and informal learning,

14
The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) aims to relate different countries’ national
qualification systems to a common European reference framework. One of the main ideas behind
the EQF is that individuals and employers will be able to use the EQF to better understand and
compare the qualification levels of different countries and different education and training systems.
This leads to increased labour mobility between countries, mobility between education systems
and increased opportunities for lifelong learning (see: European Parliament and the European
Council 2008).
15
The European Parliament and the European Council (2008) suggests that the Member States
(MS) relate their national qualification systems to the European Qualifications Framework by 2010,
either by referencing, in a transparent manner, their qualification levels to the EQF levels, or, where
appropriate, by developing national qualifications frameworks; by 2012, all new qualification
certificates, diplomas and Europass documents contain a reference to the appropriate EQF level;
the Member States designate national co-ordination points, in order to support the relationship
between national qualifications systems and the European Qualifications Framework.
198 B.-J. Buiskool and S. Broek

it is mostly up to the sector, provider or client to define the standards. General

frameworks, either national or European, play only a minor role.
When quality procedures are in place within higher, vocational and second
chance education, in most cases no distinction is made between initial and continu-
ous learning. The key question in this respect is to what extent do the quality proce-
dures take into account some basic principles for Adult Learning, often linked to the
quality of the learning process, such as making use of experience adults bring in,
identifying their specific learning needs, make learning relevant for their context,
using specific didactic methods and having a flexible offer taking into account
adults responsibilities and time schedule (Research voor Beleid 2011; Broek and
Buiskool 2012).
Nevertheless, in a number of countries, such as Austria and Switzerland, there is
specific legislation ensuring quality of Adult Learning (such as Ö-Cert and eduQua).
Moreover, there is ample evidence that European initiatives, such as the Grundtvig
programme, EQARF, EQF, the Action Plan on Adult Learning and the European
emphasis on lifelong learning strategies, influence developments in quality assur-
ance related to Adult Learning. For instance, to be eligible for Grundtvig in Austria,
Adult Learning providers need to have quality assurance systems in place. A current
issue that plays a role is the implementation of National qualifications frameworks
and the role of learning outcomes in describing qualifications (Cedefop 2011).
In relation to this, additional requirements could be set for (private) providers
wishing to link their qualifications in an NQF, such as in the Netherlands.

Discussion

So far we discussed developments on quality thinking at EU level and examined in

this regard what happens in the Member States. From this point, it is interesting to
further explore how these developments at European level relate to the policy
discourse globally. In doing this, some shifts in thinking are identified, which are
confronted with developments in Adult Learning practices.
A shift in focus is noticeable in Commission thinking on quality. This shift can
be illustrated by taking into account the four key principles of quality in Adult
Learning, developed by UNESCO in the framework of the CONFINTEA VI. These
principles include firstly, equity, which relates to equitable access to and participa-
tion at all levels of education and training. Secondly, efficiency, which relates to
levels and distribution of resources and to economical investment of resources to
achieve specified aims under given conditions, that is, the ratio of costs to benefits.
Thirdly, effectiveness, which generally expresses means-end relationships in terms
of educational outcomes for learners and the time needed to achieve programme
aims. Completion rates and achievement levels are hard indicators of effectiveness.
Finally, relevance, which the CONTINTEA VI report considers the most important
17 Quality in Adult Learning: EU Policies and Shifting Paradigms? 199

dimension of quality in adult education and training and which means that provision
must represent an effective route to and support for personal and social change and
must engender and sustain motivation to participate and support persistence in
learning to the achievement of individual goals (UNESCO 2009b). Given these four
principles, one could argue that there is a shift noticeable in the last decade on
Commission thinking on quality, moving from quality primarily related to the issue
of equity to quality primarily related to effectiveness and efficiency and relevance.
This entails as well a shift from quality thinking at system, or input level, to quality
thinking at provider, or process/outcome level. This shift fits well with broader
shifts identified for instance in the framework of higher education from quality as
accountability (Kells 1992; Vroeijenstijn 1995) to consumer protection and trans-
parency (Weusthof and Frederiks 1997). Providing transparency and validation are
key principles behind the establishment of the European Qualifications Framework
and National Qualifications Frameworks (European Parliament and the European
Council 2008; Research voor Beleid 2012).
Although, as identifying shifts in the near past is difficult, in this section some
illustrative evidence will be provided to support our claim. In the Memorandum
quality was mainly discussed in the light of improving accessibility for all to learn-
ing opportunities. Also, the issue of quality is considered first an issue concerning
the quality of the system as such. Moreover, quality should be reviewed through
the eyes of the learner. At that time, minor emphasis was given to quality of staff
working in (adult) learning. The 2007 Action Plan and accompanying documents
show that the so-called UNESCO focus on quality lifelong learning systems in
terms of equal accessibility is replaced by more pragmatic messages on staff
continuous development and the quality of delivery. The 2011 Renewed Agenda
further developed this thinking into a focus where quality and efficiency are closely
linked and where relevance of learning outcomes is emphasised. This is illustrated
in Table 17.1.
Given this shift in thinking about quality, it does not necessarily mean that the
issue of equitable access to learning provision is forgotten; it is however not anymore
considered a constituent of the quality of the systems, but as an issue that needs to
be dealt with in addition to organising Adult Learning in an efficient and effective
way. It is covered by its own priority area, namely, priority area 3: promoting equity,
social cohesion and active citizenship through Adult Learning (the Council of the
European Union 2011, p. 5).
Despite shifting paradigms at Commission policy level from the more equity-
driven perspective (education accessible for all) to the more effectiveness and
relevance-driven perspective (programmes better reflect labour market needs) on
quality, it is not clear whether much progress can be seen at Member States’ level,
in the years since the Memorandum. The analysis of quality developments in Europe
is seriously hampered by the fact that until this moment no European-wide overview
is available on national and regional policies in a comparative perspective, including
frameworks, legislation and standards, with regard to quality approaches in the field
200 B.-J. Buiskool and S. Broek

Table 17.1 Focus in Commission publications on quality 2000, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011
2006 Communication/2007
2000 Memorandum Action plan/2008 Conclusions 2011 Renewed Agenda
“Lifelong learning for building an “Member States should “Improving the quality
inclusive society where quality invest in improving and efficiency of
learning is accessible for all” teaching methods and education and
“Member States’ formal education materials adapted to adult training”
and training systems – whether learners” (2006) “developing quality
initial, further/higher or adult/“introduce quality assurance assurance systems
continuing – are responsible for mechanisms and improve for providers”
ensuring that each and every delivery” (2006) “look into the issue of
individual acquires, updates and “poor quality provision of viable and transparent
sustains an agreed skills threshold. Adult Learning leads to financing of learning”
Non-formal learning domains also poor quality learning “develop systems so that
have a very important role to play outcomes” (2006) learning provision
in these respects. This all requires
“that the key factor is the better reflects labour
the assurance of high quality quality of the staff involved market needs”
learning experience and outcome in delivery” (2007)
for as many people as possible” “ensure the efficiency,
effectiveness and quality
of Adult Learning, with
the aim of increasing
active participation in such
learning” (2008)
Focus on UNESCO principle of equity Focus on UNESCO principle Focus on UNESCO
of effectiveness principles efficiency
and relevance

of Adult Learning. Moreover, a critical reflection is lacking on the issues and

challenges that are specific to the Adult Learning sector in relation to assuring
quality of its providers and provision. In addition, less information is available
on processes and mechanisms for quality assurance in the Adult Learning
sector. Finally, one could discuss what the differences and common characteristics
are in the non-vocational Adult Learning sector compared with the development of
quality assurance systems in VET and Higher Education and whether there is a
need to have a common framework on quality in lifelong learning, including all
educational sectors.16

16
These issues are addressed in an ongoing study of the European Commission on quality in Adult
Learning for which the results are foreseen in the beginning of 2013 (European Commission 2011).
This study should feed the work of the Thematic Working Group in Quality in Adult Learning,
established in 2011, by the European Commission to work further on quality issues in Adult
Learning in the context of the Open Method of Coordination.
17 Quality in Adult Learning: EU Policies and Shifting Paradigms? 201

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Chapter 18
The Adoption of an International Education
Policy Agenda at National Level: Conceptual
and Governance Issues

Alexandra Ioannidou

Introduction

Since the mid-1990s, there have been a raising number of policy documents, journal
articles, and books dealing with the concept of lifelong learning from different per-
spectives. OECD’s publication Lifelong Learning for All (1996), UNESCO’s Report
Leaning – The Treasure Within (1996), and Commission’s Memorandum on Lifelong
Learning (2000) are major policy documents that launched a worldwide debate on
lifelong learning. When researchers study lifelong learning, they often point to the
education policy dimension, or to historical, social, and economical aspects (cf.
Istance et al. 2002; Field 2006; Hake 2008). However, matters concerning the
worldwide dissemination of lifelong learning and the influence of supra- and inter-
national organizations on the governance of lifelong learning have not been suffi-
ciently examined.
Questions regarding the impact of international organizations on educational
policy making in general and on the governance of lifelong learning in particular are
of paramount importance. In the long run of modern states’ history, education and
education policy have been run under the control of the nation-state and were a core
element of its sovereignty and autonomy. The analytical perspective on issues con-
cerning political steering and governance of education systems was for a long time
state centered and normative. Even if this is still true to a varying extent in many
countries, recently there is a shift in the examination of issues concerning educa-
tional governance.
With an international comparative study at the University of Tuebingen, Germany,
we sought to answer questions regarding educational governance and the impact of

A. Ioannidou (*)
Open University of Cyprus, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nicosia, Cyprus
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 203
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_18, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
204 A. Ioannidou

the EU and OECD in this field taking as a case the concept of lifelong learning.1 The
project goals were to reconstruct the concept of lifelong learning with respect to its
political and empirical aspects and to examine its implementation at a national level.
The research questions were triggered by three striking developments: (a) the global
spread of the concept of lifelong learning in the education policy (cf. Jakobi 2009),
(b) the emergence of a “transnational educational space” (Lawn and Lingard 2002)
beyond the nation-state, and (c) the appearance of new steering mechanisms and
instruments in education based on a new management philosophy: the output-
oriented steering (cf. Ioannidou 2007).
The study explored issues of educational governance and pursued questions con-
cerning the adoption of an international education policy agenda at a national level
taking as a case the concept of lifelong learning. To do so the following questions
have been addressed: What are the characteristics of the post-national educational
space? Who are the key actors in this field? What are their action orientations? What
kind of resources do they use? What is the impact of their actions? What are the
implications for the nation-state?
In order to explore these phenomena, three EU countries were selected Germany,
Finland, and Greece, one supranational organization, the European Union, and one
international, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
In the pages that follow, first I will outline the new analytical perspective of edu-
cational governance and define the terms as used in this chapter. Then I will present
the theoretical framework and the empirical research design of the study. Building
on that, I will highlight selected empirical findings of the study regarding (a) the
adoption of the concept of lifelong learning at national level and (b) governance
lifelong learning. Emphasis is given on the identification of influential actors in the
European area of lifelong learning, their resources and modes of interaction as well
as on the presentation of the impacts of their actions. In conclusion some reflecting
remarks on the adoption patterns of an international education policy agenda at
national level are provided.

A New Analytical Perspective: Educational Governance

Analytical perspectives on issues concerning regulation and control of education

systems were from the very beginning and for a long time state centered. There was
much faith both in the capacity of the nation-state to manage, regulate, guide, and
control functional systems such as the economic or the educational system as well
as in the feasibility of the functional systems to be efficiently managed, regulated,

1
The international comparative project was funded by the Hans-Böckler-Foundation and the
University of Tübingen (Germany). The project was based on the theoretical approaches of path-
dependent development and actor-centered institutionalism both emanating from political science.
The methods applied were document analysis, expert interviews, and comparative analysis of edu-
cational monitoring and reporting systems.
18 The Adoption of an International Education Policy Agenda at National Level… 205

guided, and controlled by the nation-state.2 However, during the late 1960s and
particularly in the 1970s, many sociologists and political scientists argued vigor-
ously against these propositions drawing on a number of empirical policy analyses
and on the growing influence of systems theory (Mayntz 1997, 2004). Policy mak-
ing was seen as increasingly involving, partially cooperative, partially conflictive
exchanges and interactions between the state and a range of private public and vol-
untary organizations. The term “governance”3 was proposed in the political sciences
to replace the traditional term “controlling” (Mayntz 1997, p. 278). The latter, it was
argued, no longer reflected the patterns that emerged as a result of mutual interac-
tions and interdependencies among actors from various levels, of which the state
was only one.
The term “governance” has been widely disseminated and stimulated scientific
discussions in a range of academic disciplines. In the last years it has been exten-
sively used in political sciences, in political economy, in sociology, and also in dif-
ferent connotations, analytical or normative (e.g., “good governance”) (cf. Benz
2004). The term has been recently introduced in the educational sciences as well.
Questions concerning the coordination and management of mutual interdependen-
cies of various actors of the education system have been examined under the generic
term “educational governance” (cf. Altrichter et al. 2007). The new term clearly
recognizes the dynamics that arose from the emergence of policy actors at various
levels (local, regional, national, transnational) and emphasizes a variety of patterns
of interaction (networks, coalitions, majority rule, negotiations) among them. These
policy actors operate as a nonhierarchical, multilevel governance system with no
clear sovereign authority, but still with capacity of policy shaping (cf. Mayntz and
Scharpf 1995).
The emergence of “new arenas of education governance” (Martens et al. 2007)
makes it evident that new concepts are necessary for the analysis of the governance
capacity and governance practices of the main actors involved in education policy
beyond the nation-state.

Adopting an International Education Policy Agenda

at National Level: Theoretical Reflections

It seems undisputed nowadays that the primary driving forces behind current policy
reforms in national education systems are actually external to the national systems
themselves: global labor markets, modernization and transformation processes,

2
The current economic crisis dramatically confirms the dynamics and mutual interdependencies of
various actors and the immanent difficulties of sufficient management and control of the economic
system by the political system.
3
The origin of the term governance comes from Greek (“kybernein”) and it initially meant the
steering of ships. The Latin term “gubernare” was used both for steering of ships and governing a
state.
206 A. Ioannidou

regional integration processes – primarily within Europe – demographic trends and

changing working patterns, common societal problems, and the “diffusion of world
cultural principles” (Meyer and Ramirez 2003). Moreover, despite the fact that offi-
cial European discourse insists that education will remain a national policy domain,
a gradual strengthening movement toward supranational policy formation in Europe
has become visible. The ambitious policy objectives of the Lisbon Strategy of
“making the European Union the most competitive and knowledge-based economy
in the world” as well as the “Europa 2020 Strategy” place education in the center of
policy interest and lead to a post-national, transnational educational space.
This is a new policy arena that brings forth a host of actors from different levels
who influence policy formation at the international as well as at the national level.
The transnational educational space shows characteristics of a multilayered system
with horizontal and vertical policy linkages, with network-like structures from state
and non-state actors, and with interaction patterns that are based more on coalitions,
negotiations, and mutual adjustment rather than on hierarchical regulation. New and
emerging policy actors such as international and supranational bodies like the
OECD, UNESCO, or the EU along with local authorities and organizations of the
civil society and the market interact with old and established ones (nation-states)
concerning the mandate, the capacity, and the governance of education. As Dale
states, the mandate of education refers to “what is desirable for the education
system to achieve; its capacity – what is considered feasible for it to achieve; and its
governance – how those objectives are realized” (2003, p. 102).
The aforementioned developments have given rise to a range of complex issues
relating to the future of nation-states, their relation to international and suprana-
tional bodies, and their capacity to control and govern their own policy destinies and
set their own agendas.
The concept of lifelong learning exceeds the narrow national and geographical
boundaries and has become a global norm. EU and OECD as supra- and interna-
tional organizations play an important role both at the level of widely spreading the
message globally as well as at the policy formulation at national level. In addition,
the spatial characteristics of the transnational educational space indicate a multi-
layer structure with a variety of actors from different levels (supranational, national,
and regional) who may endorse or reject the adoption or implementation of lifelong
learning. In a multilayer structure, the various actors come into different constella-
tions and create interdependent relationships with each other demanding high
coordination in order to enforce decisions.
The theoretical framework of the study presented is built on the approaches of
path-dependence and actor-centered institutionalism, both emanating from political
sciences. With reference to Scharpf (2006, p. 17), the adoption of the concept of
lifelong learning and its implementation in Greece, Germany, and Finland can be
considered as “the product of interactions between intentionally acting actors –
individual, collective or corporate.”
The identification of key actors, their action orientations, their material and
immaterial resources, and their interaction are crucial in this theoretical context.
Both the EU and the OECD are, according to Scharpf, complex actors who
18 The Adoption of an International Education Policy Agenda at National Level… 207

purposefully and strategically act to achieve their goals. Their ability in strategic
action depends firstly on the convergence or divergence of the action orientations
between their members and secondly upon the institutional conditions that make an
internal conflict resolution more difficult or easier (ibid., p. 108). According to the
approach of actor-centered institutionalism, the institutional context within the EU
and OECD favors political decisions taking place in the mode of negotiation or
by majority decision rather than being determined by unilateral action or by
hierarchical decisions.
In this action-theoretical context, institutional structures, culture-specific diver-
sification, and path-dependent development patterns might be underestimated. The
notion of path dependence, despite different uses in diverse disciplines, is linked to
the idea that “history matters” in the interpretation of phenomena (cf. Bassanini and
Dosi 1999). According to the theorem of path dependence, the reception and imple-
mentation of a global educational policy concept such as lifelong learning at a
national level can be enforced or prohibited according to historical paths or institu-
tional organizational forms and the cultural traditions or conventions of a country.
National path dependencies exist in every country. Empirical findings to education
policy borrowing and to internationalization of education point out that there exists
“an antagonistic tension between, the transnational diffusion of modern models and
rules and the self-evolutive continuation or even revival of culture-specific semantic
traditions” (Schriewer and Martinez 2004, pp. 36–37, cf. also Mayer 2001).

A Comparative Research Design

As a consequence of the assumptions and reflections discussed in the previous

section, a comparative research design was chosen including a combination of
methods. In order to explore the intentions, interests, and interactions of major
stakeholders, expert interviews were conducted with key stakeholders from the
educational policy administration and the educational research.
Eighteen experts were interviewed in individual structured interviews. The inter-
viewed experts belong to the functional elites of their organizations. Some of them
are in an advisory or executive position in the administration of national ministries
of education in the areas of adult education and lifelong learning, or they work in the
education directorates of the EU and the OECD. Others are educational researchers
at universities or other research institutions with long experience in the field of
monitoring and reporting on education.
The data analysis was based on the evaluation strategy of Meuser and Nagel
(2005) who proposed an interpretive model for structured expert interviews (ibid.,
p. 81). The expert interviews were fully transcribed and qualitatively analyzed using
computer-aided data analysis (cf. Kuckartz 2005).
Complementary, in terms of contextualization and validation of the experts’
views, education policy documents such as programmatic texts, memoranda, guide-
lines, communications, recommendations, reports, conference papers, and legal acts
208 A. Ioannidou

between 1996 and 2008 were analyzed in order to manifest the political discourse,
to reveal culture-specific semantic traditions, and to identify path-dependent devel-
opment patterns.
Finally, a comparative analysis of educational monitoring instruments was used in
order to analyze the empirical approach to the concept of lifelong learning. The exam-
ination focused on how the theoretical concept of lifelong learning has been translated
into empirical research. In order to do so, definitions, concepts, and tools of measuring
lifelong learning, European and national surveys, and studies were compared. In addi-
tion, background documents, e.g., conceptual and strategy papers used to measure
lifelong learning, methodological texts, as well as pilot tests were analyzed.
For investigating the adoption of the lifelong learning agenda at national level in
the European area, three European countries have been identified as suitable cases
for the comparative research design: Germany, Finland, and Greece. EU and OECD
have been selected as a supranational and an international organization with major
influence and agenda-setting capacity in the field of lifelong learning.
The selection of the countries was based on the principle of maximal variation on
the basis of selected structural features (including the structure of the education
and training sector and the type of governance in education) and on the basis of quan-
titative indicators (including participation in continuing education and lifelong learn-
ing). Finland, Greece, and Germany have differently organized education and training
systems that are historically rooted and have a great heterogeneity in the structuring
of the education sector. Their training systems have different legal requirements and
funding arrangements that result from their particular course of history and special
characteristics. In addition, the actual importance of lifelong learning in the selected
countries varies greatly, as the use of quantitative indicators shows.
However, all three countries belong to the European geographical and cultural
territory, and they are members of the EU and the OECD; thus, they lay under the
direct influence of these organizations. Through their membership in the European
multilayer system, they accept a common policy framework which enables specific
developments at national level. Their membership in the OECD also promotes
convergent developments in these countries, although the degrees of freedom are
greater in this case.

Highlights of the Study4

Lifelong Learning and Its Adoption Within National

Education Policy Agenda

Regarding the concept of lifelong learning and its adoption within national educa-
tion policy, the findings of the study confirm that lifelong learning has become the
new “master narrative” in all three countries under examination.

4
For more information, see Ioannidou (2010).
18 The Adoption of an International Education Policy Agenda at National Level… 209

Lifelong learning has been considered as an important part of the EU Lisbon

Strategy according to which the European Union should become by 2010, the most
competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economic area in the world, as well as a
more cohesive and inclusive society. Acquiring and continuously updating and
upgrading skills and competences are considered a prerequisite for the personal
development of all citizens and for participation in all aspects of society in the three
countries.
The Memorandum recognizes lifelong learning as an essential policy for the
development of citizenship, social cohesion, and employment (p. 6). The following
definition was adopted as a working definition for subsequent discussion and action
in the Member States: Lifelong learning encompasses all purposeful learning
activity, undertaken on an ongoing basis with the aim of improving knowledge,
skills, and competence (ibid., p. 3).
The findings of the document analysis as well as of the experts’ interviews point
out that at the level of political rhetoric the national debate is almost entirely deter-
mined by the rhetoric of the EU and the OECD. In the political rhetoric in all three
countries, lifelong learning is considered as a vehicle for the promotion of both
active citizenship and employability. Nevertheless, the findings illustrate how dif-
ferent is the notion of lifelong learning in Germany, Finland, and Greece even
though the political rhetoric is identical. The connotations of the term “lifelong
learning,” the driving forces for promoting this idea, and the priorities given in each
country seem to be different.
In Germany, the idea of lifelong learning is mainly linked to employability and
is considered as a vehicle for maintaining the competitiveness of the German econ-
omy with an emphasis on continuing professional education and training and on
promoting diverse forms of learning, validation, and certification. In Finland, whose
educational system is characterized by excellent permeability between the different
levels of education and an integrated system of validation and certification of infor-
mal learning, the contribution of lifelong learning both to maintain social cohesion
and remain competitive is highlighted. In Greece, due to the lack of a widespread
tradition in adult education and lack of structures and mechanisms for validation
and certification of informal learning, the connotation of lifelong learning indicates
a strong link to institutionalized adult education.
The findings clearly point out that the concept of lifelong learning seems to
become an educational norm and part of the educational narrative in all three
countries. A concept that was initially developed at the international level and
formulated by international organizations (Council of Europe, UNESCO,
OECD, EU) gradually became part of the educational discourse at national
level. Its inclusion in the official discourse in Greece, Germany, and Finland
initially took place on a declarative level by the national authorities before it
was broken down, depending on the type of governance in education (central-
ized for Greece, regionally in Germany, local to Finland) to the regional and
local level. Nevertheless, there is empirical evidence that the adoption and
implementation of lifelong learning in the three countries is significantly path
dependent, i.e., it is infiltrated by national traditions and culture-specific pat-
terns of meaning.
210 A. Ioannidou

The way educational policy and administration in Greece, Germany, and Finland
adapt and interpret the concept of lifelong learning seems to depend on a number of
factors: the actual importance of education and lifelong learning in every country,
the social climate that may promote learning outside the formal educational system,
the degree of institutionalization of adult education in the respective countries,
and the national educational and culture-specific semantic traditions in each
country.

Governance Lifelong Learning

Regarding the governance of lifelong learning, the empirical findings confirm the
emergence of a transnational educational space in which powerful actors interact
with each other on a variety of settings, i.e., public, private, and nongovernmental,
and at various levels, i.e., local, regional, national, and supranational.
These findings tend to be in line with the Memorandum’s appeal to systemati-
cally integrate social partners in the development and implementation process, in
conjunction with public-private initiatives, and to actively involve local and regional
bodies and civil society organizations (pp. 9–10).
The comparative examination of the experts’ interviews shows both similarities
and differences in the perceptions of experts regarding the influence of the EU and
OECD on national education policy. Almost unanimously, the experts confirm the
impact of both organizations. However, they are far apart in their assessments of the
degree of influence. First, there are some country-specific differences: The inter-
viewed Greek experts confirm a major influence of the European Union on the
national education policy. The same is also true for the interviewed Finnish experts
who consider a high impact of the EU on the national education policy. They both
assign to the Commission its ability for policy formation due to the supranational
power of the EU and its financial mechanisms. On the contrary, the German experts
expressed skepticism in this regard. This might be explained through the federal
structure of Germany. For education policy, the federal states (“Länder”) are respon-
sible; it is the “heart” of their policy and an issue that can cause tension among the
federal and regional level.
With respect to the impact of the OECD on a national level, country-specific
differences appear. In Finland the OECD enjoys the greatest recognition. For the
Finnish experts, the impact of the OECD on national education policy is as power-
ful as the one of the EU. For Greece, the OECD plays an important role, but com-
pared to the influence of the EU, it can be considered as modest. The German
respondents seem to be divided regarding their assessment of the OECD’s influ-
ence. While the representatives of educational administration at federal and state
level affirm reluctantly the question of the influence of the OECD on national
education policy, at the same time, however, they make this effect relative with
reference to the “opportune moment” and the “coincidence” of national priorities
and international recommendations. On the contrary, for the experts from the
18 The Adoption of an International Education Policy Agenda at National Level… 211

German educational research, the influence of the organization, since the publication
of the PISA results, is undisputed.
When comparing the instruments of governance regarding lifelong learning of
both organizations, the EU and OECD, the interviewed experts recognize both simi-
larities and distinct differences. The EU is classified as a supranational authority,5
whose decisions and regulations are almost binding to the member states. This orga-
nizational structure allows promoting and enforcing certain decisions using EU law.
The OECD, however, as an international organization,6 cannot affect the sover-
eignty of its member states or bring out binding decisions for its members. The
experts agree that the EU mainly works with funding mechanisms and where the
treaties allow it, with legislation that is with “hard” instruments (money, power).
Since the introduction of the open method of coordination in education in 2000, the
European Commission is also working increasingly with processes such as peer
review or monitoring and evaluation. At that time (2000) the Memorandum claims
lack of appropriate targets and meaningful benchmarks in relation to lifelong learn-
ing and highlights the importance of indicators that reflect “the full meaning of
lifelong learning” for a coherent policy development (p. 20).
The OECD, in turn, works mainly with recommendations, evaluations, large-
scale studies, and peer reviews, in other words, using rather “soft” instruments
which are based more on knowledge and expertise.
When asking for key actors in the field of lifelong learning, the verdict of the
interviewed experts is astonishingly uniform. EU and OECD are unanimously iden-
tified by the experts as influential collective actors. The identified key actors are
facilitated by institutional resources. According to Scharpf (2006) material resources
and institutional rules belong to institutional resources. The institutional resources
include both tangible means such as money, technology, and privileged access to
information as well as institutional rules – that means rules by which relations
among the actors are regulated, such as collective decision-making process or pro-
hibitions. It is evident that not all actors have equal access to resources. The steering
media of money, power, and knowledge are unevenly distributed, creating depen-
dencies and interdependencies between the actors (cf. Ioannidou 2007).
The OECD, for example, using its surveys, international comparative reports,
and evaluations, can spread good practice or use “the name and shame” strategy
(e.g., PISA). The European Commission emphatically asks for regular education
monitoring and reporting from its member states in the framework of the open

5
Supranational organizations such as the European Union (EU) have due to their constituting trea-
ties legal power to shape national policy in some fields (e.g., economics, labor market). The EU has
no legislative competencies in the education field, as stated in the Treaties of Maastricht (Article
126 & 127) and of Amsterdam (Article 149 & 150), but it can strongly influence national education
policy through policy formation in other fields.
6
International organizations such as the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) or the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) are influential actors even if, due to their intergovernmental structure, they have no regu-
lative capacities upon their member states. Their power derives from their agenda-setting capacity
and their existence as policy-making arenas.
212 A. Ioannidou

method of coordination or even through legislation (e.g., EU-Adult Education

Survey). Furthermore, by means of their publications, the EU and the OECD circu-
late concepts, norms, and models and generate normative pressure upon their
members.
In addition to the collective actors, policy officers at European and national level
as well as consultants, experts, and researchers are identified as individual actors
who can influence with their decisions the adoption and implementation of lifelong
learning. The findings show very clearly that, besides the institutional resources,
their influence derives mostly from their personal characteristics. It turns out that
experience, knowledge, communication skills, and openness constitute the intel-
lectual resources which are at the disposal of the relevant actors in varying degrees.
Furthermore, the findings indicate that they form a kind of closed elite circle who
work together and decisively influence the discourse about lifelong learning.
These experts show convergences in their cognitive, normative, and evaluative
orientations that result from their specific role within an institutional context. For
example, they all consider systematic and evidence-based knowledge as essential
for rational decision making. These shared values and common standards facilitate
the decision-making process and increase the capacity for strategic action in nonhi-
erarchical contexts.
The findings also support the assumption that the institutional context enables
decisions that take place through negotiations rather than by majority rules or uni-
lateral actions or hierarchical order. Thus, it favors the work in networks and work-
ing groups, since decisions there take place on the basis of negotiations. In the EU
context, the coordination of action usually takes place in the form of negotiations or
as a majority decision. For example, the adopted indicators and benchmarks for
lifelong learning are the product of continuing negotiations between Member States
and Commission. Nevertheless, unilateral actions cannot be excluded because of the
bureaucratic and hierarchical organizational structure of the EU. In the OECD
context, due to its constitution, decisions derive from negotiations, sometimes even
as a majority decision, but never in the form of hierarchical order.
As far-reaching impact of the influence of EU and OECD is the establishment of
a particular research paradigm. Both the EU and the OECD enforce the quantitative
paradigm with studies and comparative reports based on quantitative indicators.
This research paradigm is increasingly shaping evidence-based policy not only at an
international but also at a national level (cf. Landesinstitut 2008). In alliance with
this research paradigm, a new form of knowledge and a new management philoso-
phy in education seem to have prevailed. The findings suggest that a shift from the
input- to output-oriented management takes place all over Europe. The output, the
result of the learning effort, moves into the foreground, while input and process
aspects that had traditionally served as reference levels gradually lose their signifi-
cance. This shift requires the generation of relevant knowledge to enable evaluation
so that the new form of knowledge and the new management philosophy assist and
strengthen one another: The evidence-based policy requires knowledge that is quan-
tifiable and explicit and can be translated in the logic of the educational planners.
18 The Adoption of an International Education Policy Agenda at National Level… 213

Conclusion

This chapter has focused on conceptual and governance issues with regard to the
adoption of lifelong learning as an international education policy agenda at national
level. The analysis highlighted the emergence of a post-national, transnational edu-
cational space that enables and accelerates the dissemination of global educational
ideas, such as the concept of lifelong learning at national level. Furthermore, it
became evident that national path dependencies and culture-specific semantic traditions
decisevely influence the reception and implementation of these concepts in the
respective country-specific reality.
More particularly, regarding the adoption of the concept of lifelong learning in
Greece, Germany, and Finland, the findings point out that there are country-specific
reinterpretations of the concept and confirm the results of international comparative
educational research. Concepts such as lifelong learning, knowledge, economy, and
learning society are discursive and ideological products which create within a given
historical and sociocultural context their own importance (cf. Robertson 2008;
Robertson and Dale 2009).
Hence, the detected differences in Germany, Greece, and Finland are more
gradual than they are principal. In all three countries, the influence of the EU and
the OECD is well recognized, as well as the impact of their initiatives regarding
lifelong learning. All three countries use the definition of lifelong learning as
proposed in the Memorandum, adopt lifelong learning in national legislation, and
promote its implementation. Moreover, their educational administration increasingly
adopts new management tools and output-oriented models of governance as proposed
by the EU and OECD.
Regarding the governance of lifelong learning, the empirical findings support the
emergence of a transnational educational space in which influential actors interact
with each other on a variety of settings. The emergence of a transnational educa-
tional space undermines the long-term development of purely national education
policies and weakens the role of the nation-state in shaping educational policy.
Supranational and intergovernmental bodies like the EU and the OECD emerge as
major centers of influence in shaping educational policies. These organizations pro-
mote new educational tools and practices of governance. The shift to empirical
models of educational governance (evidence-based policy) and the shift in focus
from input- to output-driven models promote the dominance of specific educational
governance instruments based on knowledge and mutual learning such as monitor-
ing and evaluation on the assumption that indicators and comparative reports sup-
port autonomy and accountability.
The attention that was paid already with the Memorandum, and particularly in
recent years, to the construction and further development of indicators leads to
increasingly elaborated and composed indicators in this field. Since 2000, impres-
sive progress has been done by the European Commission in cooperation with the
OECD in the field of indicators development and benchmarks setting in relation to
lifelong learning. The European Lifelong Learning Index (ELLI) is the next step for
214 A. Ioannidou

country-level assessment of lifelong learning in the EU Member States.7 In this context,

indicators play an important role as appropriate and effective tools for evidence-
based policy. However, the assumption that informed decisions are good decisions
suggests also that the quality of decisions rises together with the accumulation of
statistical data and information (cf. Keiner 2005). However, the example of the PISA
reception in Germany reveals that educational planners interpret the findings from
the PISA study according to their interests and mainly use them for the stabilization
and legitimacy of their political decision making (cf. Tillmann et al. 2008).

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Chapter 19
Vocational Learning: Shifting Relationships
Between Education and Working Life

Erik Kats and Jaap van Lakerveld

Introduction

The development of systems of education is strongly connected to the development

industrial society. Relationships between education and the vocational practice of
people in the companies and organisations where they work are however variable
through the times, and there is always some room between both spheres. In this
chapter we will describe shifts in the way vocational learning is situated in the
growing room between formal education and working life in the Netherlands.
First, we will shortly go into the way vocational learning relates to the traditional
broad humanistic approach to adult education. Next, we will discuss a number of
shifts that have occurred in the field of vocational learning in the course of eco-
nomic and political developments in the Netherlands. These shifts are not exclu-
sively tied to specific historic circumstances, and they are neither irreversible. In
conclusion we will argue that all shifts we describe have an actual meaning for the
debate on lifelong learning.

Education and Learning: Narrowing and Broadening

Practices

An important function of adult education, next to the sociocultural development of

people, has always been to assign people a useful economic role in society. The
economic function however tends to dominate the actual conception of lifelong

E. Kats (*) • J. van Lakerveld

Centre for Research and Development in Education and Lifelong Learning (PLATO),
Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 217
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_19, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
218 E. Kats and J. van Lakerveld

learning (Doets et al. 2008). Summarising, the functions of adult education may be
described as the acquisition of general knowledge, the training of specific skills and
the development of sociocultural competence (van Gent 1996). The relationships
between these three functions and the ways they are dealt with are shifting with
social and economic developments.
In former days the relation of adult education to labour and economy mainly had
an external character. The economic function of adult education concentrated on
vocational training. It intended to prepare people for work or to support people who
had somehow been excluded from employment. Next to that, adult education served
as sociocultural compensation to the miserable conditions of early industrial labour,
or it tried to open possibilities for development that the economic system denied to
many people.
Nowadays we live in a knowledge society. The European Union mainly argues
the need for lifelong learning from the ambition to become a competitive knowledge
economy (CEC 2000). A knowledge economy implies that all kinds of companies
and organisations are bound to the continuous improvement and innovation of busi-
ness processes. Employees thus are challenged to be engaged in continuous voca-
tional learning and professional development (Kessels 1996). In this sense, adult
learning has rapidly pervaded economic life internally (Kats 1998). All people are
expected to keep up and to improve their competence and their employability. This
demonstrates the strong emphasis on the vocational function in the actual discus-
sions on lifelong learning.
The emphasis on learning represents still another shift. Adult education tradi-
tionally implied the guidance of underprivileged people by privileged educators.
Following the individualisation of society, lifelong learning is however nowadays
primarily a responsibility for each individual himself. People are expected to direct
learning themselves; it is a privilege to be able to do so, which of course involves
renewed social distinction.
If lifelong learning is a need for everyone, it also has to be lifewide learning. The
Dutch Education Council substantiates that all functions mentioned above are
involved, whereas traditional training tends to be confined to specific skills
(Onderwijsraad 2003). The dominance of the economic function however prevails.
In the 2004 Action Plan on Lifelong Learning, the Dutch government mainly pays
attention to subjects like employability, productivity and economic development
(Ministerie 2004).
A knowledge society is marked by a highly developed system of formal educa-
tion on the one hand. In economic life professional practices show an ever growing
complexity on the other hand; a specific training does not suffice anymore for a
lifelong career. The link between formal education and economic life is becoming
less direct, and the room as well as the need for ‘extra’ education and learning is
growing. Lifelong learning develops in this room; it is connected both with the edu-
cation system and with the structures of economic life.
For the debate on the challenges of lifelong learning, it is useful to consider his-
toric changes in the position of and approaches to vocational learning. In the
19 Vocational Learning: Shifting Relationships Between Education and Working Life 219

following we will describe shifts in the way vocational learning is situated in the
growing room between formal education and working life in the Netherlands.
The Dutch sociologist de Swaan (1988) gives a comparative analysis of the devel-
opment of collective arrangements and public services, like systems of education, in
the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, France and the United States. Following
this analysis we will here consider the development of vocational education in
the Netherlands: from a private initiative to a collective arrangement, gradually
transformed into a public provision, that eventually has to rediscover its connections
with private business life. To describe the shifts and transformations in the field of
vocational learning, we will introduce a number of concepts that might be useful to
identify comparable shifts and transformations in other countries.

The Rise of Industrial Society

Compared to other Western European countries, industrialisation in the Netherlands

had a late start. The ‘take-off’ did not occur until the 1890s (de Jonge 1976). As in
other countries, the need of the industrial economy to rely on a skilled labour force
has shaped the development of vocational education and training in the Netherlands
(Leune 2003).
The first industrial companies that started their business activities often were at
the leading edge in their respective region. The entrepreneurs of the nineteenth cen-
tury typically were innovators and enlightened citizens. In the Netherlands, such
entrepreneurs started establishing company schools from the second half of the
nineteenth century. In these schools training is strongly connected to apprentice-
ships in the company. By taking responsibility for the schooling of the population,
they served the common interest as well as their own needs of building up a skilled
labour force for their businesses. Following de Swaan (1988) this mechanism of
serving public and one’s own business interests in combination may be described as
enlightened self-interest. The establishment of schools within companies has cre-
ated a strong tradition that still exists in several companies today.
An unintended consequence of the establishment of company-based schools for
skill development is that the trained workers acquire a better position for developing
their personal career and may decide to change employers. So other companies may
also benefit from the generally better skilled labour force. This is an important rea-
son why groups of companies start to found common vocational schools. Such col-
lective arrangements that serve the common interest constitute an adequate response
to this ‘free rider’ phenomenon. Following De Swaan’s analysis, all kinds of
arrangements in the modern welfare state originate from seeking solutions to such
unintended consequences.
Ultimately, companies are better capable to fulfil the overall qualification needs
for a particular sector collectively rather than individually. This eventually led to
the creation of common National Vocational Training Bodies (Landelijke
Opleidingsorganen) in numerous sectors. These bodies care for the fulfilment of the
220 E. Kats and J. van Lakerveld

need for knowledge development and for having qualified personnel for the business
sectors involved.
De Swaan points out that the creation of collective arrangements leads to a grow-
ing interdependence of actors, in the beginning at the interpersonal level but soon
also at the broader institutional level. This process may be typified as interdependi-
fication. The shift from only training one’s own labourers to a broad provision to
fulfil the need for a skilled labour force is a clear example of this process.
As the development of industrial society goes along with an ongoing expansion,
the process of upscaling requires a guarantee for the growing interdependence of
institutions and actors. As the tasks of training bodies were becoming ever broader,
the need for formal recognition of certificates was growing as for an arrangement of
financing and eventually for a legal foundation. This explains why the state at a
certain moment enters the field.
In 1919 the first government act on vocational education (the ‘Nijverheidswet’)
was agreed in the Netherlands. From the industrialisation period of the 1920s
onwards, branch-specific initiatives for the training of workers were gradually
transformed into technical schools (Meijers 1983). A typical feature of the Dutch
society here is that these schools, despite their increasing public funding, continued
to be run by the sectors of business concerned, and they remained outside the devel-
oping national system of general education. The class differences between brain-
work and manual work were thus reinforced (Van Kemenade 1981).

The Reconstruction of a Modern Industrial Society

Despite the industrial development before the Second World War, the Netherlands
to a large extent kept the character of an agricultural society until the middle of the
twentieth century. In the post-war reconstruction period after 1945, efforts were
concentrated on a strong industrial expansion. The ‘social partners’, employers,
trade unions and the government, intensively worked together to bring about full
employment. The cooperation between social partners in a so-called polder model
is a typical feature of the Dutch society. This cooperation has been institutionalised
at a nearly corporatist way in a whole series of public and private bodies.
Windmuller (1969), who made an analysis of the peculiar Dutch system of labour
relations, describes the climate in the post-war period as largely influenced by the
wish to avoid forever the social and political misery that resulted from the pre-war
economic crisis.
The cooperation between social partners in specific branches of industry and
business also stimulated the growth of vocational education and training. Originating
from the diversity of private initiatives of regional and sectoral groups of business,
numerous technical schools, often with only a few hundred pupils, were established
(Meijers 1983). All these schools provided education for one or more specific voca-
tional fields. The gradual transformation of diverse training bodies into schools may
be typified as schoolification.
19 Vocational Learning: Shifting Relationships Between Education and Working Life 221

Another important feature of Dutch society is the so-called pillarisation.

Pillarisation implies that each religious and sociopolitical group may establish its
own social institutions. This not only means churches and political parties but also
newspapers, trade unions, employer organisations, voluntary associations, social
service institutions and, especially, schools (Lijphart 1968). As a result of the
‘pillarisation’, the patchwork of technical schools is even multiplied. To this day,
about 75 % of the schools are organised on a denominational (religious or nonreli-
gious) basis; the 25 % ‘state’ schools consequently have got the character of a
separate pillar.
The pillarisation implies that many organisations in the public sphere are in fact
no public institutions; they are publicly funded but initiated and governed by the
diverse sociopolitical groups. The combination of pillarisation and cooperation
gives the Dutch society the character of ‘living apart together’ in those days; for
large parts of the population communication for a long time only took place within
the own ‘denomination’. The elites of the different ‘social streams’ deliberate with
each other at the level of the state and make agreements about an equitable distribu-
tion of resources. This mechanism is a strong impetus for the development of the
Dutch welfare state.

Expansion of the Welfare State and the System of Education

At the beginning of the 1960s, the economy in the Netherlands had gradually devel-
oped to a level that allowed not only for a substantial growth of material welfare but
also for social transformations in different spheres. After the parsimony of the
reconstruction period, from 1963 an explosion of wages occurred, which was rein-
forced by a shortage on the labour market. In this period the dismantling of tradi-
tional industries already started. The increased welfare allowed for this radical
economic change without causing large social disadvantages. Negative social con-
sequences were counterbalanced by the rise of a service economy, which was
actively stimulated by government policies.
The public sphere was marked by the expansion of the welfare state into a com-
prehensive system of public provision. In the 1960s, the influence of the ‘pillars’
diminished, but many of the institutions, and again especially the schools, continued
their separate existence. Many of these originally private organisations were how-
ever increasingly embedded in the state system and in public bodies.
Public and private services offer ample employment for a well-educated labour
force; the need for a skilled labour force gets complemented with a growing wish
for more general education. A welfare state needs an integrated system of education
that provides equal opportunities to all pupils, regardless of their class origin, to
acquire a useful position in society (van Wieringen 1984). The traditional division
of brainwork and manual work should be broken down, and technical schools
should be integrated in the national system of education. An integrated system of
222 E. Kats and J. van Lakerveld

education would allow all pupils, according to their capabilities, to move through
the different levels of education.
Against this background, in the 1960s, a major reform of the secondary educa-
tion system was implemented in the Netherlands through an act surnamed the
‘Mammoth Act’. After a development of a century, from this act alone the technical
schools that were originally privately founded were integrated into the national sys-
tem of education.
The technical schools were transformed into ‘lower vocational education’; most
schools became to form part of comprehensive schools that offer both general and
vocational education. The integration of vocational education in the national school
system was completed by the creation of a so-called vocational education column,
allowing for moving through from lower vocational education to secondary voca-
tional education and higher professional education.
The integration of the schools in the public sector may be typified as publicifi-
cation. An integrated national education system that comprehends all types of
education seems to offer the best possibilities for access and moving through
to all. Although the formation of this system certainly has contributed to these
possibilities, the process of publicification also has problematic consequences that
we will discuss below.

Transitions in the Welfare State

The expansion of the welfare state not only took place in the field of education but
also involved many other kinds of communal services like the health services and
social security. In the end of the 1970s, economic development however declined,
unemployment rates grew, and the public deficits increased. In that situation, the
expansion of the welfare state appeared to exceed its limits; the costs of the variety
of public services took up an ever greater part of the gross domestic product. From
the 1980s onwards, subsequent Dutch governments tried to rebalance the relatively
expensive welfare state and the underperforming Dutch economy.
But next to problems of financing, the efficacy and the legitimacy of the institu-
tions of the welfare state were also questioned. The absorption in the public system
of institutions, that once were founded by social groupings to serve their common
interest, led to a growth of legal regulations, to a formalisation of procedures and to
bureaucracy in the organisations. As a consequence the commitment of the social
groupings that originally created these institutions fades away. As founders and
beneficiaries they were directly involved. Instead of supporters they have now grad-
ually become clients who are dependent of anonymous public institutions (van
Doorn and Schuyt 1978). This demonstrates the analysis of De Swaan (1988) men-
tioned above that the well-intended creation of collective and public arrangements
also has unintended consequences that are often less favourable.
The embedding of vocational training in the school system extends more auton-
omy to the institutions concerned, especially towards the social partners. According
19 Vocational Learning: Shifting Relationships Between Education and Working Life 223

to Archer (1982) the dynamic of educational systems first develop as a result of the
initiatives of social interest groups, but gain autonomy later on. The related policies
then mainly develop under the influence of the actors involved in the system.
Once integrated in the national system of education, the internal dynamic of the
schools brings about a generalisation of the educational programmes. Supplanting
trainers with a background in vocational practice, education is increasingly cared
for by educational professionals. The curriculum gets organised around subjects,
and transfer of knowledge is more emphasised than the training of skills.
Generalisation implies that the acquisition of general knowledge supersedes the
training of specific skills.
In the Dutch education system, the focus on vocational orientation has gradually
faded away in the last decades of the twentieth century; the connection between the
sociocultural and the socioeconomical functions of education has vanished (Kats
1998). This has lead to the growing gap between education and vocational practice.
Employers were complaining that ‘school-leavers can’t even handle a hammer’.
However, the process of generalisation is also promoted by economic develop-
ments that demand broader qualifications. The majority of jobs in the service and
knowledge economy do not correspond anymore with the idealised model of tradi-
tional craftsmanship. And since the 1970s, the Dutch economy has gradually been
transforming into such a service and knowledge economy (van Hoof and van
Ruysseveldt 1996). So the function of vocational schools could no longer be the
mere supply of skilled workers to companies, but also building up the general
knowledge of pupils.

Vocational Education Turns to the Market

Although economic development turned in positive direction from 1989, the criti-
cism against public services persisted. Their costs, efficacy and legitimacy remained
to be disputed. In the 1990s, the emphasis changes towards a withdrawal of the state
and towards the privatisation and liberalisation of public services. It was assumed
that private institutions would be more economic and more effective than public
services and that they would be better capable to fulfil the needs of people, who are
here approached as clients or customers.
These ideas were also largely applied in the field of education. Since the begin-
ning of the 1990s, educational institutions at different levels are subject to a process
of privatisation. That is not to say that they are turned into private enterprises, but
they get assigned much more autonomy in designing programmes, recruitment of
students, cooperation with stakeholders, human resource management, quality
insurance, organisation development, financial management, etc. Vocational educa-
tion especially gets the task to meet the demands of the market. New connections
should be made between vocational education and vocational practice to meet the
new qualification needs emerging from the demands of the service and knowledge
economy (Moerkamp and Onstenk 1999). In post-industrial society, companies and
224 E. Kats and J. van Lakerveld

organisations need employees who command a more general competence and are
educated at secondary level.
All new responsibilities require a larger scale than the traditional schools that
were often connected to a delimited vocational or professional field. Thus, an exten-
sive reform process of vocational education has started. All secondary vocational
schools have gradually been merged into regional education and training centres
(ROC: Regionaal Opleidingen Centrum) in the 1990s. At the legislative level, the
educational reform was confirmed by the 1996 Adult and Vocational Education Act
(WEB: Wet Educatie en Beroepsonderwijs). This act makes secondary vocational
education a separate sector in the school system, distinct from general education.
The ROCs have turned into huge institutions. Now, about 70 ROCs and compa-
rable institutions are operational with the largest one having approximately 30,000
students; the total number of students amounts to over 500,000. The ROCs face the
complex task to meet both the learning needs of a variety of groups and the qualifi-
cation needs of a variety of occupations. They offer a broad variety of courses lead-
ing to all kinds of traditional and newly emerging vocational qualifications. For all
institutions together, the total number of courses amounts to 11,000. The ROCs not
only are the providers of vocational education to young people but also guide and
train adults and youth with a vulnerable position on the labour market and provide
local labour-market-oriented training for employees and the unemployed
(Westerhuis 2001). In addition to adult education and ‘regular’ vocational educa-
tion, most ROCs also run a private training institute or commercial department,
which provides made-to-measure continuing vocational training programmes for
companies and organisations.
The Adult and Vocational Education Act (WEB) also involves the transformation
of the old National Vocational Training Bodies into Expertise Centres for Vocational
Education and Business (KBB: Kenniscentra voor Beroepsonderwijs en
Bedrijfsleven). The WEB attributes a new and important role to these Expertise
Centres. They have, under this act, the task of translating the needs of the branches
they represent into qualification frameworks, profiles of competences and examina-
tion requirements for secondary vocational education. It is supposed that the link
between vocational education and vocational practice could be restored in this way.
The traditional apprenticeship system that was supported by the National
Vocational Training Bodies was widespread in various branches of business. Under
the WEB this system is integrated in secondary vocational education. The new role
of the Expertise Centres implies the attuning of the curricula to qualification needs
of branches of business. The Expertise Centres have experienced that this requires
more than one-way traffic; they also take care of the quality of the learning contexts
in the companies and organisations that host the apprentices from secondary voca-
tional education.
Many efforts are made to accomplish a new kind of integration between learning
and working that is required in a knowledge economy. It remains an open question
if all far-reaching reforms actually contribute to this integration.
19 Vocational Learning: Shifting Relationships Between Education and Working Life 225

Seeking for New Relations Between Education

and Working Life

From 2008 the crisis of credits and debts has ended the belief in the self-resolving
and self-correcting capacity of markets in numerous fields. The adoption of the idea
of a market in the field of vocational education also shows serious disadvantages.
The formation of ROCs that make their way in the market, create their supply and
answer the demands of branches of business appears to carry several unintended
negative consequences.
The market-oriented creation of an educational supply opens the possibility to
think up fashionable courses that may attract students, but does not offer a solid basis
for a sustainable vocational practice. The introduction of competence-based learning
that was promoted to meet the demands of employers sometimes leads to curricula
with little substance. Self-directed learning sometimes seems a licence to cut down
on professionals who support the direction of learning. The quality of education and
the meaning of certificates are consequently affected in such cases. The huge institu-
tions give room to a growing management layer; when they are more interested in
results instead of contents and the core process of education, the problems men-
tioned are reinforced. The autonomy of the management of the institutions induced
to take unwarranted financial risks in a number of cases. It is not surprising that
teachers who find themselves in such situations feel abandoned. Many students for
their part get lost in the gigantic and anonymous institutions. A growing number of
students nowadays already deal with risks in the personal developmental and behav-
ioural sphere; this loads teachers with expanding coaching tasks.
Against this background various attempts are nowadays made to restore the
human scale and the original function of vocational schools. It may be said that
schoolification is revalued. There is also a demand for a rehabilitation of the educa-
tional professionals and their ability in transferring knowledge and training skills
that have a lasting function instead of fashionable competencies. So, generalisation
is again at stake. The restoration of the school also implies a return of public author-
ities that hold inspection and guarantee the quality of education; so, publicification
is also back on the agenda. This does not mean a return to the rigid statist model,
now the role of local authorities is especially emphasised. Tasks in employment
policies and social security as well as the planning of educational provision are
increasingly being decentralised towards local authorities in the Netherlands.
Many companies and organisations also experience the disadvantages of the
scaling-up of vocational schools and the vapourisation of qualifications. A recent
development is that private parties are now resuming their role by setting up new-
born company schools. For instance, the Dutch Railways are involved in such a
project and also some large hospitals do so. It may be said that the opportunities of
new forms of privatisation are thus explored. In a way this resembles a return to the
situation of individual companies and organisations caring for their own schools.
Nowadays they however operate in close cooperation with the learning experts from
vocational education.
226 E. Kats and J. van Lakerveld

The cooperation between vocational schools, local authorities and local employers
does not run automatically. New forms of interdependification are needed. Local
authorities are concerned with their new tasks in the field of (un)employment poli-
cies. Employers need strategies for human resource management and development
to deal with the changing composition of the labour market. Vocational schools
want to develop learning projects that open up new prospects. Both schools and
employers are seeking for forms of integration of learning and working. These
efforts may add to bringing learning opportunities closer to learners, which is an
aim of European policy (CEC 2000).
The Expertise Centres described above may fulfil a vital mediating role in this
context. This role is especially important against the growing economic crisis and
rising unemployment rates (Kats et al. 2011). They have the know-how to answer
and to connect the needs of the different actors involved. They bring together the
various stakeholders, especially at the regional level, to promote the simultaneous
upgrading of education and employment. They help in translating labour market
developments in employment policies that also provide room for people who are
threatened on that labour market. They advise companies and organisations on how
they may become a favourable environment for vocational learning and professional
development of employees with diverging backgrounds. And they support schools
in setting up learning projects that anticipate core problems that arise in vocational
practice. By making a connection between employment policies, organisational
development and innovation of education, the Expertise Centres contribute to the
structural conditions for economic recovery. So, we may describe this shift as a
structuralisation of the approach to vocational learning.

Epilogue

In this chapter we have identified a number of shifts in the way vocational learning
is situated and dealt with in the growing room between formal education and work-
ing life. We described these shifts in view of economic and political developments
that have taken place in the Netherlands. This is not to say that these shifts are
exclusively tied to specific conditions or that they constitute a fixed sequence. We
suppose that comparable shifts may be recognised in other countries as well. All
shifts represent impetuses that keep working, also in circumstances when they are
less fashionable.
In vocational learning, many actors are involved: companies, employers, employ-
ees, unemployed, trade unions, trainers, teachers, advisors, students, schools,
administrators, local and national authorities and other institutions. Many
approaches, like the ones discussed above, seem to be dominated by the problem
definitions of some of the actors. This often attributes a subordinate role to other
actors who are expected to follow the leading definitions. For instance, when the
state monopolises the school system, employers have to deal with the resulting qual-
ifications, for better or for worse. Or, when schools become large-scale private
19 Vocational Learning: Shifting Relationships Between Education and Working Life 227

institutions directed by managers, the professional role of teachers may be affected.

Then, at a certain moment the price will always to be paid and things will turn
around.
When shifts in vocational learning occur, it is useful to consider which actors
take the lead and which ones have to follow. Because without an involvement of
relevant actors, there is every chance that systems and approaches come to a
deadlock.

References

Archer, M. S. (1982). The sociology of educational expansion: Take-off, growth and inflation in
educational systems. London: Sage.
CEC (Commission of the European Communities). (2000). A memorandum on lifelong learning.
Brussels: European Commission.
de Jonge, J. A. (1976). De industrialisatie in Nederland tussen 1850 en 1914. Nijmegen: SUN.
de Swaan, A. (1988). In care of the state; health care, education and welfare in Europe and the
USA in the modern era. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Doets, C., van Esch, W., & Westerhuis, A. (2008). Een brede verkenning van een leven lang leren.
’s-Hertogenbosch: CINOP.
Kats, E. (1998). De vermaatschappelijking van de agogische norm. In J. Katus et al. (Eds.),
Andragologie in transformatie. Amsterdam/Meppel: Boom.
Kats, E., van Lakerveld, J., & Smit, H. (2011). Linking vocational practice and vocational educa-
tion; the mediating role of expertise centres in the Netherlands. In S. Kirpal (Ed.), National
pathways and European dimensions of trainers’ professional development. Frankfurt am Main:
Peter Lang.
Kessels, J. W. M. (1996). Het corporate curriculum. Leiden: Rijksuniversiteit Leiden.
Leune, J. M. G. (2003). Onderwijs en overheid. In N. Verloop & J. Lodewyck (Eds.),
Onderwijskunde. Groningen: Wolters Noordhoff.
Lijphart, A. (1968). The politics of accommodation; pluralism and democracy in the Netherlands.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Meijers, F. (1983). Van ambachtsschool tot L.T.S.; onderwijsbeleid en kapitalisme. Nijmegen:
SUN.
Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap. (2004). Actieplan Leven Lang Leren. Den
Haag: Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap.
Moerkamp, T., & Onstenk, J. (1999). Beroepsonderwijs en scholing in Nederland. Thessaloniki:
Cedefop.
Onderwijsraad. (2003). Werk maken van een leven lang leren. Den Haag: Onderwijsraad.
van Doorn, J. A. A., & Schuyt, C. J. M. (Eds.). (1978). De stagnerende verzorgingsstaat. Meppel:
Boom.
van Gent, B. (Ed.). (1996). Opleiden en leren in organisaties; ontwikkelingen, benaderingen,
onderzoekingen. Amsterdam: Boom.
van Hoof, J., & van Ruysseveldt, J. (1996). Sociologie en de moderne samenleving; maatschap-
pelijke veranderingen van de industriële omwenteling tot in de 21ste eeuw. Amsterdam: Boom.
van Kemenade, J. A. (1981). Onderwijs; Bestel en beleid. Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff.
van Wieringen, A. M. L. (1984). Alleen is erger; over de dynamiek van de betrekkingen tussen
onderwijs en arbeid. In J. D. C. Branger, N. L. Dodde, & W. Wielemans (Eds.), Onderwijsbeleid
in Nederland. Amersfoort: Acco.
Westerhuis, A. (2001). European structures of qualification levels. Luxemburg: Cedefop.
Windmuller, J. P. (1969). Labor relations in the Netherlands. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Chapter 20
Evaluating Learning and the Work of
a Researcher in the Era of Lifelong Learning

Kristiina Brunila

Introduction

After Finland joined the European Union, educational politics have taken a turn
towards decentralisation and marketisation. In education, the challenges of
decentralisation and marketisation are many and include new interests and linkages
between different actors as well as problems related to financing and continuity.
Consequently, the state has to some extent lost ground to the European Union and
has become a more controlling body by applying new governing techniques to the
politics and practices of education. In recent years, the role of the global economy
and supranational organisations (especially the EU) as factors which contribute to
education and research has become increasingly important (Kallo and Rinne 2006).
Today, EU-funded projects have permeated the public sector (Sjöblom 2009)
including the educational sector (Brunila 2011a).1 Projects have also become a
common form of academic short-term and project-based employment (Ylijoki
2010; Sjöblom 2009). Publicly funded academic research has been increasingly
forced to apply for EU funding for project-based activities (Brunila 2009, 2011b).
A significant proportion of domestic funds has been steered towards projects that
specifically reflect European Union policies (Sjöblom 2009; Sjöblom et al. 2006).
Consequently, in Finland the number of project researchers in academia has
increased between 1994 and 2004 almost two and a half fold (Ylijoki 2010).
In the era of lifelong learning, projects have become an ideological method to
introduce a more market orientation, while people involved with projects have been
made more accountable for their labour market fates. In education, this has happened

1
By the term “project” I mean an EU-funded short-term project, which usually operates inside or
outside the formal educational system and has certain predetermined goals.
K. Brunila (*)
Unit of Sociology, Politics and Culture of Education, Institute of Behavioural Sciences,
University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 229
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_20, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
230 K. Brunila

alongside the shift from government to (new) governance (Lindblad and Simola
2002; Ball 2007, 2006). New governance and projects have introduced territorially
unbounded public and private actors, acting outside of their formal jurisdiction,
into political institutions’ decision-making processes (Bailey 2006). Projects have
represented a form of new governance because they have aimed to bring together
individuals, groups, organisations, enterprises, officials and the state in order to
solve the problems that the EU has defined and have been brought about by market-
orientated interventions. As organised practices through which subjects are gov-
erned (e.g. Rose 1999; Miller and Rose 2008), new governance has been strongly
linked to the marketisation of education (Ball 2007; Popkewitz and Lindblad 2004).
EU projects have extended marketisation even further into educational research.
In spite of the increasing number of project-based activities, there has been much
less attention given to critical examination of this phenomenon in educational
research. Moreover, EU-driven market-orientated lifelong learning discourse
has entailed the view that an individual has endless opportunities and capabilities
to learn and act according to her/his desires as long as she/he adopts the right
attitude – desire and determination – i.e. the key to lifelong learning (Siivonen 2010).
In EU-funded projects, researchers have been supposed to act in accordance to
lifelong learning discourse which aims to raise levels of investment in human
resources. Researchers have been positioned as responsible, flexible, self-regulating
subjects whose personal objectives are congruent with the objectives of marketisation
(c.f. Fejes 2008; Siivonen 2010). In this article I will analyse how EU-project-
based work represents a form of power that regulates academic research linked to
education in accordance to lifelong learning discourse.

Projectisation as a Form of Power in Education

There has been a greater need for the EU to improve its competitive position in the
growing global market. In European Union policy documents, education has been
repeatedly acknowledged as crucial for a better-qualified work force and for global
competition (e.g. The Bologna Declaration 1999; The Copenhagen Declaration
2002; The Helsinki Communiqué 2006; The Lifelong Learning Programme 2006).
EU policy documents have repeatedly pointed out that education is most of all the
product of an investment in time and money (see Brunila et al. 2011).
The concept of projectisation (Brunila 2009, 2011a) describes an apparatus or
dispositive (Foucault 1981) that comprises discourse, institutions, regulatory deci-
sions and knowledge structures. Projectisation as a dispositive enhances and
maintains the exercise of market-orientated power within the body. It is a product of
new governance and a consequence in EU-driven contemporary societies that
increasingly rely on voluntary contracts between individuals, groups, organisations,
enterprises, states and their organs or officials. It represents market-orientated self-
organising networks by incorporating, producing and positioning everyone involved
20 Evaluating Learning and the Work of a Researcher in the Era of Lifelong Learning 231

in project-based work. It is productive in the sense that it shapes and retools in order
to fit in with its needs (Foucault 1981, 1977). In the following section I will analyse
how projectisation in research implies what can be said and thought, but also who
can speak and with what authority.
I utilise research data which I have collected from my earlier research (Brunila
2009, 2011a). Research data consists of interviews with ten researchers who have
operated in several research and development projects in education and training.
Most of the researchers have worked in academia, but some have also worked in
private companies and other institutions in the area of education and adult educa-
tion. All of them have worked in EU-funded (ESF and EQUAL programmes)
research projects. Along with interviews, my research data includes documents
from almost 100 EU-funded research and development projects from the field of
education and working life. I have also utilised my own research diary which I
wrote while working as a project researcher in various EU-funded research projects.
Research data was collected between 2003 and 2010. I have chosen not to mention
the names of the projects (see, e.g. Vehviläinen and Brunila 2007).
Foucault’s thinking offers me a lens through which to carry out discourse analy-
sis (Foucault 1981, 1977). This lens helps, on one hand, to read discourses regarding
project-based activities as being infused with power/knowledge and, on the other
hand, to play a role in producing power/knowledge networks. In the analysis, the
concept of discourse as a productive and regulative practice with material effects is
central (Davies 1998). In this research, project-based activities have been analysed
by acknowledging the relation of discourse and power as productive and regulative
(see Foucault 1981, 1977; Davies 1998) in project work. This kind of approach
enables one to see how the forms of power work and what kind of effects they have
in forming how one ought to speak in order to be heard. I find this approach relevant
because the form of power I am studying is effective as long as it succeeds in staying
unnoticed and unrevealed. In exploring the discourses of project-based research,
there was a need to explore the ways in which certain elements of the discourses
related to project-based research have become more powerful than others. With the
analytical concept of projectisation, it was possible to analyse how researchers
involved in EU-funded projects were made speaking subjects at the same time as
they were subjected to the constitutive force of discourses.

The Marketisation of Educational Research

It really matters what gets funded: you do what you get funding for. Finland is a small
country, with small ministries and small political elite. It’s like a merry-go-round. When
someone decides that matters about the information society are important in the EU and
brings the message here, then all the ministries in Finland offer money for information
society projects. (Terhi, researcher and project manager 2003)
I have learned to sell what I do. (Mari, researcher 2004)
232 K. Brunila

The two researchers’ comments above indicate the effects of what has been a
central period in defining Finnish education, the EU policy period. Consequently, in
the project society run by the EU, one must become flexible, and as Terhi and Mari
describe it, the basic idea is you do what you get funding for and you learn to sell it
as well. Based on my research results, the majority of EU-funded projects have been
implemented with funding specifically reserved for a particular purpose. This is also
one of the obstacles for continuity: as soon as the funding is over, the research ends.
When the funding is over, a completely new project with a new idea must be sought.
This circle of endless projects makes researchers restless and impatient. The extracts
above but also the extract below describes how projectisation as a dispositive directs
how one ought to speak in order to be heard.
“The aim of the research was to examine the connections between diversity and diversity
management (…) for the sake of the organisation’s competitiveness and effectiveness”.
(EU-funded research and development project report 2008)

Marketisation has become a fundamental element of EU-funded research proj-

ects. As the extract above indicates, during the EU period, research has begun to
display more market-orientated traits, such as competitiveness, but also effective-
ness actions, evaluation and measurement. In projectised work brands, management
by results, efficiency and products have become more legitimate discourses than
discourses about human rights, justice and equality. Market-orientated projects
seem an effective way to impose EU-driven codes and meanings that essentially
make education and educational research even more vulnerable by accepting these
codes and meanings as new realities.
European Social Fund projects require bureaucracy, strict accounting, clear distribution of
work and liability, and organisations make contracts and carry out the responsibilities of
these contracts. (EU-funded research and development project’s final report 2002)
The organisation administering the project was not committed to the contents and
objectives of a project, and they appointed clerical staff to administer this project of ours.
There was this conflict right from the start. (Rita 2004)

Because of the predetermined schedule and aims that used to be the responsibili-
ties of the Nordic welfare state as well as the various interests of the project partners
and project staff, projectised work inherently includes tensions and conflicts as the
two extracts above indicate. Projectised work seems to lack reliance and trust among
project workers (see also Vehviläinen et al. 2007). As the excerpts above suggest,
projectisation causes all kinds of tensions by constant reporting, accounting and
hierarchies.
Projectisation also means short-term employment which is interrelated to all
kinds of pressures in research. As a consequence, researchers experience pressures
and feel that their work has become fragmented and externally scheduled with few
opportunities for profound and long-term research work as Outi Ylijoki has argued
in her research concerning academic project work (Ylijoki 2010; see also Davies
et al. 2006). Even though problems are brought up, they do not necessarily get
heard. One reason for this is a rapidly increasing number of evaluation and evalua-
tion professionals who estimate and assess publicly funded projects from their start
20 Evaluating Learning and the Work of a Researcher in the Era of Lifelong Learning 233

to their final report (Ylijoki 2010). Research is often evaluated statistically, for
example, how many articles, books and other written works have been produced.
The problem is that in a project it may be difficult to measure the results achieved in
terms of figures. Another problem is the close alliance between EU-funded projects
and project evaluation professionals:
The number of (…) projects has increased pleasingly and growth has even accelerated
recently. Growth proves the awakening of interest and the expansion of actors: (…) the
theme is considered to be even more important. (EU-funded project evaluation report 2004)

During my analysis I have read several evaluation reports concerning EU-funded

projects. Evaluation reports disclose an interesting paradox. On one hand, they pay
critical attention to the various problems in project work and even argue that funders’
aims are almost impossible to achieve through short-term projects. On the other
hand, they end up encouraging an increasing number of projects without regard for
equality research (see also, Brunila 2009). It is a circle that benefits many different
kinds of professionals, including educationalists.
Meri: There were a lot of challenges in the beginning.
Interviewer: Was this surprising or did you think that maybe these things will sort of arise?
Meri: Well, you know in theory projects are like that, but in practice it always
comes as a surprise when it happens. All those clichés become reality.
(Meri, who has worked in several EU-funded projects as a researcher 2004)

Meri expressed her tiredness with the way project-based work forms a circle
where “new” results ought to be endlessly discovered, and she refers to this as
clichés becoming reality. Indeed, projectisation works by producing similar kinds of
results as though they were always “new” (Brunila 2009). Meri as well as others
who were interviewed were rather critical towards publicly funded projects. They
are aware of the circular thinking that projectisation often entails.

The Mastery and Submission of Projectisation

Projectisation regulates research conducted in projects. Consequently researchers

face the dilemma of how to speak in order to be heard and try to find a solution to it.
From my own research diary the diary I found the following incident:
I’m in an informal meeting where project researchers meet. I am asked what do you do in
your project? I try to find the right words to describe my position in the project, but I am
interrupted by another researcher before I get to the end: No, no, seriously, what is your
project’s product, the core product? (Researcher’s diary 2006)

In order to better understand why projectisation works and why researchers

end up acting as they do, as in the extract above, the concept of subjectification has
been useful. According to Bronwyn Davies and her colleagues, subjectification
represents the processes through which we are subjected and actively take up as
our own the terms of our own subjection (Davies et al. 2001, see also Davies 1998).
In the extract above, subjectification describes the ongoing process where one is
234 K. Brunila

placed and takes place in the market-orientated discourses. Speaking for myself, my
subjectification was completed when I replied with a little hesitation to the question:
“A book”.
Subjectification as a form of projectisation involves taking up those discourses in
which researchers involved in project work and others speak/write as if these
discourses were their own (Davies 1998). Through such discourses, people become
speaking subjects at the same time as they are subjected to the constitutive force of
those discourses. As Terhi described earlier, in order to get funding, one must speak
the right kind of talk, namely, the language of the market and money.
From the perspective of subjectification, projectisation forms a new kind of ideal
being who is capable of practising self-discipline, flexibility and continuous self-
development. This reflects an ideal being where the entire self must be completely
made over as an enterprising individual (cf. Komulainen et al. 2009; Leffler 2009;
Komulainen 2006). This, of course, meshes well with policies of lifelong learning,
which have been permeated with the narrow utilitarian and technological notions of
learning and the competences needed in modern economies (Rasmussen 2000,
p. 86). This transformation is linked to changes in the political context including
welfare state retrenchment and decentralisation, which have had a significant effect
in the form of diminishing resources.
From the perspective of subjectification, there was a noticeable and constant
ambivalence in the interviews. It is no surprise that researchers talked about tired-
ness and were in general rather cynical. One researcher wished she had become an
ornithologist instead, and another thought she should have started a career as a
gardener. In order to conduct research, one needs to learn the “right” way to talk so
that in becoming objects of the disciplinary forms of power, people also become
active subjects. In spite of projectisation research is constantly done in various
ways. During the interviews, we discussed how crucial it is to recognise these power
relations and try to open up channels that allow the creation of some distance from
identities and identifications with pre-given meanings and categories.
The reason why I wanted to shift into the research side was a desire to understand, under-
stand more deeply, and to help others to understand (…) about for example discrimination
and inequality, how they form and work. (Tina 2004)

As forms of power, projectisation does not have to be repressive as in Tina’s case.

Tina had previously worked in administrative tasks but she wanted to start doing
research because she saw opportunities that specifically research was able to give. If
projectisation is considered a power relation, it is the very constitutivity of the
subject that enables them to act in these forms of power that are not just regulatory
but are also productive (Butler 1997). Indeed, researchers have already considered
this in various ways:
In Finland, we have learned to utilise what comes from above (…) It is simply turned into
an aim to determine what this means exactly. (Sara 2003)
One can always say that EU has decided to give money for this. So in this way one can get
some prestige for his or her project. Money is sort of a good thing. (Marie 2003)
20 Evaluating Learning and the Work of a Researcher in the Era of Lifelong Learning 235

Surviving in the EU-driven contemporary societies means learning to see how

funding or aims coming from above are always constructed within societal power
relations. When this is realised this notion can be utilised. All the researchers I
interviewed have learned this. They utilised different discourses in order to be
granted financial resources and continue research. Consequently, researchers are
able to gain some leeway by constantly learning to act in various kinds of power
relations as well as utilising them, as Marie and Sara have done. In research, instead
of being submissive or repressive, projectisation means continuously ongoing nego-
tiations. The negotiations carried out by researchers consist of skills and tacit
knowledge that can be called discourse virtuosity (Brunila 2009, 2011b). Discourse
virtuosity is a consequence of parallel and contradictory aims and discourses in
project-based research, a complex form of competence one performs in order to be
heard. Discourse virtuosity when performed the “right” way is capable of satisfying
the various interests of funders, project partners, target groups as well as academic
audiences. Project research requires a wide range of competences. Discourse virtu-
osity is especially needed when applying for money for one’s own employment and
for the next project.

Conclusion

This chapter illustrates the shift EU-driven research and researchers are facing
in the era of market-orientated lifelong learning. Education and educational research
that used to be related to the Nordic welfare society and was based more on a
criticism of market forces is nowadays more likely to gain its legitimisation from
marketisation and becomes responsible for individual short-term research and
development projects. From the perspective of subjectification, it implies that the
person involved in research has to submit to marketisation and must also master the
language of the market in order to be heard. Research funding seems to favour
large-scale projects that consist of various subprojects and possess extensive inter-
national co-operation networks. Consequently, EU-funded projects with a market-
orientated policy and using economic discourse have formed a new joint rhetorical
discursive framework in the area of educational research. This alliance can be
viewed as a response to the needs of a global economy where both education and
research are harnessed to market forces and help shape a more flexible and mobile
labour force.
Project-based research suggests a shift in which one must become trainable,
capable of development and learn to produce the right kind of talk as in accordance
to EU-driven market-orientated lifelong learning discourse. The right kind of talk
works by ensuring that researchers keep themselves busy by making themselves
available to fulfil the needs of the market. This indicates a more instrumental idea in
which research is seen as an investment and as a product of money. The rise of
project-based activities all over Europe not just in research but in politics and in
236 K. Brunila

practices on the whole has resulted in enormous changes in social structure, power
relations and knowledge. In the near future, it would be crucial to acknowledge the
form of power that maintains project societies and projectisation. This calls for a
more critical appraisal including a study of the effects and the perspectives of
subjectification, resistance and rebellion.

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Chapter 21
Focus on Learners: A Search for Identity
and Meaning in Autobiographical Practices

Laura Formenti and Micaela Castiglioni

The aim of this chapter is to put learners, with their experience, questions, and
knowledge, at the center of the debate in adult education. The essence of lifelong
(and lifewide) learning is precisely in the capacity of adults to redesign and give
new meaning to their projects, and even to their identity. A critical aspect in adult
education practices and policies is the underestimation of the role of learners in
shaping and giving meaning to all educational processes. We claim that autobio-
graphical and narrative methods in adult education, largely developed in Italy, can
give voice to learners, and even redefine the overall meaning of lifelong learning.
The first part of the chapter discusses the critical points of European policies. They
are too oriented toward the future and the market, focusing on adaptation, flexibility,
and qualification, with a poor understanding of individual strategies and tools that
adult learners need in order to adapt to this rapidly evolving and uncertain world.
Current policies are mainly oriented toward the achievement of key abilities, and there
is a lack of attention paid to other competences such as reflexivity, agency, and critical
thinking. The focus on objectivity, on the one hand, and institutional policies, on the
other, downplays the crucial role of experience and meaning in adult learning. The
dominant idea behind lifelong learning as being based on technical abilities and adap-
tation to the market should be questioned, taking the learner’s view into consideration.
After all, the learner is a strategic actor within the institutional and social world.
In fact, any learning experience, be it formal or informal, entails participants
making sense of it, finding their own way to “adapt” to the situation, even if not
always in the expected ways. Through stories, we hear (and learn) from each

L. Formenti (*)
University of Milano Bicocca, Micaela Castiglioni, Researcher, University of Milano
Bicocca, Milan, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]
M. Castiglioni
General Pedagogy and Adult Education, University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 239
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_21, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
240 L. Formenti and M. Castiglioni

individual how he or she found ways for adapting, leaving, or transforming.

Autobiographical work is an occasion to make more explicit choices and strategies,
to build agency and reflexivity.

A European Outline: From Policies to Learners

When the Lisbon Strategy was announced in March 2000, the European economy
appeared to be in better shape than today. Yet, critical aspects and vulnerabilities
were pointed out, including low performance in economic growth, unemployment,
and growing poverty in underprivileged areas. The overall goal of the European
Union (EU), “to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based econ-
omy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs
and greater social cohesion,”1 defined the strategic areas for education: employment,
technology, competition, and of course knowledge. In official documents, knowl-
edge appears to be unquestionably connected with economic growth, and both of
them are linked to employment, social cohesion, and multiculturalism. Yet, the
meaning of a “knowledge-based society” seems to be narrowed down to increased
participation in formal education and the development of key competences.
The political agenda for EU countries aims at better coordination of teaching/
training and research, to make larger numbers of people active in the “economy of
knowledge”: the ET2010 Program for Education and Training and EU2020 Strategy
made further commitments toward collaboration and shared strategies.2 Without
going into detail, we would like to point out some assumptions and recurring themes
in these documents: the crucial role of lifelong learning; the more realistic and
effective implementation of formal education and training; key competences
(communication in the mother tongue, communication in foreign languages,
mathematical competence and basic competence in science and technology, digital
competence, learning to learn, social and civic competence, initiative and entrepre-
neurship, cultural awareness and expression); and the pursuit of equality, inclusion,
social cohesion, and active participation among learners.3 These goals are not neutral
or anodyne. They shape local efforts to identify actions and educational practices
addressed to adults, in a social, historical, and cultural context that has been
named as a knowledgeable present (Biasin 2011; Alberici 1999), a liquid modernity
(Bauman 2000), and a flexible (Sennett 1999) or risk (Beck 1998) society. The EU
documents offer an outline depicting an ideal learner characterized by learning to

1
Presidency conclusions, Lisbon European Council, 23 and 24 March 2000.
2
Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 Dec. 2006 on key compe-
tences for lifelong learning (2006/962/EC). In Official Journal of the European Union, 30.12.2006,
L.394/10–18.
3
Council conclusions of 12 May 2009 on a strategic framework for European cooperation in
education and training (‘ET 2020’) (2009/C 119/02). In Official Journal of the European Union
28.5.2009 (C 119/2–10).
21 Focus on Learners: A Search for Identity and Meaning in Autobiographical… 241

learn; personal, social, and professional fulfillment; creativity, initiative, and

entrepreneurship; self-direction and access to learning facilities; and increasing
flexibility in the learning career, with easier transitions from education to training
and openness to nonformal and informal learning.4 Learning to learn seems to be
the overall frame of reference: it focuses on the ability to organize one’s learning
and training, to make choices and take risks.
Italy is late in fulfilling the goals of the Lisbon Agenda, partly due to a rigid,
traditional training system and low numbers accessing Higher Education (HE), as
well as for cultural reasons. The meaning of this situation is far from clear. It would
be naive to see the EU outline as a neutral standpoint in relation to the view of
education (Mariani and Santerini 2002; Tramma 2011) and local conditions.
Implementation may be unrealistic in this context. A critical reading of the docu-
ments, based on empirical research and real practices in adult education, raises
fundamental issues about the risk of emphasizing the role of politics and strategic
choices, including the rhetoric of lifelong learning as merely oriented to the future
and the market, following the rules of adaptation, flexibility, and qualification.
Some researchers who are actively engaged with adults in formal and nonformal
learning expressed their concerns about the recent evolution of Adult Education (AE)
as a field of research and practice (Castiglioni 2011). What kind of adaptation is
required here? (Mariani 1997; Mariani and Santerini 2002). How is flexibility experi-
enced and interpreted by real people when they are living a dramatic impossibility of
change, future, and hope? (Benasayag 2004; Bodei 2002). What does it mean to focus
learners on their future, when personal and professional projects appear to be so dif-
ficult, poor, or lacking? (Bauman 2000, 2001; Benasayag 2004). Reflection is needed
regarding the strategies and tools that education should offer to learners in relation to
their future professional lives (Alberici 1999, 2011; Biasin 2011).
We need to make an effort to uncover, discuss, and clarify these assumptions and
ambiguities. A new, contextualized debate may reduce the risk of narrowing down
Adult Education and training to the economic-political-institutional viewpoint
(Marescotti 2011) or mere professionalization (Tramma 2011). In many regards,
Adult Education appears to be unable to live up to its original intent. In 2007, a
permanent observatory – “Osservatorio sulla condizione adulta e i processi
formativi” – was established in the University of Milano-Bicocca by a group of
researchers and experts from universities around Italy5 with the goal of monitoring
the ongoing situation in the field and to provoke public debate.6 The group aims at
breaking the silence, collusion, and negligence regarding the “mission” of Adult

4
In Official Journal of the European Union 28.5.2009 (C 119/2–10), p. 35.
5
Coordinated by D. Demetrio (Bicocca) and composed by A. Alberici (Roma Tre), D. Bellamio
(Bicocca), C. Biasin (Padova), M. Castiglioni (Bicocca), M. Cornacchia (Trieste), P. Di Rienzo
(Roma Tre), M. Gallerani (Bologna), B. Mapelli (Bicocca), E. Marescotti (Ferrara), R. Piazza
(Catania), and S. Tramma (Bicocca).
6
A book series “Adult Condition and Educational Processes” is established, whose first volume
(see Castiglioni 2011) collects studies on the present situation of Adult Education in Italy and
interviews with experts (Bellamio, Morgagni, Pinto Minerva, Varchetta) focusing on the relation-
ship between need and dream in adult learning.
242 L. Formenti and M. Castiglioni

Education (Demetrio 2011).7 As a matter of fact, many forms of exclusion seem to

be present, not only in relation to specific subjects and groups but also in relation to
different adult stories and learning experiences, far beyond the so-called “disadvan-
taged” or “marginal” people. Whole areas of human experience are silenced. In
2011 an anthology was published (Castiglioni 2011), offering reflection on the
authentic meaning of adult learning, the so-called proprium of Adult Education
(Marescotti 2011), moving toward a rediscovered humanistic project (Demetrio
1997). The loss of the complexity and depth of Adult Education – both in practice
and research – has negative effects on individuals and on the cultural, social, and
institutional contexts. We summarize them as follows:
(a) An undisputed coincidence of Adult Education and training, where
actions are oriented towards the achievement of instrumental and technical abilities, seen as
a basic form of learning, necessary for meeting market requirements and market logic, […]
instead of practices and processes that should be aimed at developing a complex set of
competences, in relation to reflexivity and the pro-active attitudes of learners towards their
competences and critical thinking skills. (Alberici 2011, pp. 46–47)

(b) A deep crisis and disavowal of biography, experience, and personal meaning as
fundamental aspects of adult learning, since the so-called objective conditions
and institutional policies are systematically invoked in order to bypass the
learner as a subject (Gallerani 2011).
(c) An increasing focus on institutions where education or training is offered,
instead of on those who are learning (Toriello 2011).
(d) A paradoxical distance between Adult Education, as a field of practice, and the
emerging approach to lifelong learning; Adult Education, in fact, could and
should be “a field where lifelong learning can be observed, hence further devel-
oped; and vice versa, lifelong learning policies may serve to give a concrete
form to the general principles of Adult Education, helping the field to become
more than wishful thinking” (Toriello 2011, p. 165).
(e) The disappearance from the field of important notions, as utopia and freedom,
traditionally at the core of the humanistic view in Adult Education; in fact, to
consider adult education as gratuitous and an aim in itself seems to make it an
unnecessary good, not deserving an investment of resources (Marescotti 2011).
(f) An overemphasis on professionalization, seen as “the adaptation to the chang-
ing market, and not as a protection from it” (Tramma 2011, pp. 109–110), with
the consequent neglect of the personal, emotional, and existential effects of this
“adaptation.” People may feel abandoned by institutions, including educational
agencies that are too prone to the flexibility model.
Constant flexibility in turn needs to develop emotional and cognitive tools to
enable people to “sustain flexibility,” by developing some “autobiographical mean-
ing” on their own (Castiglioni 2011). A narrative, subject-centered view leads to a
reflexive, introspective framework, able to “reawaken critical thinking” (Nussbaum

7
The group is working to develop a Manifesto to redesign adult education.
21 Focus on Learners: A Search for Identity and Meaning in Autobiographical… 243

2010) in relation to key concepts like knowledge, learning, and learning to learn.8
From this perspective, Adult Education can support adults in the challenge to meet
their needs in a rich, subtle, and complex way. Life in a changing world requires a
sort of critical empathy toward the self, as well as the capacity to sympathetically
represent the other (Nussbaum 2010). Even EU documents contain phrases like
critical thinking, creativity, positive management of feelings, and preparation to
adult life.9 But how can real learners develop these attitudes and capacities and
under what conditions?

The Power of Autobiography: Reflexivity in Adult Learning

Biographical research can illuminate the complexities of learning and transitional

processes, beyond a potentially reductive, one-dimensional rhetoric of people as ‘leaders’
and change agents, which may characterize contemporary educational discourse. We are
given access, instead, to narratives of resilience but also of difficult emotional experience,
when working in troubling contexts. (Merrill and West 2009, p. 88)

Autobiographical methods in education aim to develop a stronger sense of iden-

tity in the participants, a better understanding of experience, and a more critical,
creative, and active attitude. The Italian tradition in autobiographical education
(Formenti 1998) as an approach to adult learning was initially rooted in social
research. Since the 1960s, social researchers have undertaken the task of chroni-
cling rural and urban life, traditions and folklore, along with the evolving lives of
working class people and marginalized groups who were trying to adapt to a rapidly
changing society. For instance, Montaldi (1961) wrote stories of working class peo-
ple in rural Northern Italy, while ethnographers as Ernesto De Martino, oral histori-
ans as Revelli, Passerini, and Portelli, and sociologists as Ferrarotti (2002) addressed
the relationship between individual and collective memories in the ongoing cultural
changes. For the first time, marginalized and poorly educated people had the pos-
sibility to be heard thanks to those studies that brought a strong ethical-political
commitment into the field, still often the case in biographical research.
In the 1970s, self-narration also became a way to gain recognition and build self-
awareness as a political subject, for example, in feminist groups. Institutions,
however, abandoned these qualitative and reflexive methods of research very rapidly
as a more quantitative, statistical trend began to dominate the Social Sciences
(Formenti 2012).
In the 1980s, education in Italy was strongly influenced by the French tradition,
due to linguistic similarities between Italian and French and a delayed contact with

8
Commission of the European Union (2006). Not published in the Official Journal. See also
Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the ‘Action Plan on Adult learning. It is always a good
time to learn’ (2008/C 257/11) Official Journal of the European Union, 9.10.2008, pp. 70–75.
9
In Official Journal of the European Union 28.5.2009 (C 119/2–10), p. 38.
244 L. Formenti and M. Castiglioni

the English literature.10 The establishment, in the French-speaking countries, of a

life history approach in education (histoires de vie en formation, quite different
from the northern European definition of “life history”) challenged the detached,
neutral, and objective view of research and education, by asking adults to tell their
learning stories with their own voice and words and to make critical sense of it. The
seminal work of Pineau (Pineau and Le Grand 1993), Dominicé (1990), Josso
(1991), and others inspired the use of personal narratives as a method for the educa-
tion of adults. Telling the story of “how I learned who I am” in a group setting,
where critical and reflexive thinking was favored, opened possibilities to release
individuals, at least partially, from their social, cultural, institutional, and also bio-
graphical determinants. Awareness of being determined gives to people the power
of choice: the final aim of this reflexive work is, in fact, to invite learners to take
deliberate action (Dominicé 1990).
In the same years, Adult Education became a discipline and a research field in
Italian academia: some universities established courses, and master’s degrees in
adult education handbooks were published. Previously, adult education was a prac-
tice devoted to literacy projects and courses to qualify adults to work, offering
merely functional training. The academic recognition of its relevance as a science of
education raised new questions about adulthood and the meaning and practice of
adult learning. The theoretical and philosophical debate on adult life brought new
energy into the field and mitigated its penchant toward excessive pragmatism.
Contact between learners and trainers led to a better understanding of the learners
points of view, their ways of making sense of experience, and the questions that
were relevant to them.
Since the 1990s, many narrative and autobiographical studies have been con-
ducted with different groups of adults in education and vocational training courses:
teachers, nurses, managers, doctors, students, social workers, etc. A lot of studies
have also focused on nonformal and informal learning, for example, within the fam-
ily (Formenti 2002, 2011). Many courses and workshops invited participants to
write their life experience and use it as a basis for learning; the aim of this self-
narration was to favor self-awareness, knowledge, change, and even self-care (see
Demetrio 1995, 2008; Formenti 1998, 2002, 2004; Formenti and Gamelli 1998;
Gamelli 2003; Cambi 2002; Castiglioni 2008a, b). Autobiographical education is
conceived of as a form of self-education within the institutional, social, and/or cul-
tural context, a way to voice subjectivity within structures.
The landscape of autobiography as a method for adult education is broad and
diverse. Different ways of doing and contexts for learning are developed through
hundreds of projects. Their differences are methodological as well as epistemological
and theoretical: some practitioners and researchers draw inspiration from phenom-
enology, others from Dewey’s notion of experience and reflexivity, or embodied

10
The issue of languages is crucial in Europe. The slow but steady movement toward English as the
dominating language raises questions about the blur of cultural differences, especially in research
and education. What are the risks of these developments, in terms of an impoverishment of ideas
in an intended-to-be pluralistic and democratic Europe?
21 Focus on Learners: A Search for Identity and Meaning in Autobiographical… 245

knowledge and aesthetic experience. Many researchers/practitioners are engaged in

autobiographical writing, whereas others alternate writing and oral storytelling, or
even more expressive and creative forms of communication (Formenti 2009a).
Autobiographical methods are used in group sessions, classes, or individual counseling.
This diversity nurtures a panoply of practices that are used to foster individual,
collective, and institutional learning.
In these projects, life experience is put at the center of attention, valued, shared
in speaking and writing, analyzed by participants themselves, considered, and
treated as adults. This attitude offers the basis for a more complex idea of learning,
in comparison to the EU outline discussed above. It involves a more complex range
of dimensions of knowledge (and life experiences): practical, cognitive, emotional,
relational, etc. It considers different contexts and levels of learning: private and
public, formal and informal, conscious and unconscious. In this view, learning is
approached as a lifewide as well as lifelong process: for an adult, a course or a work-
shop can be the occasion to explore different parts of life, different identities, and to
connect them. The common idea of learning, based on technical abilities and adapt-
ability to external requests, can be openly questioned and transformed into a notion
where the learner’s “version of the story” is seriously considered.
Besides differences, there are common aspects between autobiographical meth-
ods. They aim to provoke, gather, analyze, and transform stories. They consider
adults to be experts and insiders of their own lives: the educator or trainer is inter-
ested and respectful of this insiderness. They challenge common understandings of
the role of education, its methods and aims. They also build a different view of
educational research, creating a possible alliance between research and education.
Very often they address learners who are at risk of marginalization, listening to their
stories, celebrating their differences and diversities, and showing their uniqueness
and complexity, quite often unrecognized by institutions. Stories (and voices) claim
their own space within the institutional space. Identities tend to become fixed and
generalized within institutions, but human experience is larger, and identities are
multiple. To deal with this plurality, learners should be seen as strategic actors: even
if they are storied by others and by their circumstances, they can tell how they relate
to their life contexts – work, family, education – as well as to the educational pro-
gram or course they are participating in. Hence, learners can learn from their own
way of making sense about the learning experience and develop their own concept
of “adaptation” to a situation. This concept may be very different from the way it is
understood by “the system.”
As an example, we can take participation in HE, a core issue in the EU agenda,
since dropout rates have become a problem for many universities. Listening to indi-
vidual stories, we learn that for some people dropping out is not a problem or a
failure at all; on the contrary, it can be the beginning of a new and more centered job
or life project. We know this from autobiographical workshops with students. Some
“adaptation” strategies seem to work better than others; some people are happy to
stay in HE, others are not.
Thus, we need occasions (courses, workshops, projects) to help people to become
clearer about their choices and strategies. A way to do this is through cooperative
246 L. Formenti and M. Castiglioni

and participatory research projects (Formenti 2009a), where core issues in education
can be explored directly with the participants. In these kinds of projects, all partici-
pants are both learners and researchers, and they take responsibility for the whole
process. This is a really rewarding approach in training professionals, in evaluation
processes, and in working with people at risk of marginalization. When adults come
into contact with their experience, they remember who they are and may become
more aware, critical, and open to transformation.
From the researcher’s point of view, the stories gathered in these circumstances
are “gold mines” as they cast new light on research issues, nourishing knowledge
and understanding of “what is going on” in the field. From the learner’s point of
view, the process of telling and listening to stories brings awareness and mutual
recognition regarding adaptation and coping strategies employed, the challenges
of being citizens, workers, women, foreigners, or nontraditional students in HE.
Generally, this enhances motivation and transformation. Through collective narra-
tive and reflexive work, adult learners develop new ideas and their identity becomes
richer and more flexible. They build agency and life skills; they develop strategic
positioning toward themselves, others, and the world. They learn how to take care
of their own learning (Formenti 2009b).
In this kind of approach, learners learn to learn, i.e., they change their theoreti-
cal, cognitive, affective, moral, or even physical positioning (Munari 1993) toward
knowledge. Any act of knowing, in fact, entails “a strategic decision that implies
the totality of the person” (Munari 1993, p. 14). This is a very special opportunity,
as adult learners are usually unaware of their own learning, both in the sense of
what they know and how they know. They may become aware only when there is a
break in the continuity of everyday experience: when a problem arises or good
reflexive questions are posed. It is quite common in autobiographical work to hear
things like “Well, I never thought about this before. It simply happened. Now I
wonder… what was really happening.” Agency and reflexivity are outcomes of
this kind of context.
Autobiographical work can be understood as the meeting – sometimes the clash-
ing – of different cultures. Learners in the same group may have different ages,
genders, statuses, ethnic backgrounds, previous experiences, beliefs, and so on. The
authentic experience (Formenti 2009a) of these differences challenges their ideas.
However, they cannot be taken for granted. Systematic distortions – simplification,
purposefulness, de-contextualization, quantification – can undermine reciprocal
understanding and reduce stories to simple ideas. Autobiography is educational
when it develops complexity and critical thinking; good processes are needed to
achieve this. The “didactic” of autobiography (Formenti 2004) should include the
whole arrangement, especially communication and interaction, in order to sustain
respect and curiosity for human differences. This entails, of course, the develop-
ment of values like cosmopolitanism and inclusiveness, democracy, and citizenship.
These are at the basis of the European project. We need models for research, educa-
tion, and communication that promote good relationships, self-acceptance, and a
better reciprocal understanding. Educational autobiography can be a part of this
effort, a way to make sense of our journey into human life.
21 Focus on Learners: A Search for Identity and Meaning in Autobiographical… 247

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 Part V
Lifelong Learning and Bringing
Learning Closer to Home
Chapter 22
‘Bringing Learning Closer to Home’:
Understanding ‘Outreach Work’ as
a Mobilisation Strategy to Increase
Participation in Adult Learning

Barry J. Hake

Introduction: ‘Bringing Learning Closer to Home’

During the past decade, discourse with regard to ‘bringing learning closer to home’
was situated in relation to the uneven development of adult learning policies within
the broader strategy of the European Commission (EC) to promote lifelong learning
in the Member States. The overarching policy priority in the adult learning sector
was the urgent need to identify strategies to raise levels of participation in adult
learning activities and to widen participation to those traditionally excluded from
adult learning. Bringing Learning Closer to Home was regarded as a more specific
set of policy measures and practices which could potentially widen participation to
excluded individuals and social groups who were identified as ‘target groups’.
In the first section of this chapter, the wider policy framework of Bringing
Learning Closer to Home will be briefly described. Section “EU policy framework
for ‘bringing learning closer to home’” examines the persistently low levels of par-
ticipation in adult learning in terms of widely accepted understandings of the so-
called problem of articulation between the supply of adult learning provision, on the
one hand, and the demand by (potential) adult learners, on the other hand. In terms
of strategies and interventions intended to ‘bringing learning closer to home’,

The author was engaged from the early 1980s until 2005 in a research programme at Leiden
University which was devoted to the articulation between adult education providers and the
demand for adult learning. Originally based on research into participation and non-participation in
adult learning this research programme was increasingly focussed on research into outreach work
and the specific role of media. This chapter is based on numerous publications arising from this
long-term research programme. The author is intellectually deeply indebted to the published (co-)
contributions of Carl Doerbecker (†) Folke Glastra and Erik Kats in the development of this
research programme which continues to make a contribution to the theoretical and methodological
understanding of research into mobilisation issues in adult learning
B.J. Hake (*)
Eurolearn Consultants, Bad Nieuweschans, The Netherlands
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 251
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_22, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
252 B.J. Hake

this section focusses on ‘outreach work’ towards specific target groups and
community-based learning environments as a mobilisation strategy. In section
“Strategies to mobilise participation in adult learning closer to home”, attention turns
to alternative theoretical perspectives which can inform understandings about the
problematic articulation between the supply of and the demand for adult learning.
These perspectives offer three different approaches to understanding adult learning
strategies and interventions in terms of the social organisation of adult learning as
communicative social and cultural practices. Section “Theoretical and methodological
perspectives on ‘bringing learning closer to home’” comprises the further development
of a specific theoretical perspective which focusses on understanding organised
adult learning activities in terms of public spaces characterised by struggles between
conflicting social and cultural meanings about the purposes of adult learning in the
everyday lives of adults. The fifth and final section offers some reflections on the
historical and contemporary manifestations of the articulation between different
social actors and cultural practices.

EU Policy Framework for ‘Bringing Learning

Closer to Home’

In 2000, the Lisbon European Council set itself the goal of making the European
Union (EU) the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the
world. The European Commission (EC) stressed the importance of lifelong learning
and the role of adult learning, including its contribution to personal development
and fulfilment, in reaching the key objectives enhancing economic growth, competi-
tiveness and social inclusion. There was subsequently a long drawn-out policy
discussion during the following decade about ways to increase the participation of
adults in education and training throughout the life course. The key question was
how to achieve the EC’s benchmark for of the participation of 15 % of adults in
lifelong learning and to reduce the traditional imbalance in participation between
highly skilled and low-skilled adults. It was also regarded as vitally important that
adults continue to learn, to develop and upskill their competences to meet the chal-
lenges of demographic change, Europe’s role in the global economy and a sustain-
able society and to invest in their own personal development.
For the purposes of this chapter, however, A Memorandum on Lifelong Learning
(European Commission 2000), also published in 2000, is used as the baseline for the
analysis of problems associated with raising levels of participation in adult learning.
The objective of the Memorandum was to stimulate Member States to establish
structures to reach more adults and to include them in the learning society through
their participation in adult learning activities. The Memorandum formulated six key
messages in order to make lifelong learning a reality. This chapter is focussed on
Key Message 6 in the Memorandum: Bringing Learning Closer to Home. In the
Memorandum, the objective of Message 6 was formulated as ‘Provide lifelong
22 ‘Bringing Learning Closer to Home’: Understanding ‘Outreach Work’… 253

learning opportunities as close to learners as possible, in their own communities and

supported through ICT-based facilities wherever appropriate’. The Memorandum
pointed out that ‘Regional and local levels of governance have become increasingly
influential in recent years in line with intensified demand for decision-making and
services ‘close to the ground’. The provision of education and training was one of
the policy areas destined to be part of this trend on the grounds that for most people,
from childhood through to old age, learning mainly happens regionally and locally.
It was pointed out that regional and local authorities are also largely responsible for
providing the infrastructure for access to lifelong learning, including childcare,
transport and social welfare services. Mobilising the resources of regional and
local authorities in support of lifelong learning was therefore essential’ (European
Commission 2000, p. 18).
The Memorandum also pointed out that civil society organisations and associa-
tions have their strongest roots at local level, and that they typically possess vast
reservoirs of knowledge and experience about the communities of which they are
part. Particular localities may have different characteristics and problems, but they
all share a unique distinctiveness of place and identity. It was also argued that ‘The
familiar distinctiveness of people’s home community and region gives confidence
and provides social networks. These resources are important for lending meaning to
learning and for supporting positive learning outcomes’ (European Commission
2000, p. 19). The concluding sentence of Key Message 6 proposed that ‘Bringing
learning closer to home will also require re-organization and redeployment of
resources to create appropriate kinds of learning centres in everyday locations
where people gather – not only in schools themselves, but also, for example, in
village halls and shopping malls, libraries and museums, places of worship, parks
and public squares, train and bus stations, health centres and leisure complexes,
and workplace canteens’ (European Commission 2000, p. 19). As such this was an
implicit recognition of the additional value of non-formal and informal adult
learning in regional and local communities which are situated at some distance from
the provision of formal learning opportunities intended for adults.
The EC continued throughout the decade to argue the case that it supported the
Member States in promoting adult learning as part of lifelong learning processes
and placed its commitment firmly on the European political agenda by adopting
in 2006 the Communication on adult learning ‘It is never too late to learn’
(European Commission 2006), followed by the Communication in 2007 on the
adult learning Action Plan ‘It is always a good time to learn’ (European
Commission 2007). The Action Plan was formulated in terms of helping to remove
the high thresholds and obstacles that prevent adults from engaging in learning
activities and to improve the quality and efficiency of the adult learning sector.
It complemented this with a call to ensure adequate levels of investment in, and
better monitoring of, the adult learning sector. The adult learning sector in this
context was formulated in terms of embracing all of the forms of learning under-
taken by adults training in formal, non-formal and informal settings after they
have left initial education.
254 B.J. Hake

In order to enhance policy development in the sector, improve governance and

deliver better services, the Action Plan suggested five areas of action: analyse the
effects of reforms in all sectors of education and training in Member States on adult
learning; improve the quality of provisions in the adult learning sector; increase the
possibilities for adults to go ‘one step up’ – to achieve a qualification at least one
level higher than before; speed up the process of assessment of skills and social
competences and have them validated and recognised in terms of learning out-
comes; and, finally, to improve the monitoring of the adult learning sector. There
was, however, a significant absence in the Action Plan of any explicit recognition of
the importance of ‘bringing learning closer to home’ which had been made manifest
in Key Message 6 of the Memorandum. The dominant focus was upon formal adult
learning, one step up to higher qualifications, the acquisition and/or recognition of
validated qualifications and individual competences via Accreditation of Prior and
Experiential Learning (APEL) leading back to formal qualifications, while the over-
all priority of skills and requalification to enhance re-entry into the labour market.
There was no specific reference in the Action Plan to a significant study of local
learning centres and regional strategic partnerships which had been commissioned
by the EC in 2004 (Buiskool et al. 2005). This much underestimated study had
built upon the national responses to the Memorandum and their references to the
long-standing traditions of non-formal and informal adult learning in regional and
local communities.

Strategies to Mobilise Participation in Adult Learning

Closer to Home

One of the studies commissioned by the EC as part of the evaluation of the Action
Plan was most significant in that it was firmly focussed on the core policy issue of
raising participation in adult learning and the contribution of the Action Plan to this
end. The study, entitled Impact of ongoing reforms in education and training on the
adult learning sector, argued that strategies to increase participation could be best
understood in terms of the substantial body of theory and empirical research about
participation and non-participation in adult learning (Broek et al. 2011). Against the
background of different theoretical perspectives and empirical research concerned,
for example, with learning motivations, social networks and learners’ social capital,
influence of social class and initial education, learning careers and autobiographical
studies of adult learners, the study focussed on the so-called articulation problem
between the prevailing patterns in the supply of adult learning opportunities and the
demand for learning by adults. Given the variety of identified barriers to learning for
specific social groups, the study argued that different policy measures and specific
instruments can be deployed at national, regional and local levels in order to lower
prevailing barriers and thus to increase the participation of adults in all kinds of
formal, non-formal and informal learning activities. The basic assumption was that
22 ‘Bringing Learning Closer to Home’: Understanding ‘Outreach Work’… 255

policies, measures and instruments intended to increase the participation of adults

in learning activities should seek to influence both the structure of provision and the
demand from targeted groups in so-called mobilisation strategies. National, regional
and local policies for increasing participation in adult learning were described and
analysed in terms of six mobilisation strategies which could be identified in both the
Memorandum and the Action Plan. Six categories of relevant mobilisation strategies
were identified: (a) information, counselling and guidance services; (b) flexibility
of learning trajectories; (c) quality management; (d) outreach; (e) acknowledgement
of prior (experiential) learning; and, finally, (f) economic instruments. In terms of
‘bringing learning closer to home’, this section will subsequently look at ‘outreach
work’ to specific target groups and the development of community-based non-
formal and informal learning environments at regional and local levels.
The final report of the study pointed out that in recent years there had been a
considerable development of outreach work to targeted groups in a broad range of
educational, health and welfare services throughout the EU. Outreach work can
comprise a number of specific interventions to reach out to and involve targeted
groups that are not in contact with or do not make use of available services. Outreach
work is used in the field of adult learning in order to reach out to targeted groups of
adults who are not involved in learning activities but who are at risk of social exclu-
sion. Such groups can include the low qualified, low skilled, single parents, ethnic
minorities and increasingly elderly people. Outreach work seeks to lower the thresh-
olds of learning institutions, to ‘bring learning closer to home’, to enhance learning
opportunities within the community and to convince difficult-to-reach adults that
learning can enrich their lives, and that adult learning is a realistic option for them-
selves and their personal development.
On the one hand, information leaflets, brochures and posters are also distributed
via intermediary organisations frequently visited by the adult general public such as
schools, public libraries, local authority offices, social welfare agencies, employ-
ment services and the waiting rooms of family doctors and dentists. Outreach work
can also involve, on the other hand, the use of ‘ambassadors for learning’ in the
workplace involving trade union representatives as in the UK; contacting parents
via the schools attended by their children; contacting risk groups through front-line
health and welfare services via family doctors, dentists, hospitals, social/family
services and services for the homeless or drug addicts; reaching out to ‘in-debt’
individuals and households who are in need of financial literacy education; and
outreaching via voluntary organisations. Information is also disseminated via
announcements in newspapers and local radio and television stations. In terms of
the provision of information about learning opportunities, country studies refer to
the development of virtual information systems about the learning opportunities
available to adults. These comprise national and institutional virtual portals provid-
ing information about providers and their courses at the national, regional and local
levels. Current developments in outreach work now include experiments with
broadband communication and the potential of social networking software to reach
targeted groups and make learning more accessible in user-friendly formats.
256 B.J. Hake

Outreach work with regard to participation in adult learning involves proactive

measures undertaken by adult education providers to establish contact with
specific target groups who are considered to be in need of these services but who
do not make use of them. Given the dominance in current policies directed to
increasing levels of participation in the labour market, providers of adult learning
tend to regard outreach in terms of reducing the institutional barriers that inhibit
participation. In this respect, outreach strategies tend above all to focus on young
dropouts from secondary and vocational education, low-qualified workers, the
unemployed, jobseekers and, increasingly, older workers. In most Member States,
this tends, on the one hand, to involve closer co-operation between providers of
adult education, employment and social service agencies in order to reintegrate
individuals in the labour market. There is convincing evidence, however, that
outreach strategies in the Member States also focus on those groups which face
severe problems of exclusion from adult learning as a result of their multiple
social exclusion resulting from conditions of poverty, illiteracy, indebtedness,
migration, refugee status, homelessness and alcohol and drug abuse. This leads to
the involvement of adult education providers in outreach activities which are
often organised together with intermediaries such as NGOs and front-line health
and welfare support services including family-care workers, community nurses,
social workers and the health services such as family doctors. Through consulta-
tion with those in day-to-day contact with at-risk groups, the outreach strategies
of adult education providers seek to explore innovative ways of meeting specific
learning needs and to fill the gaps that exist in provision ‘closer to home’. There
is substantial evidence in the Member States of the development of these so-
called ‘hybrid’ forms for the provision of adult learning activities for adults in
order to support them in learning their way out of the threatening experience of
social exclusion.
Within the terms of the above-mentioned study on ‘local learning centres and
strategic partnerships’, it was clearly established that the bulk of non-formal and
informal learning in the daily lives of adults, especially the low qualified and low
skilled, takes place at a considerable distance from formal educational institutions.
This non-formal and informal learning takes place primarily in families, house-
holds, streets, neighbourhoods, communities, trade unions, political parties,
churches, voluntary associations and social movements at the regional and local
levels. Such adult learning is related to the everyday experiences of adults in rela-
tion to problematic issues such as housing, health, food, transport, pollution and the
environment. Such issues are addressed in terms of their potential for learning activ-
ities by a broad range of neighbourhood and community centres, community action
groups, social movements, etc. The key characteristic of the development of these
community-based non-formal and informal learning environments is that the issues
and problems arising in daily life are identified as ‘social spaces for the develop-
ment of learning questions’ and the development of social capital through active
engagement in learning by individuals and social groups and in terms of their
engagement in social movements.
22 ‘Bringing Learning Closer to Home’: Understanding ‘Outreach Work’… 257

Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives on ‘Bringing

Learning Closer to Home’

The dominant tendency in policy-led studies of ‘bringing learning closer to home’

is to determine criteria which can facilitate the identification of ‘good practices’ of
outreach work which can be exported to other countries or borrowed by others. This
chapter refuses to take the easy option of delving into the murky waters of the lan-
guage of ‘good practices’ so much favoured by the Open Method of Coordination
in the EU and the Mutual Learning Programme in the area of adult learning. Instead,
attention in this section will focus on theoretical and methodological perspectives
which analyse ‘outreach work’ in terms of the social and cultural relations between
outreach activities and the target groups of such activities.
Success or failure of outreach work strategies in Bringing Learning Closer to
Home is to a very significant degree determined by the emergence of an ‘audience’
or a ‘public’ which is receptive to the idea of their voluntary engagement in adult
learning, in many cases for the first time on their lives. Do the well-intended endeav-
ours of policymakers and ‘outreach workers’ result in the emergence of new audiences
or publics on a large-enough scale to justify the continued investment of, increas-
ingly scarce, public and private resources? This is the point at which ‘bringing
learning closer to home’ becomes a complicated issue of the articulation between
social and cultural actors who inhabit different social spheres. Research has suggested
that at least 10 % of adults can be regarded as comprising a ‘non-audience’ or a
‘non-public’ who are resistant to all endeavours to turn them into voluntary adult
learners (de Sanctis 1984). Is this to be interpreted as fool-hardy, plain bloody-
mindedness or meaningful resistance in terms of their understanding of their social
situation? For many more adults, participation research indicates that while they
may regard adult learning as a good thing in general terms, they then proceed to
make an exception in their own personal case in the sense of ‘A good thing for
others, but not relevant to my situation’. Furthermore, many non-participants in
publicly provided adult learning are often active participants as learners and mem-
bers of collective actions organised in order to create their own oppositional social
and cultural meanings. Given such insights into participation and non-participation
in adult learning, it is perhaps more meaningful to examine the articulation between
supply and demand in terms of the social organisation of communication processes
which characterise ‘outreach work’ to target groups. Theoretical and methodologi-
cal perspectives on the problem of articulation can focus, for example, on the social
organisation of communication processes between the providers of adult learning
and the target groups or intended audiences. Metaphors of communication play an
important role in all discussions of the social relationships between adult learning
activities and the target groups, audiences and publics addressed by socially organ-
ised learning activities. This section will focus on three distinct metaphors for
understanding the articulation between providers of and the demand for adult learn-
ing and in particular the historical and contemporary specifics of ‘bringing learning
closer to home’. These are, respectively, the ‘transmission’, ‘signification’ and
258 B.J. Hake

‘argumentation’ metaphors which manifest different assumptions about research

into ‘outreach’ strategies for ‘bringing learning closer to home’. The analysis will
focus on the argumentation metaphor and the insights it proposes with regard to
understanding articulation in outreach work practices.
The ‘transmission’ metaphor has long been the dominant theoretical perspective
in research seeking to understand the relationships between the providers and users
of adult learning activities. In most general terms, this metaphor assumes that the
providers of adult learning, both public and private agencies, are responsible for the
supply of information for those who are regarded as in need of knowledge, skills
and sensitivities. Emphasis is placed on channels of communication between pro-
viders and intended users of adult learning. The target groups, audiences or publics
addressed by outreach work are those in disadvantaged social situations who are
regarded as suffering from a deficit of formal education, a lack of information about
the reality of their lives and the absence of the skills to manage their own lives. Such
assumptions encourage providers of adult learning to ensure the smooth, effective
and successful transmission of information via outreaching activities to target
groups, audiences and potential publics. Failure to achieve these objectives is under-
stood in terms of malfunctions in communication channels, ‘noise’ filtering mes-
sages, and ‘cultural lags’, and ‘misunderstandings’ by the target groups, audiences
and publics. Renewed, and refined, efforts to communicate will ensue, and specific
attention is often paid to technical factors in unsuccessful communication. Moreover,
‘opinion leaders’ and ‘intermediary agencies’ may be introduced in outreach work
who function as a feedback loop and enable the source to attune the message to the
reactions of the intended receivers. The reduction of ‘noise’ in reaching target
groups is increasingly resolved by providers adopting social networking software
together with possibilities for intended users to indicate ‘like’, ‘send’ and ‘tweet’
options on providers websites. Public and private providers of adult learning them-
selves increasingly resort to ‘tweets’ in their well-intentioned messages in order to
convince audiences of their ‘good intentions’. Any ‘tweet’ by a disgruntled ‘user’ or
‘client’ can be regarded as a message which undermines the messages communi-
cated by providers and even give rise to ‘shit-storms’. The increasing use of the
transmission metaphor in the E-based rhetoric of outreach work is characterised by
the bad taste of product-consumer conceptions of social relations in adult learning.
In the new world of virtual reality in social networks, the transmission metaphor
largely fails to address questions surrounding the changing positions of authors
and readers of messages, the increase of anonymity and distortion of the subject and
the reduction of the public sphere of ‘communicative action’ to a multiplicity of
private spaces.
In departing from the transmission metaphor of information sent by authoritative
sources to target groups of receivers, the ‘signification’ metaphor is informed by a
hermeneutic understanding of the interpretation and reinterpretation of outreach
messages by senders and intended audiences. Communication is understood as reit-
erative processes of interpretative activities. This shifts the focus from the source of
messages to the receivers of messages and their lifeworlds. Signification recognises
that the dissemination and acquisition of cultural meanings is characterised by the
22 ‘Bringing Learning Closer to Home’: Understanding ‘Outreach Work’… 259

cultural capacities of audiences themselves to make sense of any information

communicated to them. Individuals and social groups, even collective audiences,
are seen as able to create their own frameworks of meaning by selecting information
and integrating cultural messages in their own everyday lives. In this perspective,
the signification metaphor recognises that potential audiences may evaluate adult
learning opportunities in terms of their own cultural capital, codes and meanings.
Adult learning no longer has necessarily integrative effects such as happens when
dominant cultural meanings are accepted by targeted audiences. Furthermore, adult
learning programmes may provide individuals and social groups with the cultural
resources to develop their own cultural meanings and critical cultural awareness.
Adult learning activities never constitute more than a small part of the information
and knowledge available to people in their everyday lives. Public and private pro-
viders, including for-profit adult learning activities, increasingly have to compete
with multiple sources of cultural meanings in the ‘tower of Babel’ which character-
ises the modern world of the internet. Publicly provided messages and cultural
meanings are now far from as unambiguous as the providers would like them to be.
The world of ‘messaging’ produces an almost unbridled pluralism in the dissemina-
tion and acquisition of cultural meanings together with the differentiation of social
relations in the public and private spheres. While the transmission metaphor views
the failure of information to reach audiences in terms of technical shortcomings
and/or cultural lags, the signification metaphor suggests that target audiences can
produce their own definitions of problems and possible solutions in the form of
adult learning. This can result in a tendency towards cultural relativism in which
adult learning activities are inhabited by a collection of subcultures each with its
own system of meanings which are equally valid in the cacophony of messages and
meanings. It can also result in a failure to take into account the role of social struc-
tures and power relationships between social groups, state institutions, adult learning
organisations and the marketplace in understanding how outreach work brings about
changes in the behaviour of target groups, audiences and publics, or not.
Adult learning programmes are indeed developed and implemented against the
background of social forces and power relationships which may have contemporary
but also deep historical roots in the broader society.1 The ‘argumentation’ metaphor
shifts the focus of analysis to understandings of the social organisation of commu-
nication and learning in terms of the articulation between adult learning and these
broader social and cultural forces. It is assumed that even the most apparently
autonomous manifestations of adult learning are subject to the influence of these
social forces and have repercussions, however indirect, upon society and the every-
day lives of both learners and non-learners. More often than not, adult learning
programmes are ridden by different ‘arguments’ with regard to the reasons why the

1
The author is indebted to the intellectual contribution of Raymond Williams to the analysis of the
materialist understanding of social formations and cultural practices. Key texts include: Williams, R.
(1961), The Long Revolution, London; idem. (1973), ‘Base and superstructure in Marxist cultural
theory’, New Left Review, no. 82; idem. (1977), Marxism and Literature, Oxford; idem. (1980),
Problems of Materialism and Culture, Oxford; idem. (1981), Culture, Glasgow.
260 B.J. Hake

social situations of target groups are regarded as problematic and thus ‘in need’ of
interventions to stimulate their participation in adult learning programme. The argu-
mentation by target groups of their own situation is based upon their own counter-
cultural systems of meaning which can easily conflict with the arguments promoted
by the providers of the adult learning programmes that are intended to help them.
This means that communication processes cannot be divorced from the social
relationships in society which are reflected in these different argumentations about
adult learning activities. These social relations involve those who are organised by
others, or organise themselves, for the purposes of communicating and acquiring
knowledge, skills and sensitivities and the struggle for cultural resources to these
often differing purposes of adult learning.

Social and Cultural Configurations of Outreach

Work Practices

A variety of social actors are involved in the provision of adult learning such as
policy-makers, public and private providers of adult learning activities, trade unions
and employers’ organisations, a plethora of voluntary associations, community
action groups and social movements, together with the target groups themselves.
These social actors are structurally related at regional and local levels in complex
social and cultural configurations in which the distribution of power over adult
learning is uneven. Adult learning initiatives aimed at a variety of target groups are
developed and implemented in the complex public arena of these institutionalised
social forces. These initiatives are concerned with winning consent in a field of
contesting social interests, and their definitions of problems have to be continuously
established and re-established within social and cultural relationships. When adult
learning programmes seek to tackle the adult learning problems identified in these
power configurations, they become involved in processes of argumentation con-
cerning different readings of social contexts and ways of dealing with identified
problems and the intended results of interventions to resolve these problems. In this
sense, adult learning providers are active agents in the argumentation of social prob-
lems into specific adult learning interventions. At the same time, target groups and
their advocates are also involved as social actors in these social and adult learning
configurations. There is no direct or automatic reflection of socially dominant inter-
ests in the presentation of the adult learning programmes developed and imple-
mented. State agencies, private providers and other stakeholders, including target
groups and their advocates, are engaged in the articulation of argumentations in
order to claim, increasingly scarce, resources and especially funding in order to
reach specified target groups, audiences and publics.
In the contemporary contextualisation of policy-led interventions for Bringing
Learning Closer to Home, assessments of success and failure are of paramount
importance in the search for ‘good examples’ of ‘outreach’ work to intended target
groups, audiences and publics. At the same time, these notions of success and failure
22 ‘Bringing Learning Closer to Home’: Understanding ‘Outreach Work’… 261

are contentious and have to be handled with great caution. On the one hand, the
intentions of those responsible for outreach interventions are important, and they
form a legitimate focus of both contemporary and historical research. On the other
hand, it needs to be recognised that intentions cannot be studied in any insightful
way within the transmission or signification metaphors. Intentions and their effects
are actually of subordinate interest in the understanding of outreach interventions;
indeed they can be misleading and quite unhelpful. The alternative approach is to
come to terms with the inevitable recognition that attempts to change the lives of
target groups, audiences and public groups are a vastly complex undertaking.
In the contemporary world of voluntary participation in adult learning, the fate of
‘outreach’ initiatives depends on the emergence of an effective audience among
target groups and the persistence of continuing involvement by this ‘receptive’ public
in adult learning programmes.
These processes need to be situated in the historical and contemporary contexts
of complex social and cultural relationships which are at the end of the day deter-
mined by social and cultural relationships which reflect relationships of power in
the distribution of scarce resources. The foregoing analysis has suggested that it is
indeed necessary in theoretical terms to refine the use of the terms ‘target groups’,
‘audiences’ and ‘publics’ in relation to different metaphors. Identification of ‘target
groups’ may be appropriate within the transmission metaphor, while the language
of ‘audiences’ is more appropriate for the ‘signification’ metaphor. The notion of
‘publics’ is a theoretical category which can effectively address the broader scope
of social and cultural influences involved in the argumentation metaphor. This
understanding focusses on the formation of ‘subject’ positions in communicative
practices and the force of social and cultural meanings. In terms of ‘bringing learn-
ing closer to home’, outreach work may be better understood in terms of the capaci-
ties of social actors, indeed collective cultural agents, who are actively involved in
the creation of the social and cultural meanings of ‘subject’ positions in social com-
munication processes. This serves to distinguish the argumentation metaphor from
the position of ‘target groups’ of the intended end-consumers of messages within
the transmission metaphor. The argumentation metaphor is also able to analyse the
proto-product position of individuals within the signification metaphor of commu-
nication and learning which is based upon the cultural relativism of messages in
which the individual experience of social structures is reduced to ‘like’ positions or
expressed in ‘tweets’, and in effect the individual submits to global market forces in
the social and cultural form of a product for Facebook to sell to other capitalists.

Conclusions

Efforts to mobilise target groups, audiences and publics in the field of adult learning
have historically come and gone almost endlessly, and they relate to each other
in very complex ways in the course of European modernisation (Hake 2010).
One historical example, drawn from my own historical research on cultural
262 B.J. Hake

formations in the Netherlands during the late eighteenth century, may suffice here to
argue that outreach work is not something new, and that the providers of adult learning
have in the past attuned their efforts for the ‘enlightenment’ of adults. At the same
time they contributed to the argumentation of well-defined differences between the
target groups, audiences and publics for their adult learning wares.
Similar conclusions were drawn by a committee (of the Society for the Common
Benefit) which was established by the Annual General Meeting in 1820 to investi-
gate the causes of the limited reading and distribution of the popular tracts of the
Society and the means for improving their distribution among the ‘common man’
and arousing his appetite for reading (see Hake 1987). The report by this committee
to Annual General Meeting in 1821 came to the conclusion that it was possible to
distinguish between three social categories among the less educated sections of the
population (see Hake 1987). It spoke firstly of those ‘who should they be given
books; they only throw these away, or, given the opportunity, sell them and spend
the proceeds on drink or other excesses’. In the second place, the committee identi-
fied those ‘labourers who display little or no interest in reading due to their heavy
labours, their limited means of subsistence, dull understanding, or deep ignorance’.
While the first public was considered to be responsibility of the public authorities,
the second group was thought to be the responsibility of the philanthropic societies.
Worthy of the efforts of the Society for Common Benefit were the ‘respectable’
among those ‘with limited means, who as result of their diligent labour and thrifty
house-keeping, their gentle disposition and religious feeling, find time for and have
an interest in reading, and who are prepared to this end to purchase books, or are
able to procure them by borrowing or as gifts’. The ‘respectable’ working man
represented the public to be served (Hake 1987, pp. 380–381).
How can we best understand ‘outreach’ to the ‘difficult to reach’ as a mobilisa-
tion strategy for the purposes of ‘bringing learning closer to home’? It is first of all
necessary to understand adult learning programmes in terms of the socially medi-
ated access to cultural resources for specific social groups. On the one hand, this
directs attention to the historically wide variety of cultural disseminators which is a
question of the contribution of what Carlson (1980) calls peers, poets, propagandists,
priest, peddlers, politicians, performers, publishers, pamphleteers, playwrights,
publicans and practitioners of the plastic arts.
In the social and political context of the virtual world of internet, we also need to
include the ‘p’ for the ‘pirate party’ which argues for absolute anonymity in a totali-
tarian image of virtual reality constituted by messaging. They thus serve to conflate
the world of the social and cultural positions of disseminators and publics in social
and cultural communication. For the inhabitants of virtual reality, there is no longer
any ‘public space’ available for increasingly decentred ‘subjects’ in the relativism
of the multiplicity of ‘private spaces’.
This somewhat discursive and episodic journey through the historical and con-
temporary representations of the world of outreach work and ‘bringing learning
closer to home’ must conclude with the assertion that our understandings necessarily
need to be based on reflection about the broader patterns of change in late modern
22 ‘Bringing Learning Closer to Home’: Understanding ‘Outreach Work’… 263

society and the global hegemony of capitalist social and cultural forms. This is not
to argue that adult learning is a cultural epiphenomenon and forms a part of the
cultural superstructure, which should be understood as the (over)determined reflec-
tion of a determining economic and technological base. Instead one proposes here
that the ‘objective’ economic, social and political conditions of the social order
constitute the raw materials for the constitution of social and cultural action in the
production of meaning. However, these raw materials of social and cultural produc-
tion and reproduction do not determine the concrete historical and contemporary
manifestations of social and cultural consciousness and struggle. In the classic argu-
mentation of the ‘young’ Karl Marx, social conditions form the raw materials for
the production and reproduction of consciousness by social and cultural actors.
There is no place here, however, for formulations of ‘false consciousness’ which
took the form of accepting the ‘original’ social problem as formulated by conserva-
tive, liberal and social-democratic factions in the late nineteenth century. When they
were confronted with the capacity of autonomous working-class organisations to
organise their own independent adult learning activities, ‘the social question’ was
formulated in terms of outreach activities to incorporate the emergent working class
in ‘liberal adult education’.
Oppositional argumentations by anarchist, socialist and communist cultural for-
mations in terms of ‘knowledge is power’ gave rise to the social organisation of
counter-hegemonic forms of autonomous adult learning. The cultural sphere of
adult learning is indeed influenced by social forces, but the institutions of adult
learning may enjoy a degree of historical and contemporary autonomy. Such rela-
tive autonomy is not an abstract or given characteristic of any manifestation of
cultural institutions and practices, it is a variable social and historical phenomenon.
The degree of autonomy of the social organisation of adult learning can only be
established by rigorous historical and contemporary research into the influence of
economic, social and political forces and the exertion of pressures upon and the
setting of limits to the development of outreach work and ‘bringing learning closer
to home’. The social and cultural processes involved in the ‘making’ of adult learn-
ing activities can still be best understood in terms of the organised efforts of indi-
vidual and collective cultural subjects in order to deal with their experience and
interpretation of ‘lived conditions’ and ‘the ways in which these experiences are
handled in cultural terms: embodied in traditions, ideas and institutional forms’
(see Thompson 1963).
It is necessary today to study rigorously the cultural forms produced by ‘citizens’
active in the public sphere of ‘making meanings’ who seek to change social rela-
tionships through their cultural action. It is also necessary to study the social forces
and cultural forms which reproduce the false consciousness of the inhabitants of the
virtual world and the cultural transformation of ‘subject positions’ into ‘product
positions’ for the purposes of unbridled capitalist accumulation. To paraphrase the
original title of one of Walter Benjamin’s (1936) major works, this calls for greater
understanding of the social forces engaged in ‘making’ the ‘subject in the age of its
digital reproduction’.
264 B.J. Hake

References

Benjamin, W. (1936). L’oeuvre d’art à l’époque de sa reproduction mécanisée. Zeitschrift für

Sozialforschung, 5, 40–363.
Broek, S., Buiskool, B.-J., & Hake, B. J. (2011). Impact of ongoing reforms in education and
training on the adult learning sector. Final report. Leiden: Research voor Beleid.
Buiskool, B.-J., Grijpstra, D., van Kan, C., van Lakerveld, J., & van den Oudendammer, F. (2005).
Developing local learning centres and learning partnerships as part of Member States’ targets
for reaching the Lisbon goals in the field of education and training: A study of the current
situation. Leiden: Research voor Beleid.
Carlson, R. A. (1980). The foundation of adult education: Analyzing the Boyd-Apps model.
In R. D. Boyd & J. W. Apps (Eds.), Redefining the discipline of adult education. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
de Sanctis, F. M. (1984). Problems of defining the public in the context of lifelong education.
International Journal of Lifelong Education, 3(4), 265–278.
European Commission. (2000). Commission staff working paper. A memorandum on lifelong
learning (SEC (2000) 1832). Brussels: European Commission.
European Commission. (2006). Communication from the commission. Adult learning: It is never
too late to learn (COM (2006) 614 final). Brussels: European Commission.
European Commission. (2007). Communication from the commission. Action plan on adult learning:
It is always a good time to learn (COM (2007) 558 final). Brussels: European Commission.
Hake, B. J. (1987). Patriots, democrats and social enlightenment: A study of political movements
and the development of adult education in the Netherlands, 1780–1813 (pp. 380–381).
Dissertation, University of Hull.
Hake, B. J. (2010). Rewriting the history of adult education: The search for narrative structures.
In K. Rubenson (Ed.), Adult learning and education (pp. 14–19). Oxford: Elsevier.
Thompson, E. P. (1963). The making of the English working-class. London: Victor Gollancz.
Chapter 23
Lifelong Learning and Schools as Community
Learning Centres: Key Aspects of a National
Curriculum Draft Policy Framework
for Malta

Peter Mayo

Introduction

The island of Malta has been engaged in policy document formulations for
curriculum renewal in the country’s educational system (4–16 years of age) since
1988 when the first National Minimum Curriculum (henceforth NMC) was launched
(Wain 1991; Borg et al. 1995). In 1999 a revamped NMC (Ministry of Education
1999) was developed following a long process of consultation involving various
stages and stakeholders. It was a compromise document (Borg and Mayo 2006)
which emerged as a result of reactions to a more radical and coherent draft docu-
ment produced in 1998. Both curricular documents were subject to debates and
critiques (Wain 1991; Darmanin 1993; Borg et al. 1995; Giordmaina 2001; Borg
and Mayo 2006). More recently a series of volumes providing guidelines, key prin-
ciples and aims for a national curriculum framework (henceforth NCF) have been
produced (MEEF 2011a, b, c, d) and are currently the target of debate and the focus
of reactions by various stakeholders in education including teachers who were
asked to read the volumes and provide reactions in the form of answers to a set
questionnaire.
In this chapter, I will focus on one aspect of the documents, the first of its three
aims: ‘Learners who are capable of successfully developing their full potential as
lifelong learners’. It is that aspect of the framework documents that falls within the
purview of the title for this book on lifelong learning. The use of this notion attests
to the influence of the EU’s policy communications on member states, Malta having
joined the Union in 2004 (Mayo 2007).
The NCF documents base their vision for the future of education in Malta around
the now widespread concept of lifelong learning in keeping with the dominant

P. Mayo (*)
Department of Education Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 265
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_23, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
266 P. Mayo

discourse which has emerged from not only the European Union but also the OECD.
One notices the discursive shift from the old UNESCO discourse on lifelong educa-
tion (Tuijnman and Boström 2002). Much has been written about this discourse
from a critical perspective (Murphy 1997; Williamson 1998; Brine 1999; Wain
2004; Borg and Mayo 2004; Field 2001, 2010), to make policymakers aware of the
shift in emphasis that has occurred from the broad, humanistic concept of lifelong
education (Faure et al. 1972) to that of lifelong learning. This shift is not innocent
and ties in with some of the hegemonic ideas that are often taken on board uncriti-
cally without the slightest concern for the kind of ideology that underpins such
terminology. It is felt that one needs to eschew the current meanings attributed to the
notion of lifelong learning if one is to engage in a commitment to education for
social justice. The dominant discourse on lifelong learning, as adopted in the NCF,
is one that shifts the onus of responsibility onto the individual rather than the state
and the social collectivity. Learning and adequate provision for it become a matter
of individual rather than social responsibility. This is all in keeping with the politics
of responsibilisation that is hegemonic these days, shifting the responsibility for
learning onto individuals and communities (Darmanin 2011 in talk delivered to
Dept. of Education Studies, University of Malta).

Collective Dimension of Learning

In contexts such as these, a reversal to the old UNESCO discourse of lifelong educa-
tion would help only if we avoid the rather individualistic orientation of some (not
all) of the relevant writings and follow those writings that place emphasis on not
only the individual but also the collective dimensions of learning as indicated in
passim by Dave (1976) and more in depth by Suchodolski (1976), Williamson
(1998), Gelpi (2002), Walters et al. (2004), Livingstone and Sawchuk (2004), Borg
and Mayo (2004) and Wain (2004). Related concepts such as lifewide learning and
the learning society have often (not always) been developed within the context of a
vision for collective learning in addition to individual learning, especially in the
literature just cited.
While criticality is mentioned in the NCF documents, as a component of a genu-
ine process of lifelong learning, a key point in the above literature, this has not been
spelt out. There is an emphasis on ‘solving problems’. (MEEF 2011b, p. 28) This
sounds quite fair. However, the question that arises is whether learning entails more
than this. Is it just a matter of solving problems with the mistaken belief that there
is a clear answer to any question raised? What about handling complexity? What
about problem posing in addition to problem solving? Surely, a genuine study of
literature at the later stages of secondary education should help drive this point
home. Confining oneself to the latter (problem solving) could lead to the emergence
of very resourceful people, including a pool of technocrats (very much suited to a
human capital theory approach), while the former can serve the purpose of develop-
ing a healthy democracy with people serving as social actors and not atomised
23 Lifelong Learning and Schools as Community Learning Centres… 267

individuals who simply embody certain attributes and are attuned to acting in ways
that allow them to be governed indirectly and by proxy, what Foucault would
call governmentality.
The documents (MEEF 2011b) place emphasis on the imagination, defined, fol-
lowing Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica (2009), as ‘the capacity for original thought’
with creativity meaning ‘applied imagination’ (MEEF 2011b, p. 28). This is a wel-
come development in the dominant Maltese policy discourse. And it is imperative
that approaches to teaching/learning are imaginative and involve the constant
arousal of ‘epistemological curiosity’ as Freire (1998) would put it. Unless this
occurs schools would be providing little in the way of creating the right milieu for
lifelong learners, both individually and collectively. Boring and mind-numbing
teaching can either put off students from wanting to learn formally and possibly
non-formally or alternatively make them seek alternative sources of knowledge as a
reaction to formal schooling, part and parcel of a ‘counter culture’ (which has fre-
quently been the case with some but not all). Developing a counter-discourse and
culture is not necessarily a bad thing and has been a survival strategy for several
artists, writers, dissidents and other intellectuals. It would however serve to under-
line a dissonance between conventional schooling and the emancipatory or self-
creative (individual and collective) aspirations of its students.
The notion of students as lifelong learners also has implications for guidance and
counselling (Sultana 2003). Guidance and counselling needs to be broadened to
become a lifelong learning service. It should not be confined to school age and not
be ‘remedial’ in its approach but serve a proactive purpose throughout a person’s
lifespan. The officials involved also need to treat persons as lifelong learners. This
is in keeping with one of the better six key messages of the EU’s Memorandum on
Lifelong Learning (CEC 2001). The objective of Message 5 is to ‘Ensure that every-
one can easily access good quality information and advice about learning opportu-
nities throughout Europe and throughout their lives’ (CEC 2001, 17). This message
is of great importance for countries in Europe that still restrict guidance and coun-
selling facilities to schools and tertiary institutions, as well as public and private
labour market agencies. Given the variegated and broad nature of the field of educa-
tion, comprising the formal and non-formal (mentioned in the NCF documents)
sectors, not to mention informal learning, a holistic and lifelong approach to guid-
ance and counselling is being advocated in European Commission documents
(Sultana 2003). The net result of this strategy at the European level is that more and
more guidance and counselling provisions are meant to follow citizens throughout
life; enhance social inclusion by engaging reluctant learners in educational and
training experiences; present up-to-date information that responds to people and
employer needs; network with NGOs (though care is cautioned here given the onset
of too much NGOisation in these days of ‘Neoliberalism’, in lieu of proper and
socially committed state intervention) to address specific needs; and avail oneself of
the potential of technology-based infrastructures for guidance and counselling
purposes (Sultana 2003).
The notion of conceiving of students as lifelong learners also has implications
for evaluation (Skager 1978). What do we evaluate? Do we evaluate simply
268 P. Mayo

possession and mastery of skills and knowledge, important and crucial in light of
learners’ entitlement as citizens in a democratic country or also the ability to explore
and identify new forms of knowledge and insights? In the latter case, this would
mean venturing beyond the knowledge provided in the classroom by crossing bor-
ders in the manner explained by Young (1998, 2004) with regard to his proposed
notion of a mix between in-depth learning of core areas characterised by ‘strong
framing’, in Basil Bernstein’s terms, and trans-disciplinary areas. This is intended
towards the goal of enabling lifelong learners to take charge, both individually and
collectively, of their own learning especially in future.
The school contributes little to lifelong learning if it produces ‘failures’ who
have not learned or achieved from school the skills, knowledge and further learning
networks to which they are entitled as citizens. Certain core areas have to be mas-
tered by all. One must be aware of the pitfalls indicated by Gramsci (1971) and
others with regard to the adoption of watered-down progressivist ideas. Active
learning is important but also entails rigour and mastery of certain skills. While
anchoring pupils learning in strong disciplinary knowledge (Young 2004), the
school can pave the way, in the later years, for improvisation by encouraging stu-
dents to venture beyond the ‘comfort zone’ of such knowledge by crossing boundar-
ies. One requires the right balance between disciplinary cross-borders and in-depth
knowledge, with a strong ‘framing’ and ‘classification’ of certain disciplines such
as Maths and the natural sciences and a weaker ‘classification’ and ‘framing’ of
others which are very closely related (Darmanin 2011, op.cit.).
The idea of lifelong learning was consolidated in the 1988 draft NMC and the
1999 final NMC document when they promoted the idea of schools as community
learning centres (SCLCs).
Schools should serve as community learning centres that also cater for the adult members
of the community. This principle combines the commitment of this Curriculum to a holistic
education with the recognition of the importance of lifelong education and the need for
stakeholder participation in the educational process. (Ministry of Education 1999, p. 89)

This idea remains a valid one and continues to be mentioned in the NCF espe-
cially with regard to parental involvement in schools, with parents being ‘subject’ in
terms of having an active say on the proceedings and not simply serving as adjuncts –
in short parents as social actors. This is as it should be, though the SCLCs concept
involves much more than this. The SCLCs project should not however be dependent
for its implementation on simply ESF (European Social Funds) funds which are
intermittent, as was the case in Malta around 2005 with regard to the abortive fund-
ing of the short-lived community learning centres in different towns and villages
and are geared solely towards ‘employability’ which does not necessarily mean
employment, as Ettore Gelpi (2002) once remarked. There is more to community
learning than ‘employability’. There is a need for indications regarding how the
community can serve as a learning enhancing resource.
The final document, for which this draft provides a basis for discussion, also
needs to spell out the educational, democratic and economic reasons why we need
to conceive of schools as community learning centres, a concept found in some of
23 Lifelong Learning and Schools as Community Learning Centres… 269

the literature on small states. Summing up this literature, I would submit that there
are at least three arguments to be made:
1. Democratic argument: Schools, especially state schools, are public resources.
This proposed project constitutes an attempt to make democratic use of public
resources.
2. Economic argument: The cost per capita of public resources in a microstate such
as Malta is higher than that incurred in larger states. One must make better and
maximum use of resources, lest these resources become ‘idle capital’ for several
hours during the day and entire months during the calendar year.
3. Educational argument (with regard to schooling): It is not only adult members of
the community who benefit from such schools but also children. Links between
schools and the community would create greater space for the involvement of
more stakeholders, such as parents, in the school process. This would create
closer ties between schools and their pupils’ immediate home environment,
without confining the latter to a ‘campanilismo’ (very parochial) style of educa-
tion. On the contrary, there should be both a global and local dimension to the
education provided; otherwise, one would be restricting the children’s different
‘universes of knowledge’.
The work of Didacus Jules (1994/5) from St. Lucia, in the Caribbean, is instructive
here. He helped develop a multipurpose learning school in Trinidad and Tobago on
the lines of a school as a community learning centre (Mayo et al. 2008, p. 230).
State funding is crucial for such a project which entails teachers’ and heads’
continuing professional development in this area (this is a crucial area in courses on
educational administration and leadership). It also involves restructuring buildings to
accommodate adults and building new schools as community learning centres from
the very start. This entails liaison between the areas of education and architecture.
It represents a new vision for schools born out of the reality of small jurisdictions, a
vision that turns scale (Baldacchino 2010) into a virtue rather than an impediment.

Conclusion

As a recent member of the European Union, Malta has been quick to embrace the
notion of lifelong learning which can be regarded as the Union’s master concept for
learning just as it was UNESCO’s master concept for education in the past. This
particular interpretation of lifelong learning within the EU policy context differs
considerably from the more expansive notion used by UNESCO. Though contested
within different epistemic communities within the EU, which must not be seen to be
monolithic, the overarching notion that emerges from its main policy documents
thus far (one awaits an overdue and revised document 10 years after the launch of
the EU Memorandum in 2001) is that of lifelong learning for employability and
a narrowly defined notion of active citizenship which overlooks the collective
dimension of education for social change and which provides a very problematic
270 P. Mayo

notion of individualised learning. This notion does not reflect any cognisance of the
way concepts, assumptions and practices are influenced by mechanisms that prey on
people’s sensibilities. Any further development of the Maltese curriculum discourse
should be predicated on an awareness of these mechanisms in the interest of providing
guidelines for an education geared towards an enhancement of social justice.
One hopes to see the overriding notion of lifelong learning for this proposed
renewed curriculum fleshed out, in the final National Curriculum document, in a
manner that takes on board some of the criticisms levelled at the current discourse
emanating from the EU. One hopes that it would do this in the spirit of developing
a more holistic approach to lifelong learning/education that eschews its reduction
to simply matters of production and consumption and encourages an alternative
conceptualisation of persons as collectively and individually engaged social actors.
Options for learning and living a full life would thus be broadened, while the basic
necessary knowledge, to which every citizen is entitled, would be made available
without any dilutions.

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the 27th annual SCUTREA conference. London: Birkbeck College, University of London.
Robinson, K., & Aronica, L. (2009). The element: How finding your passion changes everything.
New York: Viking Penguin.
Skager, R. (1978). Lifelong education and evaluation practice. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Suchodolski, B. (1976). Lifelong education – Some philosophical aspects. In R. H. Dave (Ed.),
Foundations of lifelong education. Oxford/Hamburg: Pergamon Press/UNESCO Institute for
Education.
Sultana, R. G. (2003). Lifelong guidance and the European challenge. Issues for Malta. Floriana:
Euroguidance. Malta.
Tuijnman, A., & Boström, A.-K. (2002). Changing notions of lifelong education and lifelong
learning. International Review of Education, 48(1/2), 93–110.
Wain, K. (1991). Malta’s national curriculum. A critical evaluation. Msida: Mireva. Malta.
Wain, K. (2004). The learning society in a postmodern world. New York: Peter Lang.
Walters, S., Borg, C., Mayo, P., & Foley, G. (2004). Economics, politics and adult education. In
G. Foley (Ed.), Dimensions of adult learning. Adult education and training in a global era.
Sydney/London: Allen & Unwin/McGraw Hill/Open University Press.
Williamson, B. (1998). Lifeworlds and learning. Essays in the theory, philosophy and practice of
lifelong learning. Leicester: NIACE.
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ization and social change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chapter 24
The Rise and Fall and Rise Again
of Learning Cities

Lynette Jordan, Norman Longworth, and Michael Osborne

Introduction

In this chapter we provide an overview of an aspect of lifelong learning implemen-

tation that has waxed and waned in importance over since the 1970s, the notion of
creating learning cities and regions. It may be that this field of endeavour is about to
attract international attention once again, with the impetus coming from Asia, in
particular China, Korea, Vietnam and Japan, where activity now seems to be bur-
geoning at a time when initiatives in Europe seem with some notable exceptions
haphazard and uncoordinated at EU, national and regional level. We provide a brief
history of developments of within the field of learning cities and regions in Europe
in recent decades and then focus on one particular project, EUROlocal, which has
sought to gather and analyse the current state of development within the continent.

A Brief History of the City and Regional Learning Space

Over the past four decades, lifelong learning has increasingly become a priority
for policymakers throughout Europe largely because of the demands of a more
knowledge-intensive economy in which continuing learning at all levels has been

L. Jordan
Bachelor of Arts in Community Development (BACD), University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
N. Longworth
UNESCO/OECD, Paris, France
M. Osborne (*)
Centre for Research and Development, Adult and Lifelong Learning,
University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
Place Management, Social Capital and Lifelong Learning, PASCAL Observatory, Glasgow, UK
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 273
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_24, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
274 L. Jordan et al.

prioritised. In this context the role of the learning region and city as a vehicle for
stimulating lifelong learning has taken on greater significance. Longworth (2001)
claims that a rapid change in the ‘learning economy’, for example, the explosion of
information and knowledge and increasing individualisation amongst other factors,
has provoked a significant movement from the paradigm of ‘education and training’
to one of ‘lifelong learning’. The emphasis now is much more on the learners them-
selves and how their perceptions of the importance of learning throughout life can
be fostered and translated into the kind of skills, attitudes and values that will enable
them to cope with deep changes in lifestyles and work demands. Such a transforma-
tion requires new approaches on the part of learning providers and a re-examination
of assessment methods, ensuring that learners are not discouraged at a young age
and that their personal circumstances are taken into account. This suggests a shift
from a supply-side concept of education with an education offer determined by
providers to the principle of continuous learning for everyone controlled at least to
some extent by individuals themselves. As part of that change in emphasis, many
European cities have been encouraged to develop themselves as learning cities in
order to tackle the new challenges posed in the post-industrial period and faced by
all countries in the developed world (see Hassink 2004; Gustavsen et al. 2007;
Longworth and Osborne 2010). Similarly, there have been a number of initiatives in
Europe promoted under the aegis of the Learning Region, most notably the R3L
programme of the European Commission (2002), which states:
A learning city, town or region recognises and understands the key role of learning in the
development of basic prosperity, social stability and personal fulfilment, and mobilises all
its human, physical and financial resources creatively and sensitively to develop the full
human potential of all its citizens. European Commission (2002, p. 11)

Similarly the definition of a learning region or city from Faris (1998) refers to:
…communities of place using lifelong learning as an organising principle and social/
cultural goal as they mobilise the learning resources of all five of their community sectors,
economic, civic, public, education and environmental to enhance their social, economic,
and environmental conditions on a sustainable, socially inclusive basis. Faris (1998, p. 5)

As Duke et al. (2005) have observed, the concept of a learning city has been
interpreted in a number of ways with the emphasis at one end of a continuum being
about creating an underlying infrastructure of educational opportunity that might
attract inward investment from business through to the creation of learning net-
works that promote and enhance social cohesion and inclusion. The terms learning
region and learning city have in fact been used interchangeably throughout the
period of growth in Europe and the notion of ‘learning region’ is useful in that it
extends the learning city in scale and scope.1 The literature suggests that over the
last 30 years, some European cities have sought this status enthusiastically and that
the rationale for wanting to become a learning city may principally be economic,
social or environmental, but usually contains elements of each stimulus (Longworth
and Osborne 2010).

1
See reports from the recently completed R3L+ project funded by the European Commission at
http://www.learning-regions.net/ and within Eckert et al. (2012).
24 The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Learning Cities 275

The origins and subsequent development of learning cities has been well
documented. In brief, the learning city was defined geographically in the 1970s
when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
invited seven cities around the world to become an ‘Educating City’ (Adelaide,
Edmonton, Edinburgh, Gothenburg, Kakegawa, Pittsburgh and Vienna). This status
was offered on the basis that the cities concerned placed the broad concept of learning
at the heart of their strategies. This idea is at the core of the objective of the learning
region and city methodology, namely, that activities across a broad portfolio of
services should revolve or stem from learning. The notion of using learning as a
medium to foment positive change was perceived as being more effective than
simply using economic levers to stimulate development. The popularity of the
concept in the 1980s and 1990s reflected a tendency to emphasise the agency of
both social and economic actors. In 1992, a Gothenburg conference organised by
the OECD led to the formation of the International Association of Educating
Cities (IAEC). Some of the values and aspirations which emerged at Gothenburg
continue to have currency, not least the idea that partnerships and collaboration of
interested regions and cities are essential if the ambitions of learning cities are to
be realised (OECD/CERI 1992).
Subsequent developments have meant that lifelong learning now lies firmly at the
heart of the learning city concept, emphasising the importance of learning through-
out life for everyone. At a European level it has been the European Community
(EC) that has taken the lead in making this link. In 1998 it initiated the TELS
(Towards a European Learning Society) project, which surveyed 80 European
municipalities from 14 countries by measuring their progress towards becoming
‘learning cities, towns and regions’ in 10 domains and 28 subdomains. TELS
became the European Commission’s major source of information on the local and
regional dimension of lifelong learning, offering ten recommendations to govern-
ments and a further ten recommendations for embryo learning cities. As a result of
TELS, seminars were held in Brussels for interested regional organisations and
papers were produced. This in turn resulted in the production of a European Policy
Paper on the ‘Local and Regional Dimension of Lifelong Learning’ (European
Commission 2001a) distributed to all member states for comments. This in turn led
to the European Commission’s R3L pilot initiative, European Networks to promote
the local and regional dimensions of Lifelong Learning, within the background of
which is suggested that the learning region ‘goes beyond its statutory duty to
provide education and training…and instead creates a vibrant, participative, culturally
aware and economically buoyant human environment through the provision, justifi-
cation and active promotion of learning opportunities to enhance the potential of all
of its citizens’ (European Commission 2003, p. 11).
Already in 2000, both the Lisbon and Feira European Councils had provided
impetus for the European Commission to focus on lifelong learning. The Lisbon
Council set the now well-known strategic goal over the decade from 2000 to 2010,
for the EU ‘to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based econ-
omy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better
jobs and greater social cohesion’. This was accompanied by a number of targets for
raising employment rates across the continent, and it emphasised the importance of
276 L. Jordan et al.

lifelong learning, setting targets in various parts of the education and training system
in order to create an alignment in achieving the Lisbon goals.
Regionally based lifelong learning was stressed in relation to these targets
because of the substantial disparities that exist between regions in the EU (European
Union). Strategies for lifelong learning would have to be tailored to the specific
requirements of each region. This emphasis was included in the subsequent
Memorandum on Lifelong Learning (European Commission 2000), which in turn
initiated EU-wide consultation on an updated strategy for implementing lifelong
learning policies. The results culminated in the European Commission’s communica-
tion, Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality (European Commission
2001b). The R3L programme was announced in 2002 as the principal way in which
the European Commission would seek to develop this emerging policy priority for
there to be a regional and local dimension of lifelong learning, meeting the commit-
ment of the communication to ‘support through its programmes the establishment of
networks between those regions and cities with well-developed lifelong learning
strategies, to facilitate the exchange of experience and good practice’.
The R3L aimed to:
• To help further develop good practice on issues relating to the ‘learning region’
• To encourage a fruitful transnational sharing and exchange of this experience
• To promote the development of European networks between learning regions as
a means of placing European cooperation in the lifelong learning field on a more
durable and sustainable footing (European Commission 2002, p. 2)
However, despite laudable intentions, the impetus of this initiative was not sus-
tained with most of the 17 pilot projects promoting little activity once their funding
from the European Commission ended. Subsequently within the aegis of the
Lifelong Learning Programme for the period 2007–2013, there have been further
individual projects2 concerned with learning cities and regions, the foci of which
have been described by Longworth and Osborne (2010), but there has been rela-
tively little co-ordinated action or overview of the territory in intervening years.
Initiatives have also occurred at the level of the nation state, with examples of
learning city or region networks created in a number of countries including Germany,
Italy and the UK. However as with R3L, evidence for the sustainability of such
networks is limited (see, e.g. Hamilton and Jordan 2011; Thinesse-Demel 2010).
Since the 1990s in some places, the concept of learning cities has been absorbed or
mainstreamed into strategic policy and as a consequence may not necessarily be
evident through labelling as such. For example, Glasgow in Scotland, which had
previously strongly promoted the learning city, now argues that whilst learning is
still at the core of their work driving policy and practice forward, the banner of

2
These include the Learning in Local and Regional Authorities (Lilara) (see http://pie.pascalobser-
vatory.org/content/lilara-executive-summary), PASCAL European Network of Lifelong Learning
Regions (PENR3L) (see http://eurolocal.info/project/penr3l-european-commission-project-
establish-expertise-network-learning-regions) and Quality Framework for Learning Regions
(R3L+) (see http://www.learning-regions.net/) projects.
24 The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Learning Cities 277

‘learning regions or cities’ is no longer the preferred current terminology (Hamilton

and Jordan 2011). In other places, there has been a lack of sustainability of initial
developments whether work initiated within individual cities and regions or through
larger-scale network initiatives such as R3L (Souto-Otero and McCosham 2006).
The challenge now for regions and cities throughout Europe is how to sustain a
culture of lifelong learning that exploits the potential of contributions of a range of
stakeholders in a synergetic fashion to the benefit of all citizens against the back-
drop of the current difficult economic circumstances that the continent faces. For
Goncalves (2008) the idea of learning cities in the twenty-first century has two key
pillars of equity and sustainability, thereby playing a role in ensuring active citizen-
ship and social inclusion alongside economic development that takes into account
the reality of a fragile ecosystem.
One example currently being planned is the UNESCO Global Learning Cities
Network (GLCN), an initiative to provide a Kitemark standard by which learning
cities can measure and monitor their progress. The 12 generic indicators used rec-
ognise that the concept of the learning city has moved on. Instead of being purely
associated with the implementation of lifelong learning principles within the city,
the perception is that sustainability issues have expanded the learning city responsi-
bility. No longer is it simply concerned with the well-being of its own citizens, it
must now attend to some of the pressing issues raised by climate change, renewable
energy sources, air and water pollution and loss of biodiversity. In other words, its
remit extends to the survival of the planet, a mission frequently reiterated in the
recent RIO+20 summit of June 2012. The duopoly of social and economic which
has been the staple of city focus for many years is now a triumvirate of social, eco-
nomic and environmental, each with their own focuses. Even that is now superseded
by the holism of the modern city. For example, economic growth must now be sus-
tainable if we are to avoid the excesses that will destroy our fragile ecosystems. In
addition, sustainable economic growth will not happen without the input of a life-
long learning system of education and training. Thus, the future of cities is a fusion
of all three: interdependency, interconnectedness and interaction.
The UNESCO model is in three sections. On the one hand, there are the variables
that provide the underlying motivation – individual empowerment and social cohe-
sion, sustainable development and cultural and economic prosperity. Secondly
come the building blocks that will allow a learning city to establish itself as such.
These include creating a culture of learning, learning organisations, local and inter-
national partnerships, innovation and change and the engagement and contribution
of stakeholders. None of these will, however, take place without the third elements
of political will and commitment and good governance. The project is still very
much work in progress, but there is a determination to make it succeed with help
from the PASCAL Observatory.3

3
The PASCAL Observatory for place management, social capital and learning regions has based
in Glasgow, Illinois, Melbourne and Pretoria and emerged from work of the OECD in the field of
learning cities and regions in the early 2000s.
278 L. Jordan et al.

EUROlocal: The European Storehouse on Learning

Regions and Cities

One initiative within Europe that has gathered knowledge of learning regions and
cities and analysed the current situation in terms of their development and progress
is EUROlocal,4 a recently completed international project funded by the European
Commission through the Transversal Key Activity (KA) 4 of the LLP with partners
that included a number of the leading proponents of learning region development.
Four collaborating organisations with a history of experience in learning regions
and cities were involved: the PASCAL Observatory, University of Glasgow (UK),
Learning Regions Deutschland (LRD) (Germany), Universus Bari (Italy) and the
University of Pecs (Hungary). The principal aim of this project was to provide a
central repository in the form of a website to store more than two decades of data,
tools, indicators, reports, videos, projects, recommendations, plans, strategies and
learning materials for the benefit of European cities and regions. The approach of
EUROlocal project was both collaborative and interactive by providing an easily
accessible web-based resource of existing and extant initiatives and by seeking
input and feedback from new and prospective entrants.
As well as creating a rich reservoir of materials, EUROlocal has also collated
more than 800 regional development contacts from throughout Europe. It has also
developed existing audit tools concerned with learning region development and
translated and tested these in different sectorial areas, including schools, adult edu-
cation institutions, local authorities and universities. Learning materials were
devised for others interested in learning regions and cities to use. At various points
during the project, stakeholders were consulted and recommendations for policy
changes in the field were revised on the basis of their comments.
Longer-term targets in relation to dissemination, exploitation and sustainability
have also been developed and reached. For example, the work of the project is feed-
ing directly into the developments within UNESCO’s GLCN initiative. Interested
parties have already met to discuss how the work can be developed in the future.
Other objectives were met through the purchase of a dissemination package from
the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA) which provides a
separate web section within its website.
One of the main criticisms of projects funded within the framework of the LLP
is sustainability and impact, and this has been a fundamental problem of many
previous initiatives in the field of learning cities and regions. By establishing
strong sets of connections with other networks, regions and cities as well as
individuals, and by being maintained after the life of the project by a global
network, the PASCAL Observatory, unusually high prospects for longevity exist
for EUROlocal. Furthermore, the project was designed to have maximum impact on

4
See http://eurolocal.info/
24 The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Learning Cities 279

the development of linked strategies for lifelong learning regions at a EU level.

It does this by having
• Provided a wealth of potentially valuable knowledge for European regions that
urgently needed to be brought together and made available in one place.
Furthermore, commentary and analysis of these materials, both thematically and
by geographic region, add value to content.
• Made the knowledge available in an innovative way. The innovativeness and
extensive use of a website that contains many features of modern Internet
custom and convention (e.g. blogs, rich media, interaction and ‘digging’)
enhance the project’s impact on those who intend to develop learning regions
in the future. The design of the site also facilitates the organisation of material
in ways that facilitate thematic and geographical analysis and by permitting
remote user submissions always to a degree ways in which knowledge can
be co-constructed.
• Provided learning and publicity materials that enable all European regions to
develop a strategy that exploits the available wealth of knowledge for its stake-
holders in VET institutions, universities, schools, enterprises, local administrations
and adult education institutions.
• Devised a dissemination plan that targets regional development agencies in all
EU countries.
• Provided the guidelines and recommendations for a new expanded European
policy in this area.
Each one of the previous targets has a significant impact on the development of
lifelong learning. Together they add up to a step forward for local and European
policy and practice. Furthermore, EU policies in cognate areas are addressed,
including the high level objective of integration, ‘the process of overcoming, by
common accord, political, physical, economic and social barriers that divide coun-
tries from their neighbours, and of collaborating in the management of shared
resources and regional commons’ (European Commission 2008).
Through the various work packages of the project, the website and the final semi-
nar, EUROlocal was able to make contributions to this objective in several ways.
Through the sharing of mutual experiences and the provision of reciprocal support,
EU regions have been able to enhance their own regional work. One opportunity
came in Ostersund, Sweden, in 2010 at the Jamtli Museum during the ‘Heritage,
Regional Development and Social Cohesion’ conference. The event was hosted by
the PASCAL Observatory and facilitated the sharing of experiences and research
findings by regions across a wide range of interests. The themes included whether
cultural and natural heritage was a resource for development and how to make links
between the heritage movement, social inclusion and lifelong learning for all. The
EUROlocal final seminar ‘Investing in the Future: Building Learning Cities and
Regions in Europe’ in October 2011 was held in Murten, Switzerland, and was
aimed at for key decision-makers in European regions. This event maximised
impact through discussion and exchange of experiences and expertise between
280 L. Jordan et al.

European regions. The culmination of the work provided the guidelines and
recommendations for European policy in this area.
In the Interim Report of the LLP (European Commission 2011, p. 14), the
Commission talks about how to make the work of the programme more effective and
suggests that those active in the lifelong learning programmes should ‘Share good
practice among the Member States and various stakeholders, … Make better use
of KA1 of the Transversal programme to analyse the needs of the target groups,
undertake outreach initiatives to associations of enterprises, non-formal and
informal education providers’. EUROlocal has achieved this through the interactive
website, the development of an extensive database and learning materials, the dis-
semination of audits, contacts, information on projects and festivals in both cities
and regions. Additionally through stakeholder audits and tools testing, the project
has undertaken an analysis of which groups are relevant in which sector and what
their actual needs are. Through a final seminar it worked to ‘strengthen the involve-
ment of national and sub-national policy makers and other stakeholders in the coope-
ration process at the EU level (peer learning activities and other fora of learning) as
well as in the implementation of the LLP’s actions’ (p. 89).

EUROlocal Contribution to EU Policy

The first European Commission Policy Document on the Local and Regional
Dimension of Lifelong Learning (Longworth 2006) was a result of one of the first
European Commission Learning City/Region projects, TELS. It contained a series
of recommendations for implementation by local authorities and by the European
Commission. As we have reported previously, the recommendation to initiate an
European Commission programme on learning regions was implemented in 2002
(R3L), when 17 projects were approved to kick-start the process of lifelong learning
region development.
The EUROlocal final seminar provided additional recommendations for the
future. EUROlocal urged that the EU strongly consider the following:
1. Reintroduce the concept of learning cities and regions into the new programme
for lifelong learning development, Erasmus for All.
2. Recognise the place of learning cities and regions in the development of jobs,
employment and Europe 20205 and promote new projects to establish these as
frameworks for development.
3. Recognise the interactivity, interconnectedness and interdependence of
economic, social and environmental capital in local development, and promote
research and development projects, which activate good practice.
4. Work with active learning city organisations, cities and regions abroad; learn
from them and implement projects, which mirror their success.

5
See Europe 2020 at http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/europe-2020-in-a-nutshell/targets/index_en.
htm
24 The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Learning Cities 281

5. Encourage member states to implement learning city and region development

projects and networks.
6. Work with other intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) such as UNESCO and
the OECD to help them establish worldwide networks of good practice in learning
cities and regions.
7. Encourage innovative approaches, which link European cities with others
abroad to exchange good practice and creative solutions. Use these to help
cities and regions in underdeveloped or dangerous parts of the world.
8. Encourage all schools at all levels to establish links with other schools in other
countries throughout the world for joint curriculum development and creative
projects that promote understanding, tolerance and peace.
9. Make the EUROlocal storehouse available to all, worldwide, and use it to create
recommendations for action in the learning cities and regions field.
10. Establish links between the Lifelong Learning Programme and Social and
European Regional Development Funds to increase the number of learning
regions throughout Europe. Use the experts who have organised and run DG
EaC learning region projects to implement these.
11. Embed learning region concepts into all lifelong learning projects in the new
ERASMUS for All programme (see European Commission 2012).
12. Encourage integration projects and partnerships between learning providers
and city/region stakeholders.
13. Accept projects that encourage citizens to identify with, and contribute to, the
economic, social and environmental development of their own region.
14. Establish links with the Committee of the Regions to give more attention to
learning city and region development.
15. Use the tools and learning materials in the EUROlocal storehouse to increase
the number of learning regions and cities in Europe. Encourage the writing of
more such tools and materials.
This would enable learning regions throughout Europe to meet the criteria of the
policy of the past as well as that of the future. EUROlocal has played a part in the
Lisbon Council strategic goal, for the EU ‘to become the most competitive and
dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic
growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’ by gathering the
knowledge in one pace which will contribute to this growth and social cohesion.
In the Interim Report for the evaluation of this lifelong learning programme, the
European Commission (2011, p. 8) recognised the many achievements of the life-
long learning programme such as ‘the benefits of improved content and practice of
education and training but it also’, but it also identified several matters of concern.
In terms of effectiveness of the education and training in Europe, the Panel were
eager to address these matters before the end of the programme in 2013. One of the
issues included ‘Inequalities in education hindering individuals from lower-
economic backgrounds to acquire the high levels of competence they need to con-
tribute to and benefit from a knowledge society’. Through the mutual exchange and
knowledge from the EUROlocal site, learning regions will be able to make a
282 L. Jordan et al.

difference in terms of both building economies and contributing to social inclusion

practices. There will be more links between different and similar organisations and
institutes. For example, those dealing with employment will link with those focused
on social inclusion.
It was agreed that future European Commission programmes will be even more
integrated and cover all aspects of education and training as in the case for the
Erasmus for All programme to be introduced in 2014. The Interim Report of the
LLP (European Commission 2011) identified that we need to develop as ‘partner-
ships between the education and the world of work, regional and local authorities
and NGOs’. The European Commission Interim Panel for this report suggested that
EU actors should ‘also further enlarge the possibilities of cooperation with non-EU
countries’ and give more attention to transversal actions. The Commission took
note that ‘most answers and feedbacks received come from current beneficiaries of
the Lifelong Learning Programme and reflect the quite usual tendency to ask for
continuity and stability’. Erasmus for All will bring further investment in education
and training and ‘is the key to unlocking people’s potential, regardless of their age
or background. It helps them to increase their personal development, gain new
skills and boost their job prospects’ (European Commission 2012, p. 1).

The Future of the Work

The EUROlocal project created a website, which is a virtual platform for researchers,
developers and managers focusing on establishing, managing or developing learning
cities, regions or communities. The website frames and sets out the basic precepts
of learning cities and regions in Europe so as to engage designers, planners, decision-
makers and other stakeholders who are interested in promoting the idea and practice
of learning cities and regions. EUROlocal can be used as a reader/source for
people wanting to be informed of or to learn about learning cities and regions in
Europe. Moreover, the PASCAL Observatory has linked EUROlocal to its website
which widens the scope and assures the sustainability of the work.
One precondition for the development of a successful learning region is the
identification of dedicated people and institutions that follow the same aim: developing
a structure that is reaching people flexibly and creatively and that reduces competi-
tiveness and makes common working fields accessible. Building a network of
educational institutions with regional partners from the scientific, social, economic
and cultural background is the way towards a knowledge-based economic area,
which means a learning region. EUROlocal identified several areas for action,
including the:
• Development of new tools for use in cities and regions
• Consolidation of EUROlocal outputs in specific areas of the lifelong learning
• Increased visibility of EUROlocal to European cities and regions
• Expansion of the scope of learning cities and regions into the aspects of learning
city/region development other than educational and training that is presently
active in Europe
24 The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Learning Cities 283

More work needs to be done by EUROlocal in terms of exploitation, and this is

an ongoing and never-ending task. However, in order to make the exploitation of the
EUROlocal project more effective, there may be a need to reduce the gap between
projects and policymakers by considering the creation of an ‘observatory’ for the
Lifelong Learning Programme itself.
During the course of the project, we encountered cities and regions with many
other nomenclatures outside of our remit, such as creative cities, resilient cities, tran-
sition towns, green cities, healthy cities, smart cities, slow cities, ecowell cities, cities
of possibilities, cities alliance for poverty reduction and sustainable development,
cool cities, intelligent cities, sustainable cities, educating cities, energy cities, future
cities, culture cities, Eurocities and Eurotowns.6 We know that others exist that may
have fallen under the radar.
All of them have created networks; all of them are active in Europe, many of
them also interacting with other cities worldwide. Most are active in several aspects
of local and regional lifelong learning development; all of them can potentially
contribute to the learning of all their stakeholders in formal, non-formal and infor-
mal learning; and all of them can learn much from each other. EUROlocal has
recognised that there is also further urgent work to be done to collect the knowledge,
tools and materials that these new entities have created, in order to further economic,
social and environmental development in European cities and beyond.

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bologna-berlin2003.de/pdf/MemorandumEng.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2012.
European Commission. (2001a). The local and regional dimension of lifelong learning – A policy
paper. Brussels: EC.
European Commission. (2001b, November). Making a European area of lifelong learning a
reality. http://www.bologna-berlin2003.de/pdf/MitteilungEng.pdf. Accessed 15 June 2012.
European Commission. (2002, July 20). R3L call for proposals. Call EAC/41/02.
European Commission. (2003, April 7). Information note: The “R3L initiative” European
networks to promote the local and regional dimensions of Lifelong Learning, Brussels.
European Commission. (2008). Regional integration for development in ACP countries.
Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European

6
Some URL examples are as follows: energy cities (http://www.energy-cities.eu/), sustainable
cities (http://sustainablecities.net), creative cities (http://creativecities.org/), educating cities
(http://www.bcn.es/edcities/aice/) and green cities (http://greencities.com).
284 L. Jordan et al.

Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. http://ec.europa.eu/
development/icenter/repository/COMM_PDF_COM_2008_604_F_EN_REGIONAL_
INTEGRATION.PDF. Accessed 5 Aug 2013.
European Commission. (2011, February 18). Interim evaluation of the lifelong learning
programme – Final report (2007–2013). At http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/evalreports/
index_en.htm#educationHeader. Accessed 15 June 2012.
European Commission. (2012). Erasmus for all. At http://ec.europa.eu/education/erasmus-for-all/.
Accessed 14 June 2012.
Faris, R. (1998, August 15). Learning communities: Cities, towns and villages preparing for a 21st
century knowledge based economy. A report submitted to the Resort Municipality of Whistler
on behalf of the Centre for Curriculum, Transfer and Technology, Victoria.
Goncalves, M. J. (2008). Cities and emerging networks of learning communities. Accessed from
http://www.afscet.asso.fr/resSystemica/Lisboa08/goncalvesMJ.pdf on 17 June 2012.
Gustavsen, B., Nyham, B., & Ennals, R. (2007). Learning together for local innovation: Promoting
learning regions. Thessaloniki: CEDEFOP.
Hamilton, R., & Jordan, L. (2011). Learning cities: The United Kingdom experience. In P. Kearns,
S. Kling, & C. Wistman (Eds.), Heritage, regional development and social cohesion (pp. 193–
228). Jamtli: Ostersund.
Hassink, R. (2004). The learning region: A policy concept to unlock regional economies from path
dependency. At http://www.diw.de/documents/dokumentenarchiv/17/41724/20040510_has-
sink.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2012.
Longworth, N. (2001). The local and regional dimension of lifelong learning: Creating learning
cities, towns and regions, a European policy paper from the TELS project. Brussels: DG
Education and Culture.
Longworth, N. (2006). Learning cities, learning regions, learning communities: Lifelong learning
and local government. London: Routledge.
Longworth, N., & Osborne, M. (2010). Perspectives on learning cities and regions. Leicester:
NIACE.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, & CERI. (1992). City strategies for
lifelong learning (An OECD study prepared for the second congress on educating cities in
Gothenburg). Paris: OECD.
Souto-Otero, M., & McCosham, A. (2006). Ex-post evaluation of the R3L initiative: European
networks to promote the local and regional dimension of lifelong-learning. Final report to the
European Commission technical report. Birmingham: ECOTEC.
Thinesse-Demel, J. (2010). Learning regions in Germany. European Journal of Education, 45,
437–450.
Chapter 25
Collective Dimensions in Lifelong Education
and Learning: Political and Pedagogical
Reflections

Françoise F. Laot

Introduction

This chapter1 offers a look back into the past in order to revisit a period of history
when individual and collective adult education and training were two hotly debated
alternatives at the national and local levels. These debates occurred in France in the
1950s and 1960s before the continuing vocational education era which started with
the law of 16 July 1971, at a moment when lifelong education was emerging as a
social project aimed at ‘promoting’ individuals and social groups.
Drawing on sources from archives, this chapter will first examine the different
understandings of ‘promotion’ in the debates. It will study the arguments of those
who defended them from a political point of view and will highlight the content of
disagreements. It will then identify the pedagogical arguments for the collective
development of adult education, specifically those which pleaded for a collective
development even in individualised education, in the framework of ‘collective edu-
cation actions’ (ACFs: actions collectives de formation). Various documents were
analysed from several archive collections, notably those of the Délégation générale
à la promotion sociale (DGPS),2 the Centre universitaire de coopération économique
et sociale (CUCES)3 in Nancy (Lorraine) and also the archives of some trade unions.

1
A French version of this text was first published in the journal Savoirs n° 25, 2011, under the title
La prise en compte du collectif dans la formation individuelle, considérations politiques et péda-
gogiques dans les années 1960, pp. 49–67.
2
The ‘General Delegation for Social Promotion’ was the national body in charge of adult education
policies from 1961 to 1966.
3
The ‘Adult Education University Centre’ was a pioneer in this domain in the 1960s.
F.F. Laot (*)
Professeure de sociologie, Centre d’études et de recherches sur les emplois et les
professionnalisations (CEREP), Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 285
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_25, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
286 F.F. Laot

The analysis of these documents reveals the fundamental role attributed to the
family (notably the couple) in these discussions. Finally, it will examine the decline
in intensity of these debates within the framework of the wider European context of
discussion over lifelong learning, charting their evolution or their translation into
other social spheres.

Individual Education Versus Collective Education: Political

and Social Arguments

In the very beginning of the 1960s, instead of adult education or adult training,
the word used in France was ‘promotion’ which was recognised to be equivalent.
Vocational improvement and ‘recycling’ (retraining) constituted alternatives for
adult education, albeit extending the expression ‘social promotion’. The Chenot
report (1964) on social promotion, for example, included in its ambit ‘any education
or training action, whatever its content or level, when addressed to someone already
involved in working life4’.
Philippe Casella (2001) emphasises the teleological vision underlying the
expression ‘social promotion’. Indeed, contrary to adult education or training,
this expression neglects the learning process, attaching importance to the result
(the promotion). This situation originated in a linguistic shortcut referring to
‘promotion courses’. In fact, since 1948, workers could acquire advancement
through evening or weekend courses, lasting generally several years (6–8 years),
held in the framework of programmes named ‘work promotion’ or ‘worker
promotion’, later ‘work higher promotion’, and finally ‘social promotion’ in the
context of the 1959 law.5 Antoine Prost (2008) remarks that this conception of adult
education quickly encountered limits because of the asceticism on which it was
based. Pascal Caillaud (2007) forwards the hypothesis that the uncertainty in the
legal content of ‘social promotion’ led to its progressive disappearance from legal
texts. As a matter of fact, in 1966, ‘vocational training’ (understood as continuing or
adult vocational training) was added to ‘social promotion’ in the title of a new law,
the law of 3 December 1966. This law constituted the first attempt at rationalisation
and coordination of the whole spectrum of adult education activities. ‘Promotion’
disappeared from the title of subsequent laws, starting from 1971. Nevertheless,
before this period the theme of promotion gave rise to heated debates between
those who defended collective promotion against those who argued in favour of
individual promotion.

4
Report by Bernard Chenot, on behalf of the Commission d’étude des problèmes de formation et
de promotion sociale (study committee for social promotion and adult education problems),
February 1964, (Livre Blanc de la Promotion sociale, Paris, La Documentation Française, 1966).
5
The social promotion law (July 1959) was due to Michel Debré, who was the Général Charles de
Gaulle’s first prime minister.
25 Collective Dimensions in Lifelong Education and Learning… 287

Promotion: A Class Betrayal?

The idea associated with individual promotion is that of the ‘second chance’. It can
lead a worker or a middle-ranking employee to get a diploma6 or to succeed in a
competitive examination after having attended an evening course programme for
several years. It is an integral part of upward mobility, either inside their company
by climbing the steps of the career ladder, or outside, by changing vocation or
employer. This is how some more junior employees became chiefs (team managers
or workshop foremen) or cadres (senior executives). These promoted managers
occupy positions which still are more or less well accepted (Gadéa and Pochic
2009). They are considered to be ‘defectors’ (transfuges), abandoning their original
social class for something better (or something worse, depending on one’s point of
view). Upward social mobility grew rapidly at the end of 1950s, in a historical
period marked by a transformation of the working class, as described by Jean-Pierre
Terrail (1990), through what he calls worker individualisation. Adult education
issues played their part in this, although always alongside other factors that
shaped class identity (relationship to school, patterns of consumption, housing
ownership).
Collective promotion should be understood as promotion inside and to the ben-
efit of one’s social group. It is an old idea, already present in the labour movement
in the first half of the nineteenth century, long before the creation of trade unions,7
which later strongly defended this principle. The risk of class betrayal via education
constituted a threat and often an important obstacle to workers support for diverse
educational initiatives coming from the bourgeois. For instance, in 1845 the worker-
editors of the Atelier paper wrote: ‘In order to perpetuate their power and render
people’s efforts vain, our adversaries count a lot on selfish feelings that, by their
example, they have helped to disseminate among people. ‘As soon as one of you –
they say – through learning, has prepared himself for the functions that you expect
of him, it will be very easy for us to confound your expectations, opening our ranks
[…] we will show to this man what wellbeing is waiting for him among us and the
ingratitude and suspicion which too often affect mass representatives, and, if he is
intelligent, his choice won’t be incertain’. We have to acknowledge that this hope of
the clever conservatives is not unfounded.8’
Yet, they still opted for the path of ‘intellectual emancipation’, involving reading,
discussion and education, a unique path, as they wrote, towards social and political
emancipation. However, vigilance was required, with the educator’s social origin or
class attachment remaining a fundamental question and playing an essential part in
the acceptance or rejection of education among workers.

6
For instance, the Diplôme d’études supérieures techniques, DEST (technical studies graduate
diploma), created in 1957 which gave access to engineers’ schools.
7
1884 in France.
8
‘Introduction à la sixième année’. L’Atelier, n° 1, October, 1845 (‘introduction to the sixth year’),
pp. 13–14.
288 F.F. Laot

This mistrust led workers to organise their own education within the Bourses du
travail9 or trade unions and also within the popular education movements,10 where
the term ‘milieu’ was substituted for ‘social class’ to avoid the connotations of the
latter (Chauvière 2001). For instance in the Jeunesse ouvrière chrétienne, the young
Christian workers association, education had to be organised ‘between them, by
them, for them’. After World War II, the slogan became, within Peuple et culture,11
‘in the milieu, by the milieu, for the milieu’. These old reflections affected adult
education and training conceptions elaborated in the 1960s.

Collective: A Controversial Term

Many sociological or sociohistorical analyses were conducted on social promotion

(Terrot 1997; Palazzeschi 1998; Tanguy 1999; Dubar and Gadéa 1999; Benoist
2004). They all highlight the lack of precision of this policy. Discourses about social
promotion were always very general, and the polysemy of the terms tended to
smooth over the diversity of objectives (Casella 2001). This blurring probably
stemmed from a political will to reduce social divisions in order to facilitate
industrial modernisation.
In the context of public policies for adult education, the two dimensions of
individual and collective promotion were debated and implemented through
diverse laws, identifying two models for collective promotion, firstly ‘social worker
promotion’ conceived as a means to improve employer-employee relations (at least
this argument was put forward to push the project through) and, secondly, social
agricultural promotion as a means to face the total transformation of the sector.
Marcel David (1976) recounts in detail the debates and strategies of avoidance
concerning conflicting terms following the initiative of Minister Gazier to create
nonpaid education leaves for workers in 1957. In the midst of the Cold War,
‘the word “collective”, even when associated with promotion, was likely to alarm
large segments of opinion sensitive to the slightest hint of collectivisation’
(David 1976: 52). While the acceptance of the principle of collective promotion
was finally acknowledged by the following government with its Social Promotion
Law of 1959, it was, according to David (1976), a clever concession to the demands
of the labour movement. Individual promotion was supported by engineers, managers
and employers.
As Guy Brucy has demonstrated, trade unions were not unanimous in their
attitude towards issues of promotion. Analyses produced by various union bodies

9
The ‘Labour Exchange Institution’ run by the workers themselves.
10
I distinguish between ‘worker education’ and ‘popular education’. In the first, initiatives come
from the workers themselves; this is not necessarily the case in the second one.
11
Peuple et culture is a popular movement created in 1945. It acted as a key player in the develop-
ment of adult education.
25 Collective Dimensions in Lifelong Education and Learning… 289

‘opposed class struggle intransigent advocates to class collaboration defenders’

(Brucy 2007: 118). They were particularly divided over individualism at the expense
of the collective. For the Confédération générale du travail (CGT),12 the risk of
individual promotion was to make workers forget ‘their sense of class membership’.13
Brucy describes how, in the complex economic transformation and with the rise of
the mobilisation and power of managers within trade unions, ‘the senior executives
(‘cadres’) of the CGT and CFTC (Confédération française de travailleurs chrétiens14)
finally imposed their conceptions in a domain rather poorly invested by workers’
trade unions’ (Brucy 2007: 135). These workers’ representatives transferred their
demands into the field of collective promotion, which was progressively marginalised,
thus achieving ‘the individual and the collective’s graduated separate development’
described by David.
Concerning social agricultural promotion, the political confrontations may have
been less heated, but the social and economic divides appeared to be considerable.
This promotion was twofold aimed at training and giving access to career mobility,
‘consisting in leading a whole population destined to remain in agriculture to learn
a new trade’ (Brucy 2007: 17). The end of the 1950s was marked by a massive rural
exodus and by agricultural mechanisation and modernisation. At the same time
there was a complete social and political renewal in agricultural organisations’
leaders (Cordellier 2003). A new generation coming from youth movements,
notable the Jeunesse agricole catholique15 (JAC) and the Centre national des
Jeunes agriculteurs16 (CNJA) took on leading positions in trade union or profes-
sional bodies. According to Cordellier, while social agricultural promotion did not
completely avoid the risk of educating an elite, it nevertheless contributed to local
emulation and reflections towards change, as well as sharing the work between
training centres, notably the Institut français des cadres paysans17 (IFOCAP)
created in 1959, and youth and trade union movements. On the ground, starting
in 1966, this emulation gave birth to the development of cooperatives for the shared
use of agricultural machines (CUMA18) as well as study groups or agricultural
popularisation societies. It also permitted interesting wide-ranging pedagogical and
e-learning initiatives, for instance Rural Promotion TV (Télé-promotion rurale)
(Flageul 1972; Hantonne 2000).

12
Confédération générale du travail, the largest French trade union federation.
13
Quotation from an article written by A. Barjonnet, in Revue des comités d’entreprise, March
1952, quoted by Guy Brucy (2007) p. 118.
14
Confédération française de travailleurs chrétiens, a Christian trade union which still exists.
It was from this union in 1964 that a large group of dissidents created the CFDT (Confédération
française démocratique du travail), a secular trade union.
15
Catholic Agricultural Youth Association.
16
Young Farmers National Centre.
17
French Farmer Leaders Institute.
18
Coopératives d’utilisation du matériel agricole.
290 F.F. Laot

Reporting on its action in 1966, the Délégation générale à la promotion sociale

(DGPS) noted a constant growth in collective promotion assistance since 1961.19
Nevertheless, one can detect in the progressive diversification of actions characterised
as ‘desirable’ a change in the targeted public. Initially conceived to reach trade
unions leaders, social collective promotion gradually widened to other groups and
finally addressed everyone with responsibilities in the social or economic
spheres, with, for example, legal, economic or social training open to everyone.
Therefore, in light of the fact that responsibilities could be assumed in ‘various
milieus’, collective promotion could even concern senior industry executives:
‘Efforts [in collective promotion] have also focused on senior executives (“cadres”)
economic and social training. Programmes directed towards their participation in
the life of companies and their introduction to economic mechanisms and balance
were held for them in the Midi-Pyrénées, in the Nord, in Alsace and in Lorraine
thanks to subsidies of around 50,000 F for each action20’.
This example illustrates how blurred the idea of social collective promotion had
become. The collective here no longer refers to the working class, but to higher
hierarchic grades in the staff of companies. This conception is very far from the
militant definition of collective promotion given by the ‘Groupe de Grenoble’:
The aim of collective promotion is to raise the cultural level of the ensemble of manual
workers, i.e. enable them to be aware of their condition, thus to be able ultimately to take in
hand their own future within the bodies they have created for themselves (Groupe de
Grenoble 1964, p. 1061).

The Pedagogical Argument: The Effectiveness of Individual

Education

Is a strictly individual adult education possible? At the CUCES (University centre

for social and economic cooperation21) of Nancy,22 a centre for research on adult
pedagogy, the question was studied through various surveys and observations of the
adult education actions organised by the centre. It appeared to the researchers and
trainers who worked in it that limiting education to individuals limits its efficacy,
even reducing its effects to zero:
From a ‘sociological’ point of view, one has to realise that an isolated man, a man whose
education is cut off from the globality of his life, has very few opportunities to benefit from
education. As evidence we can cite those workers educated in expression and trained to
write reports at the CUCES, who, back in their companies, quickly returned to their former

19
From 25,000 in 1962 to 53,000 in 1965. ‘La promotion collective’, DGPS 5 page unsigned note,
January 1967, DGPS Archives, CAC-AN 800405-4.
20
Ibid. p. 3.
21
The CUCES was both a training centre financed by heads of industry and a university centre
(the two bodies were mixed together: an association and a public institution).
22
Nancy is a big industrial town in Eastern France.
25 Collective Dimensions in Lifelong Education and Learning… 291

way of writing (in fact, their entourage’s way of doing it) so as not to be ‘mocked’. We can
also cite the case of engineers trained in statistics whom their director asked to avoid
abusing the ‘so-called sciences’ only because they themselves did not know any statistics.
The examples are innumerable.23

This paragraph was inserted into a chapter dealing with the ‘insufficiencies of
adult education’. Here, the authors explained that the courses for ‘disinterested’
improvement and individual promotion were both qualitatively and quantitatively
limited; quantitatively limited because of the very small proportion of the whole
population who could have access to courses. In comparison with the USA or
USSR, France appeared to be lagging behind. But the courses were also considered
qualitatively limited, ‘and this is an even more serious issue’ because the knowledge
acquired in these courses appeared to be of very little use. Learning on this model
was thus considered not to be very productive.
The reason for this is that education is superficially ‘tacked’ on to him [the adult], not
rooted in his affective and professional life; it makes him the only beneficiary of the learn-
ing within the milieu in which he lives, without any occasion either to use it – and so to
benefit from it – or to communicate it to others.24

Therefore, knowledge had to be directly useable, but also communicable, and

meaningful for the learner’s entourage or ‘milieu’ as well. Even individual education
had to be complemented by a collective dimension.

The Family Circle and the Couple: The First Collective

to Be Taken into Account

First, we have to note that this adult, this ‘man’ to be educated, did not refer to a
‘neutral male’25 individual, encompassing women. A detailed examination of the
archives led me to bring to light that the social promotion policy had been conceived
by men exclusively for men (Laot 2010). This is not surprising if we consider the
very slow evolution in the ‘feminine condition’ at the beginning of the 1960s, which
remained the ‘golden age of the family and housewife’ (Battagliola 2008: 85).
However, it would be wrong to think that women were totally forgotten. On the
contrary, as learners’ spouses, they were supposed to play a key role. As I have
explained in detail elsewhere (Laot 2012), in the middle of the 1960s, education
programmes were conceived in order to bring wives to support and accompany their
husbands in their learning paths. The issue was twofold: First, the aim was to remove
‘the obstacle of the family’ (DGPS 1966: 63), or the obstruction represented by

23
Le CUCES, 16-page document [unsigned, not paginated, undated, however, probably from the
beginning of the 1960s], IMEC – Pierre Schaeffer’s archives, PSR 55.
24
Ibid.
25
French grammatical specificities are at stake here: words can be feminine or masculine. ‘Neutral’
which does not exist is generally expressed by masculine grammatical gender, something that
French gender studies challenged in the 1980s.
292 F.F. Laot

family circles, and especially spouses, who stood in the way of men entering into a
course programme. The aim was also to prevent high dropout rates from evening
courses, due – among other reasons – to family pressure (Thesmar 1965). However,
a third dimension had to be taken into account: the risk of imbalance in couples
caused by the cultural rise of men as a result of their learning efforts. Following
surveys conducted on ‘auditors’ (as they called the people attending the courses),
a rumour of high divorce in the ranks of those benefitting from evening courses
of social promotion was widespread. The findings of these surveys (Thesmar 1965;
Champagne and Grignon 1969; Glikman 1970) were more or less well understood
and somewhat over interpreted.
This affair was very seriously examined at the national level. Guy Thuillier, who
was a member of the ‘Comité Grégoire’26 in charge of pedagogical problems in the
framework of the DGPS, wanted to draw attention to the dangerous imbalance that
adult education programmes could provoke:
Concerning adult education, one too often forgets that it should not be separated from
actions upon the social milieu. Indeed, one cannot seize an isolated subject: he is closely
linked to his family and, as soon as one raises the professional and cultural level of the
husband, it is necessary to see that no imbalance, no rupture should occur. Any disaccom-
modation could be dangerous.27

Thuillier went to recommend a sort of quasi-education programme for women

(in fact for ‘spouses’), as he wrote in a book firstly published in 1966:
All of the observers insist on the necessity to associate the woman28 with the effort of pro-
motion, almost to give her ‘training’ in order to avoid any imbalance: a tricky task with still
undefined boundaries (Thuillier 1969: 45–46).

One of his suggestions concerning this training directed at women, notably to

housewives, was to create radio or TV programmes broadcast at times when chil-
dren were at school. Reading Thuillier’s writings, it is clear that women were abso-
lutely not a direct target of this ‘promotion effort’ but were only concerned through
the intermediary of their husbands. As well, it appears evident that women were
uniquely considered as wives and mothers. The same self-evident positioning of
women is visible in numerous texts and archives from this period. Even women who
had an occupation (even when they were mothers, they were more numerous in the
labour market than the members of DGPS then believed29) were not considered to
be ‘promotionable’ (promouvables30).

26
Official group chaired by Roger Grégoire.
27
Problèmes d’action sur le milieu familial (Actions directed to the family circle), Annexe VI
Thuillier Report. Réflexions sur les problèmes de la pédagogie des adultes, (Reflections on adult
pedagogical problems) Grégoire Report, April 1965, 2 pages, DGPS Archives, CAC-AN 800405-11.
28
In French, the same word is used for wife and woman (femme).
29
Indeed a specific study group, the study committee for women vocational training, was created
later within new institutions held after the 3 December 1966 law on vocational training and social
promotion. In the archives of this group, I found a survey in which it was written that ‘contrary to
spread ideas, in 1962, more than 50 % of active women were married’. Draft report entitled
‘Women’s vocational training’, November 1968, 31 pages, CAC-AN 800406-48.
30
In French, this word is incorrect, it is a neologism found in DGPS archives.
25 Collective Dimensions in Lifelong Education and Learning… 293

At a local level, for instance, at the CUCES in Nancy, taking into account family
circles and particularly spouses was a serious consideration, and it gave rise to
specific actions.
As early as 1962, it was considered a necessity to inform spouses about their
husbands’ social promotion programmes, at least by posters if not through informa-
tion meetings.31 The beginning of the new school year in 1966 was the occasion for
very successful evening conferences open to families (children and spouses).32 All
these initiatives had the same objective: reducing the dropout rate. At the CUCES,
the awareness of each adult educator of the importance of the family circles was
considered very important, as was confirmed by the study of the film Retour à
l’école? (Back to School?)33 in which three evening course auditors were inter-
viewed in the company of their wives.

A New Collective to Promote: The Inhabitants of a Territory

The same arguments used to develop a ‘collective’ conception of individual education

were reused when the CUCES implemented ‘collective education actions’ (ACFs)
in the mid-1960s. In particular, individual isolation, considered very unprofitable,
had to be ruled out. However, two new arguments were added, inspired from
collective promotion: that of the expected benefits for the social group in its entirety
and that of self governance or, at least, workers’ participation in decisions about
the content and modalities of learning. The first ACF session began in 1966, in the
Lorraine iron mining area, based on these principles:
Adult education is called ‘collective’ if the collective itself (i.e. the group attending the
session) can directly manage the action and if there is a return on the collective life.34

ACFs also contributed to changing the conception of the role of ‘spouses’ in

adult education. As wives, specifically miners’ wives, they were directly targeted.
This time they were invited to participate in sessions in order to ‘provoke an effect
on men’s attendance’.35 Some archives studied on ‘women’s education’ in the
Forbach-Merlebach coal-mining area in 1966–197936 show that women’s participation

31
CUCES, Session pédagogique, 10–14 September (Pedagogical training session), Rapport des
commissions (résumé), 4-page note. René Cercelet’s personal archives, CAC-AN 78 0670-25.
32
Interview with Jean-Marie Péchenart (14 November 2006), who was the instigator of these
conferences.
33
Retour à l’école? Alain Bercovitz (Author), Jacques Demeure (Director), 45 min black-and-
white film shot at the CUCES of Nancy in 1966, in order to train trainers, produced by the Service
de la recherche de l’ORTF, and the DGPS.
34
Pourquoi ‘implanter’ une organisation, un ‘système’ d’éducation des adultes, non daté, 22 p.
(meeting minutes February 1968). CUCES. Private Archives, pp. 4–5.
35
Compte rendu de la réunion du sous-comité de la formation professionnelle et de la promotion
sociale pour le Bassin houiller lorrain du 13 mars 1969 (Minutes of meeting) (Fonds Pagel,
Archives de Bobigny).
36
They are Anne-Marie Pagel’s archives, ACF former educator in the coal basin, in the east of
France (Forbach-Merlebach).
294 F.F. Laot

surprised and even caused problems for the organisers (notably concerning the
provision of subsidies) because women were more numerous and their attendance
more regular than men, the initial target for the ACFs.37 Progressively, women’s
place in these ACFs normalised, with conceptions evolving significantly post-1968,
notably concerning women’s employment. Working and nonworking women were
finally recognised as an integral part of the community to be promoted via ACFs.
The geographical territory and its inhabitants also tended to impose itself as a
new conception of ‘collective’ ahead of any specific social or vocational group.
ACF had initiated the idea of educating a population in a given territory, and this
was adopted as the basis for a draft regional system of adult education by the
AUREFA (Regional University Associations for Education and Training), which
disappeared in 1969 (Laot 2009). The idea of a representative audience as an indicator
of success was developed in the ACFs of Saullumine-Noyelles-sous-Lens38:
The concept of collective education necessarily refers to the social composition of the audience.
One can put forward the idea that there’s no collective education when the audience is not
sufficiently representative of the targeted community. This requires not only a sufficient level
of participants […] but also and most importantly, a distribution of social characteristics in
the audience that is as close as possible to that of the entire community’s. This is not only
an objective “democratic” criterion, but also implies the subjective agreement of the whole
milieu with the ACFs. Education is sociologically collective when it implies and integrates
in its dynamics a group of people, objectively and subjectively representative of the
community to which it belongs (Dubar and Evrard 1973: 6).

Similarly, albeit at a later date, when a form of representativeness of the popula-

tion of a given territory was sought for in the context of the new urban policies
implemented in France at the beginning of the 1980s, the new concept that emerged
was that of ‘social development’ (Donzelot and Estèbe 1994). Rooted in the critique
of a unique pattern of development applied to the Third World, and of a normative
model for living, this concept also integrated the idea of development in rural areas
that came out of Brittany in 1965 (Gontcharoff 2009). Given the fact that many
agricultural collective actions were conducted in this region, some connections with
collective promotion could doubtless easily be found.

The Weakening of the Collective Dimension in Adult Learning

Between 1960 and 1980, the collective dimension seems to have disappeared
from adult education and learning appearing instead in the domain of social
intervention.

37
Compte rendu de la réunion du sous comité de Merlebach (Meeting minutes), 27 June 1969,
Pagel’s archives, Centre d’archives de la Seine-Saint-Denis, Bobigny.
38
Coal basin in the north of France.
25 Collective Dimensions in Lifelong Education and Learning… 295

The July 1971 Law that organised ‘Continuing Vocational Adult Training’ within
‘Permanent Education’39 made no reference to collective promotion or adult
education and instead aimed to promote and facilitate individual access to educa-
tion and training during an employee’s work time. Yet, as I have demonstrated,
collective actions (ACF), qualified as ‘outlaw’ actions,40 continued into the 1990s.
Numerous and diverse education actions still exist; however, they are rarely qualified
as ‘collective’. During a period of individualism and individualised learning
(Frétigné and Trollat 2009), the word seems to be outmoded.
Although the word ‘collective’ is not totally absent from European policies of
lifelong learning (it is used twice whereas the word ‘individual’ is used 29 times
in the text Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality41), it is ‘the
centrality of the learner’ – understood as the ‘individual’ learner – that is considered
to be ‘the key characteristic’ of lifelong learning. In this text, the collective (or the
group or the society or the labour market) becomes the entity in which the individual
learner has to be included (or empowered, or employed), thanks to the learning
activities.
Concerning the theme of the family circle as a significant variable in the indi-
vidual’s learning path, it seems to have lost its relevance in French as well as in
European policies in the context of the social change in the ‘feminine condition’ and
conjugal life. While inequalities persist within the couple (de Singly 2002), couples
themselves now tend towards individualism (Giraud and Mougel 2008). Starting
in 1967, a radical change in French policies towards women’s adult education
(Laot 2010) has led decision-makers to consider that ‘continuing vocational
education and training has to be identical and accessible to everyone, without sex
distinctions42’.
However, nobody seems to have raised the question of a need to educate
husbands to accompany their wives in their learning paths! Nevertheless, while
decision-makers lost interest in the family circle as a relevant theme for public
policies, it remained a question for researchers. Even today, knowledge inequality,
leading to identity tensions – what Etienne Bourgeois (2006 ) calls ‘cognitive
dissonance’ – still represents a threat for the learner (man or woman) and their
immediate family circle or social group. Learning may raise tensions or conflicts,
where before there was no problem at all; it may entail a rupture in communication

39
I intentionally use the words ‘Permanent Education’ (Éducation Permanente) and not ‘lifelong
learning’ (éducation tout au long de la vie) because their use into French corresponds to distinct
periods. The former is used from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, the latter since the 1990s.
40
Guy Herzlich, ‘Promotion collective. Sallaumine, 4 heures de l’après-midi’, Le Monde, 13
février 1974, p.22. Guy Herzlich wrote in his article: ‘this 1971 outlaw action (ACF), focused on
vocational training’. Ibid.
41
European Commission communication, 2001.
42
La formation professionnelle féminine (women vocational adult training), 1968, Rapport de 31
pages du Groupe d’étude pour la formation professionnelle féminine, (Study group for Women’s
Adult Education) set up following the 3 December 1966 law, p. 30. CAC-AN 800406-48.
296 F.F. Laot

and make relations between learners and their close relatives or work colleagues
difficult. Thus, one can ask, from a social perspective, whose interests are served
by strictly individualised learning?

References

Battagliola, F. (2008). Histoire du travail des femmes. Paris: Editions La Découverte.

Benoist, P. (2004). Michel Debré et la formation professionnelle. Histoire de l’éducation, 101,
35–66.
Bourgeois, E. (2006). Tensions identitaires et engagement en formation. In J.-M. Barbier,
E. Bourgeois, G. de Villiers, & M. Kaddouri (Eds.), Constructions identitaires et mobilisation
des sujets en formation (pp. 65–120). Paris: L’Harmattan.
Brucy, G. (2007). La formation au travail: une histoire de cadres (1945–1970). In G. Brucy,
P. Caillaud, E. Quenson, & L. Tanguy (Eds.), Former pour Réformer. Retour sur la formation
permanente (1945–2004) (pp. 101–137). Paris: La Découverte.
Caillaud, P. (2007). La construction d’un droit de la formation professionnelle des adultes
(1959–2004). In G. Brucy, P. Caillaud, E. Quenson, & L. Tanguy (Eds.), Former pour Réformer.
Retour sur la formation permanente (1945–2004) (pp. 171–210). Paris: La Découverte.
Casella, P. (2001). La promotion sociale comme forme d’intervention publique: le cas de Grenoble
(1960–1966). Travail et Emploi, 86, 49–62.
Champagne, P., & Grignon, C. (1969). Rapport d’enquête sur le public du Conservatoire national
des arts et métiers. Paris: Conservatoire national des arts et métiers.
Chauvière, M. (2001). Action catholique, promotion collective et éducation permanente. Education
permanente, 149, 167–183.
Cordellier, S. (2003). La “promotion collective agricole”, un dispositif peu connu. Education
permanente, 154, 113–122.
David, M. (1976). L’individuel et le collectif dans la formation des travailleurs: Tome 1, Approche
historique 1944–1968. Paris: Economica.
de Grenoble, G. (1964). La promotion collective, point de départ d’une rénovation. Esprit, 1964–5,
1058–1069.
de Singly, F. (2002 [1987]). Fortune et infortune de la femme mariée. Paris: PUF.
Délégation générale à la Promotion sociale. (1966). Livre Blanc de la Promotion sociale. Paris: La
Documentation française.
Donzelot, J., & Estèbe, P. (1994). L’Etat animateur. Essai sur la politique de la ville. Paris: Editions
Esprit.
Dubar, C., & Evrard, S. (1973). Recherche sur quelques facteurs sociaux des motivations à la
formation collective d’adultes. Education permanente, 17, 5–27.
Dubar, C., & Gadéa, C. (Eds.). (1999). La promotion sociale en France. Lille: Presses universita-
ires du Septentrion.
Flageul, A. (1972). Six ans de télé-promotion rurale. Education permanente, 16, 33–48.
Frétigné, C., & Trollat, A.-F. (2009). L’individualisation de la formation: un objet de recherche.
Savoirs, 21, 11–40.
Gadéa, C., & Pochic, S. (2009). Des “disparus” bien présents: les cadres issus de la promotion.
Education permanente, 178, 9–24.
Giraud, C., & Mougel, S. (2008). Le couple à l’heure de l’individualisme. Paris: La documentation
française.
Glikman, V. (1970). Etude sur la population des élèves du CNAM ayant obtenu leur diplôme
d’ingénieur en 1965–1966 et 1966–1967. Paris: Conservatoire national des arts et métiers.
Gontcharoff, G. (2009). Dix territoires d’hier et d’aujourd’hui pour mieux comprendre le dével-
oppement local. Paris: Adels.
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Hantonne, P. (2000). Evolution de l’utilisation du film de formation dans le monde agricole et

rural: l’exemple de la Télé promotion Rurale. Thèse de Sciences de l’information et de la
communication, sous la direction d’Armand Mattelart, Université de Paris 8.
Laot, F. F. (2009). Un modèle universitaire et régional de la formation des adultes dans les années
1960. L’épisode oublié des AUREFA et leur échec face à la loi de 1971. Éducation et sociétés,
24, 143–157.
Laot, F. F. (2010). La promotion sociale des femmes. Le retournement d’une politique de formation
dans les années 1960. Le mouvement social, 232, 29–45.
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Chapter 26
Reinstating the Invisible: A Proposed
Framework for European Learning Collectives

George K. Zarifis and Maria N. Gravani

In this book we set out to critically examine the context as well as the perspective
on which the European Area of Lifelong Learning is resting today. The book
follows the structure of the Memorandum on Lifelong Learning which prescribes
the content of the 2001 Communication of the European Commission for Making a
European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality. The issues that are discussed in the
book reflect on the ideological challenges as well as the policy inadequacies that
characterise decision-making in the field.
Based on the content of the book, we identified that the discourse on making the
European area of lifelong learning a reality revolves around four distinct objectives:
employment, education and training provision, citizenship and inclusion. These
objectives that appear in the Memorandum messages are very much related to each
other and operate as the platform on which a number of more intrinsic topics evolve:
skills and competences, learning outcomes, quality, innovation in teaching and
learning, access, guidance, values and equity.
The chapters of the book touch upon all these topics that essentially develop in
two axes of thought. Reflecting on the contributions, we consider both axes permeating
the imagery of lifelong learning in Europe. The first of these axes is built on input1

1
This positioning is largely reflected in the contributions by Schmidt-Hertha and Strobel, Milana,
Andersson and Wärvik, Tsakiris, O’Brien and Ioannidou.
G.K. Zarifis (*)
Faculty of Philosophy, School of Philosophy and Education, Department of Education,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Old School of Philosophy Building, Office 208,
GR-54124, Thessaloniki, Greece
e-mail: [email protected]
M.N. Gravani
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Open University of Cyprus, Latsia, Cyprus
e-mail: [email protected]

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 299
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1_26, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
300 G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani

from the human2 and social capital3 approaches, whereas the second axis is
constructed on input4 from a pragmatist5 but also from an ethical6 perspective.
We strongly consider these axes serving as a canvas for reinstating what is less
represented in the current debate in Europe, and what is less represented are the
learners and the validity of their experience. We have concluded that this is not
fundamentally the consequence of a dubious policymaking process, but the after-
effect of the process of constructing a false European reality based on postindustrial,
postcapitalist coinage that does not reflect on learning realities in Europe.
In spite of the deep commitment of European policymaking to the idea of life-
long learning, the language of the Memorandum and of all relevant texts thereafter
echoes the neologies of globalisation. The relevant discourse however does not
deserve to be called ‘neoliberal’, at least not in its intention. As Popović puts it in
this volume the devil is in the detail, and the Memorandum messages reveal a kind
of naivety suggesting steps and solutions that do not respond to the real nature of the
proclaimed goals and do not give a realistic direction for reaching them.

The Significance of the Language

It is therefore the language (essentially the English language) and the meanings
proclaimed by the usage of neoliberal terminology that consist the underbelly of the
current European policy agenda on lifelong learning. And although one could argue
that language does create realities, at the time Memorandum was released, this was
not much the case as it is today. More than a decade later, the neoliberal approach in
making the European area of lifelong learning a reality has developed an ecology
that is linguistically culminated with the ‘Study on European Terminology in Adult
Learning’ (released in 2010). It is not always with scepticism that we receive
European Commission’s initiatives and studies as we have contributed in a number
of them, but in this case we wish to make an exception simply because it was devel-
oped under the framework of the 2007 Action Plan on Adult Learning, ‘It is always
a good time to learn’, which called for a glossary of terminology and a set of core
data to facilitate monitoring of adult learning in Europe. The main argument for

2
Learning reflects the stock of competencies, knowledge, social and personality attributes, including
creativity, embodied in the ability to perform labour so as to produce economic value.
3
Learning reflects on the social connections that exist between people, and their shared values and
norms of behaviour, which enable and encourage mutually advantageous social cooperation,
identity building and trust.
4
This is more evident in the contributions by Popović, Lucio-Villegas, Gough, Jõgi, Bernhardsson,
Brunila, Formenti and Castiglioni, Hake, Laot and Mayo.
5
Learning lies in its observable practical consequences, namely, what is defined in most European
policy documents as learning outcomes.
6
Learning lies on sets of values (intrinsic and extrinsic) and principles deriving from the European
ideal and the rich history of traditions.
26 Reinstating the Invisible: A Proposed Framework for European… 301

developing this glossary (in English nonetheless) was that an up-to-date common
language is prerequisite to overcoming the misunderstandings and lack of compa-
rable data which currently impede monitoring (sic) of the adult learning sector
across the European Union. So, out of the need for controlling and overcoming
misunderstandings in a field of practice (educational, academic, policy and research),
someone had to put an order in the terminological and linguistic ‘chaos’ in adult
education and lifelong learning in Europe.7 It is intended that recommendations
from this study will be tools in the implementation of the Action Plan and that the
study will help to create a better understanding of the existing good practices and
also of the obstacles to monitoring the adult learning sector. And here is where our
scepticism lies, even if we cannot argue the need for making order in the European
terminological chaos in our field (as academics we constantly try to put things in
order by creating our own little ‘chaos’ every single time), it is extremely hard not
to be sceptical of the actual intention behind the study.
We conclude this part of the final chapter with this simple thought; language
is a tool, and the one who knows how to use it can take control of others (individu-
als, societies or why not fields of study or academic terrains). In other words lan-
guage is a power(ful) instrument for creating narratives and depending on who
develops the codes of communication it may prove worthy of monitoring, supervis-
ing, observing, keeping under review, measuring or testing, regulating and control-
ling these narratives. This essentially affects the way policies look upon people,
and as Gough argues in the fifth chapter of this volume, the linguistic and concep-
tual imperialism of English seems to be the problem. This demands a proper

7
European Commission did exactly that with 67 terms: access to education; accreditation of an
education or training programme; accredited learning; adult; adult learning; adult learning pro-
vider; adult learning teacher; adult learning trainer; apprenticeship; barriers to learning; basic
skills; community-based adult learning; competence; continuing vocational training; disadvan-
taged; distance learning; early school leavers; formal learning; functional literacy; functional
numeracy; funding body; funding stream; guided learning; hard to engage; higher education; ICT
skills; individual learning account; individual learning plan; informal learning; information,
advice and guidance (IAG); initial vocational training; key competences; learning difficulties/
disabilities; liberal adult education; lifelong learning; life wide learning; literacy; low qualified;
low-skilled; mentoring; mother tongue; new basic skills; non-accredited learning; non-formal
learning; numeracy; off-the-job training; on-the-job training; outreach; participation rate; persis-
tence; post-compulsory education; priority groups; progress; progression; qualification frame-
work; retention; returns to learning; second chance education; self-directed learning (self-study);
social partners; tertiary-level attainment; third sector; training of trainers; upskilling; validation of
learning outcomes; vocational education and training (VET); and work-based learning. A further
nine terms were deemed by the Commission to be key terms. For the reference, these terms are the
following: access to learning, adult learner, digital divide, dropout, individual learning route,
individualisation of learning, learning module, learning offer and qualification. The terms selected
for inclusion in the adult learning glossary were those considered essential for discussion on moni-
toring adult learning between EU27+ representatives, be these policymakers or adult education
specialists. The terms were also categorised in six dimensions: adult learning strategy, policy and
legislation; adult skills and competences; access to and participation in adult learning; investment
in adult learning; quality of adult learning; and outcomes and impacts of adult learning. The study
is available at http://ec.europa.eu/education/more-information/doc/2010/adultreport_en.pdf
302 G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani

consideration in order to uncover the flaw in the analytic reductionist thinking

behind the policy developments now infecting all of Europe. An alternative concep-
tion, even more so a plethora of alternative narratives, may be then the means for
revising such policies.

The Need for Shifting the Paradigm: Towards a New Ecology

of Lifelong Learning in Europe

In the midst of an economic crisis with vast sociopolitical repercussions that nearly
divide Europe into the ‘sluggish South’ and the ‘diligent North’ and revive stereo-
types among Europeans largely fomented by certain national and international
media, the call for making a European area of lifelong learning a reality seems to be
totally out of place. What we need today 10 years after the Memorandum and the
Communication is a new paradigm that will be based on a collective approach on
how different appreciations (narratives) of learning in Europe may support the
development of participatory learning ‘networks’8 that will involve exchange of
ideas, decision-making and collaboration among different actors in a small scale.
This is not new knowledge to European policymakers. Responses to the consul-
tation on the Memorandum called for a broad definition of lifelong learning that is
not limited to a purely economic outlook or just to learning for adults. In addition to
the emphasis it places on learning from pre-school to postretirement, lifelong learn-
ing should encompass the whole spectrum of formal, non-formal and informal
learning. The consultation also highlighted the objectives of learning, including
active citizenship, personal fulfilment and social inclusion, as well as employment-
related aspects. The principles which underpin lifelong learning and guide its effec-
tive implementation emphasise the centrality of the learner, the importance of equal
opportunities and the quality and relevance of learning opportunities (see European
Commission 2001: 3–4). Ten years later the ecology of lifelong learning in Europe
differs greatly from what the consultation emphasised. As Mayo argues in Chap. 23
of this volume, the overarching notion today is that of lifelong learning for employ-
ability and a narrowly defined notion of active citizenship which overlooks the
collective dimension of education for social change and which provides a very
problematic notion of individualised learning. This notion does not reflect any
awareness of the way concepts, assumptions and practices are influenced by mech-
anisms that prey on people’s sensibilities. Today educational policymaking in
Europe is exceedingly connected to economic benefits and human capital growth
rather than social and cultural capital development. Lifelong learning in Europe is

8
This shared position among many scholars is also highlighted by Chapman (2006) who suggests
that ‘the important point to make about the concept of ‘network’ is that it differs in character from
other terms that have historically been used in association with education and with the organisa-
tional arrangements with which education has been managed and through which innovation and
change have been brought about’ (ibid. 2006: 332).
26 Reinstating the Invisible: A Proposed Framework for European… 303

increasingly looking upon the learner as an employable unit that needs to fit in the
market rather than a free individual that validates the benefits of its own learning.
This essentially gravitates the discourse towards human capital (with focus on
investing in the development of skills and competences) and pragmatist (with focus
on learning outcomes) approaches, leaving most other approaches of lifelong learn-
ing compromised. Fejes in Chap. 9 of this book concludes that even though there
seems to be a consensus perspective promoted via European policy documents –
where the state, the employer and the individual are all positioned as being jointly
responsible for creating the ‘good’ future, where lifelong learning and investment in
human capital are central – it is still the individual who is positioned as responsible
for becoming adaptable and flexible as a way to become and remain employable.
One could say that there is a ‘responsibilisation’ of the individual. The individual
needs to take responsibility for using the opportunities for lifelong learning, by
means of education and in-service training, offered by the state and the market, thus
transforming itself into an employable unit. The role of the state becomes more
distanced than in the past. Today, structures for supporting the individual in its own
choice are created instead of collectively planning the future by means of legislative
measures and regulations. The essence of these arguments is that the conceited
mode of delivering the concept of lifelong learning in European policies has largely
neglected the role of the individual learner (see Formenti and Castiglioni in
Chap. 21) but has also disregarded knowledge that is directly useable but also com-
municable and meaningful for the learners’ entourage or ‘milieu’ as Laot comments.
It may not come as a novelty therefore if we suggest that what we really need in
Europe today is a new approach in reframing the disturbed ecology of lifelong
learning by putting the learners in the centre.
What we propose therefore as the culmination of the approaches and argumenta-
tion presented in this volume is a framework for developing European learning
collectives that will reinstate the learners in the centre of the objectives set by the
European Commission. Fundamentally this proposed framework stresses the need
for a collective promotion of lifelong learning from the learners and for the learners.
Although the word ‘collective’ is not totally absent from European policies of life-
long learning as Laot observes (it is used twice whereas the word ‘individual’ is
used 29 times in the Communication on Making a European Area of Lifelong
Learning a Reality), it is ‘the centrality of the learner’ – understood as the ‘indi-
vidual’ learner – that is considered to be ‘the key characteristic’ of lifelong learning.
In our context, however, the collective (or the group or the society or the labour
market) becomes the entity in which the individual learner has to be included
(or empowered or employed) depending on various levels of networking. According
to Laot, this collective promotion should be understood as promotion inside and to
the benefit of one’s social group. It is an old idea, already present in the labour
movement in the first half of the nineteenth century in Europe, long before the
creation of trade unions, which later strongly defended this principle. The framework
is based on the four objectives that appear in the relevant policy documents and are
thoroughly analysed by the contributors in this book. These objectives – namely,
employment, educational and training provision, equity and inclusion – consist
304 G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani

the canvas for developing collective narratives on the targets initially set by the
European Commission in the Memorandum messages (skills and competences,
learning outcomes, quality, innovation in teaching and learning, access, guidance,
values and equity).

Epilogue

As Lucio-Villegas argues with reference to John Dewey in the fourth chapter of

the current volume, the most important achievement in a democratic society is
education’s role to encourage both personal and collective development. European
policies however subordinate these educational aims to professionalisation and
business. The most powerful and important critique that can be made to current
lifelong learning policies and practices is that the aims of the education must be
for education itself.
In this book we stressed that in the European lifelong learning policy context
from its generation in 2000 until today, there is an increase of the approaches that
look upon the learner as an employable unit rather than as a free individual that
validates the benefits of its own learning. These approaches have fundamentally
gravitated the discourse on Making the European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality
towards human capital and pragmatist approaches that essentially compromise
other equally or more valuable approaches (see O’Brien in Chap. 11 of this volume).
We also pointed at the need for changing the existing neoliberal vocabulary, as a
response to the call for a more critical appreciation of the concept of lifelong
learning (as a modernist distortion) and the urgency of changing the paradigm from
the more economic and pragmatist to the more social and ethical.
Ten years after the launch of the Memorandum on lifelong learning and the
Communication for making a European area of lifelong learning a reality, our
proposed framework for European learning collectives aims to put the learners in the
centre while using the main European policy objectives as the core elements of a
broad canvas on which the different targets set by policymakers evolve, based on the
idea of creating collective narratives among a plethora of stakeholders (individuals,
workers, students, employees, policymakers, scholars, etc.) that build agency and
life skills, develop strategic positioning towards themselves, others and the world
and help them to take care of their own learning. The proposed framework highly
reflects upon such approaches as Hake’s (Chap. 22 of the book) in which individuals
and social groups, even collective audiences, are seen as able to create their own
frameworks of meaning by selecting information and integrating cultural messages
in their own everyday lives. This understanding of Making the European Area of
Lifelong Learning a Reality focuses on the formation of ‘subject’ positions in com-
municative practices and the force of social and cultural meanings. As Hake himself
puts it in this volume, ‘it is necessary today to study rigorously the cultural
forms produced by ‘citizens’ active in the public sphere of ‘making meanings’
who seek to change social relationships through their cultural action. It is also
26 Reinstating the Invisible: A Proposed Framework for European… 305

necessary to study the social forces and cultural forms which reproduce the false
consciousness of the inhabitants of the virtual world and the cultural transforma-
tion of ‘subject positions’ into ‘product positions’ for the purposes of unbridled
capitalist accumulation’.

References

Chapman, J. D. (2006). An analysis of problems, issues and trends in the provision of lifelong
learning: Lessons learned. In J. Chapman, P. Cartwright, & E. J. McGilp (Eds.), Lifelong learning,
participation and equity. Dordrecht: Springer.
European Commission. (2001). Making a European area of lifelong learning a reality (COM (2001)
678 final). Brussels: Communication from the Commission.
Index

A Almeida, M., 86
Aberdeen, 43 Alonso, L., 77
Abreu, M.V., 168, 170 Altrichter, H., 205
Abu-Ghaida, D., 29 America, 169
Action Plan on Adult Learning, 25, 42, 148, American colonies, 43
153, 191, 198, 243, 300 Andersson, E., 7, 87, 93, 102, 103
Actions collectives de formation, 258 Anglo-Saxon tradition, 53
Active Citizenship, 1, 2, 4–6, 12, 18, 21, 41, Anthology, 242
42, 90–92, 94, 124, 175, 199, 209, 269, Anthropology of gender, 27
277, 302 Antunes, F., 75, 76, 78, 79
Adaptability, 4, 20, 24, 26, 51, 91, Apprenticeship Education, 87, 89, 90,
104, 245 93, 94
Adaptation, 20, 21, 140, 141, 144, 239, 241, Archer, M.S., 223
242, 245, 246 Argentina, 45
Adult education, 6, 17, 35, 41, 61, 75, 89, 99, Argumentation metaphor, 258, 259, 261
137, 147, 158, 168, 185, 199, 207, 217, Aristotle, 1, 51, 299
231, 239, 251 Armstrong, M., 64
Adult Education Survey (AES), Articulation, 12, 83, 173–175, 251, 252, 254,
65–67, 212 257–260
Adult learning, 8, 25, 42, 96, 138, 158, 170, Articulation problem, 12, 254
189, 218, 239, 241, 251 Ashton, D., 69
Adult Learning Professions in Europe Aspin, D.N., 2
(ALPINE) Report, 155 Atelier paper, 287
Adult learning staff, 8, 9, 147–156, 192 Athens, 43
AES. See Adult Education Survey (AES) Attitudes, 5, 9, 24, 36, 45, 55, 159, 242,
Afonso, A.J., 79 243, 274
Agency, 89, 96, 131, 157, 170, 171, 175, 239, Auditors, 292, 293
240, 246, 275, 304 AUREFA. See Regional University
Agenda New skills for new jobs, Associations for Education and
18, 25, 26 Training (AUREFA)
A good adult educator in Europe (AGADE) Austria, 62, 65, 69, 70, 198
project, 138 Authentic representation, 9, 124, 133
Agriculture, 44, 289 Autobiographical practices, 239–246
Alberici, A., 240–242 Autobiographical research, 10
Alheit, P., 159 Àvila, P., 82
Alison, M., 110 Avritzer, L., 45

G.K. Zarifis and M.N. Gravani (eds.), Challenging the ‘European Area 307
of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response, Lifelong Learning Book Series 19,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7299-1, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
308 Index

B C
Baacke, D., 33 Cadres, 287, 289, 290
Bailey, D., 230 Campanilismo, 269
Baldacchino, G., 269 Campbell, M., 23
Barjonnet, A., 289 Canada, 131
Barnett, R., 56 Capacity, 20, 22, 24, 46, 53, 124, 127, 138,
Barry, D., 131 204–206, 208, 211, 212, 225, 239, 243,
Basic education, 20, 21, 79, 81, 169, 190 263, 267
Basic skills, 1, 5–7, 32, 41–49, 51–57, 75, Carlsen, A., 138, 139
77–81, 84, 118–23, 142, 190, Carvalho, L.X., 86
192, 301 Casella, P., 286, 288
Bassanini, A., 207 Castiglioni, M., 239–242, 244, 300, 303
Battagliolia, F., 291 Castoriadis, C., 115, 116, 118
Bauman, Z., 84, 92, 240, 241 Catholic Agricultural Youth Association, 289
Becker, G.S., 62, 63, 109, 112–114 CEDEFOP, 52, 168, 197, 198
Becoming a Citizen, 41–49 Centre national des Jeunes agriculteurs, 289
Belgium, 62, 68, 69 Centre universitaire de coopération
Benasayag, M., 241 économique et sociale, 285
Bentham, 114, 115 Certification, 76, 77, 80–82, 170, 172, 173,
Benz, A., 205 190, 209
Bercovitz, A., 293 Ceteris paribus, 57
Bernhardsson, N., 10, 179, 300 Chajut, E., 33
Bers, M., 34 Champagne, P., 285, 292
Bettinger, P., 9, 137 Chapman, J.D., 2, 302
Biasin, C., 240, 241 Chauvière, M., 288
Biesta, G., 43, 48, 100, 101, 134, Chenot report, 286
158, 180 Chiefs, 287
Billet, S., 67–70 Chimera, 5, 17–28
Biographical research, 10, 243 China, 273
Blair, M.M., 63, 183 Chisholm, L., 56
Bodewig, C., 39 Christian workers association, 288
Bologna Declaration, 230 CiLL project, 35–37
Booth, S., 158 Citizenship, 1, 2, 4–6, 12, 18, 21, 24, 41–49,
Borg, C., 3, 19, 52, 57, 265, 266 51, 90–92, 94–95, 124, 174, 175, 199,
Boström, A-K, 266 209, 246, 269, 277, 299, 302
Boud, D., 159 Civic education, 22, 28
Bourdieu, P., 112, 124, 125, 133 Civil society, 19, 32, 47, 171–173, 206, 210,
Bourses du travail, 288 253
Brancaleone, D., 125, 127, 133 Clarke, L, M., 53, 101, 106
Brazil, 44, 45 Client-centred management, 48
Brewster, C., 71 Codification, 45
Bringing learning closer to home, 1, 5, Cognitive-psychological perspective, 34
251–263 Coimbra, 167, 168
Brockmann, M., 52–54 Collective conception of individual
Brödel, R., 179 education, 293
Broek, S., 10, 189, 192, 198, 254 Collective dimension of education,
Brucy, G., 288, 289 12, 269, 302
Brunila, K., 11, 229–231, 233, 235 Collective education actions, 285, 293
Buiskool, B.J., 10, 189, 191, 192, Collective narratives, 304
198, 254 Columbia University, 62
Bulgaria, 36 Comité Grégoire, 292
Burbules, N.C., 180 Commission d'étude des problémes de
Burton-Jones, A., 62, 64 formation et de promotion sociale, 286
Bynner, J., 168 Common educational area, 18
Index 309

Common Quality Assurance Framework Davies, P., 52

for VET, 193 Debré, M., 286
Communication from the Commission, Decoding, 19, 45
18, 148 Délégation générale à la promotion sociale,
Community centres, 47, 256 285, 290
Competences/competencies, 2, 4, 5, 8, 19, 21, Demetrio, 241, 242, 244
24–28, 33–37, 41, 49, 51, 64, 77, 78, Demeure, J., 293
80, 81, 88, 91, 93–96, 104, 111, 112. Democracy, 43–49, 77, 78, 94, 246
126, 129, 138–140, 144, 147, 150–153, Democratic experiment, 48
155, 167, 168, 170, 190, 192–194, 196, Democratic Revolution, 79
209, 224, 225, 234, 235, 240, 242, 252, Democratic tradition, 43
254, 299–301, 303, 304 Denmark, 61, 62, 65, 66, 68–71, 185
Competitiveness, 3, 7, 19, 22, 24, 26, 42, 48, Department for Education and Skills, 22
51, 68, 75–79, 100, 124, 209, 232, Deus ex machina, 23, 24
252, 282 Devine, T.M., 43
Complex learning experiences, 24 Dewey. J., 6, 42, 43, 47, 244, 304
Computer competence, 32–34 Dialogue, 27, 45, 46, 61, 67
Computer literacy, 5, 6, 31–39 Differentia specifica, 23
Confédération française de travailleurs Digital divide, 6, 32–34, 301
chrétiens, 289 Digital literacy, 34, 35
Confédération générale du travail, 289 Digital media, 31–39
CONFINTEA, 77, 193, 198 Digital society, 31–39
Conscientização, 47, 48 Dirkx, J., 161
Consolidation, 195, 282 Diversity, 20, 76, 82, 92, 143, 158, 174, 192,
Consultation, 44, 150, 189, 256, 265, 276, 302 220, 232, 245, 277, 288
Contextualization, 207, 246 Dominant discourse, 4, 12, 17, 42, 266
Continuing education, 17, 69, 70, 137, 139, Domination of the English language, 6
179, 208 Dominicé, P., 244
Continuing Vocational Adult Training, 295 Donzelot, J., 294
Cool cities, 283 Dosi, G., 207
Copenhagen Declaration, 195, 230 Doukas, C., 24
Cordellier, 289 Drop-outs, 92, 93, 192, 196, 245, 292,
Cosmopolitanism, 246 293, 301
Council of Europe, 17, 209 Drucker, P.F., 63
Council Resolution, 41, 191 Duarte M.E., 168
Counselling, 1, 5, 8–10, 139, 149, 150, 152, Dubar, C., 288, 294
167–175, 185, 190, 192, 255, 267 Duke, C., 274
Counter-cultural systems of meaning, 260
Creative potential, 21
Critical cultural awareness, 250 E
Critical examination, 5, 230 EAEA. See European Association for the
Critical language study, 19 Education of Adults (EAEA)
Cultural lags, 258, 259 Eastern Europe, 36, 65, 66, 78
Culture cities, 283 Economic investment, 7, 61
Culture of work, 82 ECTS. See European Credit Transfer
Cyprus, 1, 65, 203, 299 System (ECTS)
Edinburgh, 43, 275
Educating cities, 275, 283
D Educational reform, 7, 87, 224
Dale, R., 206, 213 Educational representation, 9, 123
Darmanin, M, 265, 266, 268 Educational Research Centre, 127, 128
da Silva, J.T., 9, 167 Effectiveness, 12, 22, 125, 131, 144, 191, 193,
David, M., 288, 289 195, 198–200, 232, 281, 290–291
Davies, B., 231–234 Effective teaching, 8, 123, 137
310 Index

Egetenmeyer, R., 9, 137, 140 European Commission, 1–4, 18–21, 23–26,

Einstein, A., 28 31, 32, 52, 77, 84, 90–92, 96, 99, 100,
Elder, G.H., 159 123–129, 137, 139, 147–153, 172, 179,
Elderly, 6, 102, 104, 106, 143, 255 183, 189–193, 195, 196, 200, 211, 213,
E-learning, 18, 151, 289 251–253, 267, 274–276, 279, 281, 295,
ELGPN. See European Lifelong Guidance 299, 301–304
Policy Network(ELGPN) European Cooperation in Education and
Employability, 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 12, 18–24, 42, 51, Training, 27, 77, 195, 240
57, 75, 76, 90, 99–106, 110, 111, 113, European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), 126
124, 175, 183–185, 209, 218, 268, European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network
269, 302 (ELGPN), 194
Employee rewards, 64 European Networks to promote the local and
Empowerment, 4, 170, 193, 277 regional dimensions of Lifelong
Energy cities, 283 Learning, 275
England, 23, 43, 52–54 European Parliament, 195, 197, 199, 240
Englebright, L., 57 European policy documents, 4, 8, 147–156,
English, 1, 2, 6, 43, 52–54, 56, 88, 244, 300, 303
300, 301 European Qualification Framework
Ennals, R., 284 (EQF), 52, 155
Enriquez, E., 115 European Quality Assurance Reference
Eo ipso, 55 Framework for VET (EQARF), 195
Epicurean tradition, 115 European Social Fund, 79, 252
EQARF. See European Quality Assurance European Union (EU), 1, 2, 18, 26, 41, 71, 76,
Reference Framework for VET 81, 90, 91, 100, 175, 184, 189, 191,
(EQARF) 199, 204, 206, 209–211, 218, 229, 230,
EQF. See European Qualification 240, 241, 243, 252, 266, 269, 301
Framework (EQF) European University Association (EUA), 128
Equity, 67, 68, 198–200, 277, 299, 303, 304 European Year of Lifelong Learning, 1, 17,
Erasmus for All, 280–282 77, 100
Eshet-Alkalai, Y., 34 Eurotowns, 283
ESREA, 158 Eurydice, 52, 197
Estèbe, P., 294 Expertise Centres, 224, 226
Estonia, 157, 158, 162 External quality assurance, 196
ET 2020, 18, 25, 26, 195, 240
Ethical approaches, 4
Ethical values, 12 F
EU. See European Union (EU) Fähigkeit, 53, 54, 140
EUA. See European University Fairclough, N., 19
Association (EUA) Family circle, 12, 291–293, 295
Eudaimonia, 51 Farmers National Centre, 289
Eurobarometer, 52 Faulstich, P., 142
Eurocities, 283 Faure, E., 17, 99, 170, 181, 266
EUROlocal, 12, 273, 276, 278–283 Federal Statistical Office, 36
Europass, 155, 197 Fejes, A., 88, 99–104, 230, 303
Europe, 1–12, 17, 18, 20, 21, 25, 27, 28, 32, Ferguson, 43
42, 43, 48, 51–54, 65, 66, 71, 75, 78, Ferrarotti, F., 243
85, 95, 100, 104, 109, 123, 138, 144, Ferreira, M., 155
147, 149, 150, 154, 167, 171, 179, 191, Fertigkeit, 53, 54
194, 199, 206, 209, 212, 235, 244, 267, Field, J., 51, 52, 57, 84, 92, 157, 159, 160,
273, 274, 277–283, 300–304 194, 203, 266
Europe 2020, 18, 25, 26, 147, 280 Fine, S.F., 168
European Area for Lifelong Learning, 2, 5 Finland, 11, 65, 66, 69–71, 126, 131, 204, 206,
European Association for the Education of 208–210, 213, 229, 231, 234
Adults (EAEA), 278 Fitzgerald, G., 129
Index 311

Flageul, A., 289 Goncalves, M.J., 277

Flamenco association, 47 Gontcharoff, G., 394
Flexibility, 1, 7, 23, 26, 87–96, 104, 180, 183, Good Life, 7, 51, 54, 87
193, 234, 239, 241, 242, 255 Gough, M., 6, 51, 56, 300, 301
Flynn, S., 129, 132, 134 Governance, 7, 8, 10, 11, 100, 102, 130, 153,
Folklore, 243 193, 203–214, 230, 253, 254, 277, 293
Formal education, 10, 11, 20, 25, 78, 81, 102, Governmentality, 8, 101, 102, 267
169, 190, 200, 214, 217–219, 226, Gramsci, A., 268
240, 258 Gravani, M.N., 1, 12, 299
Formenti, L., 239, 243–246, 300, 303 Greece, 1, 43, 65, 66, 109, 116, 204, 206,
Fouad, N., 168 208–210, 213, 299
Foucault, M., 101, 103, 132, 230, 231, 267 Green, A., 19
Fox, S., 33 Green, F., 69
France, 11, 12, 53, 62, 68–70, 219, 273, Griffiths, T., 53
285–287, 290, 291, 293, 294 Grignon, C., 292
Franke, R.W., 45, 46 Gross Domestic Product, 129, 222
Frederiks, M.M.H., 199 Groupe de Grenoble, 290
Freire, P., 45, 46, 48, 267 Guichard, J., 174
French Farmer Leaders Institute, 289 Guidance, 1, 5, 8–10, 110, 149, 150, 153,
Frétigné, C., 295 167–175, 190, 192, 194, 218, 255, 267,
Functional literacy, 24, 301 299, 301, 304
Furedi, F., 55 Guile, D., 53
Future cities, 283 Guimaraes, P., 22, 26, 41, 75, 76, 79–81
Gustavsen, B., 274
Gutmann, A., 182
G Gysbers, N.C., 167
Gadéa, E., 27, 288
Gallerani, M., 241, 242
Gamelli, L., 244 H
Garsten, C., 101, 105, 106, 182, 183 Hake, B.J., 203, 251, 262, 300, 304
Gasskov, V., 68, 69 Hamilton, R., 276, 277
Gaventa, J., 19, 44–46 Hans-Böckler-Foundation, 204
Gazier, 288 Hantonne, P., 289
Gelpi, E., 266, 268 Hargittai, E., 33
Generalisation, 223, 225 Harp, S., 179
Germany, 6, 31, 35, 36, 52, 53, 62, 65, 68, 69, Hartog, J., 64
71, 137, 179, 183, 203, 204, 206, Hassink, R., 274
208–210, 213, 214, 219, 276, 278 HC. See Human capital (HC)
Giddens, A., 92, 193 Health care workers (HCA), 102, 106
Gieseke, W., 140 Heidegger, 56
Giodmaina, J., 265 Helsinki Communiqué, 230
Giraud, C., 295 Heritage, Regional Development and Social
Glasgow, 43, 259, 273, 276–278 Cohesion, 279
Glasser, P.H., 168 Hermansen, M., 158, 159
Glastra, 251 Hibernia College, 129
GLCN. See Global Learning Cities Network Hierarchical regulations, 11
(GLCN) Higher education, 8, 43, 55, 57, 62, 78, 87–93,
Gleeson, J., 126, 131 128, 129, 131, 132, 143, 168, 172, 173,
Glikman, V., 292 194–196, 199, 200, 241, 301
Globalization, 183 Higher Vocational Education (HVE), 87, 90
Global Learning Cities Network (GLCN), Hippel, A., 140
277, 278 Histoires de vie en formation, 244
Gnahs, D., 40 Holistic conception of nursing, 55
Gomes, M.C., 77 Holistic education, 268
312 Index

Honneth, A., 183 Integration, 71, 81, 82, 149, 173, 174, 206,
Horizontal and vertical policy 222, 224, 226, 279, 281
interweaving, 11 Intelligent cties, 283
Housto, M., 283 Interaction, 11, 141, 142, 158, 180, 185,
Hozjan, D., 77 204–206, 277, 279
HRM strategies, 62, 72 Intergenerational communication, 6
Human action in the work activity, 7, 8, 109 Intergenerational learning processes, 36
Human capital (HC), 4, 7, 8, 22, 61–64, 70, Inter-governmental organisations (IGOS), 281
91, 93, 103, 104, 109–118, 123, 130, International Association of Educating Cities
170, 302–304 (IAEC), 275
Humanistic approach, 11, 217 International co-operation networks, 235
Human resource management, 61, 63–65, 78, Interpretive analysis, 20
223, 226 Investment in human resources, 1, 5, 61, 62,
Hume, 43 69, 230
Hungary, 64, 66, 194, 278 Ioannidou, A., 10, 11, 180, 203, 204, 208,
Hunt Report, 131 211, 299
HVE. See Higher Vocational Education (HVE) Ireland, 62, 68, 128, 129, 131, 132
Irons, J., 138, 139
Isaacs, T., 44–46
I Italy, 70, 239, 241, 243, 276, 278
IAEC. See International Association of It is always a good time to learn, 41, 42, 148,
Educating Cities (IAEC) 153–154, 191, 243, 253, 300
ICT, 2, 11, 23, 24, 33, 34, 39, 125, 143,
144, 149, 150, 152, 174, 196,
253, 301 J
ICT-based facilities, 11, 253 Jääger, T., 138
Identified barriers to participation, 12 Jacobbson, K., 182
Identity building, 300 Jakobi, A., 204
IGeL-Media project, 36 Jamtli Museum, 279
IGOS. See inter-governmental organisations Japan, 273
(IGOS) Jarvis, P., 158, 160
Illeris, 141, 142 Jeunesse agricole catholique, 289
Illiteracy, 256 Jeunesse ouvrière chrètienne, 288
Illusion of equality and 'cooperation,' 27 Joas, H., 180, 183
Imaginário, L., 82 Job insecurity, 83
Inclusiveness, 246 Job-seekers, 256
India, 45 Jõgi, L., 9, 157, 158, 160, 300
Individualised learning, 12, 100, 270, 296, Jones, S., 33, 62–64
301, 302 Jordan, L., 12, 273, 276, 277
Informal learning, 4, 10, 19, 31, 35, 39, 42, Josso, M.-C, 244
171, 184, 197, 209, 241, 244, 254–256, Judgment, 43
267, 283, 301, 302
Initial education, 192, 197, 253, 254
Initial vocational education and training, 21, K
69, 190 Kallo, J., 229
Innovation, 1, 8, 9, 20, 24, 25, 81, 100, Karu, K., 160, 164
123–134, 137, 142, 143, 147–156, 171, Kats, E., 218, 223, 226
190, 218, 226, 277, 299, 302, 304 Kehoe, J., 142
Innovative pedagogy, 150, 151, 192 Kenntnis, 52
Innovative teaching and learning, 5, 138, Kerala, 45, 46
140, 144 Key messages, 1, 12, 18, 42, 111, 123, 179,
Insiderness, 245 191, 252, 267
Institutional barriers, 256 Keynes, 181, 182
Integrated policies, 18 Kirkwood, G., 45, 46
Index 313

Kitching, 134 Learning 4 Sharing project, 138, 139

Knowledge Age, 20 Learning stories, 244
knowledge-based economy, 18, 21, 26, 42, Learning to Be, 17, 99, 181
100, 103, 123, 206, 252, 275, 281 Leaving Certificate, 133
Knowledge-based society, 2, 18, 42, 51, 100, Lehtonen, J., 236
103, 170, 240 Lerner, J., 45
Knowledge economy, 2, 4, 64, 89, 128, 130, Levy schemes, 68–70
213, 218, 223, 224 Lewin, P., 63
Knowledge practices, 5, 6, 51–57 Liberal policy approaches, 70
Kompetenz, 52 Licensed practical nurses (LPNs), 102, 105
Komulainen, K., 234 Liechti, V., 114, 115
komvux, 89 Life-course, 8, 9, 158, 159
Korea, 126, 131, 273 Life history, 244
Korhonen, M., 236 Lifelong learning, 1, 17, 31, 41, 51, 61, 75, 87,
Krabi, K., 164 99, 109, 123, 137, 147, 157, 167, 179,
Kraft, S., 141 189, 203, 217, 229, 239, 251, 265, 273,
Kraus, K., 180, 184 286, 299
Kruse, A., 35 Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP), 155,
Kuckartz, U., 207 194, 230, 276, 278, 280–283
Kurki, T., 236 Lifewide learning, 137, 218, 239, 266
Life wide transformation, 11
Lijphart, A., 221
L Lima, L.C., 22, 26, 41, 48, 76, 79, 81
Labour Exchange Institution, 288 Lindberg, L., 88, 91
Labour market, 3, 22, 23, 42, 53, 55, 71, 78, Lindberg, V., 88, 91
81, 88–96, 101–105, 111, 147, 169, Lindblad, S., 90, 230
171, 172, 174, 182, 191, 199, 200, Lingard, B., 204
221, 224, 226, 229, 254, 256, 267, Linguistic diversity, 20
292, 295, 303 Linguistic manifestation, 4
Lahelma, E., 236 Linne, G., 185
Laissez-faire systems, 69 Lisbon, 2, 6, 7, 12, 25, 41, 42, 75–77, 81, 84,
Länder, 70, 210 100, 110, 111, 117, 128, 147, 168, 170,
Laot, F.F., 12, 285, 291, 294, 295, 300, 303 206, 209, 240, 241, 252, 275, 276, 281
Large-scale projects, 235 Lisbon Strategy, 6, 7, 25, 41, 75–77, 81, 84,
Larsson, A., 183 100, 128, 206, 209, 240
l'art pour l'art, 6, 21 Literacy, 5, 6, 23–24, 31–39, 45, 46, 48,
Lattke, S., 156, 179 51–57, 126–128, 244, 255, 256, 301
Laval, C., 111–114 Livre Blanc de la Promotion sociale, 286
Lawn, M., 204 LLP. See Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP)
Learn Autonomously, 81 Lombriser, R., 185
Learners’ entourage, 303 The Long Revolution, 259
Learning and Skills Council (LSC), 22 Longworth, N., 12, 273, 274, 276, 280
Learning cities, 11, 12, 273–283 Low-qualified workers, 256
Learning Cities and Regions, 11, 12, 273, LPNs. See Licensed practical nurses (LPNs)
276–282 LRD. See Learning Regions Deutschland
Learning collectives, 12, 299–305 (LRD)
Learning ecologies, 12, 300, 302–304 LSC. See Learning and Skills Council (LSC)
Learning experience, 9, 11, 24, 141, 158–160, Lucio-Villegas, E., 6, 41, 45, 300, 304
162–164, 190, 196, 200, 239, 242, 245 Luhmann, N., 140
Learning methods, 8, 9, 123, 125, 137–140, Lum, G., 55
149, 190, 208 Lundahl, L., 88, 89
Learning outcomes, 53, 123, 139, 152, 190, Lundgren, R., 88, 94
197–200, 253, 254, 299–301, 303, 304 Lundgren, U.P., 88, 94
Learning Regions Deutschland (LRD), 278 Luxemburg, 36
314 Index

M Mohanty, R., 44
Maastricht treaty, 147 Morley, M., 72
Maguire, A., 132 Mossoux, A.-F., 58
Malta, 11, 65, 265–270 Mougel, S., 295
Mammoth Act, 222 Murphy, M., 131, 266
Mandl, H., 141, 142 Murray, N., 129
Mannheim, K., 33, 132 Murthi, M., 29
Marescotti, E., 241, 242
Marginalization, 245, 246
Marginal people, 242 N
Mariani, A.M., 241 Naive humanism, 17
Marketisation of educational research, National Catalogue of Qualifications, 81
231–233 National Council for Curriculum and
Martinez, C., 207 Assessment (NCCA), 127, 130
Marton, F., 158 National curriculum, 11, 12, 265–270
Marxist cultural theory, 259 National curriculum framework (NCF), 12,
Mass media, 34 265–268
Master narrative, 208 National employment service, 169
Matos, L., 86 National Strategy for Literacy and Numeracy
Mayer, K.-U, 207 among Children and Young
Mayntz, R., 205 People, 127
Mayo, P., 1–3, 12, 19, 52, 265, 266, National Vocational Training Bodies,
269, 300, 302 219, 224
Mayring, P., 36 Nation-state, 10, 203–206, 213
McCosham, A., 277 NCCA. See National Council for Curriculum
MacIntyre, A., 182 and Assessment (NCCA)
McLeod, J., 159 NCF. See National curriculum framework
Media design, 33, 34 (NCF)
Media knowledge, 33 Neavyn, R., 131
Media literacy, 33, 34 Neo-liberal, 2, 3, 6, 9, 19, 52, 113, 116, 118,
Méhaut, P., 53, 54 123, 126, 130, 131
Meijers, F., 220 Neoliberalism, 267
Melo, A., 77–79, 171 Neologies of globalisation, 300
Memorandum on lifelong learning, 1–3, Netherlands, 10, 11, 53, 62, 65, 69, 70,
18–20, 38, 41, 51, 61, 77, 81, 90, 99, 185, 198, 217, 219–222, 225,
100, 110, 111, 117, 118, 123, 124, 133, 226, 262
134, 137, 147–150, 179, 184, 189, 194, Neutral male, 291
203, 252, 267, 276, 299, 304 New Opportunities Initiative, 79, 83,
Merrill, B., 243 170, 171
Migration, 37, 256 New Social Contract, 185
Milana, M., 7, 61 NGOs, 44, 256, 267, 282
Milieu, 32, 115, 267, 288, 290–292, Nicoll, K., 100–102, 104
294, 303 Non-accredited learning, 301
Millar, F., 43 Nonbasic skills, 51–57
Miller, N., 159, 230 Non-economic benefits, 7, 61
Miller, P., 159, 230 Non-hierarchical structure, 46
Mincer, J., 62 Non-participation, 12, 251, 254, 257
Mobile labour force, 235 Non-pragmatic, 6
Mobilisation, 11, 12, 20, 192, 251–263 Non-state, 11, 206
Mobility, 18, 23, 38, 155, 156, 197, 287, 289 Norway, 62, 65, 69–71
Modern industrial societies, 32, 220–221 Nuissl, E., 149, 156
Modular Training, 80, 81 Numeracy, 23, 35, 46, 57, 127, 301
Modus operandi, 2, 125 Nussbaum, M.C., 142, 143
Moerkamp, T., 223 Nylund, M., 93, 95
Index 315

O Physical capital, 63, 70

O’Brien, S., 8, 9, 123, 125–127, 132, PIAAC, 35
133, 304 Pietraß, M., 32
The Obstacle of the family, 291 Pikalek, A.J., 33
O’Cathain, C., 132 Pineau, G., 244
OECD. See Organization for Economic Pinho, P.B., 169
Cooperation and Development (OECD) Pires, A.L., 172
Off-the-job training, 64, 301 PIRLS. See Progress in International Reading
Older adults, 31–39 Literacy Survey (PIRLS)
Oliveira, L., 9, 167 PISA. See Programme for International
Onstenk, J., 223 Student Assessment (PISA)
On-the-job training, 301 Pochic, S., 287
Open Method of Co-ordination, 2, 148, 200, Poland, 194
211, 257 Policy formation, 11, 206, 210, 211
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Political parties, 47, 101, 221, 256
Development (OECD), 10, 19, 22, 24, Politicisation, 129, 132
25, 35, 90, 92, 99, 102–104, 109, 126, Popkewitz, T., 230
127, 129, 137, 170, 181–185, 204, Popović, K., 5, 6, 17, 300
206–213, 266, 275, 277, 281 Popular education, 48, 288
Organization of multi-media presentations, 34 Popular Planning Campaign, 45, 46
Osborne, M., 12, 273, 274, 276 Porto Alegre, 44, 45
Osmosis, 10, 175 Portugal, 7–10, 66, 75–79, 81, 167–175, 194
Osservatorio sulla condizione adulta e i Portuguese Institute for Career Guidance and
processi formativi, 241 Counselling, 169
O’Sullivan, D., 131, 132 Post-compulsory education, 301
Outreach work, 251–263 Potter, W.J., 34
Poulain, E., 112, 113
Poverty, 42, 78, 82, 240, 256, 283
P Power, 9, 11, 19, 22, 26, 27, 43, 46, 49, 56, 89,
Paixão, M.P., 9, 167 95, 100, 113, 123–134, 157, 168, 210,
PALADIN project, 39 211, 230–231, 234–236, 243–246,
Palazzeschi, Y., 288 259–263, 287, 289, 301
Palmu, T., 236 Powerless groups, 44, 46
Papert, S., 34 Pragmatism, 180, 244
Parsons, F., 169 Pragmatist precondition, 180
Participation, 5, 6, 10, 12, 17, 18, 20, 31–34, Preston, R., 3
37–39, 42–47, 49, 51, 62, 65–67, 70, Prima facie, 52
71, 76–79, 84, 105, 106, 111, 117, 148, Priority groups, 301
181, 182, 191, 194, 196, 198, 200, 208, Privatization, 118
209, 240, 245, 251–263, 268, 290, 293, Problem of articulation, 251, 257
301 Productive value, 7, 61
Participatory and Citizenship School, 6, 41, Professional behaviour, 9, 152, 155
45–47, 49 Professionalisation, 8, 9, 18, 42, 138–140,
Participatory democracy, 44–49 142, 144, 147–156, 179, 193, 304
Participatory learning ‘networks,’ 302 Professional teaching, 8, 9, 137–144
PASCAL Observatory, 277–279, 282 Programme for International Student
Pätzold, H., 142 Assessment (PISA), 126–128, 130,
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 44 131, 211, 214
Peeling an onion, 25 Progress in International Reading Literacy
People as 'leaders' and change agents, 243 Survey (PIRLS), 126–128
Permanent education, 17, 181, 295 Project-based work, 10, 11, 231, 233
Personal fulfillment, 241 Projectisation, 230–236
Personal well-being, 115 Projecto de Sociedade, 77
Peuple et culture, 288 Proprium of Adult Education, 242
316 Index

Prost, A., 286 Robinson, K., 43, 55, 267

Psychoanalysis, 115 ROC. See Regionaal Opleidingen Centrum
Public libraries, 255 (ROC)
Public-private initiatives, 210 Romania, 65, 66, 194
Rose, N., 102, 104, 106, 130, 230
Rosvall, P.-Å., 93
Q Rowland, S., 55
Qualitative benchmarks, 125 Rubenson, K., 90, 99, 100
Quality, 4, 18, 32, 68, 78, 90, 103, 113, Rudd, T., 134
123, 141, 147, 167, 183, 189, 214, Rutkowski, J., 29
223, 232, 240, 253, 267, 276, Rylean legacy, 53
295, 299

S
R Saczynski, J.S., 35
Raison d’être, 7, 61 Salary gain, 68
Rationale of utility, 114 Sandel, M.J., 182
Räty, H., 236 Santerini, M., 241
Rawls, J., 182, 183 Santos, B.S., 44–46, 48
Recognition, 4, 52, 54, 77, 78, 80–84, 110, Sava, S., 9, 139, 147, 156
115, 124–126, 134, 142, 153, 170, 171, Savoir, 53, 285
174, 190, 210, 220, 243, 244, 246, 253, Schaeffer, P., 291
254, 261, 268 Schäffer, B., 33
Recognition of prior learning, 78, 84 Schaie, K.W., 35
Recurrent education, 17, 181, 182, 184 Scharpf, F.W., 205, 206, 211
Referential of key-competences, 77, 78, 81 Schleicher, A., 35
Reflective Learning Portfolio, 81 Schmidt, B., 35, 36, 140, 143
Reflexivity, 239, 240, 242–247 Schmidt-Hertha, B., 6, 31, 36, 299
Regionaal Opleidingen Centrum (ROC), Schmitt, E., 35
224, 225 Schoolification, 220, 225
Regional University Associations for Schorr, E., 140
Education and Training Schriewer, J., 207
(AUREFA), 294 Schröder, G., 183
Reich-Claassen, J., 179 Schugurensky, D., 45
Relational analysis, 20–22 Schultz, T.W., 62, 109, 112, 113
Relevance to teaching and learning, 8 Schüßler, I., 140
Remote-from-life-education, 6 Schuyt, C.J.M., 222
Remtulla, K.A., 32, 33 Scottish Enlightenment, 43
Rens, J., 52 Search for Identity, 239–246
Research funding, 235 Secondary analysis, 36
Research voor Beleid, 139, 151, 154, 155, Second chance education, 198, 301
191–194, 198, 199 Sectorial training funds, 68–70
Resistance, 116, 236, 257 Self-directed learning (self-study), 137, 141,
Responsibilisation, 104–106, 266, 303 143, 149, 225, 301
Retour à l’école?, 293 Semiotics, 125
Retraining, 286 Seville, 6, 41, 45, 47
Rindermann, H., 143 Short term goals, 28
Rinne, R., 229 Signification metaphor, 258, 259, 261
Rizvi, F., 180, 184 Siivonen, P., 230
R3L, 274–277, 280 Simplification, 69, 117, 246
Robertson, S.L., 43, 129, 213 Singapore, 131
Robinson, D.N., 43, 55, 267 Singly, F., 295
Robinson, I., 43, 55, 267 Siu, J., 68
Index 317

Skager, R., 267 Strategic development of skills, 67

Skidelsky, R., 182 Strategy Document and Knowing+
Skill, 6, 7, 21–23, 33–35, 52–56, 61, 68, 69, Programme, 79
138, 152, 219 Strobel, C., 6, 31–39
Smith, A., 34, 43, 53, 67–70, 72 Structural inequalities, 101
Söblom, S, 229 Structuralisation, 226
Social anomalies, 4 Struggle for social justice, 48
Social change, 1, 5, 12, 21, 78, 84, 159, 160, Study on European Terminology in Adult
162, 182, 199, 269, 295, 302 Learning, 192, 300
Social class, 254, 287, 288 Sub-degree-level, 55–57
Social cohesion, 1, 6, 7, 18, 75, 77, 79, Subjectification, 234–236
84, 90, 91, 103, 104, 124, 174, 182, Suchodolski, B., 266
185, 199, 209, 214, 240, 274, 275, Sultana, R.G., 267
277, 279, 281 Sustainable cities, 283
Social control, 3, 79 Sweden, 7, 8, 62, 65, 66, 69, 87–90, 92, 93,
Social cooperation, 300 96, 279
Social exclusion, 4, 82, 255, 256 Swedish Research Council, 106
Social Imaginaries, 10, 116, 118, 180–185 Synchronising, 126
Social inclusion, 2, 4, 18, 38, 42, 103, 124, Systematic distortions, 246
152, 267, 277, 279, 282, 302 Systematic quality assurance in Adult
Social networking, 255, 258 Learning, 193
Social Promotion Law, 286, 288
Social service agencies, 256
Social welfare agencies, 255 T
Soft skills, 24, 27 Tallinn University, 158
Sondergaard, L., 25 Tandon, R., 44
South Korea, 126, 131 Tanguy, L., 288
Souto-Otero, M., 277 Target groups, 9, 22, 26, 35, 143, 144,
Spain, 41, 43, 45 174, 192, 193, 235, 251, 252,
Special Assignee Relief Programme 255–262, 280
(SARP), 130 Taylor, C., 180–182
Stakeholders, 12, 44, 138, 150, 151, 157, 191, Taylorist forms of managerialism, 131
195–197, 207, 223, 226, 260, 265, 269, Teachers, 9, 12, 43, 89, 94, 125, 126, 128, 130,
277–283, 304 131, 133, 134, 137–143, 148–153, 161,
Standards and Guidelines for Quality 162, 169, 173, 191, 192, 225–227, 244,
Assurance in the European Higher 265, 269, 301
Education Area, 195 Teacher training, 94, 125
Stang, R., 179 Technology deficit, 140
State, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10–12, 19, 24–26, 36, 41–43, Technology-rich environment, 35
46, 48, 61, 70, 76, 78–80, 84, 88, 92, Télé-promotion rurale, 289
93, 96, 101, 102, 104–106, 109, 110, Terrot, N., 288
113, 116–118, 123, 127–129, 131–133, Tessaring, M., 51
141, 143, 148–153, 156, 157, 169, 171, The National Skills Task Force
174, 175, 179, 181, 183, 185, 190, 191, (DfES), 22
193–200, 203–206, 209–214, 219–223, Theory of Justice, 183
226, 229, 230, 232, 234, 251–254, 256, Thesmar, C., 292
259, 260, 265–267, 269, 273–276, Third sector, 301
280, 303 Third World, 294
Stavrou, S., 52 Thuillier, G., 292
Stoer, S.R., 78 Tietgens, H., 140
Storytelling, 245 Tillmann, K.-J., 214
St. Patrick's College of Education Tippelt, R., 143, 179
in Dublin, 127 Toriello, F., 242
318 Index

Towards a European Learning Society (TELS), University of Tübingen, 203, 204

275, 280 Universus Bari, 278
Towards the Learning Society, 19 Up skilling, 156
Tower of Babel, 259 USSR, 291
Trade unions, 61, 67, 71, 220, 221, 226, 255, Utilitarianism, 114, 115
256, 260, 285, 287–290, 303
Trainers, 9, 137–142, 148–153, 192, 223, 226,
244, 245, 290, 293, 301 V
Tramma, S., 241, 242 Valente, A.C., 83
Transferability, 125 Validation, 77, 80, 81, 138, 139, 170–172,
Transformation, 11, 21, 48, 160, 162, 163, 190, 192, 194, 197, 199, 207, 209, 301
170, 205, 219–221, 224, 234, 246, 263, Validity, 2, 63, 112, 183, 300
274, 287–289, 305 Value-free, 5, 22, 24, 28
Transfuges, 287 Valuing learning, 1, 5, 150
Transition, 3, 34, 88, 91–93, 123, 159, 168, van Lakerveld, J., 11, 217
172, 174, 196, 222–223, 241, Vasconcelos, 168, 169
243, 283 Vehviläinen, M., 231, 232
Transmission metaphor, 258, 259, 261 Vietnam, 273
Transnational educational space, 10, 11, 204, VINEPAC project, 139
206, 210, 213 Vocational practice, 11, 217, 223–226
Trendle, B., 68 Voluntary organizations, 205
Trends in International Mathematics Vorländer, H., 183
and Science Study (TIMMS), Vroeijenstijn, A.I., 199
126–128
Trial and error, 37
Trinder, K., 33 W
Trojan horse, 4, 22 Wain, K., 265, 266
Trollat, A.-F., 295 Walsh, E., 130, 131
Tsakiris, D., 109–118 Wannan, J., 51
Tuijnman, A., 266 Warner, M., 73
Turkey, 65 Warschauer, M., 32
Tyranny, 131 Wärvik, G.-B., 7, 87–96
Watts, A., 173
Weidenmann, B., 143
U Wences, I., 43
Uepping, H., 185 Westerhuis, A., 53, 224
UK, 22, 52–54, 65–67, 93, 129, 131, 183, 255, West, L., 243
276, 278 Wet Educatie en Beroepsonderwijs (WEB),
Unemployed, 69, 80, 82, 85, 101, 169, 224, 224
226, 256 Weusthof, P.J.M., 199
UNESCO, 17, 27, 79, 90, 99, 137, 170, 181, White, J., 51
182, 193, 198–200, 203, 206, 209, 211, White Paper on Teaching
214, 266, 269, 277, 278, 281 and Learning, 17, 19
United States of America (USA), 169, Williamson, B., 266
219, 291 Williams, R., 43, 259
The Universities Act, 129 Willis, R., 112
Universities for Older People, 173 Wilson, B., 43
University centre for social and economic Winch, C., 52–55
cooperation (CUCES), 285, 290, Winterton, J., 53, 55
291, 293 Wissen, 52
University of Chicago, 62 Wolf, G., 141
University of Florence, 192 Women′s vocational training, 292
University of Limerick, 130 Work-based learning, 301
University of Pecs, 278 Worker individualisation, 287
Index 319

Working life, 10, 11, 26, 37, 94, 124, 184, Youngman, F., 44
217–227, 231, 286 Young, M, F.D., 268
World Bank, 22, 129 Young people, 2, 21, 26, 43, 78, 91, 93, 127,
World Trade Organisation, 129 169, 171, 175, 190, 224

Y Z
Ylijoki, O., 229, 232, 233 Zarifis, G.K., 1, 12, 299
Youdell, D., 133 Zeitgeist, 130