24 Conceptual Understanding of Lifelong Learning

Ajay Kumar

Content Outline

1.    Learning Objectives

2.    Introduction

3.    Lifelong Learning: Definitions, Meaning and Scope

4.    Characteristics of LLL as a New Concept in ‘Education and Training’

5.    Features of an Effective Lifelong Learning System

6.    Lifelong Learning Strategies

7.    Limitations and Weaknesses of Lifelong Learning

8.    Conclusion

1. Learning Objectives

After studying this module, you would be able to

1.    Explain the meaning and concept of Lifelong Learning (LLL) in its larger manifestations and dimensions.

   2.    Differentiate between LLL and its traditional predecessor namely, adult education and explain how LLL is now located within the entire educational system.

3.    Elaborate on how LLL operates in different contexts or environments namely, the formal, non-formal and informal learning settings.

2.  Introduction

The next three modules (1.24, 1.25 and 1.26)discuss about Lifelong Learning (in short, henceforth, LLL), which has emerged as asignificant sub-discipline within adult education in the wake of contemporary globalization. These three modulesaim to provide a holistic understanding of LLL in the larger context of its parent discipline, which is traditionally known as Adult Education (in short, henceforth, AE). The disciplinary narrative (e.g. discursive story) here will have reference to both the international (mainly European) and the Indian context.Following are the three modules:

1.24.  Conceptual Understanding of LLL: definition, meaning, nature and scope

1.25.   Evolution of LLL: its intellectual (conceptual) genesis, European history, manifest issues in global LLL and its present (disciplinary) status.

1.26.  Lifelong Learning in India: policies and practices, issues and challenges

In the first module, we will try to understand Lifelong Learning as a concept, its meaningsand connotations, its guiding principles, theoretical foundations and perspectives, its characteristic elements, strategies and practices, and its potential benefits and limitations. This module will discuss the ‘what’ of LLL and adult education in general.

The second module will describe the historical background or narrative of how the sub-discipline of LLL has evolved over the years, its intellectual genesis,particularly during the present globalization era; how it relates to the traditional parent discipline of adult education and other allied conceptual terms. This Unit provides a picture of ‘why’ and ‘how’ the sub-discipline of LLL stands as of today.

The third module focuses on the vision and policy perspectives of LLL in India. It will discuss the gaps between ‘theory and practice’ while adopting and implementing LLL in

India, particularly with a focus on the role of higher education in promoting LLL in India. It will discuss mainly two exemplifiers of LLL, i.e. the Gandhian tradition of lifelong learning as visible in his vision of crafts-based education and the Government of India (Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Labour and other ministries) perspective and implementation of LLL.

3. Lifelong Learning: Definitions,Meaning and Scope

Lifelong learning (LLL)is a broad, quite wide generic term, which is not easy to define in simple, clear and specific terms. Yet we will understand its meaning through some select definitions. LLL can be defined as a new sub-discipline of adult education, which promotes‘lifelong, life-wide, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons’; and is supposed to enhance‘social inclusion’, ‘active citizenship’,‘personal development’, ‘competitiveness’ and ‘employability’ (COM 2006: 614).The European Lifelong Learning Initiativeand American Council of Education provide a more workable definition of LLL:

Lifelong learning is ‘the development of human potential througha continuously supportive process which stimulates and empowers individuals to acquire all the knowledge, values, skills and understanding they will require throughout their lifetimes and to apply them with confidence, creativity and enjoyment, inall roles circumstances, and environments’ (Quoted in Longworth and Davies1996: p. 22)

From the above definition, we can draw some basic elements of LLL vision, namely: (a) that every individual has immense human potential, which are achievable and hence worth endeavoring for; (b) a supportive mechanism and learning climate should be made available to facilitate desired learning, and achieve desired knowledge, values, skills and aptitudes necessary for a successful life; (c) that learning can occur in many different ways and places, e.g. formal, non-formal and informal settings, classroom or workplace settings, through classroom taught programs or online (web-based) self-help guides and modules, etc.; and (d) LLL needs to create an integrated and holistic support system for learning taking into account individual differences and needs, in order to help the individual learner to learn under self-direction.

Apart from these western perspectives, there are remarkably many alternative and rich Indian perspectives in LLL. For example, M.K Gandhi in his Nai Talim (translated as ‘Basic Education for All’) propounded a spiritual and vocational (lifelong) principle, which considered that knowledge and work are not separable dichotomies. His Nai Talim has several layers of meaning where he opposes colonial modernist education, which alienated Indian students from their social and cultural roots, and made ‘career-focused’ thinking with disdain for manual work as the dominant learning attitude. Gandhi’s Nai Talim embodied an ideal society (Swaraj) comprising of small, self-reliant communities (village republics), where citizens are trained to be industrious, self-respecting, generous and morally strong individuals. Gandhi made craft-based education the centre of his pedagogy to bring about a radical restructuring of the sociology of knowledge in India.

In general, the scope of LLL encompasses three settings of learning and education i.e. formal learning, non-formal learning and informal learning along with new learning modes such as online (web-based), self-directed, problem-solving learning methods and pedagogies (e.g. andragogy and heutagogy).In the context of 21st century, contemporary LLL seeks to go beyond traditional, decontextualized text and instruction-based education system, and adopts a lifelong and life-wide approach. Here, contemporary LLL appears to come closer to Gandhian ‘Basic Education’ scheme.

In terms of temporality and spatial components, the scope of LLL can be seen as having two major dimensions, namely, (a) lifelong learning dimension, which suggests that individual learnerscan learn throughouttheir lifetime,and (b) life-wide learning dimension, which emphasizes that it can occur in all kinds of formal, non-formal and informal settings and across all sectors of professional and personal growthThe ‘lifelong’ dimension of LLL simply suggests that an individual’s desire in learning should be based on his/her personal choice about the relevance and stage of life span for a particular learning. LLL recognizes that an individual should be able to upgrade her knowledge and skills throughout her life. LLL in principle recognizes that if the knowledge and skills held by an individual become obsolete at any stage of her temporal life, she must have the opportunity to upgrade her skills with a provision for continuous (vertical) learning based on her prior (base) knowledge (see Figure 1 below).

LLL  also recognizes horizontal expansion and provisions for training and learning for life-wide vocational jobs and professional skills in a wide range of settings (e.g. classroom-based, workplace based, web-based, etc.) for continuous up-gradation of skills. Having provisions for life-wide learning for continuous professional up-gradation can be challenging not only for the individual learner but also for the policy-makers and implementing authorities, because they need to employ wide range of contexts, methods and settings for learning. Here, LLL requires the establishment of a complex institutional arrangement, different from traditional learning, which provides for quality education and training (learning) cutting across formal, non-formal and informal settings in terms of learning processes, methodologies, content, curriculum and foundational principles(see Tables 1& 2 below).

Differences between formal, non-formal and informal learning largely and mainly vary in terms of intent and design, e.g. how learning takes place in a specific setting, particularly nature and degree of specialized knowledge and skills under transaction; degree of specialization and structuration in terms expected duration, standardized outcomes, etc. On a continuum, formal learning can be seen as highly organized and specialized whereas informal learning as the least organized and specialized; with non-formal learning placed in between the two. Formal learning takes place in schools, colleges, universities and institutionswhere at the completion of a course learning is certified by award of degrees (e.g. MBBS, PhD) and diplomas. Non-formal learning is also structured but it is not very comprehensive; rather it’s a short duration intended program (e.g. a radio or television program for farmers on the use of pesticides in farming), which takes place in settings outside educational institutions.Informal learning occurs almost everywhereas a by-product of an interactional activity (example, a carpenter’s son learning carpentry from his father while helping him in his family vocation). It is generally non-structuredwithout disciplinary emphasis on learning. Yet much of our learning comes from informal settings with acquisition and formation of our primary knowledge, skills and attitudes valuable as basic foundation of all our later stage learning. The table below explains the above distinctions through the analytical framework of lifelong learning features in the context of literacy education (programs) (see Table 3).

4.  Characteristics of LLL as aNew Concept in ‘Education and Training’

a)    LLL cuts across formal, non-formal and informal learning settings: LLL adopts an eclectic approach in choosing learning styles and methods found amongall the three settings of learning.

b)    LLL is based on self-motivated and self-directed learning: LLL offers choiceand need-based learning for professional development and self-growth, with individuals taking full responsibility for their own learning. Learners develop metacognition of their own learning styles and attitudes, which allows them to concentrate on the best possible ways for learning. Learners also develop an understanding of their limitations while participating in adult learning with a strong desire to overcome those (if any).

c)    LLL believes in self-financed education and learning: In order to cut the public expenditure on provisions for mass education, LLL expects that learners not only choose their own learning needs but also be willing to invest in time, money and effort on a continuous basis.

d)    LLL recognizes universal access and participation in continuous learning and professional development: Popular demand for education, which hasled to massification of education at all levels, has also led LLL to promote universal access to all forfurther education and trainingfor continuous development of skills and knowledge.

The principles of universal access and participation in LLL is also guided by the Jacques Delor’s Report (UNESCO: 1996) which propounded four pillars of a ‘learning society’, as a missionary and global goal of LLL, namely:

I.         Learning to do: requires LLL to train and equip people forall kinds of work required by a ‘knowledge society’ of the contemporary globalizedworld. LLL also needs to promote innovation and adaptation of learning to future work environments;

II.         Learning to be: LLL should contribute to a person’s complete development e.g. mind, body, spirit, character, intelligence, sensitivity, aesthetic appreciation and humanism.

III.         Learning to know: requires LLL to focus on mastering the learning tools rather than acquisition of structured knowledge; and

IV.        Learning to live together, and with others: requires LLL to focus on learning values and skills such as exercising mutual tolerance, understanding and mutual respect, resolving conflict peacefully, discovering and relating with other people and their cultures, fostering community capability, individual competence and capacity, economic resilience, and social inclusion.

Since the present world is full of social and economic contradictions produced by global capitalism assisted by fast changing technologies and services, our personal, social, professional and political life is also full ofmany uncertainties and insecurities created by economics and politics of increasing global inequality. For example, according to an Oxfam International Report titled,An economy for the 99 percent (published January 2017), only eight men own almost equal wealth as possessed by 3.6 billion people of the world who constitute 50% of the humanity. In India, richest 1% Indians own 58% of country’s wealth. In other way, 57 billionaires in India have the same amount of wealth as the bottom 70%. The Report also describesthe gap between rich and poor, which is far greater than imagined. The Report also highlights how corporate business and the super-rich are nourishingthe inequality crisis by evading taxes, cutting down wages and jobs and how they use their powers to influence not only international economics and trade but also national and globalpolitics.

LLLstrives to address the above mentioned problems of uncertainties and insecurities arising from global inequalitiesby adopting learning orientations towards the earlier discussed UNESCO’s four pillars of a ‘learning society’. LLL is in general supposed to foster creativity, initiative, responsiveness and skills of adaptability among keen learners to cope up with the challenges of the contemporary post-Fordist, post-industrial society. Citizens of the contemporary world need to learn and enhance their skills to manage uncertainties, negotiate conflicts, and communicate across and within cultures, sub-cultures, families and communities.

5.    Features of an Effective Lifelong Learning System

Alvin Toffler writes:‘the illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn’. He suggests that individuals continuously need to revise and upgrade their skills, knowledge and information including their attitudes towards learning. An effective LLL system and a learning society should be able to provide individual learners opportunities and resources for continuous up-gradation of their skills and knowledge, to engage them in meaningful activities, debates and discussions, dialectical and dialogical encounters with their workand experimentations and develop ashared understanding within the community.

The features of an effective LLL system are:

·  Learners should have all the freedom and initiative to set their goals, styles and pace of learning and not the L L L  system.

·   The curriculum, content, language, vocabulary, tools, methodology and practices introduced by the LLL system should primarily come from workplace experiences, so as to keep them natural, contextualized (embedded) andrelevant.

·  An effective LLL should focus onthe economic and practical feasibility of a module-based learning (breakdown units) to suit their strategic modus operandi, assessment and fulfillment of commitments.

·  The learning tools must be relevant and related to the problem at hand; they should not create unnecessary complexities and breakdowns.

·  Learners should be provided space and mechanism to be able to learn not only from the workplace environments alone, but should also be able to share knowledge with others who have special expertise in the field.

·  Learners should be provided ample information and tools, which help them in cross-domain search, i.e. they should be able to identify, relate and report on similar problems, which may have been solved elsewhere and be able to make further improvementsto the given solutions.

·  LLL systems must promote two major kinds of reflections. First, at the preliminary level, the learners should be able to reflect on the problem and possible solutions. Second, at the post-mortem level, they should be able to see whether the patterns and problems are repetitive in nature and how they can be eliminated through restructuring workprocesses.

·  All LLL systems should be able to provide learners multiple interactive situations and opportunities withexperts and co-learners along with a workplace experience.

·  LLL systems should not only be able to support individual enterprises in learning, but develop cooperative partnership with co-learners and other LLL groups working concurrently, keeping in view the larger aim which is, LLL systems should be able to produce collective knowledge as well as improve upon an individual’s knowledge and skills.

·  LLL systems should be open and flexible enough to transcendtheboundaries of any closed system, making mechanisms such as end-user modifiability and end- user programming a necessity rather than a luxury. If possible, LLL systems should be able to support their learners and end-users to become co- developers ofsystems.

· All LLL systems should be collaborative systems, able to work, and partner with similar institutions and industrial organizations, to enhance their results and share resourcesbecause in isolation all learning enterprises are incomplete, as knowledge and technology are changing fast.

6.    Lifelong Learning Strategies

An effective LLL system must adopt a set of balanced, systematic, coherent and comprehensive strategies. Some select few strategies are given below:

·    LLL should address all forms of learning. It should not only focus on formal programs of study to cater toprofessional skills development but also its own disciplinary development likecontribution to social and economic empowerment.

·  LLL systems must develop partnership with public and private organizations including voluntary organizationsthat can be useful education service providers.

·    All LLL systems must develop a research data about the nature of demand for learning in a knowledge-based society, e.g. labor market needs for basic skills, emerging services sector, information & communication technologies, etc.

· All LLL systems must strategize an optimum resource mobilization, inviting public and private investmentsin learning including self-financing LLL schemes.

·  LLL systems should promote a culture of learning, which values learning and its instrumental (utilitarian) value. It should promote status and incentives for knowledge entrepreneurs and seekers, who are highly resilient achievers.

·  In order to achieve excellence, all LLL systems must develop strategiesof strict quality control in the delivery of their services, with appropriate indicators and milestones to monitor their own progress and commitments.

·  In a lifelong context, strategies are also needed to rethink about access and equity priorities in LLL by exploring opportunities available to individuals across their life cycle and in different settings where learning occurs. LLL should address learning and training needs of not only the workforce aspiring for the rich, organized sector but also the needs of the vast majority of workers and peasants belonging to the unorganized, informal sector of the national economy.

7.    Limitations and Weaknesses of Lifelong Learning

Some major weaknesses of education system in India have been: lack of adequate financial support, accesses and flexible bureaucratic norms and regulations, inadequate infrastructural provisions and training, poor curricula and weak delivery mechanisms. LLL systems are no exception. Although in India, they are yet to be institutionalized properly within the higher education system, however, apart from the above mentioned, some practical and conceptual limitations or weaknesses of LLL are given below.

·  LLL systems are notalways able to visualize or foresee all the learning needs of a fast changing economy and technological systems; neither are they able to adaptquickly to the new changes.

·   They are not always meticulously adept in considering providing all the needs of a learner or a community.

·   LLL systems tend to undermine their own disciplinary research and development because of their preoccupation with career and professional development.

· Technology is not always the harbinger of social and cultural development. Hence, LLL systems with their exclusive focus ondevelopment of professional skills tend to undermine social justice and equity issues in national skills development.

·  LLL romanticizes lifelong learning at the cost of life-wide learning. It also privileges skills learning for the organized sector of the national economy at the cost of informal, unorganized sector.

·    LLL generally tends to defer acquisition of certain professional and technological skills until they are in demandand hence, learning time and resources may not be available later to a learner. Alternatively, learning environment later may not be always too conducive for the learner in terms of safe learningprocesses.

·   LLL focuses mainly on individual needs, market demands and professional skills requirement. Hence, it is liable to provide limited and isolated pieces of knowledge and limited support in learning essential LLL principles.

·  LLL systems provide mainly contextualized (embedded) and experience-based knowledge and skills, which may put ordinary working class learners in a fix while abstracting their gained experience and knowledge in new and differentsettings.

• Another major limitation of LLL is its predominantpreoccupation with economic (vocational) and professional skills, which is also visible from the pun intended in its paraphrased term: “Lifelong (L)Earning” which can be interpreted as “Learning to Earn” only.

8. Conclusion

Education, training and lifelong learning have become central to our contemporary ‘knowledge society’ which is influenced by fast-changing global technologies and information. Ours is an increasingly complex society with ever expanding and ever changing demands for new skills, new professionalism, new values, new attitudes, new organizational structures and principles. The complexities of the contemporary globalized world require that we are continuously able to rethink, reinvent and redesign our learning systems and organizational structures for the future. A lifelong learning perspective has emerged in the field of adult education, which aspires to go beyond vocational training and continuing education. The challenge of the 21st century education is to rethink, reinvent and restructure our school based and higher education based LLL systemin a more balanced way to accommodate the aspirations of individual empowerment as well as social and global transformation.

References

1. Aspin, David and Judith Chapman. 2001. ‘Lifelong learning: concepts, theories and values’. Paper presented at SCUTREA, 31st Annual Conference, 3-5 July 2001, University of East London
2. Barros, Rosanna. 2012. ‘From lifelong education to lifelong learning’, in European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 119-134
3. Longworth, Norman, and Davies, W. Keith. 1996. Lifelong Learning: New Vision, New Implications, New Roles for People, Organizations, Nations and Communities in the 21st Century. London: Kogan Page
4. Medel-Anonuevo, Carolyn eds. 2002. Integrating Lifelong Learning Perspectives. UNESCO Institute for Education. Hamburg, Germany
5. Milana, Marcella and Nesbit, Tom. 2015. Global Perspectives on Adult Education and Learning Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, UK
6. World Bank. 2003. Lifelong Learning in the Global Knowledge Economy: Challenges for Developing Countries, World Bank, Washington D.C.