Models of Lifelong Learning: An Overview. In M. London (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Lifelong Learning, 2nd Edition (pp. 1-26). Oxford University Press.

Abstract

Lifelong learning is a familiar concept in ordinary conversation and in public policy discourses. Though the history and various meanings of lifelong learning are noble, it has in more recent times been identified with functional interests, economic goals and one-dimensional interpretations. This chapter identifies the genesis and grounding of lifelong learning in psychology and adult education, disciplines that establish the foundations for our understanding of learning. Classical and current learning theories are outlined, including behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism from psychology. Adult education learning theory contributes andragogy, self-directed learning, experiential learning, multiple intelligences and transformative learning. Insights from critical pedagogy are added in order to suggest models of lifelong learning that transcend functional models. This more critical interpretation contributes to a better understanding of lifelong learning that has an interest in enhancing communities and society and promoting the democratic and emancipatory goals of education.

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Subject: Psychology, Developmental Psychology Online Publication Date: Sep 2020
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197506707.013.3
Models of Lifelong Learning: An Overview
Ted Fleming
The Oxford Handbook of Lifelong Learning, Second Edition
Edited by Manuel London

Abstract and Keywords
Lifelong learning is a familiar concept in ordinary conversation and in public policy dis
courses. Though the history and various meanings of lifelong learning are noble, it has in
more recent times been identified with functional interests, economic goals, and one-di
mensional interpretations. This chapter identifies the genesis and grounding of lifelong
learning in psychology and adult education, disciplines that establish the foundations for
our understanding of learning. Classical and current learning theories are outlined, in
cluding behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism from psychology. Adult education
learning theory contributes andragogy, self-directed learning, experiential learning, multi
ple intelligences, and transformative learning. Insights from critical pedagogy are added
in order to suggest models of lifelong learning that transcend functional models. This
more critical interpretation contributes to a better understanding of lifelong learning that
has an interest in enhancing communities and society and promoting the democratic and
emancipatory goals of education.
Keywords: behaviorism, self-directed learning, andragogy, experiential learning, transformative learning, multiple
intelligences, critical pedagogy
Introduction
Davies, in his history of Europe, identifies dominant ideologies that at various times have
held Europe together (1997, pp. 24–27). It may be that Europe and the West are held to
gether now by the concept of the market, institutionalized as the Common Market and
more recently the European Union. In our neoliberal world the market is seen as having
the ability to meet all our needs. Neoliberalism has adopted lifelong learning and made it
an essential part of the process of enhancing global markets and of initiating the cultural
changes required to sustain the evolving market (Giroux, 2014).
In a neoliberal world rationality is narrowly defined as economic rationality, and every
body is encouraged to act so as to maximize their own individual benefit. Students be
come human capital, and shopping is the archetypal activity in society. There are other

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needs and aspirations that cannot be supplied by the market or bought in shopping malls
or even on the Internet. These include democracy, freedom, peace, care, and justice.
More critical models of lifelong learning involve meeting these needs (Negt, 2008).
For John Dewey education was closely connected to democracy, and he believed that
learning should continue past school, “irrespective of age” (1916, p. 55):
the purpose of school education is to insure the continuance of education by orga
nizing the powers that insure growth. The inclination to learn from life itself and
to make the conditions of life such that all will learn in the process of living is the
finest product of schooling. (p. 51)
The vision of education that underpins the concept of lifelong learning is crucial. Whether
education is a social and political activity in the service of a social and common good or
whether it is also an end in itself is an important aspect of this study. The history of edu
cation (not just Dewey) is clear that education is an end in itself with a clear focus on the
common good.
Almost 100 years ago the English educator Basil Yeaxlee (1929), in his book Lifelong Edu
cation, was the first to unite the entire educational agenda (formal, informal, and non-for
mal) as a lifelong process. In 1972, the former prime minister of France, Edgar Faure
(Faure et al., 1972) authored the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization’s (UNESCO’s) report Learning to Be that proposed “lifelong learning as the
master concept for educational policies in the years to come” (p. 182). It was then and re
mains the most important initiative informing public policy on lifelong learning. This re
port also articulated an agenda broader than economic concerns and emphasized the de
velopment of individuals, democracy, and society. These humanistic inclinations of UNES
CO strongly influenced its definition of lifelong learning without ignoring other, particu
larly French, existentialist and critical perspectives. According to Elfert (2018), this gave
the UNESCO literature on the topic a more balanced and even counterposition to the
emerging neoliberal version that is since in command. Faure resisted understanding life
long learning as merely a support for economic ideology. The tension existed between the
concept of lifelong learning as an essential element of a democratic and a fair society and
the other possibility that it could become an ally of a neoliberal ideology (Elfert, 2018, p.
136). In addition, the persisting vagueness of the concept contributed to its split person
ality.
In the United States, the Adult Education Act (1966) and the Lifelong Learning Act (1976)
attempted to bring the disadvantaged into the American mainstream and make their lives
more rewarding and productive (Merriam and Caffarella, 1999, p. 76). Others, such as
Gelpi (1979), wrote of lifelong learning as a noble and broadly defined idea that in recent
times has become a little tarnished and one-dimensional, not just by overuse but also by
misuse. In outlining models of lifelong learning, this chapter tracks this decline and more
importantly attempts to realize the potential of lifelong learning.

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The policy discourses of the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-oper
ation and Development (OECD) (1973) have also shaped current understandings of life
long learning. The Delors report (Delors, 1996) emphasized the importance for European
policy of learning to know, to do, to be, and to live together. Lifelong learning as a con
cept has always had a humanistic and a social agenda.
Policy discourses have privileged lifelong learning as a market-oriented intervention in
the lives of citizens. The OECD (1973) and the European Commission (1995, 2000, 2001)
strongly supported a human capital approach to lifelong learning. The full potential of
lifelong learning has been collapsed by the political and policy focus of the European
Union and the OECD that have given the highest priority to the market as the location in
which social problems (e.g., health and education) are to be addressed. It is important to
go beyond this narrow economic functionalism and market-oriented model that has
trapped and colonized lifelong learning. Originally, the term was capable of carrying a
rights-based and emancipatory approach; but its meaning has changed remarkably over
the years, and current models of lifelong learning reflect this (Elfert, 2020, p. 18).
It is understandable that education permanente (as it was called) would have a dual func
tion as Europe needed a learning agenda that responded to and acted as a binding force
to support the emergence from World War II with a vision of high civic involvement, hard
work, and an attitude to learning that supported both (Elfert, 2018, p. 19). The Faure re
port emphasized developing the full potential of each individual in a learning society, and
ideas from Freire and Illich were included. These ideas were and continue to be contest
ed and were objected to by some members of the writing teams at the time who dis
agreed with their ideological dimensions.
The Delors report proposed lifelong learning as the educational paradigm of the future
and introduced lifelong and life-wide understandings (Delors, 1996, p. 100). Delors was
fearful that the educational system would be invaded by pressures from the economy, and
the earlier idealism of Faure was tempered by Delors as the high expectations and indeed
dreams of a postwar Europe failed to be realized (Elfert, 2018, p. 183). Maybe education
was not going to provide the answers for which Faure had hoped when he characterized
it as learning to know, to do, to be, and to live together.
Jarvis (2004) and Field (2006) have outlined the history and the contested nature of our
understanding of lifelong learning. The powerful classes in society have always defined
what is meant by useful or necessary knowledge in such a way that the knowledge of
powerful (or ruling) classes becomes the ruling ideas of society. This process has been
well articulated by Gramsci (1971). As a consequence, the knowledge economy and
knowledge society, so beloved of management and policy developers, must lead us to an
educational suspicion of lifelong learning. The concept was increasingly understood and
developed in order to support the interests of dominant elites and meet the needs of in
dustrialization and economic development. The concept has to be reclaimed not only from
this market-driven imperative but also from those who would want to associate it too
closely with schooling. As lifelong learning has not had great conceptual clarity but has

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had a common-sense value, this may explain how it became a highly accepted concept;
like apple pie, to be against it is difficult!
By the end of the 20th century, according to Alheit and Dausien (2002, p. 3), a global po
litical consensus had emerged about the reason that lifelong learning is necessary. They
suggest four reasons: (1) continuous change in the meaning and nature of work; (2) the
new functions of knowledge as understood by the knowledge society in the light of the
growth of automation, social media, and information technology; (3) the inability (even
dysfunctionality) of the educational system to support the learning that people need in a
changing society; and (4) reflexive modernity. Beck (1992) and Giddens (1990) coined the
idea of “reflexive modernity” to emphasize the need to be more reflexive about the many
complex choices that are necessary today. The answers to problems and decisions made
are always provisional and in need of constant interrogation and revision. Knowledge re
mains relative, elusive, and provisional; thus, certainty is not easily achieved. The demise
of certainty today (Kavanagh & Rich, 2018) is such that knowledge and expertise have be
come suspect in public conversations as never before (it seems), and people are mistrust
ful of objective truths and factual evidence. The decline in shared beliefs about what is re
al (or true) raises huge concerns for political discourse and debates about education. Peo
ple are deluged by fake news, conspiracy theories, and media distortions; and so-called
reality TV is anything but reality—scripted, edited, with actors dancing to preset scenar
ios. Post-truth is the new age in which lifelong learning has to maintain credibility
(D’Ancona, 2017). As a result, agreement in society about priorities seems scarcely possi
ble. This is an additional task for reflexive modernity and for a lifelong learning that ad
dresses real problems. How can a society move to relying on facts again (Griffin, 2019, p.
4)?
Joseph Stiglitz (2019) has indicated that the current form of globalization under a neolib
eral economic model has left individuals and entire societies unable to control important
parts of their own destinies. The benefits of trickle-down economics were to trickle down
to even the lowest rungs of society. In order to get there, workers would have to settle for
wage stability (lower wages), cutbacks, and important public programs (e.g., privatiza
tions); and though Stiglitz does not mention this, they were expected to engage in lifelong
learning. As a result, the wealth gap increased, many felt conned, and people are experi
encing trickle-up economics. “If the 2008 financial crisis failed to make us realize that un
fettered markets don’t work, the climate crisis certainly should: neoliberalism will literal
ly bring an end to our civilization” (Stiglitz, 2019, p. 2). The reality has dawned on many
commentators (Nicoll & Fejes, 2008) that the economic purposes of lifelong learning have
become a priority in political discourse. This does not completely eliminate lifelong learn
ing in personal and democratic development, but it has been relegated to a “subordinate
position” (pp. 33–44).
Underpinning lifelong learning policies is a set of false assumptions about the potential
and success of the economy. These include the notions that economic success will lead to
the eradication of deprivation, that failure to achieve is an individual failure, and that cur
rent access to education is fair (Tett, 2014, p. 15). The risk is that a form of lifelong com

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pulsory schooling will emerge where the lines between education and learning become
blurred. In the United Kingdom, the white paper on lifelong learning (Department for Ed
ucation and Employment, 1998) proposed lifelong learning as essential for an economic
future but also identified the need to continue learning in order to develop a civilizing so
ciety and active citizens.
Coffield (1999) calls attention to the way the economic effects and implications of lifelong
learning have come to dominate public policy debates and how broader ideas have “van
ished from consideration and need to be reintroduced” (p. 481). Instead of lifelong learn
ing becoming the master concept, Coffield suggests that flexibility has become the domi
nant concept in a neoliberal market economy. It could be suggested that shopping (a eu
phemism for the market as the consumer society) fuels the economy. Public policy tries to
create a new culture of lifelong learning without either any theory of learning or a
recognition that a new social theory is required. Briefly, a social theory of learning
argues that learning is located in social participation and dialogue as well as in
the heads of individuals; and it shifts the focus from a concentration on individual
cognitive processes to the social relationships and arrangements which shape, for
instance, positive and negative, “learner identities” which may differ over time
and from place to place. (Coffield, 1999, p. 493)
Coffield also argues against the way in which teaching and learning are seen as one
thing. They are, rather, distinct elements of a single process of reciprocal actions. Teach
ing and learning for many in the lifelong learning debate remain unproblematic processes
that involve assimilation and/or transmission of knowledge, but “no learning society can
be built on such atheoretical foundations” (Coffield, 1999, p. 492).
Lifelong learning appears in the literature and in political discourse in a
bewildering number of different guises. For instance, it is an instrument for
change (in individuals, organizations and society) and as a buffer against change
… it is a means of increasing economic competitiveness and of personal develop
ment; it is a social policy to combat social exclusion and to ease the re-entry of the
unemployed into the labour market; it is a way of promoting the professional and
social development of employees and of acquiring new knowledge through the
labour process; and it is a strategy to develop the participation of citizens in so
cial, cultural and political affairs. But there is also a skeptical version of lifelong
learning … it has become a form of social control. (Coffield, 1999, pp. 487–488)
It is this absence of a coherent approach to our subject that leads both to the contested
nature of the meaning of lifelong learning and to the bewildering array of models, some
of which will be outlined here. Though a historical analysis of the origins of the models of
lifelong learning is essential (Field, 2006; Jarvis, 2004), adult education and psychology
provide a significant body of knowledge clarifying the foundational meanings of lifelong
learning.

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In adult education, Crowther (2004) suggests that lifelong learning is about flexible learn
ers and compulsory learning. The current and dominant understanding diminishes the
public sphere, undermines educational activity, introduces new mechanisms for self-sur
veillance, and reinforces the view that failure to succeed is a personal responsibility (p.
125). He sees lifelong learning as a deficit discourse that locates the problem of political
and system failure in the individual rather than the system. It serves the interests of the
market.
The International Journal of Lifelong Education identified in more nuanced ways how life
long learning is focused on serving global capitalism but also has an emancipatory poten
tial:
Whereby people conform to that which is expected of them without
necessarily being aware of the power that is being exerted to make them
conform. But lifelong learning is also a process that can liberate learners so that
through their learning they can subvert the activities of power. (Editorial, 2007, p.
360)
The OECD is aware of how the lifelong learning agenda creates new elites with winners
and losers and how those with a successful experience of education win the learning race.
Continuing learning is an enriching experience, which increases their sense of
control over their own lives and their society. For those who are excluded from
this process, however, or who choose not to participate, the generalization of life
long learning may only have the effect of increasing their isolation from the world
of the “knowledge-rich”. The consequences are economic, in under-used human
capacity and increased welfare expenditure, and social, in terms of alienation and
decaying social infrastructure. (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and De
velopment, 1997, p. 1)
At its best, lifelong learning involves a vision of the good society that is democratic and
egalitarian, and discussions about lifelong learning are about the kind of society we want
to create (Field & Schuller, 1999, p. 3). As the European Commission (2000) Memoran
dum on Lifelong Learning states, “Lifelong learning is no longer just one aspect of educa
tion and training; it must become the guiding principle for provision and participation
across the full continuum of learning contexts” (p. 3). In outlining models of lifelong
learning, this skepticism, along with a humanistic and social agenda, will be kept alive
while not ignoring the market dimension of lifelong learning. UNESCO continues to sup
port the links between citizenship, economic growth, and sustainable development
(Nikolitsa-Winter, Mauch, & Maalouf, 2019).

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Models of Lifelong Learning (Psychology)
Lifelong learning is inspired by psychology and adult education. The psychologically in
spired understandings are behavioral, cognitivist, and constructivist; and the adult educa
tion–inspired models rely on experiential learning, andragogy, self-directed learning, and
theories such as transformation theory and critical pedagogy.
Behaviorism
In the early 20th century Pavlov discovered classical conditioning. In his famous experi
ment a dog salivated when food was produced and a bell was rung at the same time.
Pavlov was able to show that when subsequently the bell was rung, without any food be
ing produced, the dog would salivate. The dog had learned this.
John B. Watson was able to make a young boy afraid of his own pets by a process of emo
tionally conditioning the boy. Edward Lee Thorndike was able to show that we learn
through trial and error and through responding to what feels satisfying. It seems that the
more satisfying behaviors are exhibited, the better one learns.
Skinner’s (1974) experiments took a further step and showed that a learner can be condi
tioned to do something (or not do something) on the basis of a promised reward (or pun
ishment). Operant conditioning has become one of the best-known models of learning,
and such concepts as reinforcement and behavioral change are crucial to understanding
this approach to learning. It assumes that we are behaving organisms and that learning is
a process of changing behavior.
Teaching in this environment becomes the process of breaking the behaviors that are re
quired into a series of small and manageable behaviors that can be taught in sequence,
and in this way desired changes are brought about. Planning learning involves setting be
havioral objectives, and the educational task is to set the conditions under which a learn
er is expected to perform, the behavior a student is expected to produce, and the criteria
by which behaviors are evaluated. If, for example, one wanted to stop smoking cigarettes,
one would find ways of rewarding behaviors (by praise, for instance) that are consistent
with not smoking and punishing behaviors (scolding, for example) that are associated
with the behaviors that are discouraged. It is a strength of this model that the required
changes can be identified and outcomes measured. The learner can be given a score as to
their success in achieving the objectives, and this is a measure of the learner’s compe
tence.
Some social problems may be connected with behaviors that one might like to change, for
example, one’s eating habits; and it is thought that such behaviors may be changed
through a process of conditioning. It is possible to object strongly to bringing about
change in this way without coming to understand the causes of the unwanted behaviors.

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Behaviorists were and are concerned to strengthen culture and society through educa
tion, and the ultimate goal of education is to bring about behaviors that ensure the sur
vival of the human species. A wide range of skills, from plumbing and carpentry to
surgery and aircraft flying, may be effectively taught in this way. There is a simplicity to
this, and allied with the control over inputs and outputs by the teacher this learning mod
el is attractive for teaching skills and enhancing competence among those whose skill and
competence levels are important for their expertise. This model is appropriate for certain
kinds of learning and has the clear social good of increasing accountability and making
professionals responsible for their standards. Competency-based education is the pro
grammatic outcome of this model.
The assumption made about the learner is one of the problems with this model. It as
sumes that we are mere behaving organisms. If one believes that we have an internal life
of feelings, desires, and imaginings, not to mention an unconscious, and that we are
meaning-making beings, then this model is problematic.
Cognitivism
Gestalt psychology developed in Europe at the same time as behaviorism. It saw learning
as an insight or the development of an understanding. In this model the mind is seen as a
whole, or gestalt, into which all learning must fit or be integrated. This model is critical of
the absence among behaviorists of reference to the learner developing an understanding.
This model sees learning as an internal process involving understanding and reorganizing
of experience along with the changing of mental constructs or maps essential for under
standing the world.
Robert Gagné (1968) and his followers were behaviorist in so far as their focus was on
the outcomes—or behaviors—that resulted from training, but he began the move toward
more cognitivist approaches that focused on internal processing of information. Gagné’s
theory of instruction is based on a taxonomy of learning outcomes. In order for these out
comes to be brought about, particular conditions are necessary, including the internal
skills of the learner and the external skills of the teacher. In terms of learning, Gagné de
veloped a learning typology or model that included types of learning. These were signal
learning, stimulus and response, learning chains, verbal associations, discrimination, con
cept learning, rule learning, and problem-solving. Each of the different types of learning
in this hierarchical list builds on the previous one and emphasizes the learning of content
through what he termed the “conditions of instruction.” These conditions or teaching mo
ments involve the following: gain attention, inform learner of objectives, stimulate recall
of prior learning, present stimulus material, provide learner guidance, elicit performance,
provide feedback, assess performance, and enhance retention transfer (Gagné, 1968). He
is considered to be the foremost researcher and contributor to the systematic approach to
instructional design and training.

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Constructivism
The constructivist model sees learning as not just the gathering of additional knowledge.
Instead, learners construct new meaning. But in contrast to the behaviorists, there are in
ternal processes involved that put a construction on events in interactions with the envi
ronment. Jean Piaget (Inhelder and Piaget, 1958) in his studies of children’s development
proposed that children’s cognitive structures develop through a series of invariant stages.
He established the understanding of learning as a person constructing their own under
standing of the world or environment. This was a counter to the idea that learning was
like taking new files into a brain that simply filed them away or that knowledge was to be
inserted or transferred into the learner.
Instead, the learner construes the world using mental structures, and these structures ex
ist in the brain as dispositions that are described as mental schemes. New impulses are
included in the mental organization, and this is done in four different ways, according to
Illeris (2009, p. 12), and involves four different kinds of learning. Learning can be cumu
lative or mechanical (mostly in early life); assimilative, a kind of learning that is added on
to what is already there; accommodative, breaking down existing schemes to include and
integrate new experiences; and finally, transformative or involving restructuring of mean
ing schemes.
Children are active participants in this development and learning process, active in inter
action with their environment, either assimilating or accommodating new experiences
with old knowledge. Adults too are active in the learning process and create new models
or personal constructs (Kelly, 1963). It is not a matter of either changing behavior or of
adding new knowledge but, rather, a process of changing the schema or meaning-making
framework.
Piaget described stages in the development of one’s meaning schemes. In these stages
the logical competence of the individual develops through discrete stages from sensori
motor (ages 1–2), to preoperational (ages up to about 4), to concrete (ages 4–early teens),
and to formal operations (from mid-teens onward). This means that the learner in grow
ing is capable of moving from a vision of the world that is preoperational to one that is
quite concrete and on to one that is increasingly abstract and in the process becomes
able to deal with and understand knowledge and experience in more complex and ab
stract ways.
The preoperational child’s meaning scheme, for example, is generally unable to grasp
that a certain material can stay the same regardless of the shape the material takes. The
same amount of pottery clay, for instance, can be made into a thin plate shape or a
sphere, but the preoperational child will perceive there to be more material (stuff) in the
shape that is most spread out. The implications of this for learning are important. A con
crete learner makes sense of the world in a way that is consistent with their concrete
meaning scheme, and it is totally appropriate for a young child to be concrete in the ways
they interpret the world. There is a strong and appropriate tendency to make meaning or
impose concrete constructions on events and experiences. As the child moves through

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school, there are social, developmental, and educational expectations, enshrined in the
school curriculum, to be able to see things in more general and abstract terms as in alge
bra, geometry, and literature. This progression is known as formal operations. In any
learning program the ability of the learner to learn or the tutor to teach a subject or pro
gram will hinge on each person’s ability to make meaning at a formal level or not. Though
there is a developmental progression from preoperational to concrete and on to formal or
abstract thinking, the important implication is that different learners will have quite dif
ferent ways of making meaning and that this will have a significant impact on what can
be learned and how it can be taught.
The central concept of Piaget’s theory is that the individual attempts to cognitively main
tain an equilibrium in their meaning-making interactions with the environment by adapt
ing and making adjustments both internally (in one’s understanding) and externally (by
adapting the environment to meet one’s needs). These are the assimilating and accommo
dating processes. We might imagine these two processes as, on the one hand, adapting
what we perceive to fit existing understandings and, on the other, adapting the way we
construe meaning in ways that change the process of construing.
The process of learning involves achieving equilibrium by adaptation and assimilation—
the mind seeks to resolve perceived discrepancies between understandings and experi
ences. Piaget’s model shows the importance of cognitive schemes for both teaching and
learning. For example, if we were learning plumbing, structures that are already devel
oped are being constantly elaborated and remodeled in the process of learning that in
volves an active interaction with the environment. This emphasizes the importance of the
teacher being concerned about what the learner already understands.
Jerome Bruner (1960) and Leon Vygotsky (1962, 1978) further developed these ideas, and
Vygotsky is credited with discovering the importance of learning for human development
and seeing that learning cannot be separated from its social context. Brain development
depends on social interaction. But for our purposes, the most useful idea is the zone of
proximal development (ZPD). The ZPD is the difference between the independent perfor
mance (level of knowledge) of a learner and the assisted performance (or level of knowl
edge) of the same person when that level is achieved, usually by a teacher or mentor sup
porting the performance. Learning is best done with support or, as Bruner calls it, scaf
folding. Lifelong learning needs interaction and appropriate support, usually in the form
of interactions with others. Encouragement, support, structuring, and making sugges
tions are ways of assisting learners to perform to a higher level than they would if they
were unassisted. The skillful teacher works with the ZPD.
As a general critique of these models, it could be argued that they have not progressed
significantly beyond the concept of learning as problem-solving. In looking at some of the
adult education models of lifelong learning we will identify more advanced concepts of
learning that go beyond problem-solving. From the models informed by psychology we
turn to models informed by adult education.

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Models of Lifelong Learning (Adult Education)
Merriam (2001, p. 5) has indicated that only in the 20th century has a systematic study of
how adults learn been undertaken and that there is no single theory and no uncontested
understanding of the process. Malcolm Knowles is one of the key adult education contrib
utors to the understanding of learning. His contribution is significant. In The Modern
Practice of Adult Education (Knowles, 1980) he demonstrated how to plan learning pro
grams for adults by firstly identifying the complete list of skills needed to perform a job
(e.g., becoming a technician) and then identifying the existing level of competence of the
trainee before planning the learning program. The teaching program systematically filled
the gap between what was already known and what was expected to be known by the ful
ly trained operative. In addition, he developed two key concepts: andragogy and self-di
rected learning. The self-directed learning of Knowles was the new technology that distin
guished adult learning (andragogy) from childhood learning (pedagogy).
Andragogy and Self-Directed Learning
Andragogy is a set of assumptions about what it means to be a learner (Knowles, 1980,
pp. 40–59), and Knowles identified four assumptions of andragogy. The first is that the
learner’s self-concept was self-directed. The learner can increasingly be a participant in
all aspects of learning, from assessing learning needs to designing the learning process
including evaluating learning outcomes. However, tutors do not always experience their
learners as self-directed, and this should be taken into account by the tutor.
The second assumption of andragogy (Knowles, 1980, p. 49) concerns the quality of an
adult’s experience that is distinct from children’s experience. Traditionally, it was the ex
perience of the teacher that was important, and of course, it is important. Adult learners
also accumulate not only a great deal of experience but experience of a qualitatively dif
ferent kind from that of children. This experience involves the knowing that accrues from
education, work, being married, rearing a family, being part of a community, and travel.
This reservoir of experience not only precipitates questions that prompt learning but pro
vides a context in which new learning can be tested and applied. This suggests the con
cept of experiential learning, to which we will return later.
The third assumption (Knowles, 1980, p. 51) concerns the readiness of the adult to learn,
and this is related to developmental tasks and life stages. A learner develops through dif
ferent life stages, during which different age-related learning needs and tasks emerge for
exploration. Training courses are sometimes designed with the age of the participants in
mind. This suggests that different issues emerge to be discussed, depending on the age of
the participants. Training may ignore these needs but will be experienced as more rele
vant if these needs are addressed.
The fourth assumption (Knowles, 1980, p. 53) identifies the orientation of the adult to
learning that is problem-centered rather than subject-centered. Adults usually wish to
solve problems or discuss topics and questions rather than study a subject systematically.

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If an adult wished to study archeology, they are more likely to be motivated by the ques
tions they already have than by the process of learning the discipline in a systematic fash
ion. Knowles was clear that adults learn for immediate application and in order to solve
current issues or answer questions. This impacts on how a learning program is organized.
It will be more effective if the learners’ questions are addressed as part of the process.
Knowles remains a key contributor to understanding program development. However, he
does not make any reference to the cultural backgrounds of learners, and this makes his
contribution problematic in this more culturally aware world. According to Grace (1996,
p. 391), Knowles took a mechanistic rather than a meaningful approach to learning and
never considered the organizational and social impediments to learning. We cannot in this
space engage in a dialogue with Knowles as to whether his ideas have implications for
working with children (Hartree, 1984), but his ideas are less a theory than an ideal view
of adult learning. Merriam and Caffarella (1999, p. 273) outline the empirical studies that
have tested his ideas, and Brookfield (1993) has critiqued the idea that we can assume
that all adults are autonomous self-directed learners.
Experiential Learning
Knowles was not alone in highlighting the importance of learning from experience that
we also speak about in ordinary language. Kolb (1984) has further developed this con
cept. He builds on the well-known Dewey (1963) idea that “there is an intimate and nec
essary relation between the processes of actual, experience and education” (p. 19) and
that learning is more than a process of depositing information and the teaching of skills.
Dewey is a foundational contributor to many aspects of our current understanding of life
long learning. Kolb’s work is based on Lewin (action research and the democratic values
of discussion) and on Piaget (the lifelong nature of learning through processes of assimi
lation and accommodation), and these are the roots of Kolb’s work on learning styles.
Experiential learning has been developed by Kolb as a counter to the denial of subjective
experience by behaviorists. He also goes beyond cognitive theories that give primacy to
acquisition, manipulation, and recall of abstract symbols. He attempts to integrate per
ception, experience, cognition, and behavior in his model of learning. The process of
learning involves four moments that are the elements of a learning cycle: concrete experi
ence, reflection on experience, abstract conceptualization, and finally testing, application
in action.
Kolb understood learning as a process through which knowledge is created by transform
ing experience. This follows Dewey’s (1897) understanding: “I believe firmly, that educa
tion must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience; that the process and
the goal of education are one and the same thing” (p. 79). Kolb understands learning as
involving the resolution of a conflict between dialectically opposed modes of engaging
with the world that are concrete or abstract, thinking or doing.

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How might a learner move through this learning cycle? Where does a learner start, with
one’s experience or with theory? What weight might one give to each moment of the
learning cycle? Though the learning process and learning cycle are more complex and de
tailed than can be outlined here, the different answers that each learner gives to these
questions indicate each learner’s unique learning style.
As a teacher my own learning style could be imagined as being more likely to commence
with abstract theory and conceptualization, not engaging greatly with testing (especially
in a practical field, e.g., nursing or teaching); spending a modest amount of learning ener
gy on experience; and emphasizing reflection on that experience. Many adult learners are
more likely to commence their learning with concrete experience and move on to a
process of reflection on that experience. Learners might give these moments consider
able attention. The challenge for teachers may be between the learner with an emphasis
on experience and reflection and the traditional teacher emphasizing abstract conceptual
ization. This will be a conflict or contrast of learning styles—if we assume, probably cor
rectly, that one’s teaching style reflects one’s learning style.
This then raises questions about how best to facilitate people with different learning
styles and whether the learning style of the learner should, for best results, match or con
trast with the teaching style of the teacher. The answers are not necessarily obvious. Ten
nant (2006, p. 88) gives a useful synopsis of how some of these issues are researched by
Kolb and Fry (1975). For a more comprehensive understanding of this insightful model of
learning the Learning Style Inventory of Kolb (1976) is useful.
Models of lifelong learning assert that a learner, in order to be effective, needs to develop
the ability to have concrete experiences, reflect on these experiences from different per
spectives, and theorize and actively create concepts that integrate reflective observations
into logically sound conceptual frameworks and theories. Finally, it is necessary to en
gage in experimenting and testing of the learning, make decisions, and solve problems
(Kolb & Fry, 1975, p. 35). These are the elements of a comprehensive learning experi
ence.
Experience and Education (John Dewey)
John Dewey casts a not inconsiderable shadow over any discussion of lifelong learning,
and, while not fully outlining his contribution here, it is important to mention his work on
experience and education. He wrote that “all genuine education comes through experi
ence” (1963, p. 3); but only some experiences are educational, and “any experience is
mis-educative that has the effect of arresting or distorting the growth of further experi
ence” (1963, p. 25). In order to learn from experience, attention must be paid to aspects
of experience—continuity and interactions (Dewey, 1963, p. 27). According to Dewey,
every experience, if it is to be learningful, must take up something from previous experi
ence and modify the quality of subsequent experiences (p. 35). In the case of interactions,
experience is always what it is because of a transaction between the learner and the envi
ronment (Dewey, 1963, p. 41). As a consequence, the context is important for promoting

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learning. There should be an openness to new experiences, observational and reflective
skills (the ability to see experience from different perspectives), analytical abilities so that
integration of ideas and concepts can occur, decision-making and problem-solving so that
new concepts can be used in practical situations.
Many have built on these ideas, and Usher, Bryant, and Johnston (1997, p. 107) call atten
tion to the ways that learning and experience are in an interactive dynamic with each oth
er. They support the educational project of interrogation and problematizing of these con
cepts, in addition to emphasizing the importance of accessing and validating one’s experi
ence (p. 118).
First, let us look at Gardner’s possibilities of rethinking lifelong learning.
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence
Traditionally intelligence, though widely defined in psychology, has become a much more
limited construct in education discourse. It is used in the context of an intelligence quo
tient (IQ) or psychometric test (such as the Stanford-Binet) that quantifies an individual’s
average of a number of abilities including the ability to understand, reason, solve prob
lems, and think in abstract ways. Without entering the debate as to the adequacy of intel
ligence as understood by the IQ approach or the many complex understandings of intelli
gence in psychology, Gardner’s (1983, 2000) understanding of multiple intelligences at
tempts to get beyond previous limitations. This expands the possibilities for lifelong learn
ing.
For Gardner, intelligence has different forms: logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial,
musical, kinesthetic, naturalist, intrapersonal, and interpersonal. Most of our understand
ing of multiple intelligences is recent, and this approach goes beyond the traditional em
phases on logical and linguistic intelligences. Logical mathematical intelligence is about
numbers, about the ability to reason logically, and is nearest to the intelligence tradition
ally measured in IQ tests. Linguistic intelligence has to do with words, levels of verbal
skills; and those with linguistic intelligence are typically good at reading and writing.
Spatial and visual intelligence is about the ability to do what we typically associate with
engineers and architects and, indeed, with those who play sport such as football or bas
ketball. It involves the ability to think in pictures or use mental maps and images. Musical
ability involves the abilities associated with rhythm, melody, and sensitivity to sounds and
tones. Kinesthetic intelligence involves the ability to learn from bodily movement and be
interested in the ways knowledge is made concrete in the human body. People with a
strong interest in bodily intelligence are good at events that involve balance, physical
movement like dance and sport, and may have good physical coordination. Naturalist in
telligence has to do with greater sensitivity to nature, an interest in nurturing, relating in
formation to one’s natural surroundings, and a heightened ease with caring for and inter
acting with nature and animals. Those with an intrapersonal or interpersonal intelligence
are particularly interested in self-reflective abilities and interactive capacities, respective

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ly. Recent studies by Goleman (2005) have highlighted the importance of emotional intel
ligence. Though none is better than any other, society does value some more than others.
Opportunities exist to expand this set of intelligences to include, for example, moral intel
ligence; and these will also have implications for learning and teaching. Though not wide
ly utilized in schools, this way of looking at intelligence is providing a set of interesting
and useful pedagogic concepts and practices. It allows the educator to value a different
set of intelligences from those normally highlighted in schools and an opportunity to
teach in ways that acknowledge the variety of intelligences among children. By extension,
it allows lifelong learning to be understood more broadly.
Like instrumental learning, logical and linguistic intelligences have had a more dominant
role in educational systems. In similar fashion, other intelligences are undervalued. Life
long learning as a concept may allow for the inclusion of other intelligences in learning
programs. However, educators remain divided on the validity or usefulness of this under
standing of intelligence and its implications for learning, teaching, and schooling. One
weakness of the theory is that it may lead to people who have a sense that they are not
strong in one area continuing to treat this as a reason for not progressing with the devel
opment of that intelligence. In contrast, Gardner encourages all intelligences and the full
range of intelligences in each learner.
Multiple intelligence has implications for lifelong learning if, for example, we believe that
many people may be in jobs that do not allow them to optimize their most highly devel
oped intelligence. If a person is highly developed in mathematical intelligence, they may
or may not be on a career path or in a job that allows them to utilize this ability. Guidance
and counseling in lifelong learning can, with benefit, utilize these ideas in exploring job
change and development for adults. The challenge for the facilitator of lifelong learning is
to find the appropriate pathway or teaching methods so as to maximize the strengths of
the learner.
Transformative Learning Theory
The American adult educator Jack Mezirow contributed a model of lifelong learning that
is significantly more comprehensive than previous attempts by adult educators. Mezirow
(see Fleming, 2018b) built on Dewey’s idea of reflection that involved “active persistent
and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of
grounds that support it and the further conclusion to which it tends” (Dewey 1933, p. 9).
Dewey’s reflection, according to Mezirow, is “validity testing.” Dewey discusses this refer
ence in the context of problem-solving in a hypothetical-deductive model (integral to in
strumental learning), which for Dewey means “critical enquiry.” According to Mezirow, he
may not have distinguished reflection on the content of a problem from premise reflection
(critique of presuppositions) and so does not realize the full potential of critique in adult
learning.

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Based on an empirical research project (Mezirow, 1978) that explored the experiences of
adults returning to higher education and borrowing the epistemology of Jürgen Haber
mas, he suggests that there are different kinds of learning. Firstly, there is what is known
as skill learning, which generally involves “how to” learning. It gives control over the
physical environment, and important areas such as engineering, surgery, plumbing, as
tronomy, and physics, to name a few, are the disciplines associated with this kind of learn
ing. The appropriate teaching methodologies for this learning involve those associated
with skills development (e.g., demonstration). Skills are best taught through competency-
based methodologies.
Secondly, there is the kind of learning that is less concerned with control but rather with
understanding one’s self and interactions with other people. This learning for interper
sonal understanding informs the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences (e.g.,
history, economics, sociology, psychology, law, and literature). This list is not exhaustive.
Teaching this learning involves more interactive and discussion types of methodologies
such as role-play, case studies, simulation, and processes that facilitate the ability to take
the perspective of another person and that value empathy. Each of these kinds of learning
(instrumental and communicative) is taught and evaluated differently.
In order for either of these kinds of learning to be transformative there must be, in addi
tion, a critical questioning of the assumptions that underpin one’s beliefs, feelings, points
of view; a critique of their continued appropriateness; a search for their psychological
and sociocultural genesis; and engagement in the process of seeking new, more inclusive
and discriminating assumptions. Finally, as part of the process, the learner must act on
the basis of the new set of assumptions. This process involves critical reflection on as
sumptions and participating fully and freely in dialogical discourse to validate a best re
flective judgment (Mezirow, 2009, p. 94). “Transformative learning is the process of be
coming critically aware of one’s own tacit assumptions and expectations and those of oth
ers and assessing their relevance for making an interpretation” (Mezirow & Associates,
2000, p. 4). Brookfield (2000, p. 128) suggests that transformative learning involves criti
cal reflection as ideology critique that helps people see how capitalism shapes belief sys
tems and uncovers the assumptions that justify and maintain economic and social in
equity. This perspective finds an echo in the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire and leads to
a more critical model of lifelong learning (Finnegan and Grummell, 2019; Fleming, 2018a,
2018b; Lima, 2018; Walters 2019). According to Elfert (2018, p. 211), in a neoliberal
world lifelong learning is similar to the banking education of Freire. Education as an end
in itself is replaced by education as a means to an end. It is the idea of education as an
end in itself that needs reclaiming so that this version informs lifelong learning. In spite
of the many differences between transformative learning and Freire’s work, Mezirow did
not see a divergence between their work.
Mezirow’s model of lifelong learning allows us to critique ways in which our educational
system and society are inclined to value instrumental learning to the detriment of commu
nicative learning. The dominance of skills, competency, and instrumental learning has
plagued lifelong learning; and the reductionism that sees interpersonal understanding as

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mainly a skill damages broader understandings of learning and flies in the face of much
of the vision from Dewey to Freire and Mezirow. The emphasis on critical reflection is an
important dimension of transformative learning and suggests that the activities of the
teacher and the methodologies used should be critical of unquestioned and taken-for-
granted assumptions.
Toward a Critical Model of Lifelong Learning
There is an increasing skepticism as to whether lifelong learning or indeed education can
transform society (Apple, 2013), and there is an emerging view that the task may be too
challenging for even the most utopian educators. Climate change, women’s empower
ment, and poverty are among the many projects awaiting the promised intervention of
lifelong learning (Roche, 2017). Oskar Negt, the German critical theorist, states that “the
ability of the emancipatory left to effect transformative change is now very low” (Pohl &
Hufer, 2016, p. 206).
But it is fanciful to think that lifelong learning has no power to address or critique war,
crime, prejudice, inequalities, unemployment, homelessness, and other injustices. The po
litical system seems to suggest that all learning roads lead to skills and jobs. So the task
becomes one of identifying how lifelong learning can connect its idealism and its grand
narratives of learning for change (both individual and social) and agency with broader so
cial concerns. Capitalism seems to be able to operate without referring to borders or ac
countability or other cultural aims and purposes of citizens (Negt, 2008). In addressing
these social concerns lifelong learning has to break free from the current agenda of the
European Union that sets agendas for how work and society are organized. If adult edu
cation discourse helps us make any suggestion about solving major problems, it may in
volve an attempt to reconstruct a model of lifelong learning informed by some of the radi
cal possibilities implied in widely accepted theories of adult education. This, according to
Walters (2019, p. 1), is an urgent task.
The less radical position of the European Adult Education Association’s Manifesto for
Adult Learning in the 21st Century proposes to “create a learning Europe—a Europe able
to face the future positively and with all the necessary skills, knowledge and
competences” (Ebner, 2019, p. 1). The aim of their model is to create a knowledge society
and, in the process, create and support active citizens, democracy, political and social en
gagements, as well as equality and fairness in employment. Issues of democracy, educa
tional and social equality, justice, and active citizenship are central to the task, as are
making links to other movements on human rights, climate change, and feminisms
(Finnegan & Grummell, 2019).
Kreber (2015, p. 111) makes a case for strong links between vocational practice (properly
understood) and community education that sees, for example, hairdressers (indeed, all
workers) as active facilitators and important contributors to discourses in their communi
ties. She sees work in general as having a public value as a location for more critical con
versations about identity, self-image, and self-esteem. And hairdressing is, indeed, a good

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example of a space where discussions about why appearance matters are possible. In a
more academic discourse Negt calls for greater awareness that lifelong learning can sup
port forms of work that honor the full potential of human labor and work. He goes on to
suggest that modeling types of public pedagogy characteristic of community education
would enrich vocational education and help foster the capacity of practitioners to act as
civic agents. These connections would assist in redeeming lifelong learning and reclaim
ing the connections lost in the instrumental iteration of lifelong learning. Rasmussen
(2006) suggests that
Critical adult education, as envisaged by Negt, is a learning space that allows indi
viduals (not least workers) in present-day society to develop their impressions and
thoughts from the world of work and other contexts into actual experiences by
connecting them to knowledge and critical concepts of the social world. In this
way adult education can promote real culture and forms of work that honor the
creative potential of human labor power. This is a coherent vision of adult educa
tion, even if many of the elements in Negt’s theory can and should be criticized.
(p. 12)
Negt makes an interesting contribution to the current debate about lifelong learning in
Europe. He proposes the concept of “exemplary learning” that is more inclusive than life
long learning. Work is seen as offering constructive possibilities for redefining lifelong
learning. But unfortunately work has often been at the forefront of attacks on human dig
nity and identity (Negt, 2001). The problem is that it fulfills the needs of the market
rather than those of human dignity. He writes in eloquent ways about how unemployment
is a particular violence against people, and he sees the distorted or repressed conflicts of
the individual as structural contradictions and not just the symptoms of such conflicts. He
proposes “a rebalancing of the house” by giving a priority to training, learning, and edu
cation (Negt, 2008, p. 747).
According to critical educators, education is an existential necessity because democracy
has to be learned. It is also important for European integration and cohesion as no educa
tion, properly formulated, “can avoid involving people’s own interests in the learning
process. Working through their own contradictions, prejudices, confusions must be in the
foreground” (Negt, in Pohl & Hufer, 2016, p. 206). Teaching people to think for them
selves and understand the contextualized nature of knowledge and truth is crucial.
For Negt, education is about making these connections and indeed looking at the whole
of society including power structures and governing structures. These areas, which are
not always included in lifelong learning programs, might be studied. These areas include
cognitive, emotional, and social development. He mentions the rather obvious example of
a child who may not be able to deal with their own emotions and how this has conse
quences for cognitive abilities and capacities. Included in this view of lifelong learning
are increasingly important concerns such as the capacity to share, to negotiate, and to
compromise without losing face and bring projects to successful conclusions (Pohl &
Hufer, 2016, p. 206). Education cannot avoid including people’s interests.

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This bridging of cognitive development, personality, and identity along with the capacity
to engage fruitfully with others and address human needs and interests is fundamental
for learning in a knowledge and information society. This is how ground rules for learning
how to learn are developed, along with curiosity, imagination, and a secure base founded
on reliable interpersonal relationships. He sees a world of connections and links between
the personal and the political so that lifelong learning for purely economic reasons or for
job skills looks like a distortion. Negt continues with the provocative question as to how
can “anyone for whom the primary institution of the family and the school are alien, cold
institutions, be able to defend the democratic, civil community as though it were his or
her own?” (Negt, 2008, p. 749).
A more critical model of lifelong learning is characterized by an interest in and a focus on
power and utilizes tools of analysis based on the analytical models of critical theorists
such as Negt as well as Foucault, Bourdieu, Habermas, and Honneth and of adult educa
tors such as Freire, hooks, and Mezirow—all of whom support learning that offers a cri
tique of what is taken for granted.
Neoliberalism promises that learners who invest in lifelong learning will benefit with jobs,
increased employability, and (eventually) higher wages. In fact, the more we are educat
ed, the greater will be our success, it seems. The fallacy resides in the blindness to the
structural problems of capitalism, and instead responsibility is moved onto the shoulders
of the individual, the lifelong learner. Higher qualifications (degrees) and higher levels of
work skills will have different outcomes in different places. There are different outcomes
in Greece, for example, than in Austria (Alexiadou, 2016) and in New York than in more
rural parts of the United States (Lund et al., 2019). These structural problems cannot be
solved by individuals.
Adult education and lifelong learning will also continue to be used to support the integra
tion of “new Europeans,” including economic migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
Wildemeersch (2017) writes that lifelong learning for such learners often aims to produce
“good citizens” from these “new Europeans.” But what this may mean in different loca
tions and in different political, economic, and cultural systems is not clear. There are dif
ferent political expressions of liberal, democratic, republican, and other forms of social
and political organizations in different host nations; and this leads to different under
standings of what lifelong learning is for and whether it is a support for integration or a
support for inclusion. The dilemma is whether policies and practices teach learners (im
migrants) to adapt to the host culture and society or whether the inclusion offered is a re
al and mutual engagement and debate as to how the values, traditions, language, and re
ligion of the immigrant become respected and included. The aim has to be the preserva
tion of the voices of immigrants. Wildemeersch suggests that, in fact, lifelong learning is
an exercise in enculturation and that, at a minimum, individual and social transforma
tions of the host community are postponed to a more opportune time. Becoming good EU
citizens (whatever that may mean) may be the not-so-hidden agenda of such models of
lifelong learning.

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According to Mikulec (2018), lifelong learning only has an acceptable meaning in public
policy if it supports the political, economic, and social aims of the European Union. This
means it has the instrumental task of solving EU problems rather than fulfilling lifelong
learning’s own intrinsic educational values that derive from its roots in education. This in
volves the development of the individual, a struggle for freedom, and mutual understand
ing (Fleming, 2019). The error is that the accommodation encouraged under the banner
of lifelong learning fosters the “typical ideology of modernity that fosters old myths and
grand narratives typical of the failed projects of modernity in today’s rather late modern
European societies” (Mikulec, 2018, p. 144).
Furthermore, the European Union has framed adult education not as an independent poli
cy field but as part of its social, political, economic, and labor market policy, which means
that adult education and lifelong learning are relevant only if they are at the service of
the political, economic, and social aims of the European Union. That is why lifelong learn
ing is foremost conceptualized instrumentally and technologically as a tool for solving the
various socioeconomic problems that European societies are facing rather than as a tool
for fostering the intrinsic value of education.
While not disconnecting from the economy, lifelong learning has to offer its intrinsic edu
cational agenda that does not instrumentalize ways of reproducing the economy and soci
ety but in dialogue offers a transformative and critical engagement with society and how
we live together as critical and active citizens. This is now more urgent in Western soci
eties as we confront the twin challenges of far-right-wing resistance to immigrants and
the existential crisis of climate change. Adult education and/or lifelong learning are not
magic pills for curing the ills facing European societies today. The emancipatory potential
of adult education is not independent of the wider economic, political, and psychological
conditions of social life in the European Union.
The danger for lifelong learning is that it may have ended up as a neoliberal iteration of a
much broader ideology. Lifelong learning is mostly instrumental, deprived of its educa
tional potential and empowering capacity that could feed into more democratic and egali
tarian ways of being together as imagined by Elfert and Negt. Its democratic and trans
formative genesis (in Faure) and potential are subverted by an ideology informed by con
sumerism and individual responsibility. This model is both an educational failure and a po
litical mistake. These choices may impact on the survival of the planet. The economy only
needs shoppers (consumers). Shopping may help the economy, but it is doubtful if it will
save the planet.
Conclusion
Though lifelong learning is complex, contested, subject to reductionism, and sometimes
not realizing its full potential, it cannot be ignored. It is here to stay and in general adds
to the notion that learning is an essential requirement for engagement with work, society,
community, and one’s own development. While public policy interpretations may be, on
occasion, reductionist, there is a potential implied in the concept that has implications

Models of Lifelong Learning: An Overview
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not only for individuals and their work but equally for the increasingly challenging task of
creating a society that is democratic, fair, and caring. Not only can we not ignore lifelong
learning but it may be one of the key ideas that holds together a world that is constantly
changing, complex, and challenging. We may be only able to learn our way forward from
here.
Lifelong learning has a natural home in education theory and practice. It has found a new
home in the economy and currently provides ideological glue! A depoliticized and hollow
lifelong learning is now in command. Elfert (2018) refers to the way lifelong learning has
been emaciated and bears little resemblance to its original meanings:
Lifelong learning began as a radical idea with a strong political dimension, which
asked questions about justice and equality, the distribution of resources and the
exercise of power. In the decades to follow the political project of lifelong learning
was de-politicized and “transformed” to make it fit into the agenda of the market
place, turning it into a euphemistic label for a neoliberal worldview, in which the
individual is held responsible to invest in her human capital, in the name of a false
notion of freedom. (p. 215)
Lifelong learning for some time has been part of the ideology that holds the world togeth
er. This may be what Davies (1997) in his history of Europe means when he suggests that
the West, in each era, is held together by a set of ideas that acts as the glue for that civi
lization. Lifelong learning is important enough to have had this cohesive function, if we
can keep it!
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Ted Fleming
Ted Fleming, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA