Abstract
The term ‘lifelong learning’ appears on the surface to be as innocuous as it is self-evident. By the turn of the century however, it had become a contested concept embedded into debates and anxieties around the role and function of education. It is for example a key concept in attempts, in particular by governments, to re-engineer the relationship between education and economic development. Models have emerged, such as the knowledge economy, and as a result the traditional boundaries between formal, informal and non-formal education have become more fluid. This presents a number of challenges in the form of threats and opportunities to the formal university sector. As pointed out by Aspin and Chapman (2007), over the last three decades the idea of lifelong learning has been mentioned by a number of key policy documents, such as the 1972 Fauré Committee Report to UNESCO entitled Learning to Be: The World of Education for Today and Tomorrow (Faure et al. 1972); the 1996 OECD ministerial report entitled Lifelong Learning a Reality for All (OECD 1996); the 1996 Delors Report to UNESCO entitled Learning: The Treasure Within (Delors et al. 1996) and the 2007 OECD report on nine policy responses to lifelong learning entitled Qualifications Systems: Bridges to Lifelong Learning (OECD 2007). The advent of the notion of lifelong learning is idealistic, for example, in societal terms, being regarded as a means to achieve economic advancement, an inclusive and democratic society and personal autonomy and choice, through the provision of diversified pathways within the education system. These pathways are viewed as a means to avoid invidious choice between selection by ability, which increases the number of academic failures and the risk of exclusion, and the same education for all approach, which can inhibit talent (as described in the Delors Report) (Aspin and Chapman 2007). In personal terms, the idea of lifelong learning promotes and requires self-directed learning motivation (Medel-Añonuevo et al. 2001, Art. 5), according to what individual learners will learn as needed, in response to changing market needs.
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Sections of this chapter were delivered by Josephine Fleming at the 2009 Australia New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society Conference. The authors gratefully acknowledge the constructive feedback from the panel of anonymous referees and Brian Denman, Director ANZCIES 2009.
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Lee, W.O., Fleming, J. (2012). The Institutionalisation of Lifelong Learning in Australia, Hong Kong and the United States: A Bridge to the Community or a Competitor to the University?. In: Aspin, D., Chapman, J., Evans, K., Bagnall, R. (eds) Second International Handbook of Lifelong Learning. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 26. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2360-3_23
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