Why Lifelong Learning Matters

Ronald M. CerveroProfessor and Associate Dean

College of EducationUniversity of Georgia

Objectives

Lifelong Learning Defined

Global Policy Context: From Hamburg to Belem

Fostering Lifelong Learning: Policies and Practices

Lifelong Learning for What?

What is Lifelong Learning?

Lifelong learning is a social practice… A lifelong and lifewide process in which

human agency and social structure constantly interact

Occurs in formal educational settings, non-formal settings & informal settings

Can be encouraged and fostered by progressive social and educational policy

UNESCO’s 1997 Hamburg Conference on Adult Education

“Adult Learning: A Key for the 21st Century”

“Though the content of adult learning and of education for children and adolescents will vary according to economic, social, environmental, and cultural context, the needs of people and the societies in which they take place, both are elements of a new vision of education in which learning becomes truly lifelong.”

UNESCO’s 2009 Belem Conference

on Adult Education“Living and Learning for a Viable Future:

The Power of Adult Learning”

Policy: Towards Lifelong Learning

“Policies and legislative measures for adult education need to be comprehensive, inclusive, and integrated within a lifelong and lifewide perspective, with literacy as a point of departure, based on sector-wide and intersectoral approaches, covering and linking all components of learning and education.”

Latin America and CaribbeanRegional Synthesis Report

“From Literacy to Lifelong Learning”

Lifelong means continuum from early childhood to older age

Learners are most important actors Learning to learn is fundamental principle Articulate formal, non-formal, informal learning Rethinking education as a trans-sectoral policy

Fostering Lifelong Learning: Policies and Practices

Columbia can foster lifelong learning by:

Using practices that support student’s completion of formal K-12 education

Increasing access to higher education

Providing non-formal education with greater coordination

Support Students’ Completion of Formal K-12 Education

Keep students on track with:

Academic support programs

Graduation coaches to assist students in transitions between levels of schooling

Alternative schools

Increase Access to Higher Education

Differentiate and Expand Higher Education

Support Adult Students in Higher Education

Use Information Technology for Program Delivery

Provide Non-Formal Education with

Greater Coordination Develop a lifelong approach to the education and development of professionals

Create a system that involves coordination among all agencies that provide education and development for professionals

Fostering Lifelong Learning:Policy Considerations

What are the roles of the state, private sector, and civil society in defining content, methods, and outcomes of lifelong learning?

Who should benefit? Is lifelong learning a public good or a private benefit?

Do policies and institutional arrangements foster inclusion of all groups or exclusion of some groups?

Who should pay? Individuals, state, or private sector?

Lifelong Learning for What?

“The new threats posed today by the many combined world crises—food, energy, environmental and financial—aggravate the regional scenario….Information, communication, education and learning can make today the difference between life and death, hope and despair for millions of young people and adults in Latin America who continue to be denied the most basic human rights, including learning throughout life as a means for personal, family, community and social emancipation and transformation.” (Torres, 2009)

If You Think Fostering Lifelong Learning is Expensive,

Try Ignorance