Revisiting lifelong learning

Author: Professor Stuart Billingham.

Just over two years ago (October 2022), I wrote a short blog, published courtesy of Emerald Publishing, entitled "What on earth is lifelong learning".^[1]

It is perhaps unsurprising that a professor of lifelong learning should re-visit this topic, after a gap of two years or so, and given so much has happened across education in that time, let alone across the wider social, economic and political landscape we inhabit.

What do I mean by that?

Lifelong learning as a journey

The October 2022 blog was designed to contrast “lifelong learning” (LLL) with “lifelong education” (LLE) so that readers might see the need to recognise the ongoing nature of learning compared to just that which happens through formal education. So, I argued that we need to view lifelong learning primarily as a very long journey - with all that might entail in terms of design, planning, organisation, ups-and-downs, the good and the not so good, and so on. I went on to say that:

"…preparing for the journey is very important", including "deciding on your route – this course not that one…this certificate not that one – being flexible if your chosen route must change, and understanding that stopping en-route is not the end of the world in terms of your learning journey".^[2]    

Hopefully, it is clear by now that the “blog” was designed to emphasise that lifelong learning is a process and, in that respect at least, very much like a journey. Hopefully, it is also clear that this might usefully distinguish it from education: something that takes place in places such as schools, colleges, or universities and tends to have a clear start and end point. It is also generally formal. For example, you follow a published timetable; have teachers whom you see mainly for the subject in which they specialise; and it all tends to culminate in a formal (i.e. timed and supervised) examination (written, oral or both) of what you have learned. Of course, formal education is part of lifelong learning. However, lifelong learning can take place anywhere, at any time and with anyone.

Lifelong learning vs education

There are many words written and spoken per day about education. There are even newspapers and periodicals dedicated to the subject, even to discrete parts of the education system ^[3], and there are also many web-based sources and resources focussed exclusively on education as I am defining it here.

By contrast, you will find very few printed or web-based resources dedicated to lifelong learning and, when you do, they may mingle with concerns about widening access or participation rather than be about lifelong learning as a discrete area of policy, practice or theoretical concern. In some respects, this can be illuminating but it can also be confusing.

It is also the case that government departments and spokespersons tend to speak and write about lifelong learning as if it is simply a synonym for adult and/or further education. These types of what is sometimes called “post-school education” are often part of a lifelong learning journey. In the UK and many other countries there is a huge diversity of ways in which education (i.e. formal certificated learning) can be and is delivered. However, whilst this may be a part of, it is not synonymous with, lifelong learning.

So what is the essence of Lifelong Learning?

For me, the answer to this question lies in a short quotation (attributed to) the Greek ethical and metaphysical philosopher, Aristotle, when he wrote:

Even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.    

This captures beautifully and succinctly what we are trying to achieve through lifelong learning: that is, the development of ourselves in the direction we wish to develop.

Of course, in contemporary society we are not – normally at least – always in complete control of what we learn and where and when we learn it. For example, it may be constrained or shaped by how a current employer, or future one, wishes us to develop; or by the rules or laws of where we live; and so forth. There might be a wide range of constraints upon us in this regard.

However, what I wish to call the “Aristotelian Principle” still sits beneath this (potentially complex) mix of factors. It is, if you like, the key – though very often unrecognised - driving force of lifelong learning.
But I hear you ask, isn’t "lifelong learning" just a fancy name – probably invented by some sociological or educational researchers or theorists with nothing better to do – for the learning we all do as we progress through our lives?

Well in one sense it is simply a name for all that we learn as we travel through life, but the term signals that there is something purposeful going on here. It is not only the random things we pick-up as we go along, often by chance as by design. It is not only how we retain the learning from those various things we see, hear, and do through life whether by chance or design, but it is also consciously looking for new opportunities to learn. In short, lifelong learning is meant to capture all the many and varied ways we learn and, therefore, enable us to better focus relevant policies and practices.

Given what I call this "wibbly-wobbly" nature of lifelong learning, it is perhaps unsurprising that it is a term rarely used and even more rarely defined in relevant public outputs. My view is that our conversations about "education" lose a great deal because of this. So, "long live lifelong learning".
 

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 [1] Blog, published 3rd October 2022: What on earth is lifelong learning?
 [2] …ditto…
 [3] Note I refer to system here rather than process.