International Journal Advances in Social Science and Humanities
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CASE STUDY
Lifelong
Learning, Adult Education and Continuing Education: A
Critical Comparison of the Views of Two Scholars
Georgios Besas
1, Georgios Giannoukos
2*, Vasilios Hioctour
3, Ioannis Stergiou
3Adult Educators, Second Chance School, Greece.
*Corresponding Author: Georgios Giannoukos
Abstract: This paper makes a critical comparison between the views of the two scholars of education, Gustavsson and Zarifi. A common component of the two is the evolution of the term adult education in recent decades, approached with different paths. Gustavsson identifies lifelong learning as a dialectic relationship between the old and the new that can exist even beyond formal education while in a similar context Zarifis contrasts "continuing education" to the education provided by our school settings. Beyond these two areas of concern, in this paper, we represent the meaning of adult education and continuing education within the wider concept of Lifelong Learning. With the gift of learning as a starting point and as a goal and the globalized labor market as an incentive, these terms interrelate creatively.
Keywords: Lifelong learning, Adult education, Continuing education.
Article Received: 25 March 2020 Revised: 15 April 2020 Accepted: 22 April 2020
Introduction
In most modern societies adult education focuses, according to Zarifi [1], mainly to the obtainment of qualifications, so that the adult person "can operate effectively in the socioeconomic system." In this context, if no critical thought is established, social regularities and powers will hardly be challenged. The critical-thoughtful practice in education lays the foundation so that each apprentice will critically think about the knowledge he receives and about the means to make this knowledge useful [1].
Besides, Argyris & Schön [2] point out that "critical reflection is an essential condition for productive learning." They point out that the purpose of the participant is to develop a wide range of possible alternative approaches towards the learning object and with its related behaviors and actions, through critical reflection. This paper calls for a critical comparison of the views of the two scholars regarding lifelong learning, continuing education and adult education, Gustavsson [3] in his article «What do we mean by lifelong learning and knowledge? » And Zarifi with his selective detection in his university notes "Concepts, Approaches, Definitions & Historical Evolution of the Field.
"The work initially summarizes the two positions and then proceeds to critically oppose the divergent approaches. Finally, reference is made to the concepts of 'adult education', 'continuing education' and 'lifelong learning' in order to symbolize and connect the first two with the general concept of lifelong learning.
Summary of Bernt Gustavsson’s Article & the Conclusion of George K. Zarifi’s Study
which many words take different meanings and content [4].
Gustavsson’s [3] article discusses this transformation of basic educational conditions alongside with political and economic conditions these last decades. It argues that the concepts of lifelong learning and knowledge have lost their humanity and democratic content from overlapping significations coming from the language of economy and technocracy. The above finding pushes the intellectual desire to revise and renew the concepts of education, lifelong learning and knowledge. Initially, it approaches them from a humanitarian and the pedagogical perspective reaching knowledge as a moral-politic sense interplaying the Aristotelian concepts of "science, art and wisdom."
The pedagogical terms 'adult education', 'continuing education' and 'lifelong learning' are central to Zarifi’s study, who noted the confusion that exists in the meaning of the terms and mainly in the mistaken, according to Zarifi, use of them, cause ‘adult education’ has replaced the more appropriate, in his judgment, term ‘continuing education’.
Comparison between Gustavsson’s & Zarifi’s Positions
In an effort to approach and compare the positions of the two scholars, Bernt Gustavsson [3] and Georgios K. Zarifis [5], regarding "adult education", the starting point will be their common component: the evolution of the term adult education in recent decades, which is approached with different optics.
Gustavsson [3] argues that central concepts in the dictionary of education, such as lifelong learning, adult education and knowledge have been redefined based on the technological innovations that have taken place and their implementation in the field of information and biology. He complements the different approach to knowledge using financial terms and in the end, the political changes of the 90s could not circumvent universal values like knowledge approached either liberal or conservative.
Georgios K. Zarifis [5] on the other hand, argues that the term "adult education" is causing confusion on how to use it, since it outweighed the term "continuing education",
which is the same and more accurate. The fault is located in the "mismatch" of educational practices. At this point it is worth mentioning the position of Lamnia [6], who stresses that modernization and its contribution to the development of society, influences and diversifies all forms of knowledge. He adds that in recent decades, social changes began to occur faster, compared to past rates, many of which are due to the production of new scientific knowledge. There is therefore a two-way dialectic relationship between society and knowledge. Based on literature [7], the global phenomenon of the expansion of adult education during the last decades, is caused due to the needs that resulted in two main domains: i) in the economic/technological domain, namely globalization and this entails in conjunction with the successive technological advances, the constant renewal of work processes and the continuous specialization in new skills through continuing education and training, and ii) in the social/cultural domain.
Gustavsson’s [3] basic line of approaching knowledge is by the dialectical relationship between the familiar and intimate with the unfamiliar and foreign and the continuous transition from one to another. Prerequisite is the understanding of the new and the ability to use it. The most common way to express this is to distinguish between learning for school and learning for life. Information can be collected from computers and books, but it becomes knowledge only when its interpreted, understood and placed in a frame. Additionally Gustavsson notes, with regard to research and the 'production' of knowledge in higher education, the institutional delay and rigid structures, which are holding back new points of view about knowledge and learning. Zarifis [5] respectively, contrasts "continuing education" to the education provided in the school context, formal education1 while alluding deficits in practical educational conditions. Moreover, in determining the term "continuing education", he reports the
1 “According to the classical classification of Coombs and
following phrase: "development of human resources skills"2. He therefore connects continuing education with work and the economy. Besides, as Rogers [8] notes, this term is often used to refer to high-level programs geared to scientific and vocational training for adults that are already well educated.
The whole approach by Gustavsson [3] in the article [but also in the 24th chapter of Walters [9] ] stems from the finding of the meaning of the term lifelong learning, that according to him has transformed from a humanitarian idea with social implications, in a concept defined from the perspective of human capital. This means that concepts such as human, knowledge and education are gradually losing their humanity and democratic content and their interpretation focuses on the economy.
Lifelong Learning: Adult Education & Continuing Education
Learning has been a field of extensive studies and approaches with the common component that is a constitutive element of human existence, because it allows people to understand what is happening in their social environment and their own self and thus they are oriented in their ever-changing reality [7]. Learning is acquired naturally through everyday experience, observation, interaction with others, etc. According to Jarvis [10], the need for learning emerges stronger when, in some phases of life, especially adult, comes a disorder in the balance between our current experiences/perceptions and the system of values that we serve.
In other cases, however, learning is conscious and relates to certain targets. Plus, learning is deliberate from the part of the participants and it’s designed with a certain structure from its provider. Therefore, education always involves learning, but learning is a broader concept of education, since not all forms of learning are
2 “Resources: ... as an economic term, refers to all the
instruments available, namely the workers, machines, etc., which determine the productive capacity of an economy. As a working term, it defines all the workers in a country or a sector that can work productively (Institute of Modern Greek Studies, 1998).”
educational. Accordingly, there should be a comparison between lifelong education and lifelong learning, according to Karalis [11], concerning the institution and the procedures, by their outcome.
According to Kokkos [7], the term "lifelong learning" is broader than the term 'lifelong education” revealing the infinite and eternal nature of learning, covering the whole spectrum of life and including any and all forms of learning, both those provided by educational bodies and all forms of informal learning.
Lifelong learning is "all learning in the life of a man who serves the improvement of knowledge, the skills and competences and takes place within the context of a personal, social or related to the prospect of work»
(European Commission on Education and Training, [12]). Rogers [8] notes that lifelong learning focuses on economic growth, citing the positions of other scholars that connect learning with the adaptation to changes occurring in the world of work and the creation of educated and skilled labor. An additional target sector of lifelong learning is the active participation in society by getting involved in events that may previously been excluded [8].
In 2010 law 3879 was published in the Government Gazette of the Greek Republic regarding "Development of Lifelong Learning and other provisions" where lifelong learning is defined as follows: “All forms of learning activities in the course of human life, that are aimed at acquiring or developing knowledge, skills and abilities which contribute to the formation of an integrated personality, vocational integration and development of the individual, social cohesion, development of the capacity of active citizenship and social, economic and cultural development. It includes formal education, non-formal education3 and informal learning4.
3 Non-formal education (Law 3879/2010): “the training
provided in an organized educational frame outside the formal education system and can lead to the acquisition of certificates recognized at national level. Includes initial vocational training, continuous vocational training and general adult education”
4 Informal Learning (Law 3879/2010): “the learning activities
Within the boundaries set by economic globalization, information society, international interstate and intragroup competition as well as the perpetually blooming scientific-technological culture, it becomes necessary to expand the inventory of specialization, skills and training for the active members of society [13]. The person is called to a constant renewal of supplies to be able to compete and to meet the diverse requirements of the labor market [9].
Information and innovation, "tools" of globalization, are pushing us in a constant competition that requires human resources with high-levels of knowledge and skills. Educational systems followed this emerging trend, providing educational, training and specialization programs [13]. Within this context, the Lifelong Learning is viewed as the answer to the constant renewal of knowledge and skills as to ensure a person’s working position, his adaptation to a changing environment, his social inclusion, his leisure activities and personal fulfillment.
A person's education should not stop at the formal educational system limits, but must be extended, taking various forms, either organized or not. As reported by Vergidis & Prokou [13] within the society of knowledge, continuing education and adult education are necessary aspects of daily life, where we have to constantly learn. From all of the above, it is clear that both adult education and continuing education that are included by definition in education and particularly in lifelong education, constitute a subset of the activities of lifelong learning [11]. But what is defined as adult education and continuing education?
Global organizations define the concept of adult education with a broader framework and engage in this activity all planned learning whatever its nature is (general, technical or professional). Specifically, UNESCO’s definition proposed in 1976 and quoted by Kokkos [7] points out the ideal of the contribution of learning activities in the overall development of the individual and the constructive integration in social, economic and cultural affairs. It states:
professional, social and cultural activities. It includes all kinds of activities self-education ...”
"Adult education is any educational process, of any content, level and method, whether formal education or not, whether to process extended in time or replace initial education in schools, colleges and universities, as well as apprenticeships, through which people considered an adult by the society to which they belong develop their abilities, enrich their knowledge, improve technical and professional qualification or orient in another direction and bring about changes in attitudes or behavior in twofold perspective of full personal development and participation in a harmonized and robust
social, economic and cultural development "
[7].
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) a year later, in 1977, stated that:
"Adult education refers to any learning activity or program deliberately designed by an educational institution to satisfy any training need or interest that may occur at any stage of the life of a man who has passed the age of compulsory education and his main activity is no longer education. Its "sphere" therefore, covers non-professional, professional, general, formal and non-formal education and education that has a collective
social purpose » [8].
The term continuing education was determined in 1991 by the European Universities Continuing Education Network as "any form of education, vocational or general, undertaken after a break following the initial education» [14]. The term falls within the wider context and supernatants of lifelong education.
training programs in high-level professional fields, such as continuing medical education.
Adult education and continuing education, have a common starting point, the need for learning, they converge to a common goal: further specialization and retraining through numerous programs for continuing adaptation of individuals to the rapid changes that society brings [17]. Besides, as Gustavsson [3] points out, the term Lifelong Learning has lost its humanity and democratic content becoming an economic term of the labor market.
Apart from this cynical perspective, the dialectic interactive motion and transition from conquered, consolidated knowledge to the new and vice versa, with the appropriation of the new, is a key feature of Lifelong Learning [3] but also its basic components, continuing and adult education, are institutionalized and selected to enrich the prior knowledge or acquire new. They are thus selected so that the shareholders of new knowledge can meet the demands of work, economy, society and general globalization [18-20].
Conclusions
The society of knowledge and information creates learning needs to enable the common course. It pushes education to extend quantitatively, qualitatively and thematically, but also rigorously adapt to market needs. The terms following the changes are redefined by either expanding or shrinking their importance or sometimes overlapping each other. Lifelong learning, adult education and continuing education in a globalized society - more well-timed than ever – are the means to address the new working conditions.
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