Cautionary Tales in the Ethics of Lifelong Learning Policy and Management

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. The Cultural Context

   • Richard G. Bagnall

   Pages 1-8

3. The Ethical Perspective

   • Richard G. Bagnall

   Pages 9-13

4. The Fable of Learning

   • Richard G. Bagnall

   Pages 15-21

5. The Fable of the Individual

   • Richard G. Bagnall

   Pages 23-30

6. The Fable of Outcomes

   • Richard G. Bagnall

   Pages 31-37

7. The Fable of Context

   • Richard G. Bagnall

   Pages 39-45

8. The Fable of Vocation

   • Richard G. Bagnall

   Pages 47-53

9. The Fable of Education and Training

   • Richard G. Bagnall

   Pages 55-62

10. The Fable of Education as Literacy

    • Richard G. Bagnall

    Pages 63-68

11. The Fable of Accountability

    • Richard G. Bagnall

    Pages 69-75

12. The Fable of Standards

    • Richard G. Bagnall

    Pages 77-82

13. The Fable of Technique

    • Richard G. Bagnall

    Pages 83-88

14. The Fable of Flexibility

    • Richard G. Bagnall

    Pages 89-95

15. The Fable of the Educational Market

    • Richard G. Bagnall

    Pages 97-103

16. The Fable of the Educational Contract

    • Richard G. Bagnall

    Pages 105-110

17. The Fable of the Educational Project

    • Richard G. Bagnall

    Pages 111-116

18. The Fable of the Educational Manager

    • Richard G. Bagnall

    Pages 117-124

19. The Fable of the International Provider

    • Richard G. Bagnall

    Pages 125-131

20. The Fable of the Educational Requirement

    • Richard G. Bagnall

    Pages 133-137

This work is concerned with appraising the contemporary ethical impact of lifelong learning ideology and advocacy on education, through focusing on trends in educational policy and management that flow from the ideology. It has its origins in the author's concern that many of those trends are being defmed and promoted, or opposed, without an adequate understanding of their ethical dimensions. The 21 trends examined in this work are seen as defming important dimensions of the quite radical changes in educational policy and management that are flowing from the practical realisation of lifelong learning ideology and advocacy. In here evaluating those trends from an ethical perspective, the thesis is developed that they lead inevitably to distinctive ethical dilemmas or tensions in the lived experience of educational participants. The dilemmas, though, are not seen as realities that can intelligently be either avoided or resolved. They are, rather, inescapable features of the trends, although they and the experience of them may be managed intelligently to a greater or lesser extent. This analysis is premised on the belief that an understanding of the dilemmas may be of practical value in assisting educators, and policy makers and managers, to live and work more intelligently with them and to better manage the educational changes that are defmed by the trends. It may thereby contribute to moderating the excesses, sillinesses, and inanities so often evident in the directing and managing of refonns associated with the trends and to reduce the anguish and pain associated with them.

• change management
• education
• ethics
• learning
• lifelong learning
• vocational education

• Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

  Richard G. Bagnall

Policies and ethics