Life-Long Learning OK! But to what Future Learning Agenda?

Abstract

“Life-long learning” is at the forefront of the current educational debate, but invariably the driving assumption is the need for individuals to continuously develop their technical skills to maintain employability in the context of rapid technological change. Underpinning this is a current paradigm that education should develop independence and competitive capacity in individuals, with the norm expectation that they will generate a net contribution to the economy against a background of a competitive environment. However, the International Systems Institute (ISI), argue that this has led to an underconceptualisation of the purpose of education, and contributed to social decline. The ISI, often called the “social system design community”, propose that within future systems of human development and learning, a new learning agenda must be developed aimed at equipping individuals and communities with the capacity to co-design and co-create their future (see Banathy, 1991). This learning agenda will require a new underpinning paradigm which also stresses on individuals the need to recognise their interdependence with others and with their environment.