Lifelong Learning and Cultural Change: A European Perspective¹

Since the mid 1990s, lifelong learning has become an extremely fashionable concept. Of course, the idea is not a new one. One leading British adult educator was already writing in 1920 on the topic of “education as a lifelong process” (Yeaxlee 1920: 25). Yet although there is a long standing recognition that learning is a process that continues beyond formal schooling, the level of interest in lifelong learning has shot up since the early 1970s, and in particular since the late 1990s. This development has primarily been associated with policy debate rather than academic interest, and above all it has been fostered by international policy forums. Key founding texts of the first wave of interest in lifelong education include the famous Faure report, published by UNESCO in 1972 (Faure 1972), which was followed by a series of national governmental measures, particularly in Europe, Australasia, Canada and Japan. The second wave of interest was marked by a plethora of major policy documents, starting with the European Commission’s white paper on competitiveness and employment (CEC 1994), followed shortly by further publications from the European Union (CEC 1995, CEC 2000) as well as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 1996) and the Group of Eight (G8 1999). Once more, the publications of these international policy forums were rapidly followed by a wide range of national policy documents, all of which placed lifelong learning at their centre.