Lifelong Learning In The Nations Third Century

This publication presents an overview of adult education in the United States, based on information from a variety of expert sources. The Bureau of Occupational and Adult Education (BOAE) requested a set of study documents to aid in developing position statements that reflected the Bureau's view of the chief issues surrounding the concept of lifelong learning. This synthesis is an attempt to draw together the content of these studies, to provide a manageable and accurate portrayal of the massive set of materials. These documents, over a thousand pages, addressed-in detail and in depth-the following broad topics: (1) An overview of the state of adult learning in the United States today; (2) Evaluation of the benefits of adult learning; (3) Projections of, with estimates for, future needs of American society and the implications for adult learning; (4) Assessments of the major problems confronting today's adult learners. The chief caution to be considered, based on this examination of the study documents, is that future developments will be difficult if present disagreements among the experts persist.

This text outlines the future roles of schools, business and industry, higher and adult education. Using examples of learning communities that are adapting for the future, the author describes the conditions which lifelong learning can accelerate as an agent for change.

Recent changes in the world effected by the transformations of information technology, globalisation, and the move towards a knowledge economy over the last thirty years have been as radical and fundamental as the changes resulting from the invention of the wheel and the printing press. We are now living in a new age in which the demands are so complex, so multifarious and so rapidly changing that the only way in which we shall be able to survive them is by committing to a process of individual, communal, and global learning throughout the lifespan of all of us. A number of international bodies and agencies have taken cognisance of these transformations and the demands they impose upon societies and communities of the twenty-first century and have developed and articulated policies intended to enable all citizens of the world in the twenty-first century to face these challenges. It is now a declared policy of many governments and international agencies that the only vehicle for such preparation is `education, education, education', and that preparing for the knowledge economy and the learning society of the future has to be a lifelong undertaking, an investment in the future that is not restricted merely to the domain of economic advancement but also to those of social inclusion and personal growth. Realising this, policy-makers across the international arena are grappling with the need to move from systems that emphasise education and training to the radically more unworked construct of lifelong learning. In this volume the editors and authors analyse, criticise, and rework the ideas, principles, and theories underpinning policies and programs of lifelong learning, re-interpreting them in the light of examples of `best practice' found in a range of educating institutions around the world. We believe that students of educational change and community development will find it useful and helpful to have available in this volume some of the most up-to-date thinking on the chief concepts, theories, and values of increasing policy interest in lifelong learning, together with a review of some significant examples of the different forms, focuses, and nexuses of thought and practice on this topic. All this enables us to offer some policy recommendations and practical suggestions as to ways forward in the endeavour to make lifelong learning a reality for all.

Published in the year 2005, World Yearbook of Education 1979 is a valuable contribution to the field of Major Works.

Depicting the ways that adult education has evolved as society has changed and how it has been incorporated into lifelong learning, this is a truly unique set that puts a stamp on an exciting field and important, far-reaching issues. These five volumes represent a great advance to scholars, as this is the first comprehensive overview of the field.The set draws on books, journals, reports and historical papers to map the vast field of education for adults. The writings included in the set have influenced the development of both the practice and the study of adult education from the Guilds to vocational education, distance learning and leisure learning. The collection also covers the recent emergence of corporations as new providers of education for adults with the corporate classroom, corporate universities and consultancies.A detailed index and new introduction by the editor will help the reader navigate this wealth of diverse material.