From Lifelong Education to Lifelong Learning

Rosa María Torres

Lifelong Education and Lifelong Learning are related but different concepts. Many people use them as equivalent.To a great extent, this is due to the fact that most people do not distinguish between education and learning. There are also many translation problems.

A few examples:

» Paul Lengrand's book An Introduction to Lifelong Education was published by UNESCO in 1970, International Education Year. Lifelong Education was selected by the General
Conference of UNESCO as one of twelve major themes proposed to Member States in connection with the international year. The book was translated into Spanish as Una introducción al Aprendizaje a lo Largo de la Vida o Una introducción al Aprendizaje Permanente.

» The Faure Report (Report to UNESCO by the International Commission on the Development of Education, Learning to be: Education in the Future, 1972) proposed two basic concepts: lifelong education and learning society. In the report in Spanish they were translated respectively as permanent education and educative society.

» The Delors Report (Report to UNESCO by the International Commission on Education for the 21st Century, 1996) was published in French as L'Education: Un trésor est caché dedans, in English as Learning, the treasure within, and in Spanish as La educación encierra un tesoro.

» 1996 was proclaimed European Year of Lifelong Learning (translated into Spanish as Año Europeo de la Educación a lo Largo de la Vida o Año Europeo de la Educación Permanente).

» Sustainable Development Objective 4 (SDG4) within the Agenda 2030 aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” Many translate «lifelong learning opportunities» as «oportunidades educativas».

■ The Faure Report (1972) and the Delors Report (1996) referred to lifelong education and to lifelong learning. The Faure Report proposed “lifelong education as the master concept for educational policies in the years to come for both developed and developing countries.” At the same time, the main concepts proposed by the Faure Commission were learning, learning to learn, and learning society. The title of the report - Learning to Be - indicates its main concern and orientation.

The report is based on four basic assumptions: 1) the existence of an international community, moving towards the same destiny, 2) the belief in democracy, each man's right to realize his own potential and to share in the building of his own future, 3) the aim of development as the complete fulfilment of man, in all the richness of his personality, 4) the need for an overall, lifelong education, able to produce «the complete man». We should no longer assiduously acquire knowledge once and for all, but learn how to build up a continually evolving body of knowledge all through life.

The report began with a critical assessment of the educational situation in 1972 and some of its «dead ends». It aimed at having a practical nature, that is, leading to action, in the twenty-three countries that were visited by the Commission members.

“The Commission laid stress above all on two fundamental ideas: lifelong education and the learning society (…) If all that has to be learned must be continually re-invented and renewed, then teaching becomes education and, more and more, learning. If learning involves all of one's life, in the sense of both time-span and diversity, and all of society, including its social and economic as well as its educational resources, then we must go even further than the necessary overhaul of 'educational systems' until we reach the stage of a learning society. For these are the true proportions of the challenge education will be facing in the future" (Preamble, Learning to Be, 1972, page xxxv).

“The aim of education in relation to employment and economic progress should be not so much to prepare young people and adults for specific, life-time vocation, but to ‘optimize' mobility among the professions and afford a permanent stimulus to the desire to learn and to train onself” (Preamble, Learning to Be, 1972, pages xxxiii-xxxiv). (1)

■ The Delors Report, Learning: The Treasure Within (1996), proposed four pillars for education: «learning to be», «learning to do», «learning to know» and «learning to be together». Learning throughout life was translated as lifelong education. Learning society was translated into Spanish as educative society and as cognitive society (sociedad cognitiva).

■ The Report of the International Commission on the Futures of Education, created by UNESCO in 2019 (Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education, UNESCO, 2021) refers to lifelong education. It does not mention lifelong learning. It defends "the right to quality education throughout life".

From the right to education to the right to learning

Many countries acknowledge in their constitutions and education laws the right to education throughout life, including all ages: childhood, adolescence, youth and adulthood. However, few acknowledge the right to lifelong learning, which implies ensuring effective learning in education systems and learning opportunities beyond classrooms.

» Education implies a teaching-learning relationship, whether it is formal education (organized education taking place in education systems at the various levels) or non-formal education (organized but more flexible education taking place on the margins of the formal system).

» Learning occurs with or without teaching. Informal learning takes place everyday, in daily life, without the intervention of a teacher or an educator. Children learn while playing; play is their main learning resource; they learn to speak without anyone teaching them to speak. Most of what we learn in life is informal learning through observing, listening, talking, working, reading, watching TV, interacting with nature, navigating in the Internet, etc.

Speaking of lifelong education implies speaking of educational institutions and opportunities, that is, instances mediated by teaching acts or processes.

Speaking of lifelong learning implies incorporating the vast world of informal learning, learning thtat is mostly invisible for the conventional world of education. (The majority of people do not acknowledge, for example, that students learned during the COVID-19 confinement, while schools were closed. For most people, learning is associated with classrooms and teachers).

It is worth noting that the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) refers to formal education, non-formal education and informal learning. There is no informal education: informal learning is mostly autonomous learning, self-learning, without teaching involved.

Lifelong Education and Lifelong Learning

Lifelong Education (LE) is a concept developed in the late 1960s. Its origin is attributed to Paul Lengrand, Chief of the Continuing Education Section at UNESCO's Department for the Advancement of Education, and author of An Introduction to Lifelong Education (UNESCO, Paris, 1970). Lengrand referred to «lifelong education» as an education covering all ages, and conceived it as a world movement to reorganize and overhaul education, not only to expand it. However, LE - translated into Spanish as educación permanente - has been associated to adult education. ”We by no means identify lifelong education with adult education, as, to our regret, is so often done” (Lengrand, 1975: 20).

After the publication of the Faure Report (1972), Lifelong Education became the focus of the UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE), in Hamburg. 

Lifelong Learning (LLL) is a concept introduced in the 1970s. LLL refers to learning throughout life, from birth to death, in formal, non-formal and informal environments. LLL is often translated into Spanish as aprendizaje permanente. 

LLL has been proposed by UNESCO as the paradigm for education and learning in the 21st century. "A new vision of education" necessary to achieve the Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goal 4. 

The UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE), focused on adult and continuing education, literacy and non-formal basic education, changed its name to UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in 2006.

Lifelong Education	Lifelong Learning
- The concept emerged in the 1960s. - Paul Lengrand, An Introduction to Lifelong Education, UNESCO, 1970. - After the publication of the Faure Report (1972), Lifelong Education became the focus of the UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE), in Hamburg.	- The concept developed in the 1970s. - The European Union adopted the concept in the 1990s. - The UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE), in Hamburg, focused on adult and non-formal education, changed its name to UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in 2006.
Focus on education.	Focus on learning.
Speaks of educating society.	Speaks of learning society.
	Lifelong and lifewide learning. Learnng as a continuum, from birth to death, everywhere, in and out of classrooms.
Formal and non-formal education, out-of-school education.	Learning in formal, non-formal and informal environments, with or without teaching.
Mentioned by the Faure Report (1972) and the Delors Report (1996). The Faure Report proposed two main concepts: lifelong education and learning society for both developed and developing countries.	Mentioned by the Faure Report (1972) and the Delors Report (1996). Also mentioned in the Jomtien Declaration (1990, Education for All) and in the Incheon Declaration (2015, Sustainable Development Goals).
“A new concept of education that takes into consideration constant and universal needs of human beings to educate themselves and to progress": Lengrand.	Proposed by UNESCO as the paradigm for education and learning in the 21st century.  "A new vision of education" necessary to achieve the Agenda 2030 and Sustaiable Development Goal 4.
Elaboration: Rosa María Torres

Notes

(1) Given the usual translation problems, I decided to translate the English texts myself. In the case of the Faure report there are numerous inconsistencies between the text in English and its Spanish translation https://www.berrigasteiz.com/monografikoak/inklusibitatea/pubs/unesco_aprender%20a%20ser.pdf  

References

» Comunidades Europeas: Un memorándum sobre el aprendizaje a lo largo de toda la vida, publicado en 2000
https://uil.unesco.org/es/documento/comunidades-europeas-memorandum-sobre-aprendizaje-lo-largo-toda-vida-publicado-2000

» Delors, Jacques, Learning: the treasure within. Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, UNESCO, Paris, 1996.
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000109590 

» Delors, Jacques, La Educación encierra un tesoro. Informe a la UNESCO de la Comisión Internacional sobre la Educación para el Siglo XXI (compendio), UNESCO, París, 1996.
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000109590_spa

» Faure, Edgar, Learning to Be. The World of Education Today and Tomorrow. Report of the International Commission on the Development of Education, UNESCO, Paris, 1972.
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000001801

» Faure, Edgar, Aprender a ser. La educación del futuro. Comisión Internacional para el Desarrollo de la Educación, Alianza Editorial/UNESCO, Milán y Madrid, 1973. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000132984

» International Commission on the Futures of Education, Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education, UNESCO, Paris, 2021.
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707.locale=en

» Lengrand, Paul, An Introduction to Lifelong Education, UNESCO, Paris, 1970.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220612.1972.10671918

» Lengrand, Paul, An Introduction to Lifelong Education, UNESCO, Paris, 1975. (Enlarged edition).
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED118876

» Parkyn, George W, Towards a conceptual model of life-long education, UNESCO, Paris, 1973
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000005902

» Soler Roca, Miguel, “El concepto de educación permanente”, en: Educación, resistencia y esperanza. Antología Esencial, CLACSO, Buenos Aires, 2014.
http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/clacso/se/20140718012935/SolerRoca.pdf

» Torres, Rosa María, Lifelong Learning in the South: Critical Issues and Opportunities for Adult Education, SIDA Studies 11, Stockholm, 2004.
https://cdn.sida.se/publications/files/sida4303en-lifelong-learning-in-the-south-critical-issues-and-opportunities-for-adult-education.pdf 

» Torres, Rosa María, Lifelong Learning, Sida Studies, Stckholm, 2003
https://cdn.sida.se/publications/files/sida2726en-lifelong-learning.pdf