Barry J. Hake

Lifelong Learning as Transitional Learning.

Globalization and individualization have radically changed both the economic system and the personal life world in industrial or postindustrial nation-states. To survive hypercompetition and volatile consumer choice, learning organizations and a workforce engaged in lifelong learning are needed. Constructing “the good life” has become an individual responsibility demanding reflexivity and skills. The question pursued in this article is how current policies in the context of lifelong learning relate to the requirements of a competitive economy, on one hand, and the good life on the other hand. To be able to evaluate dominant and alternative answers thoroughly in terms of lifelong learning, the authors look at the consequences of globalization and individualization. After having analyzed lifelong learning policies in the Netherlands, the article examines an important alternative, the so-called biographicity approach. In conclusion, the authors outline their own “transitional learning” perspective as an integral approach to lifelong learning as life-wide learning.

Lifelong Learning Policies in the European Union: developments and issues

Abstract This article is concerned with an exploration of some of the policy and research implications of lifelong learning. It is devoted to the description and critical analysis of the emergence of lifelong learning as the central strategy in the EUs policies towards education and training. The article is organized in three sections. The first section explores the incremental development of the EUs policies towards education and training and the policy‐making process up to the mid‐1990s. The second section looks more closely at the emergence of lifelong learning on the policy agenda of the EU since 1990. In the third section, attention is focused on a critical analysis of the EUs current understanding of lifelong learning as manifested in the 1995 White Paper on education and training entitled Teaching and Learning—Towards the Learning Society.

Increasing Participation of Adults in Higher Education: Factors for Successful Policies.

This article contains an analysis of policies aimed at increasing the participation of adults in higher education (HE) in seven countries (NL, DK, SE, UK, BE Flanders, DE and the state of California in the USA). In order to maintain their economic competitiveness, many countries have developed policies to increase the participation of adults in HE. However, the effectiveness of these measures has not been studied to any significant degree as yet. Therefore, the focus of this article is to assess the effectiveness of these measures within their particular context. For this purpose, the research team carried out an international comparative study based on desk research, case studies and interviews with both policy makers and academic researchers in the seven countries. The study shows that there are common ingredients for effective learning environments, such as a high degree of flexibility of HE provision. In short term, in rationalising policies there are a number of issues that need to be addressed, e.g. the issue of what is the primary objective for increasing participation. In the long run, one needs to reconsider broader HE structures within a lifelong learning perspective towards a fundamental revision of the current systems. This is both necessary in combating crises and in dealing with problems encountered by ageing societies.

Remaking the Study of Adult Education: The Relevance of Recent Developments in the Netherlands to the Search for Disciplinary Identity.

Conflicting positions continue to dominate the debate about whether adult education is a field of study or a field of practice. Drawing on recent developments in the reorganization of departments of adult education at universities in the Netherlands, it is argued that traditional formulations of the debate are not very fruitful and that the current task to be addressed is the disciplinary basis of research into adult education phenomena. The relevance of Dutch experience to developments beyond the boundaries of the Netherlands is discussed with reference to two key issues. First, the disciplinary basis of the study of adult education is addressed. The notion of a distinct discipline of adult education with its own distinctive theory is rejected and an argument is made for a pluralistic but rigorous use of theories from other social sciences. Second, attention is devoted to the development of research traditions in the study of adult educational institutions and practices. It is argued that discipline-based, fundamental research can contribute more to the development of a body of reliable knowledge than practice-based or decision-based research.

Between patriotism and nationalism: Johan Hendrik Swildens and the ‘pedagogy of the patriotic virtues’ in the United Dutch Provinces during the 1780s and 1790s

During the closing decades of the eighteenth century a growing concern with the popular education of the common people could be observed in many countries throughout Europe. Although often formulated in terms belonging to the common discourse of educational ideas associated with the pan-European Enlightenment movement, practical proposals for ‘popular education’ were more frequently formulated within quite distinctive national enlightenment discourses. While the widely held interest in ‘popular education’ was expressed in diverse ways in different countries, the dominant themes with regard to ‘popular enlightenment’ addressed its potential role as the engine for the social, moral and individual improvement of the lower social orders. Such national discourses were informed by the specific economic, political, social and cultural conditions in different countries in terms of how these were interpreted by conservative, moderate and radical groups. There is ample evidence that public debate about popular education in the Republic of the Seven United Dutch Provinces was certainly not isolated from the mainstream of educational thinking and innovative practices in Europe, and that there was a high level of awareness of reform activities in other countries. In the United Provinces, there is historical evidence of a reading public with an interest in questions with regard to education. This is to be found in the records of personal libraries and book collections, the books distributed by circulating libraries and reading circles, the space devoted to education in journals and newspapers, and the essay competitions organized by learned societies devoted to questions of education. Assessments as to the influence of some common pool of ideas associated with the Enlightenment in the United Provinces demand some revision. The available historical evidence would suggest that the Dutch were far

The Pedagogy of Useful Knowledge for the Common Man: The Lending Libraries of the Society for the Common Benefit in the Netherlands, 1794-1813.

This article seeks to provide a historical reconstruction of the establishment in 1794 of the ® rst popular lending library in The Netherlands and the subsequent development of this particular form of popular education until the early nineteenth century. In an earlier article in this journal, the present author sought to interpret popular education initiatives in The Netherlands in relation to the complex social and political context of this particular period of Dutch history, which was marked by increasing civil unrest, armed insurrection in 1787 and the Batavian Revolution of 1795. This was a national process of the working out in the Republic of the Seven United Dutch Provinces of the emergence of reform movements in opposition to established authorities throughout Europe. Dutch Patriots and democrats regarded the ruling factions as governing in their own sectional interests rather than for the common good. Inspired by the struggle for a more just society, democratic movements throughout Europe also became involved in the working out of the intellectual in ̄ uence of the transnational Enlightenment movement in a concern with popular enlightenment. This was a period of vigorous public debate about the role of education in creating a better society which should be governed by reason rather than superstition, human felicity rather than repression, and the common interest rather than self-interest. Not only was the reform of education for young people thought to be a priority, it was also felt to be important to promote the enlightenment of

Learning in Fellowship: Encounters between Christian Socialists and Social Democratic Influences in Adult Education, 1900-1930.

Abstract This paper explores the meeting ground between Christian Socialist and Social Democratic ideas and practices in the development of adult education between 1900 and 1930. It focusses upon the educational repertoire associated with Christian Socialism and its encounter with the working class. Particular attention is devoted to the cross‐cultural dissemination and reception of Christian Socialism and its relationship with Social Democracy in the development of workers’ education. The paper examines in depth the influence of Woodbrooke Settlement in the UK and Denmark. In particular, emphasis is placed upon Peter Manniches encounter with Woodbrooke and the establishment of the International Peoples College in Helsingor. This leads to a discussion of Social Democratic educational initiatives in Denmark. In conclusion, the case is made for further co‐operative research on cross‐cultural influence of Christian Socialism upon the development of workers’ education in the Scandinavian countries.

Hermien van der Heide and the Reception of the Scandinavian "Folkehojskolen" in the Netherlands during the 1920s and 1930s.

Abstract This paper is a case‐study of the reception and dissemination of the Scandinavian folkeh⊘jskolen in The Netherlands in the 1920s and 1930s. Based upon original research, it focuses upon Hermien van der Heide as a significant cultural intermediary in the process of reception and in particular upon an analysis of her published reports of visits to Scandinavia. The analysis of the process of dissemination focuses upon van der Heides involvement in the social groups which supported the development of residential education in The Netherlands. In opening up important new sources, it offers significant insights in the recognition of the folkeh⊘jskolen outside of Scandinavia

Folk High School or "Voluntary Labour Camp"? The Development of Residential Adult Education in Germany during the 1920s and Early 1930s.

The workers, who used to come to the Heim for a four-month course, showed in their faces and their attitudes that they had high expectations. The unemployed see it all as a last sceptical effort which they regard with suspicion and the expectation of new disappointment…When the teacher cannot convince them that the world outside is doing everything possible to find ways of putting an end to unemployment, then the work in the Heim is a laughable pretence. Think about this, you politicians. (Dr Eduard Weitsch, Arbeiterheim Dreissigacker, 1930)

Strange Encounters on the Road to Lifelong Learning: The European Economic Community Meets Permanent Education in 1973.

Abstract This paper examines policy formation on education in the European Economic Community during the early 1970s surrounding the 1973 report For a Community Policy on Education, known as the Janne Report. It examines Community policy-making processes that gave rise to the Janne Report. The text of the Janne Report is analysed with regard to permanent education, paid educational leave, and de-schooling as the fundamental principles for the harmonisation of educational policies. Reception of the Janne Report is examined in the context of expansion of the Community from the six original to nine Member States. The Community’s failure to engage in agreements on paid educational leave as envisaged in the Janne Report is discussed in relation to public debates in some Member States at the time.