Paula Guimarães

European strategies in lifelong learning: a critical introduction

This book proposes an analytical framework for the discussion of adult learning and education policies. This framework is applied to the EU policies for the adult education and training sector as well as to the proposals presented by UNESCO since the 1970s with respect to lifelong education and lifelong learning. Lifelong learning and education is a key concept for the development of adult education as an area of practice and theoretical consideration. In recent decades, meanwhile, the idea that education and learning last for the length and breadth of life is central to the guidance of various international organisations and to the public policies of many countries. Lifelong learning is currently widely accepted in terms of its benefits and so the meanings it can contain are rarely questioned. This book proposes three models for analysing public adult education policies, the democratic-emancipatory model, the modernisation and state control model, and the human resources management model. The models guide the critical discussion on the EU policies for the adult education and training sector. This analysis also contains references to national adult education policies. The book further describes the proposals presented by UNESCO since the 1970s with respect to lifelong education and lifelong learning. The underlying purpose of this approach is to identify and interpret other meanings which the idea may contain today. This option is intended to help students and other people who may be interested in this topic to question ways of looking at a priority issue in contemporary public policies. From the Contents: Introduction Lifelong Education, Lifelong Learning, and the State The Analysis of Adult Learning and Education Policies The European Union: Strategies for Lifelong Learning UNESCO as a Policy Actor in Education Final Remarks. (Verlag)

Reinterpreting lifelong learning: meanings of adult education policy in Portugal, 1999–2010

This article analyses Portugal’s adult education policy between 1999 and 2010. Our empirical material consists of Portuguese as well as supranational policy documents. We use a theoretical framework which distinguishes three models of public policy, with different views on the roles of public policy and of education: (1) participative policy/emancipatory education, (2) centralised policy/education for social conformity and (3) minimum policy/training for competitiveness. Our results show that European lifelong learning guidelines have been reinterpreted in the Portuguese context, leading to a rapid expansion of adult education provision in an attempt to catch up with European numbers. Although Portuguese policy is a hybrid of the three policy models, latest developments show a dominance of minimum public policies for adult education and training for competitiveness.

Critical Links between Recognition of Prior Learning, Economic Changes and Social Justice in Portugal.

This paper is a reflection on recent Portuguese policy on adult education. It explores the policy discussion at the national level from 1999 and in particular after 2005, when the New Opportunities Initiative (Iniciativa Novas Oportunidades in Portuguese) was adopted and European Union (EU) guidelines were given considerable emphasis. The first section discusses the empirical methodology undertaken. The second section briefly examines policy discourses since 1974, stressing dominant trends such as popular education, second-chance/compensatory education and vocational training. The third and fourth sections explore adult education and training policy discourses from the perspective of social justice. Particular attention is devoted to a specific policy instrument – the recognition of prior learning (Reconhecimento, Validação e Certificação de Competěncias – RVCC), aimed at widening adult access to basic education – in the fifth section. The last section is devoted to final thoughts, in particular the contribution of the RVCC to social justice.

Lifelong education and learning, societal project and competitive advantage: tensions and ambivalences in policy and planning of educational change in Portugal

Both the Portuguese appropriation of the lifelong learning policy proposed by the European Union since the mid-1990s and the definition of adult education policy in Portugal were based on a discourse that emphasised an ‘unacceptable educational deficit’ for democracy. The role of the State in the governance of the public provision of adult education was linked to its disengagement or precarious contractual involvement in the same. In this article, we discuss developments in adult education and training policy from the mid-1990s to 2010 in terms of an ambivalent policy dynamic and orientation of educational change, examining how a civil society organisation used adult education as a tool for rural development, to support the economy and individual resilience in the face of socio-economic weaknesses and risks.

An Inconsistent Policy: Lifelong Learning and Adult Education Policy Towards a Competitive Advantage

This chapter focuses on the ways by which EU lifelong learning agenda, specifically the guidelines for basic skills, has been interpreted according to the Portuguese realities, at national and local levels. We suggest that basic skills for all, as intended in the framework of the European area of lifelong learning, have somewhat loose roots on the cultural and civic dimensions of education in a human and social development perspective. Competitiveness and social cohesion, the dual centrality of lifelong education and learning for Europe, stated in Lisbon Strategy, have been interpreted and translated in Portugal through a dynamic imbalanced agenda fed by two major strands: the prosecution of a social right for a long time in debt to adult population and a search for so-called employability and qualification, as a way to tackle Portuguese distance from European educational standards. According to these options that frame the EU agenda, this chapter also stresses the adults’ understandings of adult education which come out from the research findings presented later. The data analysis shows that these understandings are congruent with EU orientations; adults see adult education as a promise of a better life. Thus, given the inconsistency of lifelong learning, fulfilling this promise is a hard task to achieve.

Southern-European Signposts for Critical Popular Adult Education: Italy, Portugal and Spain.

Abstract This paper focuses on three Southern European countries, Italy, Portugal and Spain, to explore examples of projects that provide signposts for a critical popular education that contributes to an ongoing democratic process – one whereby citizens are developed as social actors and members of a collectivity rather than simply passive producers/consumers. This approach would serve as an alternative to the traditional ‘top-down’ and current hegemonic economy-oriented discourses. In so doing, the paper seeks to redress an imbalance in the English language adult education and learning literature that often overlooks alternative discourses to the mainstream on and from this part of the world.

Lógicas políticas da educação de adultos em Portugal

This article analyzes adult education policies in Portugal from 1974, based on three perspectives: democratic-emancipatory; modernization and state control; and, human resources management. These perspectives are discussed following the developments and main characteristics of adult education public policies over the last 40 years. It emphasizes the influence of the European Union regarding the vocationalist and human resources management trends.

Adult learning and education policies in Germany, Portugal and Sweden: An analysis of national reports to CONFINTEA VI

The chapter presents a theoretical proposal of three analytical models of Adult Learning and Education (ALE) policies� Some analytical categories and the corresponding dimensions are organised according to the ALE rationale which is typical of each social policy model� Historical, cultural and educational features are mentioned in connexion with the different policy models and its interpretative capacity to making sense of policies and practices implemented in Germany, Portugal and Sweden� The analysis includes the states of the art and the official representations of ALE produced by the respective national authorities through national reports which were presented to CONFINTEA VI (2009)�!e chapter presents a theoretical proposal of three analytical models of Adult Learning and Education (ALE) policies. Some analytical categories and the corresponding dimensions are organised according to the ALE rationale which is typical of each social policy model. Historical, cultural and educational features are mentioned in connexion with the different policy models and its interpretative capacity to making sense of policies and practices implemented in Germany, Portugal and Sweden. !e analysis includes the states of the art and the official representations of ALE produced by the respective national authorities through national reports which were presented to CONFINTEA VI (2009).

Recognition of prior learning at the centre of a national strategy: Tensions between professional gains and personal development

This paper focuses on recognition of prior learning as part of a national policy based on European Union guidelines for lifelong learning, and it explains how recognition of prior learning has been perceived since it was implemented in Portugal in 2000. Data discussed are the result of a mixed method research project that surveyed adult learners, some of whom were interviewed, who successfully completed the recognition of prior learning process from 2007 to 2011 in a new opportunities centre. Adult educators, and workplace representatives from the companies in which these adults in the recognition of prior learning process were working, were also part of the survey. A theme-based content analysis was done on the resulting data. Findings revealed tension between the goals of economic and human resource management and the change experienced by these adult learners in their professional status. Based on these results, the closing remarks to this article highlight the tensions caused by the failure of the goals of the policy to which recognition of prior learning was central, and the personal and social changes referred to by learners. Important educational changes were achieved although they were undermined by the adult education policy and European Union guidelines.

Adult learning and education policies in Germany, Portugal and Sweden: an analysis of national reports of CONFINTEA VI

The chapter presents a theoretical proposal of three analytical models of Adult Learning and Education (ALE) policies� Some analytical categories and the corresponding dimensions are organised according to the ALE rationale which is typical of each social policy model� Historical, cultural and educational features are mentioned in connexion with the different policy models and its interpretative capacity to making sense of policies and practices implemented in Germany, Portugal and Sweden� The analysis includes the states of the art and the official representations of ALE produced by the respective national authorities through national reports which were presented to CONFINTEA VI (2009)�!e chapter presents a theoretical proposal of three analytical models of Adult Learning and Education (ALE) policies. Some analytical categories and the corresponding dimensions are organised according to the ALE rationale which is typical of each social policy model. Historical, cultural and educational features are mentioned in connexion with the different policy models and its interpretative capacity to making sense of policies and practices implemented in Germany, Portugal and Sweden. !e analysis includes the states of the art and the official representations of ALE produced by the respective national authorities through national reports which were presented to CONFINTEA VI (2009).