Lifelong Learning, Global Social Justice and Sustainability

By Leona M. English and Peter Mayo  

Published by Springer Nature, 2021

Lifelong Learning, Global Social Justice and Sustainability is an eye-opener. It invites readers to unsettle the taken-for-granted concept of lifelong education and expose the “serpent” within – a reductive notion of lifelong learning as job-related training.

The authors, Leona English and Peter Mayo, both leading international scholars in adult education, argue that lifelong learning has become so twisted that it has reduced learning to a set of narrow competences and skills that best suit a neoliberal economy. 

This book stands out because it systematically tracks the birth of ‘lifelong education’ and critically unveils its transformation into ‘lifelong learning’. The pulsating narrative makes a case for the deconstruction and reconstruction of UNESCO’s original idea of ‘lifelong education’ in eight chapters. It also seeks to empower individuals to embrace, and hopefully attain, global social justice and sustainability goals. 

Giants in the field of adult education constitute the pillars of this work. These include Ettore Gelpi and the pragmatist notion of access to lifelong education; Paulo Freire’s notion of pedagogy as essentially political, with education meant to make us more fully human; and Erich Fromm’s distinction between ‘being’ in a world and the consumerist culture of ‘having’. These worldviews challenge how people are portrayed as two-dimensional producer-consumers, rather than social and political actors. 

The authors document how neoliberalism has narrowed lifelong learning to mean market-oriented competences. This agenda has become popular in the rhetoric of the European Union and the OECD.

The intensity and plausibility of the points made in each chapter provoke thinking around a paralysis that ensues from capitalism, standardisation and individualism. Will we ever live in the imagined democratic spaces that provide access to inclusive and equitable lifelong learning, as enshrined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals? The authors warn that, for such lifelong learning to be meaningful, it must be rescued. 

The authors document how neoliberalism has narrowed lifelong learning to mean market-oriented competences

In chapter 4, the authors shed light on the Malta Lifelong Learning Strategy document. While it does not deviate from the EU neoliberal discourse, the document provides sufficient material to revive imagination for democratic education grounded in “social inclusion, the collective and the individual dimension of learning”.

Getting around EU discourse may be a cause for hope. Nonetheless, other chapters portray stubborn issues concerning lifelong learning, global social justice and sustainability. These include the recognition of migrants’ lives and those of other marginalised groups, and including women who – along with biodiversity, human-earth relations, the protection of planet earth and critical literacy – remain largely voiceless and invisible within the EU’s memorandum for lifelong learning. 

One may see this book as mainly deconstructive in style. But, for those who yearn for a reconceptualisation of lifelong education, they may value the text as a constructive critique that charts possibilities for action. The text is written with a largely European focus; yet the connecting thread is framed within lifelong learning proper, global social justice and sustainability, which are high priority issues on global political agendas.

In their conclusion, the authors argue that proactive behaviour, such as cross-sectoral approaches and purposeful adult education, may serve as drivers to prevent future breakdowns of purpose and confront injustices. The flowing and persuasive take on this topic raises awareness as to why living is implicitly about being able to change that life, thus rewriting history. 

This subject matter is too significant and valuable to be taken for granted: thanks to this refreshing book, English and Mayo offer an opportunity to know, think, reach one’s own conclusions and hopefully be responsible enough to take future individual and collective action. 

Chamaine Bonello is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education, University of Malta.