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This article was downloaded by: [University of Strathclyde] On: 06 October 2014, At: 06:57 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Research in Post-Compulsory Education Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpce20 Global perspectives in lifelong learning Douglas Bourn a a Development Education Association , London, United Kingdom Published online: 20 Dec 2006. To cite this article: Douglas Bourn (2001) Global perspectives in lifelong learning, Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 6:3, 325-338, DOI: 10.1080/13596740100200112 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13596740100200112 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 1: Global perspectives in lifelong learning

This article was downloaded by: [University of Strathclyde]On: 06 October 2014, At: 06:57Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: MortimerHouse, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Research in Post-Compulsory EducationPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpce20

Global perspectives in lifelong learningDouglas Bourn aa Development Education Association , London, United KingdomPublished online: 20 Dec 2006.

To cite this article: Douglas Bourn (2001) Global perspectives in lifelong learning, Research in Post-Compulsory Education,6:3, 325-338, DOI: 10.1080/13596740100200112

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13596740100200112

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) containedin the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose ofthe Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be reliedupon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shallnot be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and otherliabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to orarising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematicreproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in anyform to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Research in Post-Compulsory Education, Volume 6, Number 3, 2001

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Global Perspectives in Lifelong Learning

DOUGLAS BOURNDOUGLAS BOURNDOUGLAS BOURNDOUGLAS BOURN Development Education Association, London, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT A priority of lifelong learning should be to provide learners with the skills and knowledge to respond to the unfolding impact of globalisation and the global society. This article looks at why this is important and proposes a conceptual framework as to how global perspectives can be an integral feature of lifelong learning provision.

Globalisation

The historian, Eric Hobsbawm, in reviewing the end of the 20th century, noted that ‘in an increasingly globalised transnational world, national governments co-exist with forces that probably have more influence on people’s everyday lives’. Governments, he suggests, particularly the least developed ones, have in reality little influence on what happens on peoples’ lives (Hobsbawm, 1994).

These prophetic words have been re-enforced by events in 2000 and 2001 by the anti-globalisation protests in the USA, Japan, Italy and the United Kingdom. The traditional bodies to influence to secure political and social change such as governments and national bodies, are being replaced by international corporations and bodies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

But on the other hand, the growth of global communications, the opening up of markets to the peoples of the third world and increased global interdependence could be viewed as positive developments. For example, Clare Short, Secretary of State for International Development in the UK argues that: ‘making globalisation work more effectively for the world’s poor is a moral imperative. It is also in our common interest’ (Department for International Development [DFID], 2000).

There is no doubt that globalisation is an idea whose time has come. ‘Globalisation’, as David Held suggests, reflects a widespread perception of the world as ‘rapidly being moulded into a shared social space by economic and technological forces’ (Held et al, 2000). Developments in one region of the world can have profound consequences for the life chances of individuals or communities on the other side of the globe. For many, globalisation is associated with a sense of political fatalism and chronic insecurity.

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Whatever the different views of globalisation, there is a consensus that we are living in a world that is more closely interconnected than it has ever been before. Economic systems and markets are more and more being determined at an international level. There is some justification for saying that international bodies such as World Trade Organisation (WTO), IMF and the World Bank are the most powerful institutions on this planet.

Globalisation can also be seen to be linked to the revolution in international communications. As Manuel Castells has commented, we live in the ‘Information Age.’ He argues that the information technology revolution provides the basis for a new society. ‘Under informationalism [as he calls it] the generation of wealth, the exercise of power, and the creation of cultural codes come to depend on the technology capacity of societies and individuals, with information technology as its core’ (Castells, 1998).

As Castells also states, there may be a gulf between the rich and the poor in terms of access to information technology, but it can provide a powerful force for social change as already witnessed by numerous resistance movements around the world.

Globalisation does represent a significant shift in the spatial form of social relations. The interaction between apparently local and global processes, for example, become increasingly important. It also involves the organisation and exercise of power at a global scale. It is a multi-dimensional process, applying to the whole range of social relations and lifestyles. It can be seen positively as well as pessimistically (Held et al, 2000).

Globalisation gives us a context that links into our day-to-day experiences of the world. It provides us with a perspective to understand the effects of economic, political and cultural forces and challenges our understanding of the inequalities and exploitation which exist in many countries today.

The Challenge for Education

Globalisation poses fundamental challenges for all areas of education, including lifelong learning. At one level it provides through economic liberalisation, an opening up of access to peoples, cultures, economies and languages in a new way. Education could also see its response purely in market driven terms, enhancing the skills and knowledge to be efficient consumers and workers in the global economy.

At the G8 economic summit held in Cologne in 1999, the heads of state of the eight major democracies taking part issued a joint charter of aims and ambitions for lifelong learning. According to the Cologne Charter, because of globalisation, the challenge facing every country is how to become a learning society and to ensure its citizens are equipped with the knowledge, skills and qualifications they will need for the next century. Economies and societies are increasingly knowledge based. Education and skills are indispensable to achieving economic success, civic responsibility and social cohesion (G8, 1999).

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Whilst different countries have different experiences of the advantages and disadvantages associated with globalisation, all appear to recognise its economic implications and social consequences for the provision of education.

According to John Field & Mal Leicester, ‘such developments as the rapid diffusion of information and communications technologies, the constant application of science and technology to new fields, and the globalisation of trade in goods and services have made it impossible to rely on existing ways of educating and training the workforce. Hence the need for constant investment in human capital, not simply so that firms and nations can compete but also in order that individuals and regions do not fall behind in the jobs race’ (Field & Leicester, 2000).

But as Andy Green (1997) has commented, ‘education cannot ignore the realities of the global market. But nor can it surrender to global commodification.’

The development of lifelong learning policies across the rich, and to a lesser extent the poor world, are being driven by the urgency and uncertainty of changes taking place in global society, especially economic changes.

Lifelong learning is now the major policy context in which the British government seeks to encourage, promote and fund learning for those who are over the age of 16 outside of the university sector. In common with similar countries in Europe and elsewhere in the world, considerable significance is afforded to the importance of globalisation in relation to the economic, social and cultural changes currently taking place on a world scale and to the implications of these changes for education (Thompson, 2001).

The Blair Labour government takes, as it has done on many other areas, a rather schizophrenic approach to these matters. For example, David Blunkett in an early speech as Secretary of State for Education stated:

To change the plight of the disadvantaged, to overturn the burden of third world debt, requires an appreciation of political process, an understanding of global economics and a hard- headed realism about how change is achieved, and not solely a well-meaning upsurge of social and human conscience. (Department for Education and Skills [DfES], 1999)

Yet in talking about lifelong learning, whilst recognising the role of education as a change agent, there is also an element of education being a tool of socialisation and accommodation:

Lifelong learning will hold the key to ensuring that, with the further development of information and communication technology, we avoid the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ of the past. At the same time, we must ensure that we use the talent of all, to fulfil the potential of individuals and to ensure our economic survival as a nation. Lifelong learning is also essential to sustaining a civilised and cohesive society, in which people can develop as active citizens, where creativity is fostered and communities can be given practical support to overcome generations of disadvantage. (DfES, 1999)

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There may be support from many for the view that education is essential to a competitive knowledge-based global economy. But this in itself poses major questions:

How does the global economy work, and what can people do to influence it? What is and should be the relationship between global, regional, national

and local economies? How does the global economy affect the environment and sustainable

development? How does decision-making affect citizenship? (Alexander, 1998)

Education for whatever age group, and wherever in the world, needs to recognise the impact of globalisation and that we now live in a global society. But what form of education are we talking about? Is it one of resistance, of transformation, of accommodation to globalisation or something yet to be defined?

Over the past 30 years there has been a range of writers on education who have discussed the role of education in relation to societal change. A key figure here is Paulo Freire who is probably the most influential theorist and practitioner of critical approaches to adult education. As a proponent of adult education for the development of critical consciousness (conscientisation), he has been key to debates on adult education for transformation. Freire’s approach has been to go beyond problem solving and to call for the oppressed to explore the root causes of their problem and situation. Through acquiring critical consciousness then the oppressed can challenge the oppressors’ view of reality (Freire, 1972).

Similar ideas were developed by Gelpi who as chief of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) lifelong learning unit, developed a global perspective on lifelong learning which draws on his analysis of the links between oppression in both the industrialised North and the less developed South. Education needs to start from a critical understanding of the sources of exploitation and oppression on a global scale. He challenges the dominant mode of lifelong learning as being linked to needs of employers (Gelpi, 1979).

Mayo sympathises with the perspective of adult education being a transformative experience. But it ‘needs to start from respecting the knowledge and skills which adults bring, based upon their life experiences’ (Mayo, 1997). Lifelong learning also needs to provide a framework in which all, including the oppressed and exploited, can develop their own critical perspectives. It also needs to ensure education is about dialogue and engagement with people and societies’ needs and agendas.

Why Learning for a Global Society is Important

Here it is suggested that the perspective needed for addressing the challenge of globalisation for education, and lifelong learning in particular, is to develop a clear sense of why we need learning for a global society, what it means and

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how it can be implemented. It may have different outcomes depending on the target group. But above all there should be some underlying rationale for why it is important. It is suggested here that ‘learning for a global society’ should be based on a number of key concepts and to be effective have a methodology that recognises people’s needs and respects social and cultural pluralism. This may in the end reflect perspectives developed by Freire and others, but to have any impact is to recognise and work within the existing learning and social frameworks.

The following points could be used to summarise why learning for a global society is important. People can:

understand their own situation in a wider context; make connections between local and global events; develop skills and knowledge to interpret events affecting their lives; understand causes of global inequality, justice and solidarity; learn from experiences elsewhere in the world; identify common interests and develop solidarity with diverse communities; combat racism and xenophobia; widen horizons and personal development; make a difference to their world by participating in society. (Development

Education Association [DEA], 2001b)

Behind this ‘why’ is clearly a strong values base which it is suggested here must be at the heart of all education. Within the English context, there is a need for research about the internal contradiction in the present government’s views on education which attempt to marry an economic market-driven approach with a value-based one. The debates around citizenship education and sustainable development education are two interesting examples of this, and this will be developed further later on in this paper.

The Contribution of Development Education

A useful educational perspective to raise at this point is that of ‘development education’. Development education aims to raise awareness and understanding of how the global affects the local and how individuals, communities and societies can and do affect the global. It aims to bring global perspectives into all aspects of learning – from the school classroom to universities to local community activities to the media.

A common definition of development education is:

enabling people to understand the links between their own lives and those of people throughout the world;

increasing understanding of the global economic, social and political environmental forces which shape our lives;

developing the skills, attitudes and values which enable people to work together to bring about change and to take control of their own lives;

working to achieve a more just and sustainable world in which power and resources are equitably shared. (DEA, 2000)

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Development education, through the work of the DEA, and others, has now been recognised in some form or another as an important feature of education. Within the curriculum for schools there is now a reference in the aims and purposes to learning for a global society. But probably the biggest impact in Britain over the past five years to the development education agenda has been the support given by the Department for International Development (DFID). In their White Paper on Eliminating World Poverty, published in 1997, they stated

Giving people in Britain the facts about the forces that are shaping the world – and their lives – will help strengthen support for this effort (eliminating poverty). The British people should have accurate, unbiased, accessible information about the causes of poverty and inequality in countries of the South, and about what the international community can do. It is also right that they should understand the dangers for the future of their world of failing to address the problems of environmental degradation, overpopulation and the instability arising from extreme poverty and lack of access to basic resources. And it is right that we should be held publicly to account to show that their resources are being put to good use. (DFID, 1997)

The Department in 1998 published a strategy document on development education entitled ‘Building Support for Development’. They noted that not only were more support and resources needed for this area, but there was a need to think about these agendas in a different way:

If we are to achieve this (breakthrough in development awareness), it lies in going beyond attitudes to development based on compassion and charity, and establishing a real understanding of our interdependence and the relevance of development issues to people’s everyday lives. We need to strengthen public confidence in, and support for, the fight against global poverty, acceptance that it matters to our future, that great progress is possible and that the behaviour of each of us can make a difference. (DFID, 1998)

DFID has put education at the heart of its strategy for securing greater awareness and understanding of international development. It has played a major role in changing the climate of opinion about global perspectives within education. The area is increasingly being recognised as a key component of education provision. It has significantly increased funding and resources to this area and has prioritised, alongside formal education, the media, and work with business, trade unions and faith groups as priority target groups.

The Agenda of Citizenship

The present Britain government’s desire to have a more socially inclusive and engaged populace has resulted in considerable resources been given to citizenship education. The lead, as in most areas of education, comes through schools. From 2002, citizenship will be a statutory subject on the school

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curriculum. It has three strands: political literacy, social and moral responsibility and community involvement.

Citizenship is now being developed post-16 as a core skill and is emerging as a key component of the role and purpose of lifelong learning. Whilst it could be argued that all lifelong learning has citizenship as its goal, the Labour government’s initiatives in this area pose challenges which cannot be ignored, particularly around the agendas of social inclusion and participation in society.

The global dimension can and should be a feature of all aspects of citizenship. This has been argued for in a recently published DEA booklet for schools:

Local citizenship can only be really understood if it is seen in the (global) context of the systems that link us with other places ... To allow pupils to remain unaware of the global dimension to citizenship would be to leave them uninformed about the nature of their own lives and the position and role they hold in relation to the world in which they live. (DEA, 2001a)

Citizenship is critical terrain for debating the role and purpose of education.

The Agenda of Sustainable Development

Our vision is a world in which there are many opportunities to learn about sustainable development. A world in which a skilled population make informed decisions in their home, community and working lives and in their leisure activities. A world where people understand and take responsibility for the impact they have on the quality of life of other people, locally and globally. (Department for Education, Transport and the Regions [DETR] now Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [DEFRA], 1998)

Whilst the agendas and promotion of education for sustainable development date back to the Brundtland Report and the outcomes of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, it is only since 1998 that significant advances have been made throughout Britain.

A key catalyst for this in England has been the Sustainable Development Education Panel which has successfully secured a recognition of sustainable development within the school curriculum, the work of the Learning and Skills Councils and the strategic plans of some of the Regional Development Agencies.

An important feature of the Panel’s work is to consciously promote a concept of sustainable development that is not just about the environment; it is about the interrelationship of environment – economy – society. This has meant including the agendas of citizenship and social inclusion, combating poverty in the United Kingdom and at a global level, and general public concerns about the quality of life. It sees learning as essential in moving towards a more sustainable society for all.

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The Panel has recently published a consultation paper on Lifeskills for A Sustainable Future which uses a model developed by Hopson and Scally on lifeskills. The paper looks at personal skills, skills with others and skills for personal and professional development (DfES, 2000).

However there is less evidence of the recognition of the importance of sustainable development and quality of life at the delivery end of education, or within the broader sectors of society, most notably the business sector and training fields.

The concepts of Sustainable Development Education, developed for revisions to the school curriculum, are of broader relevance and will be referred to later in looking at global perspectives in lifelong learning:

interdependence; citizenship and stewardship; needs and rights of future generations; diversity; quality of life, equity and justice; sustainable change; uncertainty and precaution in action. (DETR, now DEFRA, 1998)

Global Perspectives for Lifelong Learning

Much of the following suggestions and proposals are based around ideas developed by the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) in partnership with the DEA and a number of other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and bodies interested in development education. (Newell-Jones & Cumberbatch, 1999)

The WEA has been an important player in promoting global perspectives in lifelong learning through tutor training programmes, pilot projects and a series of conferences and seminars with key stakeholders in the sector.

The DEA, in partnership with WEA and National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), embarked on a major research project in April 2001 funded by DFID, on ways in which global perspectives can be an integral feature of the changing agendas within lifelong learning. This means looking particularly at the role of the Learning and Skills Councils, accreditation and validation of courses in their support of this agenda and promoting models of good practice.

Concepts of Global Perspectives

Using the concepts developed for a DEA/DfES/DFID publication for schools, the following are suggested as a possible basis for ensuring global perspectives are reflected within lifelong learning.

Interdependence: Understanding how people, places and environments are all inextricably interrelated and that events have repercussions on a global scale.

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Citizenship and Stewardship: Getting the knowledge, skills and understanding necessary to become informed active, responsible global citizens.

Diversity: Understanding and respecting differences and relating these to our common humanity and understanding the nature of conflict and practising strategies for dealing with it.

Sustainable Development: Understanding the need to maintain and improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for future generations.

Social Justice: Understanding the importance of social justice as an element in both sustainable development and the improved welfare of all people.

Values and Perceptions: Developing a critical evaluation of images of the developing world and an appreciation of the effect these have on people’s attitudes and values.

Human Rights: Knowing about human rights and understanding their breadth and universality. (DfES/DFID, 2000)

Proposed Key Concepts, Skills and Values for Lifelong Learning

Recognising these points within the school curriculum and their broader validity, outlined below are proposed concepts, skills and values which could be perceived as a framework for global perspectives within lifelong learning. Knowledge and Concepts:

the global dimensions of specific subjects including their historical, geographical, technical, cultural and environmental links;

interdependence of society, economy and the natural environment between the industrialised North and the South, local and global;

nature of power exercised by international institutions, corporations and finance;

awareness of global inequalities in resources and power; nature and effects of inequalities of class, gender, race and other distinctions; human rights, drawing on international declararation of human rights; citizenship and rights of democratic participation in decisions that affect

people’s lives; diversity of peoples, cultures, communities, economies and points of view; needs and rights of future generations; quality of life, equity and justice; sustainable change and development; uncertainty and precaution in action.

Skills:

self awareness; relating experience and knowledge to wider issues; participatory learning methods; critical analysis; information handling and data analysis;

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ability to communicate concepts, information and values in engaging ways; working cooperatively.

Values and Attitudes:

responsibility for the direct and indirect impact on the world; learning from others in the South and not assuming that the West knows

best; solidarity with people who are deprived, exploited or denied human rights; cooperation between people at a personal, local, regional and global level; equal opportunities and social inclusion; intercultural understanding and respect for different perspectives. (DEA,

2001b)

Issues and Challenges

One of the most commonly discussed areas of concern amongst adult educators is how issues of international development and discussion about globalisation can be brought into adult education classes and course programmes.

For example, following the advertisement of an adult education course with an international development theme, participation often consists of those people who are already, on some level, either involved in a community activity or campaign or have a certain level of ‘issue’ awareness. Their motivation for attending is often to further develop what they would regard as a limited knowledge of certain issues.

For people in the community who do not have this motivation, it is necessary to engender it by highlighting the connections between their locality and the international community, in all course provision and planning. This is of special concern to those working with socially excluded groups within this society. Why would they want to know about international development or eliminating ‘world’ poverty when they are struggling with their own issues of poverty and injustice?

The issue of motivation to learn more about, and be actively involved in, international development can be shown from the 1997 government White Paper on Eliminating World Poverty:

There are two reasons, above all, why we should embrace the objectives of international development. First because it is right to do so. Every generation has a moral duty to reach out to the poor and needy and to try to create a more just world. Second, because we have a common interest in doing so. Global warming, and degradation, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, polluted and over-fished oceans, shortage of fresh water, population pressures and insufficient lands on which to grow food will otherwise endanger the lives of everyone – rich and poor, developed and developing. As a country which depends more than most on international trade and investment, jobs and prosperity here in the Britain depend on growth in the global economy to

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which countries of the South could contribute so much in the future. (DFID, 1997)

Yet knowing about all of these issues can give one a sense of powerlessness and being overwhelmed with the enormity of the task to eradicate poverty and achieve a more equitable world.

Research in these areas shows people of all ages are concerned about these questions. Dr Aileen McKenzie for example, in research for the WEA with a series of focus groups with women in South Yorkshire, showed that there is interest in global issues, if it is seen in relationship to their own needs and lives. These included opportunities to understand the scope and impact of globalisation, guidance as to what they could do as individuals and communities and educational starting points (McKenzie, 1998).

A fundamental principle of adult education is enabling and empowering people, to build from their own concerns, needs and experiences. With regard to global issues, adults would bring a wide range of perspectives and levels of awareness linked to roles such as parents, consumers, trade unionists and to gender or ethnicity.

As parents and consumers, one starting point could be an educational session around the cost and availability of the goods in shops. Parents might express their feelings of frustration and helplessness when their child wants a named pair of trainers or other piece of clothing which ‘everyone is wearing’.

A trade unionist, on the other hand, may want to focus more closely on the conditions of workers rights.

Methodological Issues

Methodologies used are crucial in development education. These include the emphasis on learning centred approaches and focusing on the development of the individual but within the context of action for change.

A useful example here is a perspective influenced by the writing of Paulo Freire and developed through the REFLECT (Regenerated Freiran Literacy through Empowering Community Literacy) approach to education developed by ActionAid and others. REFLECT builds on Freire’s critique of conventional educational processes. Education is not a neutral process and a framework needs to be developed in which the facilitator and the participants are in an equal learning environment.

This REFLECT approach is influenced by development practice around participatory appraisal and is a well-known model within educational programmes within developing countries.

A feature of the methodology is the use of graphic tools, for example problem trees. Other elements are respect and openness from facilitators, practical action for development and the transformation of the people involved, in how they run their groups, and in how these groups relate to wider society (Phnyyal & Norris, 1997).

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Learning Outcomes

To apply these perspectives and agendas to learning, it is proposed here that the global adult educator needs to see three strands to the teaching and learning process:

the desire to incorporate the local, national and international context into the formal or non-formal setting. This may be in a literacy programme through encouraging participants to use their developing skills to explore national and international issues in the media or exploring the uses of literacy in their native regions or countries;

the emphasis placed on a set of values concerned with a commitment to interdependence; an acceptance that we are not independent either as groups or as individuals, but that our actions impact upon others, environmentally, socially, culturally and economically: democracy, social justice, perceptions and images;

the use of a methodology which focuses on supporting active learning, valuing and building on existing knowledge, encouraging critical reflection and enabling the participants to make informed choices in their own context.

Translating Global Perspectives into Lifelong Learning Practice

Integrating the concepts of interdependency, social justice or a global perspective into learning outcomes for a specific course or workshop cannot just be reduced to knowledge or skills or a values base. The inclusion of a global perspective in a framework of learning does not in itself guarantee the transfer of these concepts into practice. The next stage is for these to be translated into the activities and methods that the participants or students experience in practice. The goal is for the participants to leave with the ability to apply their new skills, knowledge and values outside the learning environment. Learning for action and change is at the heart of many involved with development education.

This returns us to the challenge of the purpose and value of education. Global perspectives can be an integral feature of lifelong learning if there is a recognition of the importance of the values base of education.

Green had posed that ‘the scope for education to act as a socially integrative force in contemporary society is not necessarily diminished or impeded by the forces of globalisation and post modernity. What has perhaps diminished is the political will of governments at least in the West, to pursue the goals of social cohesion and social solidarity’ (Green, 1997).

But as he noted in 1997 and has since become apparent in the United Kingdom, through education for citizenship and social inclusion these issues are now back on the agenda.

Development of a global civil society opens up possibilities to dissolve slowly the historical connection between nation-state and ‘civil citizen’. Ove

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Korsgaard suggests that, as adult and popular education became an important lever for democratic development a century ago, a new approach is needed now. ‘A new concept must build upon the reality that today the global and the local are interconnected and interdependent in ways that humanity has not experienced before. Today, the many different local communities around the world share a common destiny and humanity is a geo-ecological entirety within the same biosphere. This way of understanding the world is completely new and unique’ (Walters, 1997).

Stephen Sterling suggests similar points and goes further in suggesting that education for sustainable development inevitably leads on to transforming the vision and purpose of education (Sterling, 2001).

Education is in itself becoming globalised and this can have negative as well as positive features. What globalisation does however raise is the role and relation of education to the changing global economy, global society and changing values bases around the world.

Conclusion It is likely that global perspectives will be taken forward and developed by different organisations in different ways. For the DEA, WEA and others, the key message is: education, which does not take account of our global interdependence, fails to give people a full understanding of whatever subject or skill they are learning.

This article has attempted to demonstrate that lifelong learning in the United Kingdom needs to respond to the agenda of globalisation. This is because not only it is becoming an essential feature of everyone’s daily lives, it provides opportunities for looking at education and society in a different way. By taking a global perspective to lifelong learning, issues such as racism, social inclusion, quality of life as well as basic skills come to have a new meaning.

Global perspectives within lifelong learning pose fundamental questions about the role and purpose of education. For the global agenda to be incorporated within mainstream lifelong learning provision, it means taking neither an oppositional nor accommodating view. It means maximising the opportunities that exist. For those who are proponents of the global agenda, they need to develop the concepts and learning outcomes of this new agenda within lifelong learning.

Correspondence

Douglas Bourn, Development Education Association, 29-31 Cowper Street, London EC2A 4AT, United Kingdom ([email protected]).

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