Lifelong learning: an annotated bibliography [EIP 03/15]

This annotated bibliography has been prepared for the Lifelong Learning Network as part of the DEST funded project “LifeLong learning in Australia: policy directions and applications”.  The bibliography aims to demonstrate the breadth of issues being addressed under lifelong learning. It is arranged under a series of subject headings that reflect: the traditional education and training structures; current moves towards increased cross-sectoral provision of education and training; and current trends towards linking education and training provision and outcomes more directly with labour markets. 

The bibliography illustrates the wide range of education and training issues that have drawn upon the rhetorical power of lifelong learning.  It demonstrates that, because the concept draws on traditional notions of the importance of education and training for personal and social development, it has found acceptance both within the education and training profession and in the wider community.  However, the bibliography also indicates that the ready adoption of the term by policy makers, addressing a range of issues from structural reform of education and training provision to human resource management and the impact of technology, has rendered the term rather hollow – something of a ‘motherhood’ statement – the meaning of which is mostly assumed.  The different ways it is used in policy statements and commissioned research is not sufficiently interrogated in the academic literature for the concept to develop the strength necessary to usefully engage with current education and training issues and debates.  The emerging trends do not give much heart to those who would wish to see the concept become more sharply defined.

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Not published in hard copy format.