Without robust, high-quality and relevant adult learning and education programmes, we are in danger of neglecting our workforce and reducing the chances of a sustainable future, argues Paul Comyn of the International Labour Organization.
Adult learning and
education (ALE) serves multiple
purposes in many different local and national community contexts, one of which
is to support adults to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will
enable them to look for and find work, either in paid employment or through
other livelihoods. Employability is a key concept that underpins the work of
the International Labour Organization (ILO), which it defines
as the ‘portable competencies and qualifications that enhance an individual’s
capacity to make use of the education and training opportunities available in
order to secure and retain decent work, to progress within the enterprise and
between jobs, and to cope with changing technology and labour market conditions.’
Repairing our broken relationship with the planet means radically rethinking how we understand the process of education and formation, argues Timothy D. Ireland
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Grand international conferences such as CONFINTEA provide
an opportunity for the international community to weigh up what has and has not
been achieved in the previous decade or more and, on that basis, to agree to
new signposts and guidelines for the coming years. CONFINTEA VII will perhaps
go down in history as the conference which took place at one of the most
delicate and critical moments in recent history, since the beginning of the
series in 1949. While the sanitary crisis caused by COVID-19 has gained more
space in the press, the unravelling crisis which refuses to go away is that of
climate change and global warming. At times like this, education is generally
indicated as part of the solution. In 2022, there is a feeling that education
is no longer part of the solution but a major part of the problem: more of the
same will only deepen the crisis and aggravate our problems.
Over the last decades, we have seen what Paul Stanistreet calls the ‘depoliticization of education and the grim instrumentalism of neoliberal conceptions of its purpose and value’, in which the focus of education has no longer been that of preparing people for life but only for the world of work. In a similar vein, José Mujica, the former president of Uruguay, describes the process as that of transforming people into consumers and not into citizens, despite the ongoing discussion on global citizenship. The crux of the question is the relationship between the human and natural worlds, or between humanity and other forms of life. For the Brazilian Indigenous leader and philosopher Ailton Krenak, ‘Everything is nature. The cosmos is nature. Everything that I can think of is nature’. The world into which Indigenous people have resisted being incorporated is a world which has converted nature into ‘resources’ to be exploited in such a way that the market becomes ‘everything that is outside/beyond us’. Krenak returns to one of the concepts to which we have delegated the power of attempting to reduce human aggressions on the planet – sustainable development – which he describes as ‘a myth invented by the major corporations to justify the assault which they penetrate on our idea of nature’. The COVID-19 pandemic is not an externality but an organism of the planet, a virus, which has launched an attack on ‘the form of unsustainable life which we have adopted by our free choice’: a living example perhaps of what the English poet Tennyson called ‘Nature, red in tooth and claw’. We have developed a style of life which has become divorced from the living organism – Earth – characterized by its attempts to suppress diversity and to deny the plurality of forms of life, existence and habits. Continue reading →
While the long-term impact of COVID-19 on education will be dramatic, the future will be much more precarious if we do not focus on building systems for lifelong learning that safeguard quality and inclusiveness, writes Per Magnusson
The COVID-19 pandemic
has unleashed an unprecedented global crisis affecting societies and
communities in a multitude of ways for which few of us were prepared.
Closing
schools has been part of the strategy to mitigate the spread of the novel
coronavirus in almost all countries around the world. With a peak of 1.5
billion children out of school in April, the number is still estimated to be
around 1.2 billion, or 70 per cent of total enrolled learners (13
May). Even if many countries have simultaneously introduced
programmes to allow for continuity of learning and distance learning, in varying
levels of digitalisation, we can be certain this will not compensate for the
learning lost when schools and education institutions are up and running in
‘normal’ times.
The school
closures will undoubtedly have long-term effects for both individuals and
societies. We also know that school closures will have an even more intense
impact for girls, especially from the poorest and most vulnerable groups
because they are the ones most exposed to domestic violence and sexual
harassment, including pregnancies and early marriages. Continue reading →
Global citizenship education should be central to efforts to encourage people to take ownership of the Sustainable Development Goals and make the next 10 years a true ‘Decade of Action’, writes Christiana Nikolitsa-Winter
The start of the last decade of the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development provides an important moment for reflection on what
we have achieved to date and how far we have still to go in achieving the 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Secretary-General of the United
Nations, António Guterres, took the opportunity to call for a ‘Decade of
Action’ to accelerate sustainable solutions to ‘the world’s biggest challenges,
ranging from poverty and gender to climate change, inequality and closing the
finance gap’. He emphasized action on three levels: global, securing
greater leadership and resources for the SDGs; local, embedding
solutions in policies, budgets and regulatory frameworks; and people, in
order to generate an ‘unstoppable movement’ for transformation.
Progress has been made on many fronts since the
SDGs were launched in 2015, with governments integrating them into national
strategies, and civil society and young people, in particular, increasingly
involved in lobbying for change. The opportunities are enormous, but there remain
some substantial challenges. Among these are social and economic exclusion, poverty,
violence, radical extremism, cybercrime and fake news, pollution and climate
change. Responding to these challenges demands individuals who are tolerant and
able to live cooperatively with others, who judge critically, who are ethical
users and producers of digital information, and who are actively involved in
finding solutions to these problems, both locally and globally. This is why the
importance of global citizenship education (GCED) is increasingly recognized.
It represents a means for individuals to learn to be active in a culture of
human rights, justice, democratic values and sustainability. Continue reading →
Lifelong learning has a key role to play not only in achieving SDG 4 on education but also in creating a climate in which progressive change is possible, writes Paul Stanistreet
Last week, the Comparative International
Education Society (CIES) convened in San Francisco for its annual conference,
which this year focused on ‘Education for Sustainability’.
Jeffrey Sachs, the economist, UN adviser and
sustainability advocate, gave the keynote lecture. He demanded urgent action to
address the challenges of sustainability and specifically to deliver on the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development targets for education. Without a major
change of pace or direction, he warned, the targets for Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) 4 would not be met.
Sachs is right to urge educators to ‘raise
their voices’ and’ fight harder for resources’. However, the contribution of
education to the sustainable development agenda will not be realized simply by raising
more taxes from the very wealthy or by demanding or securing more funding for
schools, important though this is. We need to think too about the role of
education in shifting the cultural and intellectual climate to a place where political
will can be moved and meaningful change in the face of powerful, entrenched
interests is possible. Continue reading →
To coincide with International Mother Language Day, UIL’s journal, IRE, is celebrating the resilience of the world’s Indigenous peoples and the contribution of Indigenous knowledge to sustainability. Its editor, Stephen Roche, explains
Today, 21 February, UNESCO and its global partners celebrate International Mother Language Day, this year on the theme of ‘Indigenous languages matter for development, peace building and reconciliation’. I am very proud to announce that, to coincide with International Mother Language Day, the International Review of Education – Journal of Lifelong Learning (IRE) will publish a special issue on ‘Indigenous knowledges as vital contributions to sustainability’.
This issue began to take shape in late 2016, when I approached Miye Tom – a Native scholar from the United States who had recently published with us – with the suggestion that she put together a proposal for a special issue on Indigenous education and knowledge. Together with two highly qualified and motivated scholars, Elizabeth Sumida Huaman and Teresa McCarty, she suggested that we not only make the special issue about Indigenous knowledge, but also approach Indigenous authors to write it. Continue reading →
