Social Network for RSA Fellows

The value of a lifewide concept of learning and education

I am new to the Fellowship and I would like to introduce the ideas I have been developing over the last few years as well as make contact with other Fellows who are interested in promoting and supporting a lifewide concept of learning and education.

The concept of 'lifewideness' in learning and education is not a new idea. Eduard Lindeman, an inspirational adult educator and disciple of John Dewey, wrote in 1926 -

'A fresh hope is astir. From many quarters comes the call to a new kind of education with its initial assumption affirming that education is life - not merely preparation for an unknown kind of future living. Consequently all static concepts of education which relegate the learning process to the period of youth are abandoned. The whole of life is learning, therefore education can have no endings.'

My ideas on lifewide learning and education were developed while I was working at the University of Surrey. We created a scheme for recognising and valuing students' self-development in the many different spaces and places they occupied while at university, in addition to their academic studies.

A lifewide concept of learning, education and personal development recognises that most people, no matter what their age or circumstances, simultaneously inhabit a number of different spaces - like work or education, being a member of a family, being involved in a club or society, travelling and taking holidays. We develop and self-educate ourselves and look after our own wellbeing - physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually through the spaces we choose to inhabit, through the things we choose to do in these different spaces, and the way we choose to do them. The lifewide idea taps into our purposes, deep intrinsic motivations and creativity, in a way that formal education can never reach.

Lifewide education, embraces, honours and incorporates a lifewide concept of learning and personal development into the educational policies, structures and practices of schools, colleges, universities and other educational providers. But the ideas have currency beyond formal education and perhaps have greatest potential value in the world outside formal education.

I have set up a community interest company and community website lifewideeducation.co.uk to act as a champion and engine for development. We support a rapidly growing community of people who are interested in drawing on these ideas and using them in their own contexts.

One of my reasons for joining RSA is that I believe the idea of lifewide learning and education is consistent with the holistic developmental concepts that RSA promotes. Indeed, our concepts and practices are grounded in the capability movement that RSA inspired in the 1980's & 90's and I was heartened to hear Matthew Taylor at the meeting for new Fellows last Tuesday, speak about the central importance to RSA of helping to individuals' develop more of their potential.

I would like to learn about other initiatives within the Fellowship that might connect to these ideas and I would like to invite anyone who sees value in these ideas and would like to join us to contact me normanjjackson@btinternet and/or visit our website and join our community.

Tags: capability, development, education, learning, lifewide

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Malcolm Groves on February 25, 2012 at 11:25

Hello Norman - and welcome!

That's really positive. You might be interested to take a look at this similarly new initiative

http://www.thebeauchampgroup.org.uk

There is potential synergy which it would be very interesting to explore further.

Do get in touch through the website.

Permalink Reply by Norman Jackson on February 25, 2012 at 13:07

Thanks for your encouragement Malcolm

Your initiative looks interesting and relevant. Is it connected in anyway to the 'whole education' or 'area-based curriculum' schools' education projects I have heard about?

Malcolm Groves said:

Hello Norman - and welcome!

That's really positive. You might be interested to take a look at this similarly new initiative

http://www.thebeauchampgroup.org.uk

There is potential synergy which it would be very interesting to explore further.

Do get in touch through the website.

Permalink Reply by Malcolm Groves on February 26, 2012 at 7:19

Hi Norman

Many thanks for your support. As a very young group it does not have formal links, but some individuals have links with Whole Education and Cooperative Schools Network, as well as ome other initiatives. Very aware of need to avoid duplication of effort too. Let's talk further sometime.

Malcolm

Permalink Reply by Ian Lewis on March 14, 2012 at 14:19

Thanks Norman - this is indeed the right place from which to start. There are many who will join and from great projects of many years, but I wonder if we could collect the boundaries first.

In the interests of RSA prior work, where does 'Lifelong Learning' meet with 'Lifewide'?

My special interest is as an entrepreneurial educator spanning both the UK education system and those of a number of other countries, although mostly in Europe thorugh their EC Lifelong Learning initiatives.

Permalink Reply by Norman Jackson on March 14, 2012 at 14:58

Thanks for your interest and encouragement Ian. I do hope that you will join our lifewide education community and help us connect to other RSA projects.

I see lifelong and lifewide as describing two dimensions of the lifespan. Citing Ron Barnett's Chapter in a book which sets out our ideas 'Learning for a Complex World: a lifewide concept of learning, education and personal development'.

'Lifelong learning is learning across time, and ideally, as the term implies, more or less throughout a lifetime. It reminds us that learning can go on almost ‘from cradle-to-grave’. In this context, university education is simply an experience at a moment in time in an unfolding learning journey through life...... Lifewide learning, in contrast, is learning in different places simultaneously. It is literally learning across an individual’s life at any moment in time. These places of learning may be profoundly different. These learning experiences will be marked by differences of power, ownership, visibility, sharedness, cost and recognition. The idea of lifewide education, in other words, reminds us that learning occurs in – as we may term it – learning spaces.......So, for ‘lifelong education’, we may read learning in different intervals of time; and for ‘lifewide education’, we may read learning in different space(s) during the same interval of time.'

So 'Lifewideness' relates to and involves our participation in daily life. The story that is our life unfolds in unpredictable ways but the detail of who we are and who we want to become reveals itself in the situations we encounter or create in the different spaces and places that make up our daily life - put another way these are the spaces in which we author our life. The concept defines the multiple micro journeys we make simultaneously through the situations that form our life. We developed the concept in higher education but the value in explicitly adopting a lifewide approach to education is that it holds the promise for a more complete form of education in which learners combine and integrate their learning, development and achievement from both their formal and informal learning experiences.

In policy terms lifewide and lifelong were first connected in 2000 in a report by the Swedish National Agency for Education.

'The lifelong dimension represents what the individual learns throughout the whole life-span. Knowledge rapidly becomes obsolete and it is necessary for the individual to update knowledge and competence in a continuous process of learning. Education cannot be limited to the time spent in school, the individual must have a real opportunity to learn throughout life. The lifelong dimension is non-problematic, what is essential is that the individual learns throughout life. The lifewide dimension refers to the fact that learning takes place in a variety of different environments and situations, and is not only confined to the formal educational system. Lifewide learning covers formal, non-formal and informal learning. (NAES 2000:18)'

Having recently read the RSA's report 'Beyond the Big Society' I can see how lifewide education may offer at least partial solutions to the developmental issues raised in the report.

Permalink Reply by Norman Jackson on May 13, 2012 at 15:23

Dear Ian

I haven't forgotten about your post but its taken me a while to be able to answer you. I've just finished a chapter for a new e-book Lifewide Learning : The history of an idea. It explains how the idea of lifewide learning has been subsumed with lifelong learning for much of its history. The first explicit elaboration I can find was by Jost Reischman in 1986. Its become increasingly important as we grapple with the needs of information and knowledge societies. To me lifewide learning adds the daily detail, contexts and meaning to the lifelong journey.

We have just started a twitter conversation today (May 13 for one week) on the meanings of lifewide learning if you would like to offer your views this link will show you how you can join in

To post messages go to #LW1 https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23LW1

Stimulus paper http://lifewideeducation.co.uk/page/twitter-exchange

All contributions welcomed

Ian Lewis said:

Thanks Norman - this is indeed the right place from which to start. There are many who will join and from great projects of many years, but I wonder if we could collect the boundaries first.

In the interests of RSA prior work, where does 'Lifelong Learning' meet with 'Lifewide'?

My special interest is as an entrepreneurial educator spanning both the UK education system and those of a number of other countries, although mostly in Europe thorugh their EC Lifelong Learning initiatives.

Permalink Reply by Matthew Kálmán Mezey on May 14, 2012 at 11:52

Hi Norman,

You've mentioned to me that Lifewide education has some affinity with Marcia Baxter Magolda's work about curricula that foster 'self-authorship'.

Is there somewhere where I can read more about those parallels? (Indeed, did you say that Marcia had written a chapter for a book of yours?)

I'm very interested in ways that students' (or lifelong learners') self-development can be understood, and even assessed.

I'm currently reading Marcia Mentkowski's book 'Learning that Lasts', that reviews the major longitudinal assessment effort she led, in the US.

Anything else like that what I ought to read?

I'm also intrigued about ways to measure increases in pro-social behaviour (hopefully you spotted the RSA report 'Beyond the Big Society' that I co-authored a few months back, with its focus on understanding the psychology of active citizenship).

Best wishes,

Matthew

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Permalink Reply by Norman Jackson on May 14, 2012 at 12:57

Hi Matthew

Yes Marcia did indeed write a chapter in the book that I edited.. You will find it referenced in the first chapter of an e-book I have just written on the history of lifewide learning idea. I have highlighted RSA's enlightenment paper in it.

http://lifewideeducation.co.uk/page/lifewide-learning-education-per...

The link to book containing the chapter can be found here..http://www.authorhouse.co.uk/Bookstore/BookSearchResults.aspx?Searc...

I did indeed find your Beyond the Big Society report very interesting and I am beginning to integrate some of the ideas into my own thinking.

I submitted an application for a catalyst grant to try to implement some of our ideas through a lifewide development award but sadly did not gain support. We are not deterred and we are now looking got partners to help us pilot the award that does indeed try to address some of your concerns but its not at all about measurement its about support for engagement.

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