Lifelong Education

Although the notion of lifelong learning was put forward by Dewey, together with the importance of experiential learning, the concept was given prominence by the UNESCO commissioned report (Faure et al., 1972) which emphasised the dual ideas of lifelong education and a learning society. According to Faure et al. (p 163) the learning society ‘can be conceived as a process of close interweaving between education and the social, political and economic fabric, which covers the family unit and economic life; ’ with a sense of responsibility replacing that of obligation. Whatever the previous educational uptake and intellectual abilities of individuals, rapidly changing economic and social circumstances require that education be a lifelong endeavour, removed from particularities of time and location. There is a need to optimise professional mobility as well as to develop personal interest in education, in order to foster and maintain a sense of personal agency in areas such as reason, creativity, democratic competence, and a spirit of social responsibility. As a result of time spent in formal mathematics education, many adults have formed negative self-concepts of themselves as learners, particularly in mathematics (FitzSimons, 1994). Calculators and computers are feared by many. During their classroom apprenticeship into the discourse of mathematics they have been constructed as more or less successful learners and empowered mathematical subjects through the mechanisms of curriculum (Popkewitz, 1997) and teaching discourse