Lifelong learning on the market shelf
Learning has been commodified in many parts of the world, and the growing learning market challenges public education in many ways. Professor SoongHee Han explains how the global economy is pushing lifelong learning towards the market in Korea.
A spectre is haunting the world - the spectre of lifelong learning. It was born as a call for radical social transformation; from a deep desire to provide education for all. But then it got the face of global capitalism.
"The phenomenon of lifelong learning is now significantly linked to globalisation. The global economy created the monster of lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is pushed by the global knowledge economy." So says SoongHee Han, Professor of Lifelong Education from the Department of Education at Seoul National University, Korea.
It wasn't always like that. When the concept of lifelong learning emerged in the early 1970s it was as an idealist model of reform, but since then there has been a major shift from the welfare state to market rule.
"The emergence of global capitalism changed the traditional learning system and moved it towards the learning market. And as global capitalism develops, so does learning capitalism," Professor Han explains.
This means that learning has been commodified in many parts of the world, for example in SoongHee Han's mother country, Korea.
Professor Han explains that learning practices in Korea are adapted by neo-liberals and the discourses of the economic market. Despite some government initiatives, such as adult basic education, non-traditional learning outcome recognition systems, learning cities, or learning festivals, most of the educational programs beyond basic school level are basically private goods to purchase.
"Korea is very weak on public services. A lot of services are privatized, also when it comes to education: Most kindergartens are private. 100 % of the primary education is public, but about 40 % of the secondary schooling is private, and 80 % of the universities are private. And adult learning is dominated by the private learning market," SoongHee Han says.
"More local governments began to provide more lifelong learning centres and programs. However, the overall ratio of the public and the private is shameful - and it is not only Korea but the whole globe that is moving in that direction."
Challenging the old system
The growing learning market challenges public education in many ways. One example is that children in Korea spend more and more time on private tutoring. More than 25 % of a Korean family's household expenditure per month is spent on private tutoring. Parents tend to trust the private learning market more than public education. For example, many parents value private tutoring higher than school education because they see a more direct learning outcome from private tutoring. Private tutoring of children has a strong focus on test scores - and public schools cannot compete with that.
Professor Han believes it is a huge problem that a large part of Korean education is governed by the mechanism of the learning market.
"The new lifelong learning system undermines the foundations of the previous traditional public school system. Lifelong learning is a new code of education system and it is challenging the old educational order," he says.
The learning market itself is not the problem, but it does not do any good for those who cannot pay the bill:
"The market is not by nature bad. But it cannot stand alone. We need the learning market but we also need a social monitoring system - or else the learning divide will increase. The learning market is important and necessary but it should be linked to the public sector."
The learning society of Europe
According to SoongHee Han, Europe is demonstrating to the rest of the world how the idea of learning society can be elaborated and implemented.
"Europe is a step ahead while Asia is still waiting for the next step. The European model shows an example of an intergovernmental system and it is a unique case. When we say 'learning society', Europe shows a visible and viable case. Europe is getting closest to being a learning society."
Europe's approach to lifelong learning differs from the Asian model in several ways, Professor Han explains: Lifelong learning seems more instrumental in most Asian countries. Where Europe has a trans-governmental approach to lifelong learning, Asia has little experience in how to be regional as well as collaborative in terms of learning and education. In Europe, the concept of lifelong learning includes 'cradle to grave', while Asia mostly think of it as adult learning, apart from schooling.
"In Asia 'lifelong learning' typically means two things: It is focused on adult education and linked to literacy or non-formal education ? like second-rate complimentary courses for adults ? and it is associated with the instrumental idea of Human Resource Development, a significant part of knowledge capitalism. In many Asian countries the policies linked with the idea of Human Resource Development plays the key ideology that drives education to be more market-oriented."
Professor Han believes that lifelong learning should be a much broader term. It should not just be about adult education. "What I mean by lifelong learning is a new mode of societal learning, from cradle to grave. We should, for example, link lifelong learning to schools."
In this perspective, lifelong learning is by no means an 'additive notion' to add more education to schooling. It is rather a chemical reaction to the traditional school system: a re-definition of schools and new linkage between formal and non-formal education. They will be re-designed to accept the returning mature students and recognize the new types of qualifications that did not exist before. Just imagine that even new devices such as Academic Credit Bank System can confer higher education degrees to non traditional students. No more exclusive power of 'formal education' dominates the whole educational ecologies, SoongHee Han says.
The needs of the workplace
According to SoongHee Han, the term 'lifelong learning' refers to a social phenomenon of learning. "Lifelong learning implies a particular mode of social management systems of learning interconnected with the global economy needed to reproduce it. It is a mode of social production. It is a new system or principle for providing social learning within the global economy."
Lifelong learning systems are how the processes are managed and maintained within the learning economy.
"Some examples are the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies, both from the OECD. These programs intend to implement the needs of the workplace in the educational sector," Professor Han says.
The concept of 'competence' bridges and re-designs the demand of knowledge industry and the school curriculum. PISA or PIAAC singled out out the concept of competence and defined it to be a final learning outcome, which became an ultimate parameter that indicates the degree of reflection of the demands into the practice of education. Now, learning outcome is re-calculated into the competence that directly reflects what the companies need for their workforces.
The learning market is creating a 'market version' of learning recognition systems, or competence measurement systems, corresponding to the official ones. The market has invented a new social learning system that has given weight to more practical knowledge. This change links academic schooling directly to work capabilities.
So what will happen to the spectre of lifelong learning? How will it haunt the learning society of Europe?
"The phenomenon of the learning society is just beginning. We don't know the consequences yet," Professor Han says. "I hear that the trend in Europe is that it is shifting towards the market. But I trust Europe's strong public educational system and I am looking very much forward to following the next steps towards the learning society."
By Camilla Mehlsen cme@dpu.dk
SOONGHEE HAN
SoongHee Han is Professor of Lifelong Education at the Department of Education, Seoul National University, Korea. His academic interests include comparative studies in lifelong learning, popular adult education and learning ecology. He is the coordinator of network 5 on Core Competences within the ASEM Education and Research Hub for Lifelong Learning.
Read More
SoongHee Han: 'The lifelong learning ecosystem in Korea: evolution of learning capitalism?' in International Journal of Lifelong Education, Vol. 27, no. 3, 2008.
