Book review: Lifelong education cannot be taken for granted

Lifelong Learning, Global Social Justice and Sustainability

By Leona M. English and Peter Mayo  

Published by Springer Nature, 2021

Lifelong Learning, Global Social Justice and Sustainability is an eye-opener. It invites readers to unsettle the taken-for-granted concept of lifelong education and expose the “serpent” within – a reductive notion of lifelong learning as job-related training.

The authors, Leona English and Peter Mayo, both leading international scholars in adult education, argue that lifelong learning has become so twisted that it has reduced learning to a set of narrow competences and skills that best suit a neoliberal economy. 

This book stands out because it systematically tracks the birth of ‘lifelong education’ and critically unveils its transformation into ‘lifelong learning’. The pulsating narrative makes a case for the deconstruction and reconstruction of UNESCO’s original idea of ‘lifelong education’ in eight chapters. It also seeks to empower individuals to embrace, and hopefully attain, global social justice and sustainability goals. 

Giants in the field of adult education constitute the pillars of this work. These include Ettore Gelpi and the pragmatist...