Mapping our way out? Critical reflections on historical research and the Faure report
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.3584Abstract
Contributions to the literature have postulated an historical shift in policy narratives from
the Faure report’s formulation of “lifelong education” for UNESCO in 1972 to a focus
on “lifelong learning” since the mid-1990s. It has also been argued that the policy
narrative articulated by de-schoolers in the early 1970s was incorporated in the Faure
report. This paper critically examines the empirical foundations for such arguments and
is based on a re-reading of the policy repertoire articulated by Faure’s report together
with an analysis of the de-schoolers’ reception of the report in the early 1970s. Based
upon a re-reading of primary texts and secondary sources from the 1970s, the analysis
demonstrates that these widely accepted arguments constitute a problematic
interpretation of the historical relationships between the key policy narratives in the
1970s. The conclusions identify a number of significant areas for further empirical
research regarding the historical relationships between first generation policy
narratives.
Metrics
References
Alenen, A. (1982). Lifelong education-permanent education-recurrent education. Adult Education in
Finland, 19(2), 3-41.
Bartlett, T., & Schugurensky, D. (2020). Deschooling Society 50 Years Later: Revisiting Ivan Illich in the
Era of COVID-19. Sisyphus 8(3), 65-84.
Barros, R. (2012). From lifelong education to lifelong learning: Discussion of some effects of today’s
neoliberal policies. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 3(2),
-134.
Bengtsson, J. (2013). National strategies for implementing lifelong learning (LLL) – the gap between policy
and reality: An international perspective. International Review of Education, 59(3), 343-352.
Bengtsson, J., Berg, v.d. A., Gras, A., Hake, B.J., Hecquet, I., Lister, I., & Zimmer, J. (1975). Does
Education Have a Future? The Political Economy of Social and Educational Inequalities in
European Society. The Hague: Nijhoff.
Biesta, G. (2005). Against learning: Reclaiming a language for education in an age of learning. Nordisk
Pedagogik, 25, 54–66.
Biesta, G. (2006). What’s the Point of Lifelong Learning if Lifelong Learning Has No Point? On the
Democratic Deficit of Policies for Lifelong Learning. European Educational Research Journal,
(3/4), 169-180.
Biesta, G. (2012). Have lifelong learning and emancipation still something to say to each other? Studies in
the Education of Adults, 44(1), 5-20.
Biesta, G. (2021). Reclaiming a future that has not yet been: The Faure report, UNESCO’s humanism and
the need for the emancipation of education. International Review of Education.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-021-09921-x
Billett, S. (2010). The perils of confusing lifelong learning with lifelong education. International Journal
of Lifelong Education, 29(4), 401-413.
Borg, C., & Mayo, P. (2005). The EU Memorandum on lifelong learning. Old wine in new bottles?
Globalisation, Societies and Education, 3(2), 203-225.
Boshier, R. (1998). Edgar Faure after 25 years: down but not out. In J. Holford, P. Jarvis, & C. Griffin
(Eds.), International Perspectives on lifelong Learning (pp.3-20). London: Kogan Page.
Boshier, R. (2004). Meanings and manifestations of anarchist-utopian ethos in adult education. Proceedings
th Annual Adult Education Research Conference (AERC), Victoria, B.C., 53-58.
Boshier, R. (2012). Lifelong Learning as a Flag of Convenience. In D.N. Aspin, J. Chapman, K. Evans &
R. Bagnall (Eds.), Second International Handbook of Lifelong Learning (pp. 701-719). Dordrecht:
Springer.
Carnoy, M. (1974). Learning to Be: Consensus and Contradictions. Convergence, 7(3), 53-60.
Centeno, V. (2011). Lifelong learning: a policy concept with a long past but a short history. International
Journal of Lifelong Education, 30(2), 133–150.
Cidoc (1974). The price of lifelong education. Doc. I/V 74/70, Cuernavaca: Center for Intercultural
Documentation.
Chase, M. (1995). ‘Mythmaking and Mortmain’: The Uses of Adult Education History? Studies in the
Education of Adults, 27(1), 52-65.
Dauber, H., & Verne, E. (1976) (Eds.). Freiheit zum Lernen. Alternativen zur lebenslänglichen
Verschulung. Die Einheit von Leben, Lernen, Arbeiten. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.
Duke, C. (1969). Towards éducation permanente: The Concept of Life-long Integrated Education.
Australian Journal of Adult Education, 9(3), 103–13.
Duke, C. (1982). Evolution of the Recurrent Education Concept. International Journal of Lifelong
Education, 1(4), 323-340.
Elfert, M. (2015). UNESCO, the Faure Report, the Delors Report, and the Political Utopia of Lifelong
Learning. European Journal of Education, 50(1), 88-100.
Elfert, M. (2018). UNESCO’s Utopia of Lifelong Learning: An Intellectual History. Abingdon: Routledge.
Elfert, M. (2019). Revisiting the Faure Report and the Delors Report: Why Was UNESCO’s Utopian Vision
of Lifelong Learning an “Unfailure”? In F. Finnegan & B. Grummell (eds). Power and Possibility:
Adult Education in a Diverse and Complex World (pp. 17-25). Leiden: Brill.
Faure, E., Herrera, P., Kaddoura, A-K., Lopès, H., Pétrovski, A.V., Rahnena, M., & Ward, F.C. (1972).
Learning to be: the world of education today and tomorrow. Paris: UNESCO/Harrop.
Fejes, A. (2013). Lifelong learning and employability. In G. Zarifis, & M.N. Gravani (Eds), Challenging
the ‘European Area of Lifelong Learning’: A Critical Response (pp. 99-107). Dordrecht: Springer.
Fejes, A. & Nylander, E. (eds) (2019). Mapping out the Research Field of Adult Education and Learning.
Heidelberg: Springer.
Field, J. (2001). Lifelong education. International Journal of Lifelong Education 20(1/2), 3-15.
Field, J. (2012). Transitions in Lifelong Learning: Public Issues, Private Troubles, Liminal Identities.
Studies for the Learning Society, 2(2/3), 4-11. |
Finger, M., & Asún, J. M. (2001). Adult Education at the Crossroads: Learning our way out. London: Zed
Books.
Fomerand, J. (1977). The French University: What Happened after the Revolution? Higher Education, 6(1),
-116.
Forquin, J.-C. (2002. Les composantes doctrinales de l'idée d'éducation permanente. Analyse
thématique d'un corpus international. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Forquin, J-C, (2004). L’idée d’éducation permanente et son expression internationale depuis les
années 1960. Savoirs, 3(6), 9-44.
Frese, H. (1972). Permanent Education – Dream or Nightmare? Education and Culture, 19, 9-13.
Further, P. (1977). The planner and lifelong education. Paris: International Institute of Educational
Planning.
Gelpi, E. (1984). Lifelong education: Opportunities and obstacles. International Journal of Lifelong
Education, 3(2), 79-87.
Gelpi, E. (1994). L’éducation permanente: principe révolutionnaire et pratiques conservatrices.
International Review of Education, 40(3), 343-351.
Giere, U. (1994). Lifelong Learners in the Literature: Adventurers, Artists, Dreamers, Old Wise Men,
Technologists, Unemployed, Little Witches and Yuppies. International Review of Education,
(3/5), 383-393.
Grace, A. P., Rocco, T. S., & Associates (2009). Challenging the Professionalisation of Adult Education:
John Ohliger and Contradictions in Modern Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Guigou, J. (1971). L’école désétatisée. Combat, 3 mars.9
Guigou, J. (1992). Critique des systèmes de formation des adultes, 1968-1992. Paris: Harmattan
Guigou, J. (1973). Critique de l’analyse systématique des actions de formation. ?ducation Permanente, 17,
-146
Guigou, J. (1975). Les coûts de l’éducation permanente: un été avec Illich (août 1974). L’Homme et la
société, 35, 225-237.
Guigou, J. (1977). L’institution de la formation permanente. In G. Pineau (Ed.), ?ducation ou aliénation
permanente ?: repères mythiques et politiques (pp. 190-206). Paris: Dunod.
Guigou, J. (1992). Critique des systèmes de formation des adultes, 1968-1992. Paris : Harmattan
Grace, A.P., & Rocco, T.S. (Eds) (2009). Challenging the Professionalization of Adult Education: John
Ohliger and Contradictions in Modern Practice. San Franciso: Jossey-Bass.
Haddat, G., & Aubin, J-P. (2013). Towards a humanism of knowledge, action, and co-operation.
International Review of Education, 59(3), 331-334.
Hager, P.J. (2011). Concepts and Definitions of Lifelong Learning. In M. London (ed.), The Oxford
Handbook of Lifelong Learning (pp. 12-25). Oxford: Oxford UP.
Hake, B.J. (2005). Fragility of the Employability Agenda: Flexible life courses and the reconfiguration of
lifelong learning in The Netherlands. In A. Bron, E. Kurantowicz, H. Salling Olesen, & L. West
(eds), 'Old' and 'new' worlds of adult learning (pp. 234-253). Wroclaw: Wydawnictwo Naokowe.
Hake, B.J. (2011). Rewriting the History of Adult Education: The Search for Narrative Structures. In K.
Rubenson (Ed.), Adult Learning and Education (pp.14-19). Oxford: Academic Press.
Hake, B.J. (2017). Strange encounters on the road to lifelong learning: the European economic community
meets permanent education in 1973. History of Education, 46(4), 514-532.
Hake, B.J. (2018). Éducation permanente in France en route to ‘permanent education’ at the Council of
Europe? Revisiting a projet social to create ‘a long life of learning’, History of Education, 47(6),
-805.
Hake, B.J. (2019). L’éducation permanente et le Conseil de l’Europe: le rôle oublié des réseaux français.
Education Permanente, n° 220-221, 295-314.
Hake, B.J. (2021). Looking forward backwards: Varieties of capitalisms, alternative futures, and learning
landscapes. European journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 12(1), 31-45.
Huberman, M. (1979). Live and Learn: A Review of Recent Studies in Lifelong Education. Higher
Education, 8(2), 205-215.
Hughes, C., & Tight, M. (1995). The myth of the learning society. British Journal of Educational Studies,
(3), 290-304.
Illich, I. (1970). Deschooling Society. New York: Harper and Row.
Illich, I., & Verne, E. (1976). Imprisoned in the Global Classroom. London: Writers and Readers Publishing
Co-operative.
Istance, D., Schuetze, H.G., & Schuller, T. (2002). International perspectives on lifelong learning: From
recurrent education to the knowledge society. Buckingham: SRHE/OU.
Jadotte, H. (1973). Le Rapport Faure: une offensive du libéralisme éducatif. Forum, 7(23), 3.
Jarvis, P. (2014). From adult education to lifelong learning and beyond. Comparative Education, 50(1), 45-
Jones P. (2006). Raymond Williams’s Sociology of Culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Krakovitch, R. (2006). Edgar Faure: le virtuose de la politique. Paris : Economica.
Lajeunesse, M. (1974). Le Rapport Faure et l’idée de changement. Documentation et bibliothèques, 20(1),
-33.
Laot, F. F. (1999). La formation des adultes. Histoire d’une utopie en acte. Le Complexe de Nancy. Paris :
L’Harmattan.
Laot, F.F. (2009). Focusing on the idea of Permanent Education in France and its Progressive Decline. In
A Heikkinen, & K. Kraus (Eds.), Reworking vocational education: policies, practices, and
concepts (pp. 121-140). Bern: Peter Lang.
Lee, M. L., & Friedrich, T. (2011). Continuously reaffirmed, subtly accommodated, obviously missing and
fallaciously critiqued: ideologies in UNESCO’s lifelong learning policy. International Journal of
Lifelong Education, 30(2), 151-169.
Le Monde (1972). M. Edgar Faure présente son rapport sur l’avenir de l’éducation. Le Monde, September
, 1972.
Lengrand, P. (1970). An Introduction to Lifelong Education. Paris: UNESCO.
Lestrohan, P. (2007). L’Edgar: Biographie d’Edgar Faure. Paris: Le Cherche Midi.
Levinson, M. (2016). An Extraordinary Time: The End of the Post-war Boom and the Return of the
Ordinary Economy. New York: Basic Books.
Lister, I. (1974). Deschooling: a reader. London: Cambridge University Press.
Lopez, A. (2014). The University as power or counter-power? May 1968 and the emergence of a new
learning subject. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 5(1),
-49.
Loriaux, M.M. (1991). France After Hegemony: International Change and Financial Reform. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press.
Lowe, R. (1975). The Education of Adults: A World Perspective. Paris and Toronto: UNESCO Press and
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
Lynch, M. (1979). Education for Community: A Cross-cultural Study in Education. London: Macmillan.
Maheu, R. (1973). An aid to reflection for necessary renovations. Prospects, 3(1), 51-56.
Mazenod, A. (2017). Lost in translation? Comparative education research and the production of academic
knowledge. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 48(2), 189-205
Medel-Añonuevo, C., Ohsako, T., & Mauch, W. (2001). Revisiting Lifelong Learning for the 21st Century.
Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education.
McGuigan, J. (2019). Raymond Williams: Cultural Analyst. Bristol: Intellect Books.
Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers, J., & Behrens III (1972). The limits to growth: A report for the club
of Rome’s project on the predicament of mankind. New York: Universe Books.
Milana, M. (2012). Political globalisation and the shift from adult education to lifelong learning. European
Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 3(2), 103-117.
Nicholl, K., & Olesen, H. (2013). What’s new in a new competence regime? European Journal for
Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 4(2), 103-109.
OECD (1973). Recurrent Education: A Strategy for Lifelong Learning. Paris: Centre for Educational
Research and Innovation.
Ohliger, J. (1974). Is Lifelong Education a Guarantee of Permanent Inadequacy? Convergence, 7(2), 47-
Patterson, M. (1972). French University Reform: Renaissance or Restoration? Comparative Education
Review, 16(2), 281-302.
Petrovsky, A. V. (1976). What lies behind de-schooling? Prospects, 6(1), 60-64.
Pineau, G. (Ed.) (1977). ?ducation ou aliénation permanente?: repères mythiques et politiques. Paris:
Dunod.
Prasad, M. (2006). The Politics of Free Markets: The Rise of Neoliberal Economic Policies in Britain, France,
Germany, and the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Reimer, E. (1971). School is Dead: Alternatives in Education. An Indictment of the System and a Strategy
of Revolution. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Richmond, W.K. (1975). Education and Schooling. London: Routledge.
Rubenson, K. (1982). Adult Education Research: in Quest of a Map of the Territory. Adult Education,
(2), 57-74.
Rubenson, K. (1994). Recurrent education policy in Sweden: A moving target. International Review of
Education, 40, 245-256.
Rubenson, K. (2006). Constructing the lifelong learning paradigm: Competing visions from the OECD and
UNESCO. In S. Ehlers (ed.), Milestones towards lifelong learning systems (pp. 151-170).
Copenhagen: Danish School of Education.
Rubenson, K. (2009). OECD educational policies and world hegemony. In R. Mahon, & S. McBride (Eds.),
The OECD and transnational governance (pp. 96-116). Vancouver: UBC Press.
Schütze, H. G. (2006). International concepts and agendas of Lifelong Learning.
Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 36(3), 289-306.
Selman, G. (1989). 1972 - Year of Affirmation for Adult Education. Canadian Journal for the Study of
Adult Education/la Revue Canadienne pour 1’etude de 1’education des adultes, 3(1), 33-45.
Simmons, J. (1973). The Report of the Faure Commission: One Step Forward and Two Steps Back. Higher
Education, 2(4), 475-488.
Strain, M., &. Field, J. (1977). On the Myth of the Learning Society. British Journal of Educational Studies,
(2), 141-155.
Tuijnman, A., & Boström, A.K. (2002). Changing notions of lifelong education and lifelong learning.
International Review of Education, 48(1), 93-110.
Verne, E. (1974). Une Scolarisation sans fin. Revue Esprit, 10, 529-546.
Verne, E. (1976). Literacy and industrialisation-the dispossession of speech. In L. Bataille (ed.), A Turning
Point for Literacy (pp. 211-218). Oxford: Pergamon.
UNESCO (1973). Records of the General Conference, 17th session, Paris, 17 October to 21 November
, v. 1: Resolutions, p. 18.
UNESCO (1976). Recommendation on the development of adult education adopted by the General
Conference at its nineteenth session Nairobi, 26 November 1976.
Wain, K. (1989). The Case of Lifelong Education – A Reply to Rozycki. Educational Theory, 39(2), 151-
Wain, K. (2001). Lifelong Learning: Small Adjustments or Paradigmatic Shift? In D. Aspin, J. Chapman,
M. Hatton, & Y. Sawano (eds.), International Handbook of Lifelong Learning (pp.183-198).
Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Wain, K. (2004). The Learning Society in a Postmodern World. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Webster, F., & Robins, K. (1989). Plan and Control: Towards a Cultural History of the Information Society.
Theory and Society, 18(3), 323-351.
Williams, R. (1959, May 30). Going on learning. New Statesman, (pp. 750-751).
Williams, R. (1966). Communications. London : Penquin.
Williams, R. (1981). Culture. London: Fontana.
Wolin, R. (2010). The Wind from the East: French Intellectuals, the Cultural Revolution, and the Legacy
of the 1960s. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Zaldívar, J. (2011). Revisiting the critiques of Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society. International Journal for
Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education, 1(1), 618-626.
Zaldívar, J. (2015). Deschooling for all? The thought of Ivan Illich in the era of education (and learning)
for all. Foro de Educación, 13(18), 93-109.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Barry Hake
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
As RELA is an open access journal, this means that anyone who can access the Internet can freely download and read the journal. There are no commercial interests for Linköping University Electronic Press or the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) in publishing the journal. There are no charges for publishing authors.
The core idea of open access is that copyright remains with the author(s). However, we publish with the agreement of the author that if she or he decides later to publish the article elsewhere, that the publisher will be notified, prior to any acceptance, that the article has already been published by RELA.
When publishing with RELA, it is with the agreement of the author that if they make their article available elsewhere on the internet (for example, on their own website or an institutional website), that they will do so by making a link to the article as published in RELA using the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number of the article and acknowledge in the text of the site that the article has been previously published in RELA.
