It’s about adult education and more: It’s about lifelong learning for all and for all of life

Abstract

For some time, adult educators have fixated on the divisive notion that lifelong learning is usurping the field of study and practice. Such a fixation not only undermines the value of adult education, but it also limits opportunities to see the porous and interrelated nature of public, adult, and higher education. Each of these educational components contributes to the collective of education constituted as lifelong learning for all and for all of life. Working from this perspective, this article explores the notion of lifelong learning as critical action as it considers 1) the emergence of Canadian academic adult education amid the decline of social education, and 2) the dynamics of locating adult education within faculties of education in universities today.