This volume of the Open University Reader for Supporting Lifelong Learning looks at policy development in lifelong learning at local, regional, national and supra-national levels. Using an international team of contributors, it explores and examines the policy context for lifelong learning, the policies themselves, and their effects when implemented.
The book focuses on the role of lifelong learning policy in relation to issues of competitiveness, technological change and social inclusion. The provision of a range of chapters from around the globe uniquely establishes a comparative basis for the reader. This volume also encourages the student to evaluate lifelong learning as a response to globalising trends and the globalising of educational policy.

Every day we are confronted with problems and challenges which we address by drawing on our experience and by using this experience to find ways of learning what to do in new circumstances. Learning through experience is the normal, commonplace approach to learning and we take it for granted. Whilst much is known about teaching and being taught, far less attention has been given to learning in context - in particular, to learning outside the classroom. Yet this is in fact where most learning takes place. One possibly neglected area is the role which people, other than the learner, play in facilitating learning. This role is undertaken not only by teachers, trainers, parents and counsellors, but also by managers, supervisors, care-givers and friends. This book brings together the experiences of a number of practitioners, who write from often strongly contrasting perspectives. Such perspectives include feminism, Marxism, critical pedagogy, post-modernism and Gestalt, humanistic, clinical and transpersonal psychology.

Everyday we are confronted with problems and challenges which we address by drawing on our experience and by using this experience to find ways of learning what to do in new circumstances. Learning through experience is the normal, commonplace approach to learning and we take it for granted.
Whilst much is known about teaching and being taught, far less attention has been given to learning in context - in particular, to learning outside the classroom. Yet this is in fact where most learning takes place. One especially neglected area is the role which people, other than the learner, play in facilitating learning. This role is undertaken not only by teachers, trainers, parents and counsellors, but also by managers, supervisors, care-givers and friends.
This book brings together the experiences of a number of practitioners; who write from often strongly contrasting perspectives; these include feminism, Marxism, critical pedagogy, post-modernism and Gestalt, humanistic, clinical and transpersonal psychology. The authors also come from a wide range of international backgrounds, including adult, higher and teacher education, community work, organisational development and psychotherapy.
Each chapter is grounded not only in professional practice and in theory, but also in personal experience. Overall, then, the book provides fascinating insights into what some good practitioners do to promote learning, and how they make sense of this.
David Boud is professor in the School of Adult Education, University of Technology, Sydney. Nod Miller is Professor in the Department of Innovation Studies, University of East London.

Technology and In/equality explores the diverse implications of the new information and communication technologies through case studies of their applications in three main areas - media, education and training, and work. Questions of access to and control over crucial resources such as information, knowledge, skills and income ae addressed drawing upon insights from science and technology studies, innovation theory, sociology and cultural studies. All of the chapters question the meanings of the terms 'technology' and 'inequality' and of the widespread association of technology with progress. Written with a non-specialist readership in mind, all complex theories and key concepts are carefully explained making the book easily accessible and relevant to a wide range of courses.

Contents:
1. Themes and Questions for a Research Agenda on Lifelong Learning 2. On a Contradictory Way to the 'Learning Society': A Critical Approach 3. Lifelong Learning and Underemployment in the Knowledge Society: A North American Perspective 4. Social Capital, Human Capital and the Learning Society 5. The Comparative Dimension in Continious Vocational Training: A Preliminary Framework 6. Post School Education and Training Policy in Developmental States: The Cases of Taiwan and South Korea 7. Lifelong Learning and Welfare Reform 8. Change of Address? Educating Economies in Vocational Education and Training 9. Breaking the Concensus: Lifelong Learning as Social Control 10. Governing the Ungovernable: Why Lifelong Learning Policies Promise so Much Yet Deliver so Little