Australian Journal of Adult Learning - Volume 58 - Number 3 - November 2018 - Achieving LLL with the Sustainable Development Goals

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mimi

Achieving LLL with the Sustainable Development Goals examines how lifelong learning, sustainability, and policy language influence real-world action amid turbulent social, political, and economic change. It reflects on the role of Adult Learning Australia in shaping policymaking through activities tied to #YOLL2018, and questions whether familiar “buzz-words” mobilize or merely reassure. The paper analyzes evolving generations of lifelong learning—from earlier socio-cultural visions to more economic or skills-focused interpretations—and asks what needs to move governments from aspiration to implementation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Achieving LLL with the Sustainable Development Goals: What is needed to get things done?

Changing words in a changing world

LLL in Australia – from Ideal to Real?

#YOLL2018: Another Year of Lifelong Learning (LLL)

Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 58, Number 3, November 2018 Achieving LLL with the Sustainable Development Goals: What is needed to get things done? Chris Duke RMIT University The need for individual, community and institutional lifelong learning grows and changes with turbulent social, political and economic change. The national adult education non-government organisation (NGO), Adult Learning Australia, can influence the course of policymaking and ultimately the national culture through diverse activities within or started through \#YOLL2018. Keywords: lifelong learning, sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals, Adult Learning Australia, \#YOLL2018, politics, culture Changing words in a changing world1 Words that change their meaning Adult Learning Australia, with perhaps a gentle humour rare among similar adult education bodies, and most politicians, takes as its symbol 1This paper addresses issues that are global and generic but with the Australian context and an Australian readership particularly in mind. 504 Chris Duke the chameleon. This little fellow changes colour and appearance to camouflage itself–to appear different and if possible invisible to survive in different surroundings. Is that the way we behave in our own fast-changing and not always hospitable surroundings? Does this if so display a common-sense instinct for sustainability and survival; or do we detect a whiff of pragmatic cowardice, an echo of the Vicar of Bray2? Are we hard-nosed growth economists or soft-headed social reformers? Or maybe, and with consistency, both? Like fashions that must change frequently to survive, many flavour of the year words come and go. More seriously, keywords change their ownership and meaning almost as fast. Being successful in lobbying and selling means using new buzz-words for new things, or finding attention-seeking new gimmicks. Maybe some become keywords for old things that abide and are long-lasting beneath the surface. Sometimes a really new understanding may follow. We need to run lifelong learning and sustainability through such tests as these. Both are twenty-teens flavours ofthe decade to be used with thoughtful care. Are they really new? Do these familiar terms carrying new more powerful meanings? Do they enable us as campaigners to ‘capture the narrative’ of policymakers, the mass and social media and opinion leaders, enabling us as lobbyists to command attention and respect and to bring on action? There is a danger that by their familiarity they reassure rather than mobilise, allowing us to get on with business as usual. LLL in Australia – from Ideal to Real? This paper is written as a response and a contribution to the ALA Year of Lifelong Learning (ALA 2018a) and its aspiration, as expressed in the invitation to the Summit on 17 April 2018, to celebrate ‘the power of people continuing to learn throughout their lives’; both ‘tojoin us in our planned activities or you might want to devise your own events or actions to highlight the benefits of lifelong learning’. The overall purpose and outcome was to devise a national Australian policy on lifelong learning and to put this to the federal government. As ALA completes this task, however, let us think a little about what that government can 2A historical character who won attention if not notoriety in an earlier time of political and ideological-religious tension in England, by changing his Church affiliation as national power changed hands back and forth. Few local reputations have survived the centuries as robustly! Achieving LLL with the Sustainable Development Goals: What is needed to get things done? 505 and will do: what moves it to action, and what can as well be kicked down the road? \#YOLL2018. Another Year of Lifelong Learning (LLL) . The first such year that I remember was the European YOLL in 1996. Scanning the policy landscape and referring to the first global LLL conference held in Rome in 1994, th

FAQs

What role does Adult Learning Australia aim to play in policymaking?

Adult Learning Australia can influence the course of policymaking and ultimately national culture through diverse activities, including those connected to #YOLL2018.

Why does the paper focus on how words and keywords change?

It argues that keywords can shift ownership and meaning quickly, that lobbying success may depend on new buzz-words, and that familiarity can reassure instead of mobilizing action.

How does the paper compare different “generations” of lifelong learning?

It contrasts earlier broader socio-cultural visions with later narrower, more economic or skills-focused approaches, and raises the question of whether current policy supports a wider third-generation socio-cultural ambition.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mimi