Role of Life Long Learning in Creating an Ecologically Minded Society

¶ … popularized social and cultural trends are merging, intentionally or not, toward laying the foundation for generating a new narrative about what it means to learn across a lifespan in an environment conducive to healthy living. It seeks to examine the coalescing of what is called lifelong learning side-by-side with the theories and practices related to the evolution of ecological thinking and environmental awareness. The idea that life can be as meaningful at its end as it is in the beginning seems to be counter to normative philosophies that instead isolate and compartmentalize schooling and work. Yet when examined together, it becomes clear that both lifelong learning and ecological thinking are simpatico and thus supportive of the greater acceptance of the other.

Lifelong learning like a mindset for environmental awareness share many philosophical and pragmatic elements. They each approach their subjects from a long-term perspective. Developed and developing nations, including America, openly center their expectations around very short-duration, purposive educational goals that reward the commercial acceptance of instantaneous gratification, straight line advancement (such as moving from one grade level to another just above) and other factors associated with throw-away consumption.

By blending the vales of a lifelong pursuit of knowledge and understanding with a global and systematic awareness of the health of the world in which we live and thrive, however, these core presumptions are directly threatened (Emerson, 2003). And at the same time, the core assumptions of both fields seem in many instances to make it hard for some to accept what each movement has to offer. It can even be said that such fundamental shifts in perspective and practices will never happen, even as many indicators suggest a transformation is already underway in its own kind of quiet revolution (Hawkens, 2007).

The pages that follow review the state of the problem and suggest that a confluence of the perspectives of lifelong learning and environmental ecology is not just happening but that the end results may be highly desirable. After a review of the literature and a look at global advancements indicators, I review a series of common definitions and assumptions that each sector offers, and then explore how the advent and pervasive use of connectivity technologies (from computers to hand-held communication devices) are facilitating a marriage of these initiatives. Throughout the piece, my findings are presented in light of changes underway in the schools and communities, often through the scope of a new type of ecoliteracy (grounded in ecological thinking and intelligence), which transcends each sector (Puk, 2002). The final section explores how specific teaching strategies are being combined with technological advancements in ways that are making it appear likely that the two fields will successfully come together in a very happy way (Ceasar, 2009).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The world's educational systems and philosophies are under scrutiny. This is true in both developed countries, which already have certain structural learning models, as well as in developing countries that are just now coming to grips with how to make learning and teaching most effective within the confines of a smaller, yet highly competitive world. There are numerous indicators which suggest that contemporary, formal educational models are not providing all of what they promise (Aspin and Chapman, 2007). Many young people are not completing school and even those that do find they are not prepared for their working lives to come. As a result, there has been a rising tide toward the institutionalization of more structured, highly regimented learning tactics -- a momentum that is gaining even more force in the light of significant governmental and personal resource struggles. Governmental initiatives such as the No Child Left Behind directives in the U.S. (and a similar Level 2 Qualifications in the UK) were designed over the last decade in no small part specifically to address these issues and to establish standardized teaching and testing directives (Hodgson, 2009). Essentially, the argument being made through these efforts by both liberal and conservative advocates is that because other approaches are not working well, the better alternatives for ensuring the preparation of a strong future workforce is by enabling young people to be more "scientifically" ready for global vocational success. If all students take similar core (or what might be called STEM courses), it would be much easier to make sure that teachers everywhere were being equally beneficial to student learning abilities[footnoteRef:1]. Tests grounded in scientific and mathematical conformity likewise provide school administrations and colleges and universities the presumed ability to better judge learning achievement as they prepare students primarily for future job readiness (Van Kleef, 2007). [1: STEM is the acronym for an American focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. While noble in its intentions, here it is seen as more of an obstacle to allowing other types of learning into school because people believe hard sciences are more effective than softer social sciences. This issue is discussed later. See http://www.stemeducation.com/. ]

While this perspective is without question under intensive scrutiny, for the most part it remains prevalent even in the face of another growing educational perspective that is clearly taking root. Lifelong learning as an object worthy of exploration is already finding a place in many social, community, employment and advocacy sectors, even when it flies directly in the face of the movement toward standardized learning and testing (Aspin and Chapman, 2007: Puk, 2002), even though some might think the impact of this collision is being ignored or at least downplayed (Hodgson, 2009).

But whether it is being ignored or not says little about how well its roots are actually taking hold. Those who profess an allegiance to the idea of learning across the full spectrum of one's lifespan are succeeding in integrating their concepts into various philosophical and pragmatic domains. They are even directly implementing lifelong learning tools, tactics and presumptions into what two of what remain as the most solid groundings for more traditional formal learning, the schools and the separation of continuing adult education from ongoing lifetime (or some say life-wide) knowledge acquisition and usage (Eason, 2010). Even in the face of mounting evidence to the effect that learning works best when it is highly individualized and contextual, most people who view public and even private schooling still see it as being something unique from learning that happens elsewhere (such as when job skills need to be refined or when a new career becomes necessary) -- which makes it more difficult to integrate life-wide learning strategies (Medel-Anonuevo, 2001).

This struggle is problematic on many fronts. For one it is age-related, which flies in the face of many assumptions about the importance of birth to death learning. For another, it has allow for the development of a very isolated process of formal education and many people and groups do not want to give up on this approach (Axford and Seddon, 2006). But perhaps even more important is the fact that for the most part even lifelong learning advocates still accept in their own ways that children and young people do in fact learn so differently that the ways in which they are taught have to be entirely separate and distinct. While it may be okay for adult or continuing education to be rather transcendental and transformative, this will not work for younger students who do not have the requisite personal and life experiences to learn differently (Dirkx, 1998). Early developers of lifelong learning and educational assumptions were very clear that they were not looking to figure out how to challenge the traditional schooling system or methodologies for these reasons; instead, they were most interested in looking at the larger reasons and rationales for why adults could and should continue to value learning later in life.

The result of this, however, was not entirely what was expected. This trend has made it such that lifelong learning approaches have found themselves boxed into a number of traps that have made their cherished concepts seem unreachable, if not surreal (Resnick, 2003; Puk, 2002). One notable problem comes with how formal education is intensely oriented around job acquisition and work readiness -- a situation that brings up concerns about how selfish or wasteful non-work-oriented learning can be.

This realization has been noted in other ways too. Some people believe that lifelong learning cannot really occur because it is very difficult to move people back toward books after they have become used to their television remote controls and what those technologies represent (fast, bite size, entertainment) (Earon, 2006). This perspective flows from the acceptance that there is a very pervasive anti-intellectual stream in American (and other global) lifestyles that makes many people shy away from more than the minimum of educational requirement. In tough times or as one gets older, learning for the sake of learning takes away from earning money and pulls people from their families and friends. This has been suggested to be most true of the working classes of people in America and elsewhere for fairly obvious reasons of their need to work more and play less. But even this assumption has given way to other kinds of considerations as new forms of affordable, interactive technologies are finding favor across socio-economic, gender, racial and other classes (Morrissey and Manning, 2000). The fact is that access to new forms of learning is being seen by students and teachers alike as a very desirable way to learn more than what schools have to offer. (See http://www.GreenHeart.org.)

A related problem is connected to the cost factors for governments as they struggle to pay for American and other national educational directives and systems. Continuing and/or nonstop learning through programs in communities is expensive. It requires large amounts of time and money as well as psychic energy, and these resources are becoming difficult for individuals and governments alike to justify spending (Scott, 2004). But whether this is true or not is being called into question by some as they propose that fundamental shifts in education have to occur to make public education feasible (Jinchao, 2004).

But looking at the evolution of learning away from controlled schooling toward a life-wide perspective cannot be fully understood only in these terms. An entire new mindset of understanding is taking place -- one based on ecological thinking and acting mentalities and perspectives (Lombardo, 2001; Puk, 2002). An entire movement is underway to ingrain the possibilities of what it might well mean to "Think Like A Tree," as one commentator has called it referring to the systemic approach to thinking from an ecological viewpoint (Resnick, 2003). Ecological perspectives are centered very strongly and confidently in the idea that learning about and understanding the world as an integrated and interconnected reality. It is about understanding not just the pieces of knowledge but how those pieces go and work together, or their relationships with each other in narrow and very broad contexts. The elements of nature don't usually work in isolation nor as simply as is sometimes presented within the confines of a small pond of life; and, as such, they need to be understood appropriately as a much larger portion of a different kind of recognition of patterns and purposes and results. Understanding this requires one's full-throated acceptance of an entirely new kind of ecoliteracy that some would argue is well under development at this time. (See http://www.Ecoliteracy.org.)

The learning systems and learning purposes of past efforts have often fail in these regards both in the way that we seek to educate our young and our older people, particularly because of their vocational preferences and what it requires. One contemporary early educational website on ecological teaching in the early years of schooling put it rather dramatically,

A main lesson of ecology (indeed, the essential science of ecology) is that everything is interconnected. But the longer our students stay in school, the more they are "subjected" to disconnection -- taught, through subject specialization and reductionism, a worldview in which everything is disconnected. They can't see the real world "forest" that is life for all the homework and marks given out as "trees." (http://www.greenhearted.org/integration.html).

The vocational prejudices instilled in traditional schools for young people and those approaches used in continuation studies share this same tree problem -- they favor very isolated, very closed concepts of learning. While these may be good expectations when it comes to moving into or between jobs across one's career, they do nothing to reinforce the core understandings of a truly integrated ecological perspective (Attfield, 2010).

Then again, these assumptions do not fully overcome the problem of how selfish alternative pursuits are. While it is certainly possible that any individual can use his or her education of whatever kind in ways that benefit society, it is also just as likely (and perhaps more so) that an individual engaged in pursuing education as an adult is likely to study subjects that are again very self-specific. Personal interest (or perhaps the opportunity for professional advancement) is likely to be the primary motivation for choosing particular subjects to study. Benefiting the world is usually not the primary motivator for lifelong learning (Thomas, 2005), or at least that was the belief before other transformative approaches began to be considered.

A final cautionary note is worth mentioning. Since these issues have started to surface, other larger business and cultural trends in business have begun to take hold. There has been a significant force of people taking seriously the promises of work and responsibility perspectives that seek directly to blend the benefits of profitability and various social and environmental positive impacts (Emerson, 2007). These double bottom line and triple bottom line viewpoints literally have given their own momentum toward developing hybrid educational models of their own. While lower level classrooms are starting to integrate green thinking and acting across a broad range of subjects, it could well be this new collection of Impact Investors and revolutionary thinkers who give their own substance to the need for Blessed Unrest are having an major financial influence (Hawken, 2007). These new approaches are inherently justice oriented and yet are being undertaken by some very well respected wealthy business people and philanthropists. (See The Global Impact Investment Network, http://www.theGIIN.org.)

These collective conditions and problems have given rise to progress on both fronts, advancing in parallel the lifelong learning and ecological awareness movements. Yet, they still leave many questions unanswered. The remainder of this study seeks to advance the progress by posing the following questions:

What is lifelong learning? And how has it changing and evolving since its inception?

What is occurring in the social and environmental ecology movement that has relevance to a new learning model?

And, what commonalities exist as these two advances coalesce toward a very similar and united future.

HYPOTHESIS

Lifelong learning and the affirmation of the generation of an ecological mindset are parallel constructs and philosophies that are evolving simultaneously toward a common language and acceptance of the importance of a lifespan of learning and environmental advancement.

SIGNIFICANT RESEARCH -- Literature Review

In understanding the commonality of the progress associated with both lifelong learning and ecological advancement, it is necessary to review how each field has come into being and evolved in its own right. This will provide the foundation for identifying their commonalities and the ways in which they are coming together in true to life social, business and organizational representations in the U.S. And across the globe.

In this section, I review the literature regarding the definitions of lifelong learning and ecology from the perspective of developing a systematic understanding of environmental factors associated with integrated learning. For lifelong learning, this begins with a summary of what it means and what various researchers and commentators have uncovered as they have investigated its potential. For the evolution of an ecological mindset, I start with how the acceptance of a sense of "ecological thinking" and "Ecological Intelligence) has led to a companion thrust toward developing a specific acceptance that there needs to be an ecoliteracy, which effectively involves the naming and using of the broader mindset elements. I then look briefly at how the domains are already overlapping in practice on the global front, in part because this progress demonstrates piecemeal modifications and refinements of very similar trends. The Methodology section focuses on making point-by-point comparisoins of the commonalities and how they are growing together quite naturally. The final section reviews the results and conclusions of this assessment from a rather happy viewpoint (Ceasar, 2009). Since this is not meant to be a comprehensive review of either the literature or of the fields of education or ecology, some limitations of my approach are noted. For those looking to understand more comprehensively how the underlying concepts are unfolding, it is recommend that you review the new work of Baldauf McBride (2011).

LIFELONG-LEARNING

Lifelong education, as a concept, has its origins in the 1960s (Bostrom, 2003; Lombard, 2001). It springs from a larger philosophical and theoretic background whose preliminary work can be found in the various writings of Aser Deleon, Torsten Husen, Cyril Houle and Ryszard Wroczynski, among others. Various studies have identified other people whose importance they note as well, but these and other educational theorists are often credited with having been the primary movers of the idea (Medel-Anonuevo, 2001).

Once this foundation was provided, Arthur Croply detailed some of the specific elements in his writings in 1976 and 1980. In these writings, as reviewed in Bostrom (2003), Croply identified the three important principles that he found relevant. He conceptualized first that lifelong learning had to stretch from birth to death, that it had to occur formally, informally and non-formally, and that it was highly dependent upon the characteristics of an individual and his or her personal ability to benefit from the process (Gough, 2009). Aspin and Chapman (2001) undertook their own three-prong assessment, but favored instead the associations of learning across the life spectrum with economic progress and development (which connects to vocational advancement), the desire of some to achieve personal growth on many fronts, and the overall sense of social inclusiveness and democratic engagement that sometimes comes with the older years. These core thoughts often reside throughout the works of other contemporary theorists and practitioners in learning and environmental works.

In fairness, however, it was probably the work of a team of UNESCO (1996) educational specialists and thinkers who met over several years for the specific purpose of outlining what this idea truly meant as best as they understood it at the time. Later works would update the constructs and introduce other factors of important too. As the United Nation's operational arm for educational, scientific and cultural issues, their focus would ultimately be considered extremely important on giving the issue credibility. It was likely also the reason why when other multinational collaborative efforts began to detail how their relationships would work (e.g., the EU), it would be the works of UNESCO and the lifelong learning concept directly that would be incorporated into their philosophical goals.

Dave (1976) reported on the work of this group and is often cited as the best resource for what was being done. In Lifelong Learning, Intergenerational Learning, and Social Capital: From theory to practice by Brostrom (2003), Dave is quoted as noting that the UNESCO definition incorporates these specifics:

Lifelong education is a process of accomplishing personal, social and professional development throughout the life-span of individuals in order to enhance the quality of life of both individuals and their collectives. It is a comprehensive and unifying idea which includes formal, nonformal and informal learning for acquiring and enhancing enlightenment so as to attain the fullest possible development in different stages and domains of life. It is connected with both individual growth and social progress. That is why ideas such as "learning to be" and "a learning society" or "an educative society" are associated with this concept."

Following the introduction of this concept, others undertook their own discussions and studies of what the idea might mean in practice. Researchers examined and debated what formal, nonformal and informal distinctions were, and even wondered about the role of age in the process (Gough, 2001). Ultimately it became accepted that life-wide might be a more encompassing description, though it has not caught on (Commission on the European Communities, 2000 & 2006). In the end, however, there seems to have been some type of coalescence around the idea that learning in these various capacities, no matter who the teacher was or what the learning circumstances were, should be viewed as extending across all age groups. Thus, this return to the birth to death ideas is most relevant because it was assumed that it would begin to breakdown other expectations that had previously separated formal school for children and young adults from adult learning (Gould, 2009).

TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

As confident as these early definitions and later discussions have been about lifelong learning being widely considered across one's life span, this issue has not been settled. A good deal of active debate is still underway on this singular issue, albeit using different terms. Part of the reason for this is the earliest of efforts to quantify and qualify what was meant by learning across one's lifespan.

Transformative Learning is one consideration that received and continues to receive much attention, though there are indications that the seemingly spiritual nature of some of its work has fallen out of favor (Scandrett, no date). The concept is clearly worth noting, however, because it was instrumental in focusing on the adult elements of lifespan learning and the in-depth personal reasons why people in their later years want to gain more knowledge and understanding. Some of what is discussed in these layers remains relevant to the learning that is now starting to be recognized vis-a-vis distance and technology learning (Eason, 2010; Sims and Kays, 2011). It can thus be argued that it is this line of thinking that relates directly to some of the concerns associated with lifelong learning being separated or isolated from the type of education that happens in schools.

An initiative verification of this can be found in the early writings of Mezirow (1997), who laid out the parameters for the learning differences between adults and adolescents. He notes the necessity of children having to learn to become autonomous. This means they have to acquire the capabilities of recognizing causes and effects, using informal logic to make analogies and generalization, understanding and controlling emotions, developing empathy, constructing narratives and basically thinking abstractly. Adulthood learning, however, is more aware of and critical of assumptions, aligns frames of references and paradigms, and is better situated to working with others and collectively reasoning through problems and arriving at judgments. As Mezirow surmised,

Becoming critically reflective of the assumptions of others is fundamental to effective collaborative problem posing and solving. Becoming critically reflective of one's own assumptions is the key to transforming one's taken-for-granted frame of reference, an indispensable dimension of learning for adapting to change.

Dirkx (1998) would follow soon with a comprehensive overview of the transformative process in adult education. In his work he focuses on the differences between transformative learning and instrumental education, or the style and approach deemed more like what schools and other institutions use. While the substance of what is taught may not be that distinct, the why and how the teaching occurs is unique. Dirkx says "Transformative educators do not necessarily teach content that is remarkably different from more instrumentally-oriented educators…. However, they teach the content with a different end in view, often using quite different instructional strategies." These strategies are often associated with consciousness raising, critical reflection, developmental adjustments or individuation. Various proponents have expanded on each. In general, they detail how adults going through these steps of learning for very self-oriented or actualization purposes.

Dirkx notes: "Central to our understanding of transformative learning is the emphasis on actualization of the person and society through liberation and freedom." In effect, we cannot actualize what we want from learning because of the forces that control and inhibit us. Thus, in seeking to undertake a lifelong pursuit of learning, adults who realize this are able to break away from constraints and realize their own potential. This is what allows for learning on different levels of enlightenment, charity or potentially even advocacy.

This spiritualized and oftentimes internal locus of control regarding lifelong learning began to change to some degree across the 1990s when, for good and for bad, various governments began to take the issues seriously. Particularly so was the growing inclusion of the concept into many of the educational goals and directives of the European Union, which sought specifically to fundamentally changes the very nature of the way its citizens could be guided toward a healthier and more collaborative future. In essence, the validity of the concept gained some footing because multinational organizations realized its potential and wanted to instill into various rights and responsibilities the concept of extended, adult learning (Bostrom, 2003). While few people doubted its impact on those who were not adults, this movement can clearly been seen as one of the steps that led to the highly formalizing of adult learning as being distinct from younger kinds of education. Thus there would be from that point forward a debate about whether birth to death meant what it suggested. Instead, it seemed to be the case that early education would stay in the schools and adult life-wide learning would be for other transcendental purposes. Adults, being different kinds of learners, would fit in better with the more active type of learning that could happen if governments made educational and intellectual opportunities available on levels other than for vocational refinement.

The inculcation of this formalized government acknowledgement was timely. It was becoming widely recognized that the world was changing around us in a number of dramatic ways. Climate change, the world's burgeoning population, and the aging of the world's population (in developed countries at least) fed into the transformative mentality, though this would adjust when it was realized how young the populations of many developing nations are and the significance of this on learning when they were provided technology to cut away global distances! Current discussions of specific issues and their views on the future are worth reviewing (Attfield, 2010).

The model that has adhered for so long in developed nations of education that ends before an individual reaches twenty, that people are encouraged (or at least not discouraged) from seeing themselves as consumers, and a working life that ends in a person's sixties was no longer being seen as appropriate for the world's current conditions. It would begin to become necessary for individuals to shift their understanding of themselves from being consumers to being protectors of the environment (Axford & Seddon, 2006).

In a world in which there are such serious challenges to human life, human prosperity, and the health of every other species on the planet, a system that is based on a model that sees education as something that is limited to young people is not sufficient. Charles Darwin argued that the species that is most likely to survive is not the strongest or the fastest but the one that can learn and change the most quickly. His point is even more trenchant now than in the 19th century. Lifelong learning is the path that will allow individuals to be able to change fast enough to keep up with ever-increasing rapidity of challenges and changes in the world around us (Matutinovic, 2007).

THE ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLITERACY

The ecology movement as an extension of environmental awareness is an expansive field too. It tends as well to be associated with a high degree of technical understanding and competency. So important was this that it was actually celebrated in some sectors as the reason why we have with us today the concept of the ecosystem (Jorgensen, 2007) . It has been science and scientific exploration and investigation that has allowed us to understand and make sense out of the interplay of the various living, nonliving, physical and even social elements the interact together to make a complex unit of survival. Humans, of course, are a critical part of this view, being the ones capable of solving the deepest of mysteries.

Jorgensen (2007) celebrates this progress in his Toward An Integrated Ecosystem Theory: "The scientific world was very optimistic when it enters the 20th century: science was very close to a complete understanding of nature -- maybe not all details but all important fundamental features of nature. A few more problems should be solved and science would have finished the jigsaw puzzle of nature."

Scientists, it was clear, had the depth and potential for understanding and finding solutions. They could thus not only help the world understand what it was going through as civilization matured, but they might well be the ones capable of giving us all the tools we need to fix the planet when things went wrong. Together with science, it was thought that people together might be able to work in partnership with the planet itself and its resources for better results and ends. Planetary resources and presumably potential, after all, were generally considered reusable and thus contained within themselves the ability to heal from the pain inflicted upon them. And it wasn't hard to understand this. Like in a small pond full of living beings and green growth, we could see how we could right certain wrong and reestablish a sense of equilibrium. If this was true of the small depictions of these kinds of biological units, the same was likely true for even much larger units -- up to and including the planet itself (Matutinovic, 2007).

This perspective began to change very dramatically in the 1990s, however, when it became clear that existing educational approaches and assumptions were coming up short of what they promises (Gough, 2001). The efforts toward solving or minimizing the damage that humans were inflicting on their planet were not working well. Efforts started even as early as the 1970s were showing little promise in the 1990s (Gough, 2001). It was even being directly asserted that there would be no way of fixing the degradation without a dramatic shift in the way that the problems and solutions were being viewed. Quotations were often noted about how we might not ever know who discovered the concept of water, but it would surely be the case that the discoverers would not be the fish (Lombardo, 2001). They could not discover something about which there were too intimately involved. Accordingly, we as humans would never be able to fix or even understand the problems of the social and environmental ecology in which we lived by using the same viewpoint that supported the problems we were experiencing. The time had arrived for coming up with an entirely new language and mindset about ecological advancement.

Early ecological efforts focused first on personal languages and theories of action (Klemow, 1991b). Gough et al. (2001) would later summarize this as:

A person's theory of action, therefore, is an attempt to resolve competing claims and uncertainties as these are experienced by that person, within the constraints (and opportunities) of their particular context. It might be seen as an attempt to establish local certainty where, globally, none exists: an attempt which is necessary because action is clearly necessary and "irreducible ignorance" offers such a poor basis for it. Theories of action have their origins in the need to solve real problems, whether personal or professional, within a given set of constraints.

Rejecting such constraints, whether personal or professional, is very similar to the movement away from structured learning. A different, more comprehensive viewpoint was needed. And it would be this that would lay the groundwork for the start of yet another transformative reevaluation of perspective, only this time in regard to what we might today consider the greening of the world about us. It was no accident that at about the time the first of a number of articles and pieces would begin to appear about changing the very lexicon of understanding our world and the way we comprehended it -- a vocabulary grounded in the whole not just its part; in relationships and processes and the patterns of why nature did what it did to survive on its own terms (Orr, 1992).

Klemow took a first-cut at developing the outlines of an ecoliteracy through several works (1991a; 1991b). Orr (1992) and others followed suit, offering additional detailed discussions of the ideas for what was conceived of as PostModern ecological thought. It would be through this kind of effort that variations on the theme of what an Ecological Mindset might be like and how this would bring about a fundamental realization of the ways in which we could understand the world about us, and how closely this understanding was to highly personal contextual elements. People as individuals could well begin to comprehend the layers of interdependence regarding the world and its various social, biological and physical components, and about how humans interacted with or interfered with those realities. At the same time, it was becoming clear that no single understanding would suffice. One could indeed look at and wonder about a pond and even engage in practices to learn more about it and to fix problems. But one could do so as well in regard to the ocean, and, depending on where one was, looking at the issues and problems would change. Ecological Thinking or Ecological Intelligence are thus extensions of what it fundamentally means to look at the nature of the world differently from other considerations as one tries to comprehend solutions built within an entirely unique framework (Lombardo, 2001). At the time, this was a quiet revolution in the making; and yet it would be the very justification for the Hawken's (2007) call for Blessed Unrest. And it was why the time was right for his work to build a bridge between environmental ideals and learning about justice -- social and environmental justice (Scandrett, no date).

The online Center for Ecoliteracy (http://www.Ecoliteracy.org) is now a recognized resource site for the growth of this perspective. The site features the work of Orr and others, and provides a place to understand what ecoliteracy is and how and why it is so important even today. To this site, the thinking that is necessary remains unique:

Ecological intelligence allows us to comprehend systems in all their complexity, as well as the interplay between the natural and man-made worlds. But that understanding demands a vast store of knowledge, one so huge that no single brain can store it all. Each one of us needs the help of others to navigate the complexities of ecological intelligence. We need to collaborate.

Collaboration comes from a common sense of understanding and a common lexicon. Being of a challenge as it is, it also comes with truly generating a fully realized ecological mindset. And that could not happen with a much different, more inclusive sense of learning -- a learning that was not otherwise constrained and that spread across much larger fields of growth and potential. To undertake a journey of this type, one would have to be comfortable with allowing for "imaginative engagement" by individuals, groups and institutions that have their own contributions to offer (Gough, 2001). This is the essence of lifelong learning and thus the beginning of a truly entwined adventure.

GLOBAL DISCUSSIONS

In completing this literature review, I am including here a brief reference to a number of studies that have been produced within and for various sectors of the international community. This includes pieces produced by governments and industries, and reviews of governance perspectives. It is presented here to demonstrate the types of work that is underway at this time that clearly blend the values of lifetime learning and possessing an ecological mindset for action. More details about some of these efforts will be discussed below, but it is important to note some of the kinds of work underway. Those who undertake other examinations of these issues may wish to look in more depth at these or related projects. publications introduce, mostly in regards to what they are trying to do in one or more sector, and how their efforts have panned out so far.

A writer named Areeya Rojvithee (no date), a Thai representative of one of their working committees on adult lifelong learning and employment, produced an overview report on efforts in assuring education for all. The report summarizes basic details about Thailand's work-based programs. The report was presented to the Global Forum on Education in Chile in 2005. It concludes with a section on the benefits of the effort to the nation.

Another piece called Australia's Farmers Plan for Sustainability and Growth: Innovative Approaches to Adult Lifelong Learning (Innovations in Non-formal Education, no date) has found that their project inspired much creativity and success for agricultural businesses. The writers note that it has also brought about an affirmation of social justice, helped generate skills building opportunities, and engaged more people in civic involvement. They linked the success to that point to the project's grounding in educational theories and practices.

In 2003, the City of Cape Town, South Africa, completed a very extensive document outlining a comprehensive environmental and community learning initiative. It is geared for community growth, business improvements and tourism, but includes many other details and discussions on related democratic and local issues. Within their strategic elements they include a comprehensive definition of what they mean by environmental education. This component is discussed in more depth below as it has bearing on the issues at hand.

In 2009, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education for England and Wales prepared another in a series of reports on Collaborative Local Learning Ecologies: Governance of Lifelong Learning in England. This report, also reviewed in more depth below, seeks to provide a degree of discussion and analyzing of how past efforts over the last few years have worked on this issue. While not tied directly to environmental issues, it nevertheless makes a confirmation of the fact that the best approach in the lifelong learning strategies that they are using are those tied to the stewardship model of sustainability and directly suggests that ecological thinking, because of its reliance on organic modes of development, bring about slower and more deliberative local community processes. This approach is presented in terms of its importance on governance and who exercises influence within ecological settings. The findings of their work have been one of the few that does offer fairly standard data impacts that are noted in the discussion to be provided shortly.

The final note on global progress is a confirmation of the fact that the EU Commission of the European Communities undertook an assessment of their adult lifelong learning advancements in 2006. This review was considered appropriate because of the instrumental role that the EU played in institutionalizing this approach in the past as they worked with UNESCO. The Commission helped ensure the inclusion of educational guarantees into the EU's overall human and nation's rights directives and continues to stay involved. The results discussed below show how their work has mostly impacted young people and has failed to break the link to adult jobs skills training that seems necessary for the philosophy to fully achieve its predicted benefits. My review shows that progress is nonetheless in the making.

METHODOLOGY

This project is a qualitative research project based on a review of representative literature regarding lifelong learning and ecological refinement. Because both fields are vast and have been viewed from a wide range of perspectives, this assessment is not meant to be exhaustive (Baldauf McBride, 2011). Instead, it turns the attention toward a momentum that underlies many activities already underway to better understand why the two phenomena are alike and how these similarities can propel a convergence of possibilities and opportunities. The natural pattern of consistency noted in the literature review provides ample justification for the existence of the convergence that is underway. This pattern can be understood in a way that confirms an assumption in much of the literature of both fields that what is being uncovered will come naturally as we learn as we go (Singer, et al., 2009).

The remainder of this paper instead seeks to identify and review a set of commonalities that have already become evident across both fields. Relevant characteristics of the concepts of lifelong learning and ecological awareness will be noted first, and then simpatico constructs will be examined. I will do this by highlighting specific assumptions and presumptions of ecoliteracy and note how they overlap with lifelong learning expectations. Following this, a short assessment will be provided in regards to how certain instructional and technological changes are supplementing the convergence trend.

To reiterate, the discussion that follows centers on these commonalities:

The language of openness and adaptability within the definitions of both concepts;

The "life-wide" reach of each perspective, including how each deals with the consistent understanding that knowledge and wisdom transcends age from birth through youth to active and valuable adulthood;

The consistency of other terms and concepts that make up a selected representation of the assumptions and presumptions of ecoliteracy and their impact on lifelong learning;

More details about global representations of what is already happening; and,

A short summary of how the growing love of and need for technological connectivity is advancing each sector separately and helping to merge both together as one larger movement for healthy planetary change.

LANGUAGE OF OPENNESS:

An online posting of a contemporary textbook overview on Ecological Evolution offers this as one of the author's core propositions (Lombardo, 2001):

Rarely do the principles of nature confront humanity so dramatically as in the present controversy over the ecology of the earth and our relationship to it. The science of ecology is founded upon the central principle of reciprocity. Living forms and the environment, which includes other living forms as well as inorganic structures and processes, form a web of interdependencies involving a complex system of natural cycles and exchanges. Life and the environment are interactive open systems.

This is the heart of an ecological mindset. Yet, at the same time it is also the soul of the concept of lifelong learning. An updated publication by UNESCO's Institute for Education (2004) entitled Revisiting Lifelong Learning for the 21st Century seeks to capture the grander conceptualization of what they first put into print about 30 years before (Medel-Anonuevo, 2001):

Lifelong learning is closely tied to the challenge of openess and change the modern individual must face in his/her lifetime. Lifelong learning encompasses both continuity (stability) and discontinuity (change) in learned capacities over time as a result of interactions with the man-made environment -- culture.

For both fields, it is about reaching across a broad spectrum of knowledge and finding ways to use that very reach to guide continuous and more impact-oriented action from the knowledge itself. It is the concept of openness and the all-inclusiveness of its potential that lifelong learning and ecology share most universally now that more people are beginning to look at the underlying concepts and their promises for the future. Thinking about ecology as a simple pond of living entities has grown to the point of understanding that it is feasible to Think Like A Tree. In Resnick's (2003) work by that title, he uses an example of a Costa Rican tree that literally walks from one location to another. It sends out roots, tests the soil, and moves slowly but surely to the better location. Or, as Resnick exemplifies, the plant executes its own TREE behaviors, of Testing Randomly (TR) the grounds, Evaluating (E) which is the best way to go, and then Executes (E) the best alternative. It learns through a real interaction with its nature, not just in accordance with a way that someone has defined what plant growth is all about. It is a natural algorithm of sorts that can be thought of as being the heart of ecological thinking and acting. To Resnick (2003), it is a perfect representation of being responsive to local conditions and reacting to changing conditions. In Thinking Like A Tree, one can be said to be accepting one's own justification for what makes sense within a highly fluid sense of scientific viability. One can watch, monitor, report on, even quantitatively assess what the tree is doing; but that hardly would do justice to what the tree meant in its evolving world.

In a similar way, lifelong learning has evolved since it was first conceived by way of testing the waters and moving to where it's best big and small potentials were being offered. It has in various ways sent out feelers for its core parts and found the most fertile grounds. It has then moved over and started taking root as required, just as it has across time and in many cultures before someone named it. Today as in the past, lifelong learning is different in African, Asian and Arabic countries because the experiences and understandings of the people there necessitate figuring out what it means in practice (Medel-Anonuevo, 2001). From its early conceptual beginnings, says UNESCO in revisiting the concept, lifelong knowledge obtainment was just education; now it is the reach across the wide scope of one's lifespan to learning at all levels. This tree of learning was planted in many regards to facilitate the growing of job skills, which depended upon graduation and the advancement into better professional positions. Today those confines have been broadened and the ground has been tilled by those who were prepared to do the work. Now lifelong education has become lifelong learning and it is ready to move where the conditions are right.

YOUNG AND OLD SCHOOL AWARENESS

There is no dispute today but that not all people learn in the same ways. They clearly do not. Younger students require more foundation building than older adults; and all people learn based on the context in which they live, their personal and social maturity, even in response to a variety of socio-economic indicators and restrictions. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that young people need a foundation for basic understanding before they can progress to more comprehensive formulations that enable them to visualize and debate other, more complex questions. Learning on many fronts is hierarchical, meaning it is rank-ordered in a way. One level needs to come before another in order to allow for the "upward" building toward comprehension (Mezirow, 1997).

This is exactly why we justify having the formal education system that we have. To lock children in to a system that allows them to judge certain soils. We then test them to make sure they know why those soils are best before certifying that they are ready to move to richer fields. It is indeed one TREE method for growth. But time has demonstrated that it alone is not sufficient. It comes up short on many fronts and ends up moving too many young people in the wrong direction toward their wrong patch of opportunity. Still, this is the logic that we have built into our school systems and thus that we instill into young students in the name of giving them the chance to grow into something better. As students get older, the assumption is that they will be able to fend for themselves and move even more efficiently in whatever direction they want.

The problem comes when this change is needed. If students learn only within certain parameters, then their ability to adapt is constrained. If they are taught only about certain elements of the soil they are in or the soils within their reach, they are restricted in the directions and distances that they can move. Unfortunately, if they are armed to begin with racial, ethnic, gender or socio-economic delimiters, then they may not be able to reach beyond certain expectations at all -- and thus, one might say, their ability to move is almost worthless. They can never get to where they might naturally want to be. (The Costa Rican tree continues to move as needed throughout its life.)

Lifelong learning theories assume from the start that it is necessary to understand the full abilities of people before determining which are their strengths and weaknesses and then seeks to help that person figure out which of the places of learning fit best. This is why the distinctions between formal and informal learning entities exist, and why nonformal experiences that hover around both of the others are also important (Bostrom, 2003). The experiences of life shape how one learns and what one learns. Which is in part by professionals in education, psychology, sociology and even biophysics acknowledge that learning in people and in other species is developmental; it not only builds on other learning but crosses over to new opportunities as they avail themselves.

The schooling systems that we utilize are based on very narrow standards and norms and thus bring about narrow results. Aspin and Chapman (2001) offer other options of learning that would enable a better spectrum of possibilities from birth to death, as the phrase is commonly used in the literature. While they were trying to mostly understand and clarify lifelong learning, one can look at their categories in instructive ways for young people and older learners alike. In their view, there can be models of learning that entice and compensate young people or that provide direct vocational preparation -- just as there can be ones that feature first transitional or democratic engagement features. And, of course, some learning is leisure focused, either for fun or as a closing down of other life obligations (Dirkx, 1998; Bostrom, 2003). Thought of in this way, formal schooling is lacking in to many opportunities and restricts too much by ending learning for graduation to work alone. Graduation can be to other purpose and for other means of establishing a sense of direction such that all learners become their own forms of moving TREES. In their more recent works, Aspin and Chapman (2007) even directly critique the use of problem-solving skills in traditional educational settings because these skills may not apply as technologies and world problems arise faster than their ability to move with the times. This is in a large part why they believe education needs to be more values oriented.

In a very consistent way, the logic of ecological thinking is also ageless, or at least should be. In an idealistic conceptualization of this element, "Instead of being siloed into age groups, the daily life of children will be filled with experiences across the generations" (O'Connell, 2011). This kind of "child first" perspective on integrated ecological learning presupposes far different age and classroom experiences, often with environmental sensitivities being the key guiding factors. Laying a foundation of understanding in this way is far different from laying one that is dedicated to particular parts of life, including even the STEMs of traditional scientific examination. Resnick (2003) sees ecological learning environments as being more of the key (to understanding his TREE) than considerations of more structured educational environments based on age. As he puts it, "Just as students too often adopt centralized strategies in trying to solve problems, educators too often adopt centralized strategies in designing learning environments." (p56)

An entertaining representation of how people and institutions teach can be seen on a website provided by GreenHearted.org. In their humors discussion of why they do what they do in regards to integrating green and sustainability concepts into schools, they look at the area of homeschooling. On this issue they offer a rationale for the potential of this kind of learning system for children (and their parental teachers) outside of the traditional classroom. Their approach is relevant because it gets to the heart of some of the reasons of the doubt that is attributed to conventional schools. As they put it,

If you're a homeschooling parent who has merely moved the school curriculum to the kitchen table, greening homeschooling might not be of interest to you. But if you're a "homey" who understands [ecological thoughts, you know] that schools were invented about the same time as prisons and factories the school curriculum wasn't deliberately designed to perpetuate a worldview bent on environmental destruction, but it does not all the literacies can be taught indoors (think ecological literacy)

children of all ages need, want and deserve unstructured play time outdoors (though sometimes they don't know it)

primary-aged children need lots of opportunities to connect and bond with the rest of Nature

kids are extremely curious about how life works on our planet pre-adolescents and young teens like working together to solve problems by creating solutions, and older teens need to have a firm grasp of and practice in important concepts like sustainable development before they "graduate."

Presenting this viewpoint enables the thought about age-based education to bleed over to other ecological assumptions about adult education. If schools need to change away from job and vocational perceptions and limitations, so too do the pieces of adult education need to change that presume their learning is fundamentally different than earlier life learning. Perhaps adult learning as a concept needs to be less about self-actualizing and more about other-actualizing in order to overcome the sense of selfishness and lack of charitable values otherwise tied to continuing education. This would be step toward adding more recognized value across the full board of life learning from schools through advanced community engagement.

Achieving this requires a far deeper appreciation for the underlying assumptions and presumptions of lifelong learning and the bigger question of whether there is truly an ecological intelligence.[footnoteRef:2] [2: An instructional guide on Ecological Intelligence is available at http://www.ecoliteracy.org/sites/default/files/uploads/shared_files/Ecological_Intelligence_teacher_guide.pdf. ]

COMMON ASSUMPTIONS AND PRESUMPTIONS

It is not difficult to see the commonality between lifelong learning and ecological awareness on many fronts. But it is most relevant that each shares some very core assumptions (and as a result presumptions) that guide what they are trying to do. The specifics of these foundational assumptions have been presented in many formats in many pieces (Medel-Anonuevo, 2001). Over time these components have been tested and redefined in various formats, though the majority of what they offer seems to have been philosophically aligned to enticing older adults to be interested in the concept. Very little, if anything, is written on teaching young people about lifelong learning. And then, of course, the transformative perspective is highly oriented toward adult learners and why they want to continue their involvement. But even this seems to forget the advice offered by Soren Kierkegaard, as he is quoted in Revisiting Lifelong Learning for the 21st Century. As he says, "Life can only be understood backwards. In the meantime, it has to be lived forwards."

This is starting to change now that information access is becoming more readily available online; and the change is usually in ways that can be inviting to a wide variety of age groups. For this reason I will now turn my attention to the site on Ecoliteracy. It seeks to provide a foundational assessment of its perspective and as such offers a sound place to undertake a comparative assessment. On a page entitled appropriately, Teach: A Systems Perspective, the presenters offer six key propositions associated with a solid ecological understanding and thought process (accessed November 2011). Most of their presentations include specific instructional or educational elements as well. I reproduce each of the six propositions below and then comment on them from both an ecological and a lifelong learning viewpoint. The six points are not meant to be perfectly inclusive, just adequately reflective of the important understandings. Understanding this foundation, however, makes for a good place to start looking for more answers on what happens when two fields align.

The six points being reviewed include (http://www.ecoliteracy.org/teach):

1. From Parts to the Whole

2. From Objects to Relationships

3. From Objective Knowledge to Contextual Knowledge

4. From Quantity to Quality

5. From Structure to Process

6. From Contents to Processes

FROM PARTS TO THE WHOLE

Old-school environmental understandings often took their guidance from the beauty and personal empowerment ideas associated with understanding nature. While a large step at the time -- and one based on literary precepts going back to at least Roman times (Sitkin, 2011) -- these early views mostly saw the environment and its ecology as fairly limited to small and specific elements. The pond example is example. It may well be this approach that helped bring about sector-specific concentrations, such as when one group focuses heavily or exclusively on an issues like global warming or the ocean levels or even what one can do to green one's neighborhood. An ecological mindset might now see this variability as an important singular link in representing the whole of understanding and the bigger picture of possible solutions.

Lifetime learning doesn't just acknowledge that learning is comprehensive across periods and subjects, but that it is omnipresent. It is something that we do all the time and cannot get away from -- assuming that we would want to (Medel-Anonuevo, 2001; Dirkx, 1998). Shifting the focus from singular elements to larger visions changes the scope of comprehension. As noted on the Ecoliteracy site, "Similarly, the nature and quality of what students learn is strongly affected by the culture of the whole school, not just the individual classroom. This shift can also mean moving from single-subject curricula to integrated curricula."

FROM OBJECTS TO RELATIONSHIPS

Systematic perspectives of all types assume that the relationship between individual parts is much more valuable to understand than even the essences of the parts themselves. The whole is bigger than the sum of the parts because as the objects come together they create relationships that direct the purposefulness of the whole. The study of the living and non-living "species" parts is important because it gives clues to understanding what relationships might or should develop.

The implications of this can be very profound when it comes to formal education, which, as has been presented, is but one level of the whole of lifespan learning. Knowledge in schools and even in the workplace can be taught in isolation to achieve a particular (often profitable) end. Within a systems perspective, the objects of study become the networks and relationships. Schools or learning loci that appreciate this emphasize cooperation and consensus regarding which objects they view as being important and how they contribute to the teaching and learning processes that naturally follow.

FROM OBJECTIVE KNOWLEDGE TO CONTEXTUAL KNOWLEDGE

It is difficult to do better in describing this point than the Ecoliteracy site does. Here is their definitional language in its entirety:

Shifting focus from the parts to the whole implies shifting from analytical thinking to contextual thinking. This shift may result in schools focusing on project-based learning instead of prescriptive curricula. It also encourages teachers to be facilitators and fellow learners alongside students, rather than experts dispensing knowledge.

Contextual learning is used in traditional schools; this becomes less likely and less profound, however, when more rigid and demanding forms of learning are mandated. The movement toward teaching for particular standardized tests may be hampering many instructors' desire to utilize contextual appreciation opportunities. The very system of continuing education for adults that prevails now tends to be highly or overly contextually confining. Most of the time class learning in these settings is extensively tied to acquiring new skills for advancement or career change. Of course, the instructors are not at all as likely to have to use a prescribed testing plan. But still there is a powerful drive to teaching and learning just the knowledge or skills at hand, not greater learning or intellectual foundations. The hunt for meaning in why adults wanted to continue learning after work reflects the existence of this bias and a philosophical drive for more and better. Arguably, it could be said that trying to make ties to environmental justice and advocacy is a reaction to these limitations, just as could be counterattacks to highly structured public school forces if the ends do not ultimately justify the means.

FROM QUANTITY TO QUALITY

So-called "hard" sciences have a preference for finding answers by way of using measured and quantified data. The scientific perspective uses empirical approaches to seeing and measuring observable phenomena under the assumption that this makes the findings more reliable and replicable. If something can be proven once through strict scientific investigation, the chances are it can be proven again. Standardized tests are directly linked to this and use only other scientific measures (such as weighting and probabilities) to adjust what are otherwise seen as objective data points. Not surprisingly, everything from formal schooling to current government policies regarding innovation has a preference for all things in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Current testing regimens and the overall motivations for standardizing outcomes presuppose that this viewpoint is better than laxer psycho-social assessments. If good scientific answers can be found through equations; good learning practices can be so confirmed as well. It is no accident that Resnick (2003) refers to his TREEs formula as being algorithmic.

Metaphysical concepts, as the so-called softer sciences of sociology, anthropology, philosophy, etc. are called, are thought to be less precise kinds of measurements. Or at least they were prior to the acceptance of probability and weighting methodologies. But even with these adjustments, some ecological factors and relationships cannot be so easily quantified. Ecoliteracy refers to the fact that food webs must often be mapped to highlight their relationships, not just documented using other data. It could well be these types of scientific advancements that may allow for the flexibility thought to be needed to fully grasp what lifelong learning and ecological theories have to offer.

FROM STRUCTURE TO PROCESS

"Living systems develop and evolve." That is how Ecoliteracy opened the definition of this point. In the same way, learning patterns cross time and cross generations. Structures tend to limit this kind of growth to predetermined parameters. Processes, on the other hand, are concerned more with the interactivity and exchanges of influences -- or basically the relationships that keep the action happening within a unit that is working together.

Focusing on this process is thus more advanced than just knowing the structure or its confines. One cannot always tell what a structure looks like if one is inside of the structure. Getting to the point of appreciating the process makes it more reliable when it comes to judging how something might act within its reality (Walls, 2009).

Thinking Like a Tree (Resnick, 2003) ends with this overview:

An important research challenge for the future is the development of a more systematic framework of how, when, and why ecological strategies are useful. The goal should not be to ignore or replace traditional strategies, but to expand the repertoire of strategies that people have at their disposal -- and to help people learn which strategies (or which mixtures of strategies) are best suited to which situations. Indeed, one of the most important benefits of introducing ecological thinking in classrooms is to help students learn that there are, in fact, multiple ways of thinking about problems.

FROM CONTENTS TO PATTERNS

Taken together, what the above suggest is that the contents of the ecosystem we exist in interact and, as such, develop and establish patterns. These patterns can be mapped and uncovered, adding clarification to the nature of their existence as part of complex teams -- from which we can also learn about what we can expect through other patterns. "Understanding how a pattern works in one natural or social system," notes the Ecoliteracy page, "helps us to understand other systems that manifest the same pattern." This becomes very important in comprehending larger visions of the world and how we thrive (or don't) on it.

Pattern learning is very much what underlies lifelong learning. Since people learn for different reasons, understand options and opportunities for different reasons, and even seek to use or gain more knowledge for different reasons, it is challenging to quantify which is right or best. Having an appreciation for the patterns that undergird the impacts is more humbling but also likely to be a more honest reflection about why something occurred. School and formal settings presume more about the details than the patterns -- which is why informal and even nonformal elements of learning are weighted just as equally within lifelong learning assumptions. One cannot do justice by seeing only certain parts of the processes of being. The whole has to be seen and it has to be seen first to understand the patterns.

It is for reasons like this that some, such as Puk (2002), believe that Ecoliteracy is the First Imperative in laying the groundwork for productive lives for all. As he put it in his look forward from 2002 to 2012,

The ecologically literate person of the 21st century will have a positive view of life, grounded in the faith that each person has within himself/herself some elements which connects them with a universal and timeless energy, and has the capacity to competently perform significant life work, and its related tasks and responsibilities. Such a view will enable this person to look upon the human experience positively, and all living things compassionately.

GLOBAL APPS

Global applications are already operating in ways that reflect the key points made by Ecoliteracy. Some have been undertaken with specific philosophical ideals in mind in regards to highlighting either lifelong learning or ecological outcomes. From the few of these that I have been able to find, the message is consistent that the linkages work in practice and are generally thought of quite favorably by those involved in the projects. But even with this being the case, the fact is that progress has been slower than expected. UNESCO's Revisiting Lifelong Learning (Medel-Anoneuvo, 2004) was pessimistic on whether the concept was being accepted by nations outside of those tied to the EU. In 2006, however, the Commission on European Communities put together a communication on Adult Learning: It's never too late to learn. It was much more optimistic and reported some affirming data.

Below are brief overview of the information contained in two of the publications that are specific to two countries, South Africa (City of Cape Town, 2003) and the United Kingdom (Hodgson and Spours, 2009). Both pieces are project specific but were designed with larger national directives in mind. The UK piece is a continuation assessment of several initiatives that are bound together to enhance learning across the country. South Africa's work is more egalitarian and democratic in orientation, but it contains a section worth noting. The reader may also wish to review the other publications mentioned previously on what Thailand, Australia and other countries are doing. These pieces are instructive as well. Other works also demonstrate a range of successes in using ecological perspectives (Rowe, 2002).

The piece from South Africa is notable for several reasons. It is comprehensive of the Environmental Education and Training Strategy of the City of Cape Town. It was prepared as part of an integrated city environmental initiative with the specific intention of advancing sustainability, business and tourism efforts. However, within the document they note that from their perspective, the learning that needs to happen must reach across ages, focus on learning that is related to where the learners come from on various cultural levels, and has to seek to bring about a broad environmental awareness. An important substantive focus directs that the learning that occurs across citizens' lifespans, "link environment and heritage to health, socioeconomic development, social justice and quality of life; environmental education should take place as much at sewage treatment plants and township waste dumps, as in nature reserves, and should assist learners to explore the benefits of a healthy environment and the wise management of natural and cultural resources for themselves personally, for their communities and South Africa's development." It's difficult to miss how this draws its power and perspective from both lifelong learning and ecological considerations.

The presentation of the UK impacts is much different. It is a continuing publication of a series of activities undertaken to focus on adult lifelong learning. This particular paper was put together with participant input from a 2009 conference on the topic of the crisis that was emerging in the area of lifelong learning. Funding shortages have required cutbacks in support and, according to some, transfers of resources to youth-oriented learning sectors and to selected job components have unfairly hampered the purpose of the initiative. Wider local personal and government empowerment initiatives and efforts to incorporate learning models into leisure and well-being (the more transformative components of adult strategies) have been sacrificed. The report itself notes that these and other changes have brought about an over reliance on skills development. It has been noted that the government has a bias toward more conventional and safer approaches that reflect "centre" (centrist) perspectives at the expensive of some preferences for innovative concepts. Local leadership control and influence has been somewhat lost in favor of top-down directives.

In an aside that seems worth mentioning, this review goes into a good amount of detail about the differences between programs that are based on "Freedom From" as opposed to "Freedom To" philosophical perspectives of governance. Freedom From assumes a "light touch" by higher-up authorities, meaning just some degree of coordinated authority across government. Freedom To, on the other hand, favors far more local authority for regional needs. This discussion leaves the UK activists with a growing realization that what they are trying to do reaches well beyond learning and environment impacts. As noted in the report, it puts them in the position of having to struggle with all types of "gurus and experts," even if these folks are not in the same positions of authority that they used to occupy. The findings of the UK project overall seem worth further study in regards to what they are trying to accomplish from a lifelong learning and ecological perspective.

Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality, the title of the EU Commission's first directive in 2001, continues to be seen as a worthwhile educational effort. But even so, it is not without substantial challenges. Their findings indicate that,

Most education and training systems are still largely focused on the education and training of young people and limited progress has been made in changing systems to mirror the need for learning throughout the lifespan. An additional 4 million adults would need to participate in lifelong learning in order to achieve the participation rate of the benchmark agreed by Member States in the framework of the Education and Training 2010 process.

A greater report issue is the level of detail -- for good or for bad -- they offer in measuring what they have identified as the objective criteria of progressing toward their lifetime learning goals. The limited adult initiatives undertaken so far have brought about impressive across-the-board improvements on various quality of life factors. Greater employability, reduced benefit costs, increased job satisfaction, and reduced reliance on other health and welfare services have been indicated. The results likewise suggest reductions in anti-social (criminality) behaviors, improvements in pro-social activities, such as civic engagement and active use of health care. These are very much the kinds of expectations that Gough (2001) and Aspin and Chapman (2001) among others might predict if a coalescence of lifelong learning occurred with any other values initiative.