Competences and the right to learning

Abstract

It partly reflects a broader discourse that promotes entrepreneurship, competitiveness and the mobility of capital and labour in a world characterized by the intensification of globalization. In this article, I shall analyse the implications of this discourse with respect to the right to lifelong learning. What counts as lifelong learning according to this discourse? Which important notions of lifelong learning are left out of this discourse? Drawing on Paulo Freire and Lorenzo Milani, I propose the right to an alternative and more expansive notion of lifelong learning, related to the concept of critical citizenship. As a person committed to a holistic and social justice oriented education, and as a Head of department recently bombarded with all sorts of templates to fill regarding measurable outcomes, I am duly concerned about the prevalent discourse concerning a reductionist view of competences in education.