Educational Alternatives, Volume 15, 2017

Abstract: This paper aims to critically analyze the concept of lifelong learning with regard to the conditions of the contemporary world in the light of existentialism. Definitions which point to accumulation of knowledge and skills throughout life, for the purpose of adjustment and adaptation of oneself with the changes that new technologies bring with them, neglect the human aspects of life. Such definitions, inevitably, have led to alienation and reification of human beings. The educational systems based on such approaches turn schools into factories that produce sophisticated, efficient servants of the dominant groups for the purpose of guaranteeing the status quo and reproduction of power relations in the best interest of capitalist and market values. An existentialist definition of lifelong learning aspires for achievement of a self-consciousness that is attained through feeling the responsibility for understanding one’s existence as a whole in relation to other humans and strives for emancipation and self-actualization and freedom.