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Vocational education and the field of lifelong education*

A survey of the contents of this journal – in this edition and over time – reveals that an interest in vocational education commingles with strands of the lifelong educational discourse that could be regarded as inimical to it. Just as there are papers that describe and conceptualise adult learning in the service of personal aspirations, economic goals and employer interests there are those which contain criticism of those arrangements that threaten to overwhelm learner well-being and self-determination. Consideration of the place of vocational education in the field of lifelong education thus highlights tensions that contribute to the richness of the field. Some of these tensions are long-standing. One was framed more than 90 years ago by Eduard Lindeman who elaborated implications of Dewey’s educational philosophy for adult education. Reflecting Dewey’s argument about the wider reality of education beyond formal contexts, Lindeman (1926/1961) declared adult life as its own sphere of education distinct from schooling and vocational education. Importantly, Lindeman differentiated those educational influences proceeding from formal settings and the self-directed educational activity engaged by adults individually or in small groups. A question for Lindeman in this connection was the proper source of direction. He asked,