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International Review of Education - Journal of Lifelong Learning Author: Volume 63, Issue 2, pp 145–152 |
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Introduction
What does it mean to develop a bottom-up approach to education and lifelong learning? Adapting a popular metaphor, I would say it means putting our ears to the ground and listening to the grass roots. It means understanding – through consultation, observation and analysis – the needs, motivations and opinions of grass-roots stakeholders such as learners, teachers and the parents of school-going children. I am not suggesting that the ideas and opinions of researchers and policymakers should be discounted; rather, “parity of esteem” is needed between those who develop education policy and those who implement it. If the two fail to synchronise, the policy initiative – whether individual intervention or large-scale reform – is unlikely to take root and bear fruit. This is a point so obvious it hardly bears mentioning. Yet the field of comparative education is strewn with policy initiatives that failed, or at least failed to meet expectations. Of course, other factors, such as funding or political change, also influence success or failure of education reform, but research has demonstrated the vital centrality of local acceptance and sense of ownership.
All of the articles in this issue are about working with stakeholders to develop more effective, responsive and inspiring initiatives, thereby helping to build that much vaunted yet elusive entity, the learning society.
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The authors present original research to explore issues as diverse as peace education and access to higher education in the Sahel, distance learning in Turkey, interfaith community learning in New York, non-formal education in the European Union, and the relative benefits of general versus vocational education.
