Contemporary challenges for the education of young people and adults

Abstract

The last four decades have been progressively marked by a focus and
investment on training, namely for young people and adults, particularly
from the 90s of the last century onwards, together with the emphatic and
persistent discourse on the importance of lifelong learning-education. From
this viewpoint, we will discuss in this article some of the presumptions
underlying the discourses on lifelong education and learning. We will try to
point out frailties and controversies that have been present, both in the
discourses and the practices, and identify some challenges that are posed on
the field of training, acknowledging, like Pineau (2004), that the educating
moments are too important to be left just to institutionalized education. Thus,
we will try to unveil and rehabilitate the point of view of the adult that is
being educated and think about the dynamic of the training process that does
not limit itself to the sphere of the institutionalization of education. Our
analysis and reflexion will focus on the importance of the interaction between
training courses and life trajectories, pointing out the relevance of experience
in adult learning and in the construction of knowledges. This analysis allows
us, as well, to point out the importance and need that the training contexts
(both formal and informal) take into consideration the authorship of the
individuals involved in/undergoing training, being this a fundamental dimension
to their social (self) acknowledgment and (re)construction of identities.