Researching lifelong learning policy: Concepts and Tools

“Flipping the lens” sets a productive point of departure for discussion of the research strategies in relation to Lifelong Learning policies. Looking at the needs of the learner, it shifts the perspective, at the same time as it widens the horizon to go beyond, but still include formal learning environments. There is a dire need for a critical framing of research, which also reflects practical perspectives. The Lifelong learning agenda was born as a visionary reform idea that should unfold the potential of learning for all and give access to learning resources. Often it falls short of such ambitions and turns out to become a narrow and instrumental tool for economic competition. The ultimate aim of this chapter is to show how theory and practices are interdependent. The chapter traces complex connections between several levels of lifelong learning policy that may at first seem mutually independent. The intention is to see how conceptual frameworks inform the micro level of policy implementation, but also to conceptualize the decisive differences in the resulting development, which depend on practice in the realization of lifelong learning policy.