Towards new management and governance of lifelong learning policies in the XXIst century

Lifelong learning policies are subject of various approaches of educational governance. Linked to that, in this research we formulated the hypothesis that lifelong learning policies are emerging new facets of governance. In order to verify that, Ruşitoru conducted interviews with officials and policy makers from international organisations such as the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Council of Europe (CoE). The thematic analysis of the discourse revealed that lifelong learning governance is characterised by an “effects spiral” or “interactive governance” – an institutional brewing of international, European and national actors. At the same time, a double issue is highlighted, that is to say the economic difficulties (employability, flexi-security, funding and mobility) and the monitoring process (expertise, comparison, transposition, supervision and control). The investigation brings to light new forms of governance in lifelong learning policies identified by the research interlocutors: “collaborative governance, competitive governance, control governance and thematic governance”. Ruşitoru, Taysum and Kallioniemi partnered to present the originality of the article by bringing international perspectives to the substantive literature and analysis to further enrich Ruşitoru’s depiction of this taxonomy on lifelong learning governance.