LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Editorial by Kristiina Kumpulainen: So close, so apart – remote areas and the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities

Although great efforts have been made at the European policy level to advance equal access to education regardless of physical location, there is still a lot to be done in practice to bridge the educational gaps across areas. Not only do we need to implement recommendations and policies in practice but also to critically examine their realization and potentiality to offer every individual and cultural group possibilities for meaningful education and lifelong learning. At the level of individuals, we need to make sure that the educational opportunities offered acknowledge individual needs and desires. At the level of cultural groups, it is important that we ensure that communal learning taking place leads to sustained changes and developments in the local community promoting its well-being and economic growth. This requires that the education offered appreciates the local needs – both individual and societal – and embeds them with the global requirements and developments.

As reminded by Ms Antra Carlsen who is one of the authors of this issue, there is also another angle to remoteness than just the physical one. This other angle is to do with ‘mental remoteness’. Mental remoteness refers to the feeling of being a peripheral participant in a community who sees oneself, or in the worst case, is seen by others, as an outsider instead of an active agent or a respected, contributing member of a community. Serious attention should also be paid to the issue of mental remoteness in our attempts to promote equal access to high quality education and lifelong learning opportunities across Europe. What becomes significant here is the uncovering of the actual causes and reasons resulting in the practices and feelings of mental remoteness.

In this issue of LLinE our authors share their efforts to overcome barriers to education in rural European locations. The articles and the cases they describe highlight the promotion of adult learning in a rural area in southern Portugal and in the Czech Republic as well as the provision of professional learning opportunities for teachers working in rural schools in Greece. We are also able to learn more about the affordances of distance education to bridge the gap of adult education in and across Iceland.

In this last issue of LLinE for the year 2008 we are also celebrating the forthcoming EU presidency of the Czech Republic by discussing the current state of the art of adult education in this country. We are also to learn more about the external and internal barriers individuals have to adult education in the Czech Republic.

Finally, I would like to send my best season’s greetings to everyone, wishing a prosperous and fulfilling year 2009 for us all in every area of Europe and beyond.


Kristiina Kumpulainen
Editor-in-Chief of LLinE
Director of CICERO Learning
University of Helsinki, Finland