PERMANENT EDUCATION AND "PERMANENT LEARNING" : TWO DIFFERENT THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL MODELS

This paper analyzes the evolution of the concept of permanent education; the similarities and differences between the point of view of UNESCO and the European Union; the evolution of these two different points of view; and its current role in national and international educative policies In the UNESCO case, there are two premises that condition its conception of permanent education: democratization of education (education for everyone) and life-time education. In the European Union case, there are two other key elements: employability and active participative citizenry in the Europe that is being built. The article goes, in a diachronic and a synchronic fashion, through the different stages of both organizations to conclude that, despite the fact that permanent education and permanent learning are often used as synonyms that refer to a life-time on-going educative process without space or time boundaries, both concepts refer to clearly different and defined realities, related to both the historic evolution and the geopolitical sphere of UNESCO and the European Union.