Nurses and Lifelong Learning: Creating "Makers and Shapers" or "Users and Choosers"?

How have the meaning and goals of lifelong learning for nurses shifted under neoliberal political policy?

This article critically scrutinizes the political undercurrents of lifelong learning. While the original intent of lifelong learning was to foster intellectual, critical, social, and political citizen engagement (creating "makers and shapers" of social policy), instrumental learning-learning to meet practical economic ends-has taken priority and is instead creating marketable workers (creating "users and choosers").

International educational neoliberal policy reform has altered the very nature of education. Under pervasive neoliberal political influence, lifelong learning has become distorted as the goals of learning have shifted towards creating marketable workers who are expected, while unsupported, to engage in learning to ensure ongoing employability in an open market.

By examining new understandings of lifelong learning, nurses can make informed choices as to whether they aspire to be a "user and chooser" or "maker and shaper" of lifelong learning in their workplaces.