Revisiting Learning

Published by UNESCO in 1996, Learning: The Treasure Within, the Report to UNESCO of the international commission on education for the twenty-first century, chaired by Jacques Delors, former European Commission president, proposed an integrated vision for education. Much like the Faure Report Learning to Be, published in 1972, the Delors Report is widely considered to be a key reference for the conceptualization of education and learning worldwide. What have been the influence of the vision and the paradigms of lifelong learning and the four pillars of learning to know, to do, to be, and to live together, on educational discourse, policy, and practice? How has the report influenced UNESCO's own strategic vision and programme? This paper discusses these questions as a first step towards the critical rereading of the Delors Report that aims to revisit this vision of education for the future of education in the light of global societal transformation observed since the mid-1990s.