As part of a series of interviews @ijled is conducting with its Editorial Advisory Board members, we have had the pleasure to interview Professor Pepka Boyadjieva of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. We asked Pepka several questions, and her responses are shown below. Most are taken as are, and others are rephrased for a journalistic feel.

Pepka’s speciality is philosophy, with an emphasis on sociology. During her studies, several encounters left their mark on her academic career and passions. She tells that far back in history, the ancient Greeks attached the most significant importance to education precisely because its impact on a person is not limited in time or space. For example, Cicero says that other recreations do not belong to all seasons, to all ages, nor to all places; while pursuits with science nourish our youth and delight our old age, they adorn our prosperity and give refuge and solace to our troubles. Pepka also relates to the works of the great German philosophers of the 19th century – Kant, Fichte, Schleiermacher, Schelling, and Humboldt. For her, it was amazing to know that all of them had written about education and were actively involved in the establishment of Berlin University, which became the model of modern universities all over the world. Thirdly, Pepka was influenced by the emergence of sociology as a discipline. It was introduced and institutionalised thanks to Emile Durkheim’s courses on education. Emile Durkheim – the father of sociology as a discipline – taught education courses during his entire life.

“I asked myself – why is education so important and why has it attracted the attention of some of the greatest philosophers and sociologists? In trying to answer this question, I chose the field of sociology of education.”

Double awardee!

Last year, I was honoured to receive two awards. I received the 2023 National Pythagoras Award from the Ministry of Education and Science for established social sciences and humanities scientists. The Pythagoras Award is the most prestigious national award in the field of science. Traditionally, the awarding ceremony is broadcast on Bulgarian National Television. My second award was the highest distinction of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences – the “Marin Drinov” badge of honour on a ribbon. I am pleased about both awards because they acknowledge my scientific achievements in the sociology of education and, more concretely, in studying adult and lifelong learning and teaching. Thus, a reference to my book Adult Education as Empowerment: Re-imagining Lifelong Learning through the Capability Approach, Recognition Theory and Common Goods Perspective, co-authored with Petya Ilieva-Trichkova and published by Palgrave MacMillan, as well as to my articles in prestigious international journals (the International Journal of Lifelong Education included) were among the arguments of the selection committee of the Pythagoras Award. That is why these awards became a way to demonstrate the scientific and public importance of lifelong learning and its development. I also believe that they could serve as a stimulus to provoke the interest of other researchers in lifelong learning topics and to their establishment as a valuable and indispensable field of research.

Pepka’s outlook on lifelong learning — Empowerment and Agency

Over the last decades, ‘lifelong learning/education’ has undoubtedly emerged as one of the most fashionable concepts in contemporary social-political discourse. Yet, although the term has become central to European policies and programs, sharp critiques are levelled at it from academics. It is criticised for its epistemological status (as a vague, catch-all concept) and for the functions of lifelong learning policies and practices (as part of the hegemonic neo-liberal project, which reduces human capital to the labour force, and as a mechanism for ensuring the cumulative character of educational (dis)advantages).

I have argued that the lifelong learning paradigm is essentially generated by the societies/cultures of late modernity and – in the conditions of global openness – transmitted ‘cross-borderly’ to less developed societies. Just as mass-scale school education is a response to the needs of early modern societies, so are the concepts, practices, and policies of lifelong learning made possible and understandable in late modernity. They are related to the increasing ‘permeability’ between the social spheres, the process of individualisation, and the deconstruction of knowledge and the institutions producing and using knowledge. Lifelong learning is a sort of manifestation of the ties between the various kinds of education and the interpenetration between education and life.

Critics of lifelong learning have argued that it is a mechanism of social control, that it functions as a new disciplinary technology and reproduces existing and legitimates new inequalities. The concerns about the future of lifelong learning/education in Europe reflect such critics’ theoretical soundness and empirical validity. What lifelong learning/education is for should not be assumed a priori but should be tested with concrete empirical studies. The social role of lifelong learning/education cannot be antecedently and unequivocally postulated outside social time and space or without considering its specific type and form. I have argued that how lifelong learning/education influences individual lives and societal development reflects how it is organised and realised in given historical conditions and within the framework of the concrete relations of this activity with other social spheres. With my studies, I have attempted to re-imagine the essence and the social role of lifelong learning/education and to provide arguments for its understanding as an agency and empowerment process, one which has not only instrumental but intrinsic and transformative roles, as well.

On how she joined @ijled’s advisory board?

I received an invitation from Prof. John Holford and joined the International Journal of Lifelong Education in 2008 as an Editorial Correspondent.Since 2014, I have been a member of the Editorial Board. I felt honoured and very excited to take this position for two reasons. First, I have always believed that the world –especially Europe – should develop as an interconnected space, in which “periphery” can only be a geographical term and not a sign of division between more developed and less developed countries. Coming from a small East European country still struggling with the challenges of transitioning from a totalitarian to a democratic society, it was important to me for this part of the world to be represented and heard in different international endeavours and initiatives. Second, my scientific credo has been built on acknowledging the need for complementarity and mutual enrichment of different theoretical and methodological approaches to fully grasp the studied phenomena’ essence. As a sociologist with a philosophy background, I hoped to contribute to the realisation of such an approach in the publication policy of the International Journal of Lifelong Education.

Pepka’s message to early career researchers in ALE

• Pay due attention to your studies’ theoretical foundation and adhere to broader theoretical perspectives to better reveal the multidimensional character of adult and lifelong learning/education.
• Strive to carry out methodologically sound, empirically based studies of the essence and functions of adult and lifelong learning/education.
• Be brave and try to go beyond the apparent understanding of adult and lifelong learning/education.
• Nurture an intellectual resilience to avoid simple answers to research questions.
• Avoid bias but be entirely devoted to your topics.

I would like to recall the words of one of the most outstanding Spanish philosophers, Miguel de Unamuno, “[t]o fall into a habit is to begin to cease to be”. I wish that early career researchers would not fall into a habit regarding their scientific work but always maintain a deep interest, enthusiasm, and devotion to their fields of study.