The
‘Four Pillars of Education’ were originally set out in a report for UNESCO by
the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century chaired
by Jacques Delors (UNESCO, 1996). These pillars underline the very breadth and
depth of UNESCO’s vision of education within and beyond schooling. Education,
the report holds, must be organized around four fundamental types of learning
throughout a person’s life:
- Learning to know,
- Learning to do,
- Learning to live together, and
- Learning to be.
Although
they can be defined separately, they form an integrated whole and should
ideally be present in all pedagogical encounters and the curriculum as a whole
(Scatolini, 2010). The Four Pillars are programmatic and can be summed up as
follows:
Learning
to know: ‘Learning to know’ lays the
foundations of learning throughout life. This pillar refers to the basic
knowledge that we need to be able to understand our environment and to live in
dignity. It is also about arousing curiosity, allowing us to experience the
pleasures of research and discovery. It faces us with the challenge of
combining a sufficiently broad education with the in-depth investigation of
selected subjects. Learning to know implies learning how to learn by developing
one’s concentration, memory skills and ability to think.
Learning
to do: ‘Learning to do’ refers to the
acquisition of practical skills, but also to an aptitude for teamwork and
initiative, and a readiness to take risks. As such, this pillar is about the
competence of putting what we have learned into practice so as to act
creatively on our environment. A variety of situations, often unforeseeable, is
bound to arise. Learning to do enables us to turn our knowledge into effective
innovations.
Learning
to live together: ‘Learning to live together’ is the
pillar that the UNESCO Commission emphasizes more than any other. It refers
first of all to developing an understanding of others through dialogue leading
to empathy, respect, and appreciation. Yet if we are to understand others, we
must first know ourselves. ‘Learning to live together’ is also about
recognizing our growing interdependence, about experiencing shared purposes,
and about implementing common projects and a joint future. Only then will it be
possible to manage the inevitable conflicts in a peaceful way.
Learning
to be: ‘Learning to be’ is founded on the
fundamental principle that education needs to contribute to the all-round
development of each individual. This pillar deals with the broadening of care
for each aspect of the personality. It deals with giving us the freedom of
thought, feeling, and imagination that we need to act more independently, with
more insight, more critically, and more responsibly. The end of education is to
discover and open the talents which are hidden like a treasure within every
person. As a means of personality training, education should be a highly
individualized process and at the same time an interactive social experience.
By
speaking of learning to know rather than of knowing, UNESCO indicates that this
is a never-ending process that is both personal and shared. Education is not
only about know-what, but also about know-why, know-how
and know-what for. Said otherwise, learners are not called to merely
become experts in their field, but also coworkers in knowledge production
processes and managers of meaningful, responsible and sustainable development
(Burgoyne & Reynolds, 2002)
