Transformative dimensions of lifelong learning: Mezirow, Rorty and COVID-19

International Review of Education - Tập 66 Số 5-6 - Trang 657-672 - 2020
Saskia Eschenbacher1, Ted Fleming2
1Akkon University of Applied Human Sciences, Berlin, Germany
2Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA

Tóm tắt

Abstract

COVID-19 has done significant damage to individuals, families, workers and the economy. What is not known about the virus is part of the problem, and the knowledge gap drives an unprecedented and urgent search for knowledge. This article explores the challenges for lifelong learning and the relevance of transformative learning. Disorientation, disorienting dilemmas and critical reflection are the ingredients of such learning, since we can only learn our way out of this situation. The authors present American adult educator Jack Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning (TL) as an appropriate learning framework for lifelong learning. They draw on the work of American philosopher Richard Rorty and German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas to re-shape TL so that it supports the kind of learning that is sufficiently complex and nuanced to enable us to deal with contradictions, ambivalence and meaning-making in a world where not-knowing is the new normal.

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