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.
Highlights
In this article we present the theory of transformative learning (TL) as a way forward and expand on its possibilities in the context of COVID-19 by linking concepts from Jürgen Habermas and Richard Rorty in order to bring current educational insights to bear on tackling the crisis rather than join forces with the pestilences
Stephen Brookfield mentions several layers of transformative learning here, all of which are reflected in the current crisis: psychological stability is put at risk as edge-emotions (Mälkki 2011)1 that arise are experienced individually; social networks are at stake as solidarity has to be lived through physical distancing
What if we redescribe the circumstances of lifelong learning so that employability and active citizenship will not remain the only goals of lifelong learning?
Summary
According to Mezirow, what gets transformed is what he terms a frame of reference or a meaning perspective, the structure of assumptions and expectations through which we filter sense impressions. It involves cognitive, affective, and conative dimensions. Stephen Brookfield mentions several layers of transformative learning here, all of which are reflected in the current crisis: psychological stability is put at risk as edge-emotions (Mälkki 2011) that arise are experienced individually; social networks are at stake as solidarity has to be lived through physical distancing. Kessler’s advice is similar to Mälkki’s suggestion that we acknowledge what we are going through so that we can find or regain some control in acceptance (Berinato 2020)
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