Barter, Derek
(2023)
The Slow Learner: Feeling our way to Thinking about Lifelong learning.
PRISM: Casting New Light on Learning Theory & Practice, 5 (2).
ISSN 2514-5347
Abstract
This article is a critique of the current formal education system as a construct for
consumerism, where the value of learning is geared towards increasingly limited
instrumentalist ends. It considers alternative ways of educating the population to prepare
for a century of disruption and upheaval as we transition from an unsustainable fossil fuelbased economy, where competition and acquisition are lauded to a less frenetic, but
ultimately more egalitarian reflective future. It argues against the short-term myopia of
credentialism, determined by election cycle politics and competitive advantage, and
instead posits a humanistic vision for community education and teaching innovation that
takes the longue durée regard of the history of human relations into account. Accepting
Gellner’s exo-socialisation model for mass education in the industrial age, it asks what will
replace this in a post-industrial world. Beginning with the principles of widening
participation and social inclusion as the starting points for a socially just education, it argues
that relationships are central for emancipatory education to take effect. It uses two
programmes offered by Maynooth University’s Department of Adult and Community
Education, the Communiversity and the Critical Skills modules: A Social Analysis of Everyday
Life, as examples of programmes that have inclusion, equality and diversity, and social
justice as core principles in their modus operandi. Here participation, dialogue, reflection,
and a willingness to engage offer hope for an intergenerational lifelong learning approach
to education in the twenty-first century that is ‘thought led’ rather than ‘market driven’.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Access; capabilities approach; Communiversity; emancipatory learning; inclusion;
instrumentalism; lifelong learning; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Adult and Community Education |
| Item ID: |
18046 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.24377/prism.article722 |
| Depositing User: |
Derek Barter
|
| Date Deposited: |
22 Jan 2024 14:39 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
PRISM: Casting New Light on Learning Theory & Practice |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
Repository Staff Only(login required)
 |
Item control page |
Downloads per month over past year
Origin of downloads
Altmetric
Altmetric