Jarvis, P. (2010) Adult Education and Lifelong Learning, Chapter 1

2020 Spring Term, GS course Textbook:

Jarvis, P. (2010) Adult Education and Lifelong Learning: Theory and Practice, Routledge.

Adult Education and Lifelong Learning: Theory and Practice

Chapter 1. The Person as Learner

大意「学習は存在論的現象、学ぶことと生きることは不可分」

The evolutionary & social context of the person

At the heart of social living, it has been assumed in the West that people are born as individuals and that as they grow and develop, they learn to be social human beings – but this is one of the flaws in Enlightenment thinking (see Hall, 1976; Gray, 1995; Jarvis, 2008).

Throughout this book we will take it as read that we have evolved and that there are aspects of our evolution which affect our learning (p. 2).

The nature of the person

The body:

The self:

The mind-body relationship

1. dualism
2. mind-brain identity
3. logical or analytical behavirourism
4. functionalism
5. non-reductive monism

Being and learning

Think of the beat of music, the beat of a drum – it is a universally appreciated sound, but why is it universal? Perhaps because while we were in the womb, we were exposed to the sound of the beat of our mother's heart; we learned it pre-consciously.

The need to learn is more basic than the need to know; it is fundamental to our humanity, as Dewey pointed out:

[L]ife means growth, a living creature lives as truly and positively at one stage as another, with the same intrinsic fullness and the same absolute claims. Hence education means the enterprise of supplying the conditions which insure growth, or adequacy of life, irrespective of age. (1916:51)(p. 12)

when I asked how many of them had included smell in their definitions of learning, it turned out that none had. Learning had occurred incidentally and they were unaware of the learning but they were aware of the outcome of their learning – their tacit knowledge (p. 13).

Learning social being: socialization

From our earliest days we learn to imitate; Tomasello (1999:52) regards children as ‘imitation machines’. ... By imitation we begin to learn the subculture of the group, organization, etc. ... Traditionally, every society has produced its own culture, which is carried by human beings and transmitted both through social interaction and through the educational system. Culture, in this context, refers to the sum totality of knowledge, values, beliefs, etc. Of a social group. It is in the process of socialization that individuals learn their local culture. There is a sense in which some facets of education may be regarded as part of the process of socialization, although the former is usually viewed as a more formal process than the latter. Consequently, it is possible to understand precisely how Lawton (1973:21) could regard the curriculum as ‘a selection from culture’. Obviously, the process of acquiring the local culture is very significant during childhood, both through socialization and education. However, sociologists regard socialization as a lifetime process having at least two aspects: primary socialization is ‘the first socialization an individual undergoes ... through which he [sic] becomes a member of society; secondary socialization is any subsequent process that inducts an already socialized individual into new sectors of the objective world of his society’ (Berger & Luckman 1991: Loc 2570).  (pp. 13-14). 

It is not difficult, however, to recognize that in a society where the rate of social change is very slow, such as pre-industrial Europe or a primitive tribe, it would be feasible for individuals to learn most of the cultural knowledge, norms and values necessary for them to assume their place in that society during childhood. ... From the onset of the Industrial Revolution, with the introduction of more sophisticated technology, the rate of social change increased. Indeed, change is endemic to technological societies. This means that primary socialization is insufficient. Secondary socialization becomes more significant and it is certainly more relevant for us as educators of adults. As we grow and develop, so we join other groups having their own subcultures, such as schools, leisure clubs and work, and in each of these we go through a process of secondary socialization. We learn to be a student, a club member and a worker; in other words, we learn specific behaviour associated with our position; new knowledge, new ideas, new values and new practices all have to be confronted. However, as Turner (1962, in Rose, A. (ed.) Human Behavior and Social Processes, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul) showed, the process of secondary socialization is not merely a process of imitating the behaviour of other role players (behaviourist learning); we are also agents in this learning process. He (ibid.:38) showed that ‘role behavior in formal organizations becomes a working compromise between the formalized role prescriptions and the more flexible operation of the role-taking process’. It is interactive rather than merely imitative and therefore we learn in more complex ways. This becomes a lifetime process and is part of the informal learning of lifelong learning. (pp. 14-15).  

成人教育・生涯学習ハンドブック――理論と実践