Pedagogies for Future-Oriented Adult Learners

Book excerpt: This book presents a collection of chapters—both empirical and conceptual—that challenge existing paradigms of learning and teaching, provides examples of pedagogical spaces and practices that nurture future-oriented learners, explicates identities and transitions in learning, and offers alternative frames for moving forward. Educational structures have proven remarkably resilient. More often than not, pedagogical designs still privilege the lecture-tutorial format, front-end loading and the positioning of the ‘teacher’ as expert. In a similar vein, pedagogical spaces tend to privilege the formal educational institution and its discourses, rather than productively engage with naturally-occurring learning spaces at work and in communities. To better prepare and support learners for dynamically changing futures, we need to truly flip the lens from teaching to learning, positioning at the core, the learner in contexts where learning and becoming occurs. This means considering what counts as a future-oriented learner and educator, recognising the importance of evolving identities, transitions and pathways that facilitates the processes of being and becoming. Equally important is the design and appropriation of pedagogical spaces and practices that are in themselves dynamic and future-oriented. This book questions the current delineation between the spaces of work, learning and communities.