Learning to be a Person in Society » (1st Edition)

Peter Jarvis is an internationally renowned expert in the fields of lifelong learning, adult and continuing education and is founding editor of the International Journal of Lifelong Education (Taylor & Francis). He is Professor of Continuing Education at the University of Surrey (where he was the former head of the Department of Educational Studies) and is a former Adjunct Professor in the Department of Adult Education, University of Georgia, USA. He also holds honorary visiting professorships at City University (UK), Pecs University (Hungary) and Tianjin Radio and Television University (China), and is Special Professor at the University of Nottingham. Peter is a prolific author, whose recent publications include: The Routledge International Handbook of Lifelong Learning; Democracy, Lifelong Learning and the Learning Society; and Globalization, Lifelong Learning and the Learning Society (winner of the 2008 Cyril O. Houle Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education).

Learning is a lifelong process and we are the result of our own learning. But how exactly do we learn to be a person through living? In this book, Peter Jarvis draws together all the aspects of becoming a person into the framework of learning. Considering the ongoing, "nature versus nurture" debate over how we become people, Jarvis’s study of nurture - what learning is primarily about – builds on a detailed recognition of our genetic inheritance and evolutionary reality. It demonstrates the ways in which we become social human beings: internalising, accommodating and rejecting the culture to which we are exposed (both primarily and through electronic mediation) while growing and developing as human beings and people.

As learning theory moves away from traditional, single-discipline approaches it is possible to place the person at the centre of all thinking about learning, by emphasising a multi-disciplinary approach. This wide-ranging study draws on established research from a number of disciplines into the complexities that make us who we are. It will appeal to a wide variety of audiences: those involved in all fields of education, the study of learning and development, human resource development, psychology, theology and the caring professions.

Preface xi

Section I Laying the foundations 1

1 A person in society 3

Part 1 The concept of the person 3

Part 2 The concept of society 7

Part 3 The person in society 11

Conclusion 18

2 Learning in society 19

Part 1 The influence of the wider society 19

Part 2 Learning 24

Conclusion 31

3 Learning in early childhood 32

Part 1 The primacy of relationship 32

Part 2 Learning and the senses 38

Part 3 Learning in play 41

Part 4 Learning language 43

Part 5 Socialisation 44

Concluding discussion 47

4 Practical living 48

Part 1 Action 48

Part 2 The situation 51

Conclusion 54

5 Experience 55

Part 1 Experience as consciousness 58

Part 2 Experience as biography 61

Part 3 Experience as episodelevent 63

Part 4 Experience as expertise 65

Concluding discussion 66

6 Meaning 69

Part 1 Cultural meaning 70

Part 2 Personal and subjective meaning 74

Part 3 Meaning and learning 76

Conclusion 77

Section II Processes of learning 79

7 Experiencing 81

Part 1 In time 82

Part 2 Space 85

Part 3 Experiencing ourselves 88

Conclusion 89

8 Perceiving 90

Part 1 Perception and the body 91

Part 2 Factors that affect our perception 93

Conclusion 99

9 Thinking 101

Part 1 Non-reflective thought 102

Part 2 Reflective thought 104

Part 3 Cognitive development 106

Part 4 Styles of thinking 108

Part 5 Ways of reasoning 109

Part 6 Ways of knowing 110

Conclusion 112

10 Knowing 113

Part 1 Knowing and personal knowledge 113

Part 2 Narrative knowing 116

Part 3 Women's way of knowing 118

Part 4 Knowing ourselves 120

Part 5 Learning and knowing 121

Conclusion 122

11 Believing 123

Part 1 Believing, meaning and truth123

Part 2 Towards an understanding of religious and theological interpretation 125

Part 3 Faith development 130

Part 4 Spiritual dimensions of human learning 133

Conclusion 136

12 Feeling - emotions 137

Part 1 The concept of emotion 137

Part 2 Emotions within the human being 139

Part 3 Emotions and experience 141

Part 4 Emotions and learning 142

Part 5 Learning to control our emotions 143

Conclusion 144

13 Doing 146

Part 1 Practical living 146

Part 2 Learning to be an expert 150

Part 3 Skills learning 151

Part 4 Tacit knowledge 152

Part 5 Creative doing 154

Conclusion 155

14 Interacting 156

Part 1 Externalising 157

Part 2 Internalising 161

Conclusion 163

15 Valuing 164

Part 1 Pre-cognitive and pre-conscious learning of universal value 165

Part 2 Learning moral goodness 166

Part 3 The stages of moral development 171

Part 4 Private values and public standards 172

Conclusion 175

16 Positioning 176

Part 1 Attitudes 176

Part 2 Intelligence 180

Part 3 Motivation 181

Conclusion 183

Section III Being and becoming 185

17 Becoming 187

Part 1 The life cycle and ageing 188

Part 2 Life transitions 191

Part 3 Life history and learning from our lives 193

Part 4 Achieving our human potential 195

Conclusion 197

18 Being 198

Part 1 The emergence of individual self-identity 200

Part 2 Towards social identity 202

Part 3 Personality 204

Part 4 On being a person in society 206

Conclusion 207

References 209

Index 219