RHIZOACTIVITY: TOWARD A POSTMODERN THEORY OF LIFELONG LEARNING* DAE JOONG KANG University of Georgia, Athens
Although the loss of certainty in the age of postmodernism is questioning knowledge production in general, the emerging discourse of lifelong learning demands a different theory of adult learning in particular. This article aims to offer a conceptual tool for describing learning in adulthood in terms of postmodern and lifelong learning conditions. It approaches the problem from the images of learning and learner that adult education scholarship has produced and identifies that adult learning theory attempts to signify foundational certainty by using binarytrapped adjectives. The author argues that insofar as we continue with the adjective-plus-learning theory, we cannot escape binary thought. The author proposes a new concept, rhizoactivity, to navigate multiplicity of learning in a postmodern world. Anticipated benefits of employing rhizoactivity in understanding learning are discussed in terms of postmodern and lifelong learning conditions. Keywords:
adult learning; lifelong learning; postmodernism; rhizome
Adult education scholarship in North America, with founding fathers such as Lindeman and Knowles, understands learning as a lifelong pursuit embedded in everyday life experience. Lindeman (1926) declares that “the whole of life is learning” (p. 6) and “experience is the adult learner’s living textbook” (p. 10). Knowles (1970) emphasizes that adults have a lot of prior experiences and can manage them in a self-directed way. Various adult learning theories thereafter have been produced by analyzing characteristics of experiences and the nature of self-direction in adulthood. If a theory provides a lens through which we can *This article was accepted under the previous editors. DAE JOONG KANG earned his PhD in adult education from the University of Georgia, Athens, in August 2006. He serves as the policy advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister, Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, South Korea (e-mail: kdaejoong@gmail.com). AUTHOR’S NOTE: The author thanks Dr. Sharan B. Merriam and Dr. Elizabeth A. St. Pierre at the University of Georgia for their guidance in adult learning theory and postmodern research. The author also thanks anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments in the development of this article.
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