Re: Ideology of painless learning and teaching in institutional contexts

Eva Ekeblad (eva.ekeblad who-is-at ped.gu.se)
Mon, 22 Apr 1996 13:26:59 +0200

Isak asks Eugene and all of us:

>Why do we ask about
>painless learning and not about the meaning of pain for learning? Are some
>"natural" tensions and contradictions in learning which cannot be resolved

I have just read an article about the experienced pains of adult-educators
going through a higher-education program oriented towards critical
reflection: feelings of impostorship, cultural loss and loss of innocence,
and of suddenly "hanging in mid-air". And now I already don't even remember
if the author came to the conclusion or if I did: that real learning has a
cost in pain which we, as educators, can acknowledge but not take away.

Eva

Reference

Brookfield Stephen, 1994. Tales from the dark side: A phenomenography of
adult critical reflection." *International Journal of Lifelong Education*
Vol.13, No.3 pp203-216.