Although the loss of certainty in the age of posonodernisin 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 postinodern and lifelong learning conditions. It approaches the problem frvon 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 posunodern and lifelong learning conditions.
In this article, the author interrogates how one famous Korean traditional drummer Mr. Myong-hwan Kim's lifelong learning is affected by the sociocultural and historical context as it contributes to the construction of his life. This article analyzed an oral history book that contains Mr. Kim's interview narratives since he died 20 years ago. Instead of systematic coding and theme generation, the author wrote four different notes (analysis note, research journal, transgressive data note, and additional data note) as methods of inquiry. For the research finding report, the author adopted imaginary e-mail exchanges between Mr. Kim and himself with a figuration of creating. The article illuminates how Mr. Kim's life is interwoven with the historical evolvement of modern Korea in terms of his relentless effort to be the best drummer of his time. Imaginary e-mail exchanges opened up multiple writing spaces between the researcher and the researched, past and present, fiction and nonfiction, and facts and emotional responses.
Theoretical thought on adult and/or lifelong learning in the Republic of Korea has been largely indebted to Western theoretical frameworks in the past few decades. Academic journal articles and doctoral dissertations dealing with the topic of learning in adulthood flooded with Western, typically North American, theories and concepts. Is it indeed unproblematic to use Western frameworks in understanding domestic phenomena of learning in adulthood? To tackle this question, we looked into 15 academic journal articles in the Republic of Korea, which are explicitly taking Jack Mezirow's transformative learning theory as a theoretical framework. We chose Mezirow's theory because its undoubted status as a solid theory has recently faced serious challenge in Western scholarly communities. In the analysis of the chosen journal articles, we focus on how those articles used Mezirow's theory in terms of its core elements. We concluded that Mezirow's theory has been largely misappropriated. We used Edward Said's concept of "traveling theory" to discuss possible reasons for this (mis-)appropriation. We suggested that sociocultural and historical influence should be taken into consideration in theory-use as well as theory-making.
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