Expansive learning on the move: insights from ongoing research / El aprendizaje expansivo en movimiento: aportaciones de la investigación en curso

Abstract

The article argues that the crucial task of expansive learning is to generate alternatives to capitalism in human activities, organizations and communities. To meet this challenge, the article discusses two areas of current development in the theory of expansive learning. The first area is transformative agency and double stimulation; the second area is concept formation in the wild, germ cells and ascending from the abstract to the concrete. These two areas are complementary. Expansive learning is both formation of transformative agency and formation of new theoretical concepts. Transformative agency is a central quality and outcome of expansive learning. Theoretical concepts are perspectival and future-oriented; they become concrete when learners take volitional actions to change their circumstances. To have societal impact, efforts at implementing expansive learning in education should be expanded in space and time. This means getting schools involved in struggles of communities and social movements.