Ted Fleming

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• B.Sc., B.D., S.T.L. (Qual), M.A. (Teachers College), Ed.D. (Columbia University).
• Professor Emeritus at National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Axel Honneth's theory of recognition outlines the personal and social contexts of family, law and community solidari-ties in which recognition-and misrecognitions-are experienced. His work has implications for Mezirow's theory of transformative learning. Transformative learning is critiqued for an over dependence on the Dewey/Habermas foundations t...

Many adults have been ‘locked out’ of opportunities by their previous schooling, life experiences and continuing financial barriers. Disability and literacy difficulties also exclude many from the twin desires of education and work. Education and training are widely seen as providing keys to work and jobs. A number of the chapters in this book pres...

Transformative learning (TL) was grounded in empirical studies of mature students returning to college and the communicative action of Habermas. This chapter will update TL theory relying on Axel Honneth who has reinterpreted Habermas’s critical theory. Honneth grounds critical theory and critical reflection in intersubjectivity. Personal change an...

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This paper reconceptualizes Transformative Learning (TL) by foregrounding the neglected role of the sociological imagination and the transformative potential of the arts. It critiques the prevailing psychological emphasis in TL theory and calls for a renewed focus on social structures, historical context, and imaginative engagement. Drawing on the...

This article explores the intersection of transformative learning (TL), the sociological imagination, and the arts, with a focus on literature and aesthetic experience. It critiques the emphasis on psychological priority of frameworks in TL, arguing instead for a richer integration of the sociological imagination as articulated by thinkers such as...

This paper explores Axel Honneth's Theory of Recognition bringing concepts from philosophy, psychology and pedagogy into dialogue with procedures, practices and policies of the recognition of prior learning (RPL). Recognition is a basic human need defining the need of young children to become someone-achieve an identity. The domains of law and work...

This paper examines “recognition” as understood in the critical theory of Axel Honneth (1995) in order to build on those insights and further enhance the significance of recognition in RPL. Honneth locates the struggle for recognition in these three areas: childhood/family relationships; laws; and work. This exploration of recognition leads to deep...

A coffee shop in Tenerife was a good place to begin reading this collection about facilitating student centered and transformative pedagogies in post-secondary and higher education. Outside on the sunny sidewalk adults with mobility needs passed by using readily available motorized scooters. Battery powered one-person and two-person machines were w...

This paper explores current models of radicalization that understand radicalization as a struggle for recognition. Honneth and Dewey are strong allies in further elaborating connections between understanding and addressing the challenge of radicalization today. Transformation learning (TL), can be interpreted as a way of addressing the distorted re...

Ted Fleming begins the book with his chapter entitled Toward a transformative pedagogy of crises and experience. The author delves into the transformative learning opportunities that emerge during crises, emphasising the experience of disorientation. It explores the concepts of crisis, experience, and work, applying Oskar Negt’s critical theory of...

Foreword In Educational Leadership and Organizational Management: Linking Theories to Practice (2nd ed.), Viktor Wang, Sue Kaiser, and Dayna Lynn Mitchell invite readers on a transformative journey through the intricate landscapes of leadership, management, and organizational dynamics within educational institutions and beyond. This comprehensive v...

Foreword As educators, researchers, and practitioners in the field of adult education, we are constantly challenged by the evolving landscape of learning theories, technological advancements, and the diverse needs of our learners. In "The Theory and Practice of Adult Education," Viktor Wang, drawing from his extensive expertise at California State...

Mapping the sometimes conflicting terrain in which training and further education operate and suggesting ways of progressing the conversations.

In this chapter I will map the story of work and society in Ireland and create an awareness that this story is best understood as a long historical journey through colonial (including famine) exploitation, independence, the famous Celtic Tiger and its demise until today. Work and society in Ireland have reached a place where emigration is historica...

The psychological imagination has played a significant role in the evolution of transformative learning (TL). This paper explores the sociological imagination as an under-utilized ingredient in TL relying on C. Wright Mills and Alfred Schutz to reclaim the unrealized potential of their ideas in the early development of TL. It is also an enriching t...

Keynote at Adult and Further Education Conference at Tipperary Education and Training Board

Malcolm Knowles visited Teachers College as I commenced studying there in 1978. But Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressedopened the possibility that adult education could be radical and transformative. In the same year Jack Mezirow (1978) published his theory of perspective transformation. Andragogy was useful but a paradigm shift in the field o...

The task I set for this paper is to outline a critical understanding of the current situation in which we find ourselves – often described as a crisis – and weave the beginning of an educational response, at this Conference on Lifelong Learning and Adult Education in Uncertain Times. These are themes of this task: The experience of citizens. The pu...

We present an argument for a higher priority for art in the educational system and “make a case” for the arts—to provide a rationale for its priority in adult education. This is the plan: to provide this rationale; to present practical guidelines for the processes of engaging in art that may be transformative and critical for individuals and for so...

Exactly 50 years ago I was asked by Waterford RTC to teach Sociology and Psychology on the continuing education programme (1974-1975). That experience (and others) prompted me to go study adult education. It was impossible to do this in Ireland at masters and doctoral level so off to Mezirow in TC. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, you have created som...

The theory of recognition is explored as a point of entry for exploring the significance of recognition as referred to in the recognition of prior learning (RPL). The paper suggests that we are as a consequence of evolution, wired for recognition and recognition is fundamental for the survival of infants; the cohesion of a fair and caring society -...

Two research projects undertaken ten years ago explored the experiences of mature students’ access, progression and drop-out in higher education, relying on Habermas and Honneth for sensitizing concepts. This paper explores the implications of undertaking this research today adopting a different set of sensitizing concepts and in the process transf...

Responder with Janet Ferguson & Peter Sawchuck at George Washington University Seminar Series: Broken Systems under Repair: Cultivating a moral economy through essential workers informal learning.

In this chapter we want to offer a counterposing perspective on civic education based on critical adult education theory, which focuses on democratic citizenship as a collective practice (Biesta & Lawy, 2006). This is of necessity ongoing, life-wide, and lifelong. Underpinning this is a particular conception of democracy as a system that ideally de...

An invited review of A Bainbridge, L. Formenti & L. West (2021). Discourses, Dialogue, and Diversity in Biographical Research: An Ecology of Life and Learning, Brill. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv1v7zc0t

This Chapter explores: The democratic notion of the public sphere - spaces where public opinion can be formed which influences government policy - and why this is curtailed because of the influence of the media, the economy and other forces in society; How the study of education helps to understand these issues and in particular focus on the relat...

There are two main reasons I have focussed on the recognition theory of Honneth. The first has to do with an interest in critical theory and how it is being included in explorations of Mezirow's Theory of Transformative Learning. In this area the critiques of TL are open to being addressed and resolved by further integrating Habermas and in this ca...

I want to highlight, and present for your consideration, this core idea: Public protests are profound democratic events in which protesters attempt to make their voices heard and fill the public square and the public sphere with their experience. They intend bringing about policy and political change. A vibrant public sphere is essential for democr...

This paper goes beyond the papers already published by members of the Hellenic Adult Education Association and community in which the links between Paulo Freire and Jack Mezirow are outlined. This paper places an emphasis on the connections provided by their reliance (or not) on the John Dewey, Hegel, Liberation Theology and teaching methods

This paper explores experience which is both misconstrued and undertheorized in adult education. Human experience is expressed in the public sphere as the motivation for social and political change. The connections among experience, the public sphere and democracy are identified. The allies in exploring the role of experience in education are John...

Jack Mezirow (1923-2014) and Paulo Freire (1921-1997) are two of the most important contributors to understanding adult learning. Mezirow (Bloom, 2015) frequently acknowledged the impact that Freire had on his thinking and one can wonder if there is a distance between the critical consciousness of Freire and the critical reflection of transformativ...

Chairperson: Olga Tsiourva, November 7. Organized by Melton City Council and Wyndham City Council, Australia. https://globallearningfestival.com/ https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=511196047715100&set=pcb.511196311048407 also movie showing Classical Greek drama and democracy: ttps://www.facebook.com/learninglarissa2016/videos/1860916050921588

Paper read at the Larissa Learning City Conference: Action Plan for 2023.

Many workers, especially first responders, experience trauma at work. We gathered experiences of frontline workers in Berlin during COVID-19 and theorize those experiences within an education paradigm. Their experiences were written as part of their reflective writing on a hazard prevention course for emergency workers in 2022. The theorizing focus...

There are two main reasons I have focused on the recognition theory of Honneth. The first has to do with an interest in critical theory and how it is being included in explorations of Mezirow's Theory of Transformative Learning. In this area the critiques of TL are open to being addressed and resolved by further integrating Habermas and in this cas...

In P.H. Sawchuk, & K. Mirchandani (2022). Work, Learning & Social Change. Proceeding of the Return to Work and Learning, Toronto Conference, (pp. 436-432). Toronto: OISE, University of Toronto.

Covid-19 demonstrates the vulnerabilities of living in close proximity to others and we ask this question: What kind of city would enhance the lives of all its citizens, including new arrivals? This question is at the center of attempts to bring adult and citizenship education to address community and social problems through a pedagogy of the city,...

This panel will seek to establish a dialogue about commonalities and differences between three traditions of researching adult learning. A shared framework for our discussion has been that learning is a process of change in our experience of the world around us, and that especially the processes that more profoundly change our understanding of it,...

Covid-19 has provided adult learners and educators with unexpected experiences. To the fore are experiences of crisis for individuals and for society. The dilemmas of these years are amplified by requirements to maintain ‘social distance’ while knowing that only through social contact can we survive and thrive. Social distancing, a term used in Eng...

Die Lecture an der Die Akkon Hochschule für Humanwissenschaften für ist eingebettet in den Studiengang Internationale Not-und Katastrophenhilfe B.S., im Modul “Mental Health and Psychosocial Support”

This co-presented paper is based on the idea that critiques of transformation theory may stand or fall but should not be (re)asserted without rethinking the critical theory foundations and potentials that are partially but not comprehensively exploited by transformative learning—and its critics. In this paper I identify the critiques (That transfor...

This paper explores key ideas from the critical theory of Oskar Negt that address critiques of Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning. The implications of Negt’s work on the dialectical nature of experience and the connections between experience, social structures and social change are identified. Dewey and Mezirow build on the importance of e...

This paper explores key ideas from the critical theory of Oskar Negt thataddress critiques of Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning. The implications ofNegt’s work on the dialectical nature of experience and the connections between experience, social structures and social change are identified. Dewey and Mezirow built on the importance of exp...

Critical theory and transformative learning are constantly evolving. Critiques of Mezirow’s work are better understood and addressed by engaging with current critical theorists—Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, and Oskar Negt. This chapter explores how their evolving theories help address some of the critiques of transformation theory and further enha...

The field of adult education has been enriched by significant contributionsfrom Paulo Freire and Jack Mezirow. Both have contributed from within thefield and wrote for the field of adult education. Mezirow’s theory grew out ofan empirical study of women returning to college. Its impact is due to the wayit speaks directly to the experiences of stude...

The transformative learning experience of older adults in the Irish Museum of Modern Art education programme. Published in Hellenic Adult Education Association Journal Translation: Πηνελόπη Μπόζνου [Pinelopi Boznou]. ΤΕΥΧΟΣ 42 Μάιος- Αύγουστος 2022

Transformative Learning and Critical Theory: Making Connections with Habermas, Honneth and Negt Critical theory and transformative learning are constantly evolving. Critiques of Mezirow's work are better understood and addressed by engaging with current critical theorists-Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, and Oskar Negt. This chapter explores how thei...

Transformative Learning and Critical Theory: Making Connections with Habermas, Honneth and Negt Critical theory and transformative learning are constantly evolving. Critiques of Mezirow's work are better understood and addressed by engaging with current critical theorists-Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, and Oskar Negt. This chapter explores how thei...

Σχετικά με την παρούσα έκδοση Η παρούσα έκδοση έχει ως στόχο να ευαισθητοποιήσει τους αναγνώστες σχετικά με τη σημασία της εκπαίδευσης στην ενεργό πολιτειότητα (citizenship education - CE) στις τοπικές κοινότητες στο πλαίσιο της διά βίου μάθησης. Επιχειρεί να υποστηρίξει τις πόλεις και τους πολίτες στην προσπάθειά τους να προωθήσουν αυτή την κρίσιμ...

Recognition is widely understood and experienced in society today. It is a positive aspect of people’s everyday experience and involves the realization that other people are essential to us because of the ways they react to us. We rely on others for our self-image, even our identity. Without other people especially in our very young years, we might...

This publication aims to make readers aware of the importance of citizenship education (CE) in local communities within the framework of lifelong learning. It supports cities and citizens in advancing their work on this critical aspect of formal and non-formal education, and in striving for progress in the provision of CE for youth and adult learne...

본 책자는 독자들이 평생학습체계 안에서 지역사회에서 이루어지는 시민성교육의 중요성을 인식하도록 돕기 위해 발간되었습니다. 또한, 본 책자는 도시와 시민들이 정규 및 비형식교육의 중요한 영역에서 자신들의 활동을 발전시키고, 청소년과 성인 대상의 시민성교육을 더욱 효과적으로 제공하기 위해 노력하는 것을 지원합니다. 책자의 내용은 2020년에 세계시민성교육 클러스터 회원도시를 대상으로 진행된 설문조사의 결과와 ‘지역사회에서의 시민성교육 강화’라는 주제로 지난 2020년 11월 12일부터 13일, 양일에 걸쳐 온라인으로 개최된 세계시민성교육 클러스터 국제회의에서 다룬 도시별 사례 연구와 참여 전문가들의 기조연설 및 의견을 바탕...

For six years I have been coming to Larissa. Each year a crisis; each year a different crisis. The progress of our work together is marked by the challenge of dealing with crises. However, each time we plan, we implement and work toward increasing the knowledge and learning of the city. I remember Jürgen Habermas writing about crises. He says they...

what does resilience look like in a community and social setting with special reference to the Learning City of Larissa Greece. Building on Bowlby's attachment theory the paper identifies the characteristics of resilience and outlines the learning and teaching that would enhance this resilience.

It will take some time to recover from Covid 19 and we have learned so much in this crisis. As in each crisis-economic or refugees-we are challenged to learn more in order to make the world safer. We also face a climate crisis. We need huge and urgent learning. Covid is mostly understood and solved by science-vaccines, masks, washing hands. Because...

Crises in our society – climate, covid-19 and mass migration – seem to define not only the experience of learning but also the experience of living and even surviving that in turn have implications for adult learning. We explore the concept of experience and examine whether it plays a role in addressing the need for transformative learning. Our all...

This second edition of the Handbook provides a comprehensive examination of lifelong learning. With 38 chapters (12 new and 23 updated), the approach is interdisciplinary, spanning human resources development, adult learning (educational perspective), psychology, career and vocational learning, management and executive development, cultural anthrop...

Lifelong learning is a familiar concept in ordinary conversation and in public policy discourses. Though the history and various meanings of lifelong learning are noble, it has in more recent times been identified with functional interests, economic goals and one-dimensional interpretations. This chapter identifies the genesis and grounding of life...

This is part of a series that aims to tell the adult education story, through the experiences of people who are committed to the work. https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/blog/adult-education-journey-those-who-make-roads-0

Delight at Covid survival is real. But this delight is diluted. This paper (speaking notes) discusses Covid as a social disease that attacks the relationships and connections with others that are essential for education and learning. We learn in relationships. We speak less about learning and more about education. Education is the priority. The gr...

Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning emphasises individual learning at the expense of a social dimension and is also overly abstract and rational particularly in how it views critical reflection. Mezirow’s dependence on Habermas is a factor. This paper seeks a solution to these critiques in the work of Axel Honneth. He developed a more nuanc...

https://www.tedfleming.net/doc/Twelve_Tips_for_Men.pdf

ELEFTHERIA, 18 October, 2016 There is no Democracy without Education: Critical, Transformative and Emancipatory Learning and Networks for the Learning Cities. https://www.eleftheria.gr/λάρισα/item/133845-ted-fleming-«δεν-υπάρχει-δημοκρατία-χωρίς-μόρφωση».html

This presentation will have three sections: 1. A brief focus on Facebook and how it is used a) As a tool for keeping inn contact with family and friends and self-presentation b) As a means of informing and being informed about community and social events c) As a means of exploring and understanding the systemic issues with FB as a business venture...

This article explores how key ideas from the critical theory of Oskar Negt can be utilized to address critiques and further enhance Mezirow's theory of transformative learning. The implications of Negt's work on the dialectical nature of experience are identified. So too are the connections he makes between experience, social structures, and social...

Foreword As I read these chapters, various memories came back to me. As a child, my grandmother lived in our house. She was my babysitter for ive years until I went to school. I remember learning the prayers she taught me in German, her mother tongue; mine was English. "Vater unser in Himmel" echoes through the decades. God was German. The Grimm B...

I would like to make one main comment about well-being and, if time allows, a number of brief points about the interconnections between Youth, Democracy and Education as part of the task of enhancing well-being. When thinking of working with young citizens I want to assume that an increase in well-being is a really worthwhile and agreed outcome. If...

"Strengthening Citizenship Education at Local Level” 12 and 13 November 2020. UNESCO GNLC Cluster on Citizenship Education Coordinating cities: Larissa (Greece) and Yeonsu – gu (Republic of Korea) supported by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL)

Critical theory and transformative learning are constantly developing. The Frankfurt School provides many ideas for transformation theory. High levels of rationality, demands of critical reflection and the individualism of Mezirow's theory are better understood by a detailed engagement with current critical theorists-Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth a...

COVID-19 has done significant damage to individuals, families, workers and the economy. What is not known about the virus is part of the problem, and the knowledge gap drives an unprecedented and urgent search for knowledge. This article explores the challenges for lifelong learning and the relevance of transformative learning. Disorientation, diso...

This article explores how key ideas from the critical theory of Oskar Negt can be utilized to address critiques and further enhance Mezirow's theory of transformative learning. The implications of Negt's work on the dialectical nature of experience are identified. So too are the connections he makes between experience, social structures and social...

Jack Mezirow frequently spoke about the affinity he had with the emerging transformative learning community he met on his visit to Greece in 2007. He enjoyed conversations about the nature of thinking and meaning making. Greece now finds itself at challenging crossroads. There is little scope for dancing, in a nation that loves to dance! The econom...

Jürgen Habermas is the contemporary embodiment of the critical theory tradition of the Frankfurt School and has had an impact on social and political theory for over 50 years. He works to make sense of democracy and its unfinished possibilities. In a neoliberal economy that valorises the market, he articulates how reason can transcend the reduction...

Building on the work of Mary Belenky and her colleagues this chapter explores how connected and procedural knowledge help resolve the former critique that TL is overly individual. These ideas were acknowledged already in the work of Mezirow. And building on the work of Axel Honneth we go beyond the ways in which Mezirow utilized Habermas to find wa...

2019 Conference of the Italian Transformative Learning Network. Università di Napoli Federico II - Napoli - AULA Iacono Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici - Sezione di Psicologia e Scienze dell'educazione

this collection of essays explores the kinds of that will be sustainable for the future. This essay identifies and explores the question as to whether we agree on what we ought to know going forward as citizens. With low levels of literacy in some sectors the challenge continues to be real and defying our best interventions.

Thoughts about the process of listening to the voice of adult learners. Starting with the Seamus Heaney poem 'Rainstick' that encourages the listener to 'listen now again' as such careful listening may lead to hearing something never heard before. Laura Lundy's work on listening to children is adapted to use as a suggested framework for listening t...

Paper presented to link events in Greece at the moment with the development of Larissa as a Learning City. This is a UNESCO supported project by the Municipality of Larissa, Greece.

I have been asked to talk to you about working with adults because, even thought everybody here may not be a teacher or in more modern fashion a facilitator, everybody I understand works with adults. Everything I do today, I am doing as someone who works with adults and in every detail I am going to try model, as well as talk about, how I understan...

Keynote at the Lake Como School of Advanced Studies Spring School.