In pedagogics it is rather undoubted that the process of learning is related to social and cultural contexts. While Comenius proposed the idea of one single method to „teach all things to all men“ in his „Didactica magna“ (1657), today such an idea wouldn’t be accepted anymore. Social and cultural backgrounds are obvious conditions for teaching and learning. The subject of intercultural pedagogics deals with them as well as they are an issue for human resource development – particularly in international companies acting globally. Surprisingly, this rather sophisticated consideration of culture stands opposite to an understanding of learning, which seems to cautiously try to avoid cultural connotations. The dominant view on the phenomenon learning gives the impression, that learning by itself is a a process, which may be situated in cultural contexts, but still can be described and examined in a cross-cultural, transcendent way. Contrary to this view, the following considerations are intended to provide a foundation for a concept of learning, which is culturally aware. Furthermore it shall be proven that such a concept could be adopted in the pedagogical discourse and as well could be a subject of empirical research. The core idea of this approach is to set up a concept of learning in which cultural conditions are explicitly embedded. It starts with Terry Eagleton’s definition of culture as a field of social subjectivity. These two dimensions span a field in which learning can be related to the concept of individual subjectivity as well as to that of social constructionism. They both provide connecting faces to various theoretical contributions, which have influenced the European debate on learning significantly without being put together in a concise model of learning. A general concept of cultural change, which is quite well examined with respect to learning, is the concept of modernisation (Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens, Hans van der Loo, Willem van Reijen). It can be shown that different ways of understanding learning as a phenomenon can be related to different stages of modernisation, and, as those views on learning occur synchronously, modernisation theory can serve as a kind of meta-cultural orientation. Within this framework, particular contributions on learning theory with a pedagogical focus can be addressed to lead to a concise picture of learning. Among those concepts are the phenomenographic approach (Ference Merton), other phenomenological positions (Käthe Meyer-Drawe) the subject-scientific approach (Klaus Holzkamp) and the idea of punctuation of learning processes (Gregory Bateson). From these perspectives, learning can be seen as a process of change of a person in the world (a phrase similarly used by Peter Jarvis). This definition can be unfold into the three dimensions of change, person and world. In doing so, it shall not only be shown that such a concept of learning can assimilate the particular concepts mentioned above and integrate different cultural perspectives, but also may serve as a basis to either reinterpret existing research on learning in cultural and social contexts or found a basis to conduct further learning research in this field. Eventually, such an understanding of the concept and process of learning may influence the views on didactics as it emphasises the complex and interwoven relationship between the learner as a person and his/her social and material life world.

Desk research & secondary analysis

The aim of the proposal is to develop a contribution to a comprehensive pedagogical theory of learning as a phenomen taking place for individuals in a social and cultural context. It will be shown that such a perspective is achievable and can be founded on several existing contributions from (mainly European) theories on learning. This view is expected to be useful for didactic considerations.