For some people, life goes on without much happening, while for others, major life-changing events occur during their lifetime. Having an extensive visual impairment or becoming blind as an adult is an example of an event that often changes the fundamentals of life. Based on lifeworld phenomenological theory and philosophy, this new life situation can be said to mean that the world changes if the body changes, since the world is experienced via our lived body (Merleau-Ponty, 2012). Visual perception is central to our perceptual relationship with the world and it is essential to develop in-depth knowledge of how other senses can come into play. This is also about learning to deal with a new life situation. The question is therefore central to educational theory.

The purpose of this study is to use lifeworld phenomenological theory to understand what it means to have a severe visual impairment or become blind and how people learn to deal with this new life-situation. In addition, the study aims to develop a practice-based theory of changed life-situation and learning. It is about fundamentally understanding the existential situation of experiencing and learning to live in a changed lifeworld.

The empirical material on which the theory development is based consists of an empirical study where the aim was to study and clarify pedagogical processes with a focus on the learning of people with visual impairment. The theoretical work is also based on a previously conducted study (Berndtsson, 2001). As a theoretical basis, lifeworld phenomenological theory is used, focusing on human existence. The concept of lifeworld as developed by Heidegger (2013), Merleau-Ponty (2012) and Schutz (1962) is central as it offers an openness to the fact that the world can be experienced differently for different people and differently from time to time. The lifeworld here offers an openness to studying changes in life and thereby focusing on central pedagogical issues. As the study concerns changing relationships between life and the world, the lived body (Merleau-Ponty, 1912) is also a central starting point, not least because of how perception links the body and the world. Other theoretical starting points are lived space and lived time, intersubjectivity and social world, and horizon as both openness and limitation (van Peursen, 1977). The main focus of the study is the everyday lifeworld (Schütz, 1962), a world where people, through their actions and behaviors, shape a world together with others. Everyday activities are also central as the body, according to Schütz, can be seen as the tool that changes the world. In vision rehabilitation, other tools also come into play, such as the white cane, which needs to be learned to be used in order to get around in the new, changed world, which in itself includes existence, identity and the social world (Berndtsson, 2018). The study has also developed its own concepts such as existential body, perceptual body, social body and the body of activity.

The focus of this presentation is the developed practice-based theory. The starting point is the lifeworld changed by visual impairment and how this situation appears to the participants in the study. In many cases, the change can be described as a break in life as it is no longer possible to engage and act in the world in the same way as before. In accordance with the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty (2012), the break can also be seen as a gap between life and the world. In this context, learning is seen as that which through experience and action is able to reconnect life and the world in its different dimensions (Bengtsson & Berndtsson, 2015).

A lifeworld phenomenological approach (Bengtsson, 2005, 2013a) was the guiding principle for the empirical study. It was conducted at a rehabilitation unit where six people who were in need of rehabilitation participated. The group consisted of three women and three men aged 30-63 years. Through participant observation (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998), the subjects were followed as they learned to use a long cane, orient themselves in environments, etc. (45 observations in total). Notes were taken during the training sessions and later developed on a computer. Regular interviews were conducted in the form of conversations and stories (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009) to capture the participants' lived experiences and reflect together on what was observed (6-7 interviews with each participant). Using a combination of participant observation and interviews has been very useful in capturing lived experience. Participating in the orientation and mobility (O&M) classes provided the opportunity to study how the participants' living bodies related to different environments or spaces. Existential and social aspects were also noted during the training sessions. The interviews have been characterized by trust and interaction. The fact that visits were also made to the participants' homes provided an additional source of how their visual impairment appears in their everyday world. All material was recorded and transcribed. Hermeneutics as a process of interpretation has primarily been used (Ödman, 2007). Here it has been a matter of approaching the meanings of the texts through repeated readings and trying to identify different parts that could be put together into larger wholes. The lifeworld phenomenological theory has been important in that the interpretations have been related to the theoretical basis. For example, the theory of the living body has been given concrete significance in the development of various possible interpretations. The development of the theory has taken place as a further development of the developed interpretations by putting them together in a larger whole. In this last step, the concrete lifeworld has been left behind in favor of a more theoretical presentation of the learning processes in an existential and lifeworld phenomenological perspective. Theory development can also be compared to an abductive process where empirical data and theory are woven together with an openness to both emotional and bodily aspects in the research process and knowledge formation (Berndtsson & Vikner Stafberg, 2023). It can be said to be about putting words to the elusive life that has not yet been expressed.

Central to understanding the changed life situation is that the starting point is human existence and the individual's experience of the world. Initially, visual impairment or blindness can be said to constitute a limited life where habitual life has broken down. This can also be understood as a break in life that creates a gap between life and the world. The body is often experienced as an object and not always as the subject that usually forms the basis for being and acting in the world. In this gap, life sometimes comes to a standstill. Starting to perform activity can be said to bring me back to the world via my lived body, which I may not initially be ready for. The starting point for learning to deal with the new world is the gap identified between the body and the world. To take possession of the new world, a number of horizons need to be conquered. The time horizon needs to be opened up and widened so that the psyche is no longer stuck in the present. This also means recognizing the body as it is right now. The perceptual body needs to learn to relate anew to space as it is now experienced, often with the help of other senses, such as touch and hearing. The horizon of possibilities needs to be expanded, which is often done by experiencing that others with a similar body can do different things, which is also related to identity. Overall, it is a matter of learning a new way of performing activities with your living experiencing body (Bengtsson, 2013b), of actively grasping the new world. In the practice-based theory, this is described as a pedagogy of in-between spaces consisting of a multitude of intertwinings of different dimensions in relation to a world.

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