Learning from the perspective of phenomenology

Abstract

This study aims to phenomenologically describe human learning as an intentional object. The result points to a plurality of meanings of learning that emerge from a presuppositionless approach. This contrasts with the anti-phenomenological characteristics of an educational system geared towards pragmatism and the instrumentalization of learning. The phenomenological methodology is the foundation for this study and it is not limited to the transcendental approach, since the descriptive analysis is correlated to the world of life. It starts with a critical review of the main concept of phenomenology, that of intentionality. The plurality of meanings of an intentional object is the result of a principle of this methodology: the research does not revolve around what the object is, but around how the object manifests itself to consciousness. The various ways in which learning appears as an intentional object are described as an awakening. As an investigation of pre-predicative reality, the approach is not restricted to learning within institutional formality, which would imply approaching it in the natural attitude. Learning considered as an intentional object reveals the ways in which the self is inserted into the world. These ways of inserting the self manifest themselves in connection with the world of life. When learning is subjected to a system of standardization, the world of life is colonized. For phenomenology, learning is the quality factor of the self's presence in the world, hence the importance of understanding it as an intentional object.