Lifelong Learning as Being: The Heideggerian Perspective

This article contends that the development of lifelong learning needs to be grounded within the framework of being, a concept inspired by Heidegger, rather than within the framework of having. This article also describes the problems of the adult education literature, which favors the pragmatic sense of being and, thus, may undertheorize the meanings of developing lifelong learning. It considers Heidegger's conception of "being" by defining the existential mode of learning as part of the development of lifelong learning, thereby resisting the exclusive mention of the functional mode of learning in times of postmodern change. The analysis of being is captured by the language of dynamic movement, which grants no priority to one's thought, action, or feeling, none of whose operations can be understood without reference to the other. Finally, the implications of the being mode of learning for developing adult education research, practice, and policy are discussed.