Late modernity and paradoxes of Iearning

• Peter Jarvis University of Surrey

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33336/aik.96892

Abstract

Modernity began in Wester Europe with the Renaissance, the age of scientific discovery and rationality. lnstrumental rationality became the foundation stone of this new age; with it emerged industrialism and capitalism and a confident belief in progress and the superiority of the system. This is also where the concept of Iearning anchored itself: that teachers are the experts and authorities and that truth exists. Now modernity is being called into question throughout the western world. We are living in late modernity and some of the fea tures of the post-modern world are beginning to appear. Now reality has itself become a problem and so there can be fewer certainties about life. This development has been accompanied the calling into question of the concept of learning as consisting of adopting correct answers. The article describes some of these paradoxes of learning typical for our times.