From Self-Directed Learning to Self-Formation: Transforming the Self through Bildung?
Work on transformative learning and Bildung remains little known and utilized in France, yet there is another emancipatory tradition of adult education, one that is both “developmental and existential” and that connects self-education, or self-formation (
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14. FROM SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING TO SELFFORMATION: TRANSFORMING THE SELF THROUGH BILDUNG? A French Approach to the Notions of Formation and Transformation
INTRODUCTION
Work on transformative learning and Bildung remains little known and utilized in France, yet there is another emancipatory tradition of adult education, one that is both “developmental and existential” and that connects self-education, or selfformation (autoformation in French), to the development of adult autonomy. This perspective is based on a humanist approach to education, aiming at emancipation and stipulating that adult education is first and foremost a process of formation of the self and development of one’s autonomy, by the learner him/herself first and also with and through others, thanks to the resources in the environment. However, this developmental process calls into question both the modalities and the purpose of adult education. The process that some French-language researchers refer to as autoformation has no real equivalent in English-language literature. At the same time, this French tradition has a number of points in common with transformative learning and German Bildung. Through a brief examination of the French tradition, we propose to study this approach, its parallels to transformative learning and Bildung as well as its uniqueness in French research. This chapter presents, in three sections, first the roots and the particularities of autoformation which unlike North American work on self-directed learning, favors an “integral” view of autonomy aiming for emancipation of the adult. The second section presents its connections to and differences from the two schools of thought, Bildung and transformative learning. The last section stresses possible paths for research that could be done to strengthen these ties. SELF-FORMATION VS SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING
The French school of autoformation (“self-formation” in this text) is distinct from the traditions in English speaking countries, particularly the area of SelfDirected Learning, in several ways. Its roots are in a humanism that grew out of the Enlightenment. It is tied to the ideas of autonomization and emancipation, and also has developmental and existential, even political, dimensions. Thus, A. Laros et al. (Eds.), Transformative Learning Meets Bildung, 165–177. © 2017 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.
J. Eneau
work on self-formation remains relatively separate from work on self-directed learning as it is dealt with in English-language research (Carré, Moisan, & Poisson, 1997, 2010). A French Tradition in Adult Education The seminal works on adult education in France are rooted in the traditions of the Enlightenment found in the Encyclopedistes and Condorcet’s Project. During the French Revolution, Condorcet (1791/2005, 1792) introduced in his Project for public instruction (Condorcet, 1792) the inalienable right of every individual to have access to education throughout life, including a “second chance” for people who had not been able to continue studying or to acce
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