CALIMBAHIN, Genevie-Abi M. Dr. Bert J. Tuga, Ph.D.

MAEd – Curriculum and Instruction February 10, 2018

Theories and Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

Weaving biographies as a network of learning paradigms between the self, the

other, and the world: Insights from Peter Alheit’s “Biographical learning – within
the new lifelong learning discourse”
Article Summary
The article is one of Alheit’s first few articles on ‘biographical learning,’ which speaks of
individual learners’ competence in handling biographical commotions as an off-shoot of late
modernity. It deals with people coping with change by developing new ways of understanding
the relation between their lives and the particular world in which they live. Having said that, it is
then an indicative of a learning process that affects the ways in which a person traces one’s
relation to and with the world, and vice-versa.
This learning process, being reflexive or ‘autopoietic’ in nature, also specifies that
whenever people are situated within a rapidly changing environment, they tend to ‘organize their
own experiences’ and reflect on themselves and their biographies. Thus, out of such reflection,
new knowledge concerning the relation between individuals and the world would henceforth
emerge, which shows the ‘creative’ facet of biographical learning on the other hand. It is from
this where new paradigms and perspectives on life springs up, which furthermore creates new
action options. Alheit terms this form of continuous linking, redesigning and reshaping of one’s
old experiences to that which is new, ‘biographicity.’
More than that, Alheit also discusses the concept of ‘unlived lives’ under biographical
learning, wherein there are dormant opportunities, intentions and ideas about one’s life that
have not been conceptualized or put into actuality. This moreover forms a ‘surplus’ of meanings
over one’s biography, giving an individual more and more lenses to understand one’s life. The
task of biographical learning is to decipher, perceive and put those surplus meanings of one’s
biographical knowledge into their appropriate places. This all the more amplifies the
emancipatory power of biographical learning, in that which it actually can contain a ‘socially
explosive force’ strong enough to move, destruct, or change social structures.
Another distinct characteristic of biographical learning is its encompassing and holistic
nature, wherein it welcomes not only frames of formal education, but also the broad and wide
scopes of non-formal and informal education. Here, Alheit says that learning is not only lifelong,
but also ‘lifewide’ for it does transpire anytime, anywhere, at any point of a person’s life, and it
is a fact to be accepted and embraced. This somehow reconfigures people’s perspectives on
lifelong education, non-formal and informal education, alternative education, adult education,
higher education, and continuing professional development – making all of them stand on equal
grounds with formal education. It is ever-widening, reaching from the written to the hidden
aspects of the curriculum, from the idealistic to the practical and realistic theories, concepts and
practices, all the way to the whole and total humanity of the individual.
CALIMBAHIN, Genevie-Abi M. Dr. Bert J. Tuga, Ph.D.
MAEd – Curriculum and Instruction February 10, 2018
Theories and Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

Article Analysis and Insights

Being a literature and communication teacher, a theology major, a literary and feature
editor, and a person who has a heart, an ear and an eye for narratives, biographies and life stories,
I could not help but be captivated with how Peter Alheit and his contemporaries successfully
elevated biographies into a whole new level of discourse—transforming it into a learning process
and finally giving concrete terminologies to a practice that has been universally observed ever
since the late 20th century until today.
One distinct effect of postmodernity and neoliberalism is the fact that nowadays,
collective guidelines and frames of reference lose their power to give shape and meaning to
individuals and their social life (Stroobants and Wildemeersch, 2000). Biographical learning,
however, shows the immense strength, force and capacity basked in an individual’s life story. It
gives and makes intense meanings out of a person’s life, and traces its possibilities to serve as a
willful catalyst of change. They are made free and obliged to make proper decisions, as well as
create and make sense or meaning out of their biographies. They serve as personal answers to
pressing social situations, bearing witness to the force that lies within a person’s free-agency or
volition—the powerful choice to succeed in leading a life, make justifiable choices and handle
new challenges in relation to their social context and opportunity structures.
In a post-modern society where heavy, pressing issues of detachment, alienation,
isolation, triggering a culture of aimlessness, meaninglessness, apathy and insensitivity,
biographical learning takes a big shift into bringing the meaning and authenticity of people’s
experiences back into focus. Biographical learning brings comfort to every adult, young adult,
and even millennials who are being affected by mid-life, quarter-life, adulting and existential
crises creeping into their systems. This learning process, backed up with recent researches, is
giving a firm yet gentle pat on the back, saying that ‘it is okay.’ This process is a great reminder
to every thriving soul that they have their own path to chart, and making a big professional or
personal shift at any point in one’s life is something one can always configure, steer, and manage.
Biographical learning is a process that likens one’s life course into a force or a fluid—firm yet
flexible, with every detail rich in narrative, rich in learning, with no dispensable point or reference.
Such a process does not only recapitulate and reflect on one’s past, but it also stirs in one’s mind
the desire to perceive the ‘unlived life,’ and to decipher what may lie on the other side, on the
surplus meanings of one’s biographicity.
Indeed, biographical learning as a contemporary learning process/approach re-places the
emphasis on the power of one’s narrative, the way it used to be back in ancient times (where
spirituality, religion, mythology and the great books, ancient civilization, philosophy and science
all started). It is putting priority and emphasis on the individual’s voice, on the person’s life story.
It is contextualizing the olden practice into modern and contemporary times. It is taking one’s
biography as a point of reference for learning, and then turning such learning into a tool that can
better transform the individual and the society. As Biester and Tedder (2007) once said, “people
need, constantly, to work on their biographies and find some authentic rhythms, in the lights of
change, and to find the resource of hope… to compose a biography, and stability, meaning and
authenticity, from the fragments of shifting experience.”
CALIMBAHIN, Genevie-Abi M. Dr. Bert J. Tuga, Ph.D.
MAEd – Curriculum and Instruction February 10, 2018
Theories and Principles of Curriculum and Instruction
References:
Alheit, P. (2002). “Biographical learning – within the new lifelong learning discourse.” In K. Illeris (Ed),
Contemporary Theories of Learning. New York, NY: Routledge.
Stroobants, V., & Wildemeersch, D. (2000). “Work? I have learned to live with it: A biographical
perspective on work, learning and living.” Paper presented at Katholieke Universiteit, Belgium, Germany.
Biesta, G., & Tedder, M. (in press/2007). “Lifelong learning and the ecology of agency: Towards a lifecourse
perspective.” Studies in the Education of Adults.