Rhuthmos

Learning from the whirlpools of existence

Michel Alhadeff-Jones — 2026-04-23T05:00:00Z

This paper has already been published in the European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, Vol. 12, No. 3 (2021) : Learning in times of crisis.

Abstract : The aim of this paper is to problematize and enrich the use of the concept of crisis in adult education to theorize further its contribution to the study of transformative processes. This paper discusses first the implications inherent in the adoption of event-based and processual approaches to crises. It seeks then to nuance and problematize the ways in which the relationships between crisis, learning and (trans)formative processes are conceived in adult education, especially through transformative learning theory and biographical approaches. The reflection highlights the difficulty of capturing the fluidity of learning and (trans)formative dynamics. Inspired by Edgar Morin's paradigm of complexity and illustrated by examples taken from the COVID-19 pandemic, three principles are defined to help conceiving what structures, regulates and reorganizes such dynamics. The contribution concludes by emphasizing the importance of developing a critical awareness of the rhythms that shape educational processes.

Keywords : crisis, transformation, complexity, rhythm, Adult education, COVID-19

Learning from the whirlpools of experience

Every crisis leaves traces that appear both through the regressions and the advances that emerge from it. In many regards, when we refer to the lessons learned and the transformations associated with the experience of a crisis, we are referring to its most striking effects, what emerges from it. However, from an educational perspective, the experience of a crisis cannot be reduced to the explicit marks it leaves. The outcome of a crisis depends indeed on all the activities deployed to contain, regulate, and transcend it, before, during and after the occurrence of a specific perturbation. These activities manifest themselves through processes that express the evolution of tensions (e.g., dilemmas, psychological distress, social conflicts) whose effects over time eventually lead to the emergence of specific transformations.

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Interpreting crises & transformative processes as complex & rhythmic phenomena

Michel Alhadeff-Jones — 2022-05-30T07:44:19Z

Interpreting crises and transformative processes as complex and rhythmic phenomena

A webinar with Prof. Michel Alhadeff-Jones (Teachers College, Columbia University (USA)

A Reply to Marianna Papastephanou's Review of Time and the Rhythms of Emancipatory Education

Michel Alhadeff-Jones — 2018-04-10T17:29:00Z

This text has already been published in Studies in Philosophy and Education, Feb. 2018, n° 37, p.103–107.

As we all know it, writing and reading takes time. In the contemporary social and academic context, often shaped by a destabilizing sense of acceleration and urgency, protecting the moments required for such ‘time-consuming' activities is not something that can be taken for granted anymore. The way we commit to a specific task expresses as much about the meaning it may carry that what we say or write about it. I am therefore particularly grateful that Marianna Papastephanou accepted to read so carefully Time and the Rhythms of Emancipatory Education. The relevance of her comments and questions make me feel that she really understood what I have tried to accomplish in this monograph. As an embedded watermark, the time ‘encapsulated' in the writing of her text also reveals something about the topicality of this theme for researchers in education. Among the numerous comments and questions formulated by Papastephanou, I have chosen to focus on four issues that appear to me as particularly crucial to explore : the importance of the concept of rhythm in education ; the ambivalences and the rhythmicity of emancipatory education ; the fluctuating nature of the relationships between individual and collective changes ; and the recursive dimension of rhythmanalysis as a time to ‘negotiate' the rhythms we live through. [...]

Transformative Learning and the Rhythms of Individual and Collective Changes

Michel Alhadeff-Jones — 2014-12-25T13:22:22Z

Sommaire

Ce texte a déjà paru dans Nicolaides, A. & Holt D. (Eds.), Spaces of Transformation and Transformation of Space, Proceedings of the XIth Transformative Learning Conference. New York : Teachers College, Columbia University, 2014, p. 107-109. Nous remercions Michel Alhadeff-Jones de nous avoir proposé de le reproduire ici.

My research around the paradigm of complexity (e.g., Alhadeff-Jones, 2008, 2012a ; Morin, 1990/2008) and the temporal and rhythmic dimensions of education (Alhadeff- Jones, in press, 2010 ; Alhadeff-Jones, Lesourd, Roquet & Le Grand, 2011) brings me to challenge three core assumptions that may limit our understanding of the relationships between individual and collective changes, as they relate to the experience of transformative learning (Mezirow, 1991 ; Taylor, Cranton & Associates, 2012). First, Mezirow's contribution relies on a conception of individual and collective beings as « atoms » separate from each other within their own individualities. Second, his theory defines the idea of transformation assuming that it occurs in-between states of relative stability. Third, it tacitly assumes that emancipatory learning necessary leads to social change. Inspired by the experience of the birth of my first child, as part of my family – and my own – on-going transformation, this communication aims at challenging those three assumptions and suggests complementary views in order to consider the locus and dynamics of individual-collective transformations, as well as the way they relate to micro and macro power dynamics. In order to proceed, this communication will be mainly inspired by the rhythmic conception of power and individuation proposed by the contemporary historian and philosopher Pascal Michon (2005). Understood specifically « as a complex temporal organization of processes by which psychic and collective individuals are produced » (p.17), Michon's conception of rhuthmos (Ancient Greek term at the root of « rhythm », which literally means « way of flowing » (manière de fluer)) represents indeed a stimulating entry point in order to conceive the complexity of individual and collective transformations.

Autonomy and Dependency of the Locus of Transformation

Modern psychological and sociological theories consider individuals (e.g., baby, parent, family) as separated and interacting with each other according to a more or less stable and structured system of interrelations. As already pointed out by sociologists such as Elias (1970, quoted in Michon, 2005), this « atomized » interpretation – as well as the stability of the structuralist or systemic views it supports – remains nevertheless problematic. Instead of positing the existence of a (psychological or social) being antecedent to the movements that animate it, Michon recommends to start from these movements in order to understand how these psychic and collective beings are formed. Thus, if we can still distinguish the members of a family as relatively autonomous from each other, we have to consider them as mutually dependent in order to grasp the locus of the transformations that affect them. For instance, a new born's lack of autonomy impacts directly the parents' margins of freedom, and how they relate on others for support. Such an organization is by itself in perpetual move. What changes with time is not only the baby's physical and psychological skills, it's the whole physical and living fabric they belong to. Behaviors such as breastfeeding, carrying, putting to sleep or singing are constituted of body and linguistic rhythms that influence simultaneously the parents' and the baby's own ways of moving, talking, thinking, positioning themselves in regard of each other, etc. Transformations affecting intimacy, trust, safety, shared values or identity emerge from this fabric as well. They are produced by the flow of interrelations between the intertwined and interdependent movements of the bodies, affects, thoughts, discourses and behaviors. As such, they are also the product of historical influences that determine such rhythms.

Discontinuities and Continuities of Transformation

The evolution of the family fabric – and the broader social fabric within which it is intertwined – is at the same time ordered and chaotic, predictable and unpredictable. This is particularly true with a baby ! In this context, transformation can be interpreted at the same time as : a) the developmental process of a (psychological or social) being (e.g., baby, parent, family) punctuated by discontinuities ; and b) the expression of the on-going flow of changes that drives our lives. On one hand, Mezirow (1991) assumes that transformations require some forms of disruption and occurs in between two states of relative stability. From this perspective, critical events, épreuves, or epiphanies, play a central role as catalysts for changes and transitions. On the other hand, transformations can be experienced in a much more subtle way, occurring through periodic experiences that involve the regular repetition of small scale changes eventually leading to an emerging activity. From the very first beats of the embryo's heart cells to the first words spoken, the evolution of a child is made of such incremental changes. If the structure of its transformation (e.g., developmental stages) may be described, its singularity (e.g., its timing and movement) remains impossible to predict with accuracy. The same is true with the evolution of the parents, the family and society itself. This complexity requires therefore one to envision stability as a provisional state emerging from instable conditions (Alhadeff-Jones, 2012a, 2012b). In addition, transformative learning's duality (e.g., discontinuities and continuities, linearity and repetitions, stability and instability) suggests one to conceive it as a rhythmic phenomenon (Alhadeff-Jones, in press).

Power as a Capacity to Organize the Rhythms of Transformation

Like other humanist contributions in adult education, Mezirow's theory assumes that perspective transformation and emancipatory learning implicitly lead to social change (Finger and Asùn, 2001). The nature of the relationship between power and transformation itself remains however unclear (Alhadeff-Jones, 2012a). Michon (2005) suggests one to conceive power as that which organizes, controls and influences the ongoing flow of transformations that characterizes the process of individuation experienced by psychological or social beings. From this perspective, if transformative learning involves rhythmic phenomena (e.g., body, language, thought, behaviors, social configuration), then power refers to the capacity to control and organize the way they flow. Considering the birth of a child from this perspective means that the rhythms that shape its evolution represent an ongoing political process. For instance, the temporalities involved in the delivery (e.g., when to induce ? when to come to the hospital ? when to give pain reduction ? when to give a caesarian ? how long to stay for recovery ?) reveal critical tensions between the embryo's development, the mother's body, the doctor's expertise, their respective preferences (e.g., level of medical assistance), their interests and values, as well as society's standards (e.g., social expectations, pace of life). Later, the transformations of the family life are also shaped by temporal antagonisms revealing conflicting interests that require negotiation : between parents and child (e.g., setting limits, being patient), between parents (e.g., availability, flexibility, work-life balance) ; between family needs, state and institutional policy (e.g., health care and day care's age/duration requirements). Such decisions do not only involve (inter-) personal dilemmas ; they are embedded in a broader cultural and political arena, shaped by its own rhythms and history. According to this perspective, transformative learning appears therefore as : a) organized by the power struggles that determine the way it evolves through time ; and b) an opportunity to influence ongoing power dynamics by negotiating the rhythms experienced in the everyday life.

Individual and Collective Transformations as Complex Rhythmic Phenomena

According to Michon (2005), the world we are living in shares many commonalities with the period of the first globalization (1890-1940) ; a period that a broad range of thinkers – from anthropology, sociology, linguistics and literary theory – has studied referring to the notion of rhythm (e.g., rhythmic aspects of social movements, psychic rhythm, rhythmic analysis of popular culture and political system, relationship between linguistic rhythms and social transformations). Michon's conception of rhuthmos – as a specific « way of flowing » (manière de fluer) – represents therefore an engaging approach to conceive individual and collective transformations. It should bring us to : 1) consider such phenomena as moving and flowing, rather than through their stable features only ; 2) embrace the duality of transformations as ordered and disordered phenomena involving discontinuities and continuities, linearity and repetitions, stability and instability ; and 3) interpret power dynamics as rhythmic organizers influencing, as well as they may be influenced, by the heterogeneous flow (e.g., embodied, linguistic, psychological, social) through which individuals form and transform themselves.

References

Alhadeff-Jones, M. (2008). Three generations of complexity theories : Nuances and ambiguities. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 40(1), 66-82.

Alhadeff-Jones, M. (2010). Learning to challenge time in adult education : A critical and complex perspective. In B. Merrill (Ed.), 40th annual standing conference on university teaching and research in the education of adults (SCUTREA). Warwick, UK.

Alhadeff-Jones, M. (2012a). Transformative learning and the challenges of complexity. In E. W. Taylor & P. Cranton (Eds.), The handbook of transformative learning (pp. 178-194). San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.

Alhadeff-Jones, M. (2012b). Learning disorders : From a tragic to an epic perspective on complexity. Complicity : An International Journal of Complexity and Education, 9, 2, i-vi.

Alhadeff-Jones, M. (in press). Time and complexity. Theorizing the rhythms of empowerment in education. London : Routledge.

Alhadeff-Jones, M., Lesourd, F, Roquet, P., & Le Grand, J.-L. (2011). Questioning the temporalities of transformative learning in a time of crisis. In Alhadeff-Jones, M. & Kokkos, A. (Eds.), Transformative learning in time of crisis : Individual and collective challenges. Proceedings of the 9th international transformative learning conference. New York & Athens, Greece : Teachers College, Columbia University & The Hellenic Open University.

Finger, M., & Asún, J.M. (2001). Adult education at the crossroads. Learning our way out. New York : Zed Books.

Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.

Mezirow, J. (2000). Learning as transformation : Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.

Michon, P. (2005). Rythmes, pouvoir, mondialisation. Paris : PUF.

Morin, E. (1990/2008). On complexity. Cresskill, NJ : Hampton Press.

Taylor, E., Cranton, P., & Associates (2012). Handbook of Transformative Learning : Theory, Research and Practice. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.

Transformative Learning and the Rhythms of Individual and Collective Changes

Michel Alhadeff-Jones — 2014-12-10T13:48:00Z