LEARNING, DESIGN, AND ACTION: CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR EVOLUTIONARY LEARNING COMMUNITY

摘要

Evolutionary Learning Community (ELC) is an ideal alternative learning system that seeks to catalyze the purposeful creation of sustainable and evolutionary futures. Given the increase in human conflicts and ecological degradation, the world cannot continue functioning in the same way as it does today - doing so would put into jeopardy the possibility of a human future in partnership with Earth.rnThis paper presents the results of an inquiring process conceived as learning for action. The focus of the inquiry was the creation of some initial conditions considered necessary for the design of ELC. These conditions included: 1) an idealized operational definition of ELC; 2) a description of the personal attributes of the potential designers of ELC; and 3) the design of a learning framework for empowering designers of ELC. The particular approach used was Evolutionary Systems Design: a systemic heuristic based on social systems design and complemented with an evolutionary and critical systems perspectives. The inquiry involved a theoretical exploration that was enriched with the experiences and perspectives of a group of individuals - who are involved in areas of work relevant for the design of ELC, such as systems design, community development, educational change, and environmental sustainability - who engaged with the author and principal researcher in learning conversations.