Learning through participation: towards defining adult learning in an African rural village context

Abstract This article analyses the studies of adult learning in Africa, where they exist, often draw uncritically on Western theoretical and methodological frameworks such as andragogy, experiential learning, and transformative learning. These frameworks are informed by individualistic conceptions of learners and learning, shaped by industrial and postindustrial political economy, liberal democratic politics and consumerist culture. Such structures are then imposed on African ‘territories’ of learning, much like a colonial template for carving up the continent, for and under Western eyes. This article, based on a study conducted in a rural village in South Africa, challenges the appropriateness of these frameworks. It adopts an Afrocentric research paradigm which understands research as a collective and collaborative humanizing project which is contextually sensitive and culturally informed. The article presents four community learning places, defines the nature of learning in each place, and concludes that learning in the village is still informed by values of interdependence, interconnectedness, and spiritual values.