The influence of the Complexity of Attachment in Adult & Higher Education Learning

The attachment theory of John Bowlby has had an enduring impact on our understanding of child development. But these ideas are a neglected and forgotten discourse in the education of adults. In this paper secure and insecure attachments, internal attachment models, and the impact of attachment for adult higher education learning are explored. This paper seeks to contextualise the complexity that attachment experience adds to the teaching/learning mix and suggests how facilitators of education can interpret and respond.