THE CRITICAL THEORY OF AXEL HONNETH Implications for Transformative Learning and Higher Education

Transformative learning was grounded in empirical studies of mature students returning to college and the communicative action of Habermas. This chapter will update transformation theory relying on Axel Honneth, who has reinterpreted Habermas's critical theory. Honneth grounds critical theory and critical reflection in intersubjectivity. Personal change and social transformation are connected in a way that the critique of transformative learning about whether the theory is too personal at the expense of social learning is reframed. This update involves a reconfigured relationship between personal and social learning (the political is personal), a reinterpretation of transformative learning's disorienting dilemma as a struggle for recognition, and a reinterpretation of way transformative learning supports identifying ones' personal problems with broader social issues. In addition, transformative learning and critical theory can build on Honneth's idea of struggle for recognition to understand the motivation of adults returning to college. It supports a reframing of an agenda for universities that find themselves in a neoliberal bind. This take on trans formative learning and a reconstructed critical theory point to ways of being a university, not just about jobs and economic development but as an antidote to dominant ideology. A new vision is outlined for higher education that supports human development, democracy, and freedom.