From Autonomy to Reciprocity, or Vice Versa? French Personalism's Contribution to a New Perspective on Self-Directed Learning

After many years of research focused on the individual and psychological aspects of self-directed learning, the field has taken into consideration the context and situation surrounding the education of an adult, placing the development of individual autonomy into a constructivist perspective. But it is only recently, in France at least, that researchers have begun to look more closely at the interpersonal dimensions of learning and that new theoretical approaches have introduced the ideas of reciprocity and exchange, allowing the consideration of the construction of this autonomy in new ways. Referring particularly to French personalist philosophy, following Mounier’s and Ricœur’s line of thought, Labelle’s theory of educational reciprocity reverses the perspective, seeing the process of an adult’s autonomization as the result of the reciprocal relationship between him or her and another person.