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Identity, interpretation, and the moral ecology of learning

Theory & Psychology

Published online on

Abstract

Within hermeneutic theory, human identity has been conceptualized as a form of self-interpretation, situated within value-laden practices that offer moral points of reference and standards for cultural engagement. Central to the notion of identity, from this perspective, is a kind of practical-moral position-taking in which a person is an expression of what it means to be human within a particular moral space. This article extends this argument by showing the connection between self-interpretation and situated learning, suggesting that human learning is a type of moral becoming. To do so, the article will, first, offer a review of situated learning scholarship that has drawn a connection between learning and identity; second, show how the adequation of learning and identity is entailed within the broader hermeneutic claim that identity is a moral self-interpretation; and third, argue that learning is fundamentally a moral phenomenon. This argument raises possibilities regarding practical and conceptual issues, such as learning in the service of a cause larger than oneself, the responsibility and resoluteness of learners, and the oft-noted tension between human agency and social structure.