Creating effective design strategies in line with effective adult learning theories is not an easy task for L&D specialists who face corporate constraints, such as appeasing company policies, scheduling development opportunities around busy schedules, meeting ROIs, and working with limited budgets. These constraints also cascade to employees who resist learning opportunities based on prior experiences of lackluster development programs. While published over 55 years ago for an academic audience, Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed provides useful insight for L&D specialists who face corporate constraints and employee resistance when designing and implementing learning opportunities.
In this text, Freire theorizes that adult learners experience unease and resistance when learning new concepts that contrast their prior lived experiences and ideologies. The 'Banking Model'—the traditional teaching method of educators 'depositing' new content to learners’ banks of knowledge—becomes less feasible for adult learners who challenge, as opposed to accept, new learning opportunities.
Freire further associates the Banking Model as a form of oppression, where learners are forced into educational submission and told to believe information without resistance from educators. Dismantling the hierarchy of educator and learner thus demands a restructuring of adult learning, where educators must transform into co-facilitators of discovering new knowledge with employees for optimal growth and engagement.
While parts of Freire’s text are too idealistic and exemplify the disconnect between theory and praxis in sectors beyond academia, L&D specialists may still benefit from examining and challenging the hierarchical structures of oppression that hinder an optimal approach to adult learning.
This article describes some elements of this model that L&D specialists should consider when strategizing content development for adults in corporate environments.
Work with SMEs
Freire describes adult learners as resistors to change. They must understand the why when taught new knowledge to truly comprehend a new concept’s placement within old knowledge. This requires L&D specialists to work with SMEs throughout the design and development stages of new learning opportunities.
While this framework is not new to the talent development field, many L&D experts rely too heavily on external research to develop internal content. Outside information brings forth innovation (particularly with AI), but L&D should still work closely with internal SMEs who have an archival understanding of past and current structures and can provide valuable input on the direction new learning opportunities may take when improving, yet challenging, these structures. This means addressing not just the how but also the why when new development and learning opportunities are introduced to employees.
Understand the industry’s development needs
Freire’s approach to effective adult learning requires more than the normal preliminary work from educators. Understanding a learner’s needs and abilities in line with liberated learning—an andragogical approach where learners have autonomy over their development—entails an understanding of prior lived experiences and personal ideologies. The corporate environment does not typically allow L&D professionals the opportunity to study their learners’ needs and abilities prior to training, but learning leaders may draw thoughtful generalizations based on industry culture, expectations, and values.
Many industries develop cultures that seep into organizations’ expectations and values. These generalizations may help L&D professionals identify a homogeneous culture, such as a customer-focused culture for retail, a market-driven culture for tech, a competitive culture for sales, or a safety culture for logistics. These cultures are generalizations that do not always resonate with all companies within their respective industries, but the talent who circulate throughout different organizations are aware of the culture that shapes their industry and respect training that mirrors their industry-focused expectations.
L&D professionals should consider industry practice, standards, and culture when designing tailored curricula attuned to learners’ past experiences, interests, desired deliverables, and holistic development. Doing so is especially important for seasoned employees who may challenge new learning experiences that contrast their own past knowledge—and for novice employees who want to adapt to the industry.
Choose the best modes
Implementing a learning environment where instructors are co-facilitators of knowledge through in-person learning typically lacks feasibility and scalability, especially for low-margin industries and large organizations that cannot offer time for employees to learn or do not have the resources to quickly target a large group of employees. In addition, eLearning poses many roadblocks, as learners have different needs, interests, learning styles, and prior knowledge. Broadly speaking, eLearning assumes and generalizes the targeted audience, which hinders adult engagement and buy-in.
Keeping in mind corporate constraints, L&D specialists should view learners as having a plurality of needs. This approach entails providing multimodal and blended learning, where learners not only engage with online or in-person learning, they also use a combination of additional forms of learning. This may involve a learner-centered approach for in-person sessions, with participatory lectures, discussions, activities, online modules, and takeaway materials. Providing employees with multiple modes that target the ones they are most accustomed to using promotes a classroom environment exempt from the oppressive educator-learner hierarchy.
Align training to company capabilities
Moving away from the Banking Model is difficult for L&D practitioners who face constraints with company capabilities. Many do not have the luxury of working with a fully staffed L&D team, nor do they have the tech capabilities to create multimodal content. Systems such as an LMS or eLearning authoring tool may present additional constraints.
Other roadblocks include an inability to reserve time for development, downward markets, declining company profits that reduce learning opportunities, decision-makers who do not value developing employees beyond their current expectations, or L&D professionals not knowing where to start when tasked with developing a massive number of employees. These issues are merely a few of the many constraints L&D teams face every day. Understanding and accepting company capabilities will help to create learning that is both feasible and sustainable.
Promoting a learning culture
When companies do not have the capabilities to instill advanced learning and development opportunities, they should instead focus on promoting a learning culture. This involves a shared understanding and implementation across the organization, not just one promoted by L&D and HR.
Managers should seek symbiotic opportunities for sharing knowledge with their direct reports. These conversations expand beyond typical coaching, and employees should also have similar, reciprocal opportunities to teach their managers and peers. A learning culture further encourages employees to praise each other’s successes without considering the chain of command’s direction.
A learning culture does not solve all learning and development gaps, but it does promote an environment where employees invite learning opportunities. It further diminishes resistance to new knowledge and encourages a participatory experience where learners and educators are co-facilitators of knowledge.
Expanding the scope of development
Freire’s theories on adult learners (such as the Banking Model and oppressive learning that demands liberation) should always be on the horizon of L&D specialists. One training session or development program at a time with consideration to the needs of adult learners is one step closer to the horizon, a step in the right direction for optimal engagement and development.
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