Title: Revisiting critical pedagogy and transformative learning through the lens of rhythmic intelligence

Date & Time: March 26th, 2026, 2:00 PM, UK Time

Guest speaker : Dr Michel Alhadeff-Jones - Chair: Dr. Sean Henry

Location: Online (MS Teams). Link available here.

Abstract: This presentation will start from the observation that contributions to the development of critical pedagogy and transformative learning theory have largely ignored how time shapes processes such as learning, critical reflection and emancipation. Present social conditions—marked by presentism, time scarcity, social and technological acceleration, as well as conflicting temporal demands from work, family, and study—undermine learners’ ability to reflect critically and follow their own developmental rhythms. To address this, existing responses have referred to « slow education » (which resists speed in formal education), critiques of « social acceleration », as well as biographical research and rhythm theories, to develop richer notions of educational temporalities. However, this emerging body of research remains fragmented. The aim of this presentation is therefore to claim a more integrated research agenda organized around three axes of study: studying constraining temporalities in educational settings; analyzing the temporal and rhythmic organization of learning, transformational and emancipatory processes; and treating lived experiences of temporal conflicts (e.g., dilemmas, dissonances, double binds) as triggers for critical inquiry. At the core of this vision remains the assumption that developing « rhythmic intelligence » – i.e., the ability to individually and collectively regulate and critically reflect on the rhythms through which transformational processes shape and constrain one’s life – may be a prerequisite to ground a renewed, time and rhythm-sensitive conception of criticality that may inform more suitable pedagogies and policies for contemporary education.

Bio

Michel Alhadeff-Jones is psychosociologist and philosopher of adult education. He is Executive Director of the Sunkhronos Institute (Geneva, Switzerland), where he develops his research on rhythmic intelligence and studies how people learn to interpret and regulate the transformative processes they experience throughout their lives. Former Adjunct Associate Professor in Adult Learning and Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University (USA) (where he taught for 20 years), he is currently Director of the Certificate of Advanced Studies “Life Narratives and Biographical Coaching” at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). In Europe, he is also co-convener of the ESREA Network « Spaces, Times and Rhythms in the Education of Adults and its Movements » and a member of the Global Convening Programme « The Times of a Just Transition » funded by the British Academy (UK). He is the author of the monograph « Time and the Rhythms of Emancipatory Education » (Routledge, 2017), among many other publications (in French and English) exploring how to theorize the temporalities and rhythms of education and how to take them into account in practice.