A Circular Pedagogy for Higher Education

Over the last two decades, higher education has been subject to significant scrutiny due to increasing pressures to provide a meaningful and relevant learning experience to the student population, and by their strong connection to the functioning of the economic and political systems. By reflecting on the controversies surrounding pedagogy, this paper contributes to the current debate by exploring pedagogy as a circular process where learners grow and develop by taking different roles and identities as they navigate a research-informed learning continuum defined by growing levels of complexity and uncertainty. This study introduces a new pedagogical paradigm for adult education, inspired by the Humboldtian model for higher education and that we have coined as “circular pedagogy” where the role of the teacher, student and researcher are indissoluble.