How teachers support university students’ lifelong learning development for sustainable futures: The student's perspective

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of teaching practices for developing lifelong learners from the perspective of university students. The nature of lifelong learning focuses on what is possible in the future as opposed to what has happened in the past. A lack of analysis of the teaching process from the student's perspective may widen the distance between the teaching process and learning. It may also prevent us from understanding how teaching relates to the development of lifelong learning and, as a result, a sustainable future. A qualitative, phenomenological method was employed to provide insight into the dynamics of what students learn and how they, as subjects, experience a teaching process that supports their lifelong learning development. Three themes concerning what teachers do emerged from the analysis of interviewees’ descriptions: “teachers are self-based”, “teachers are embodying the work”, and “teachers are promoting affective engagement”. Our results suggest that in becoming lifelong learners students wish to find meaning and live their lives authentically as participants and not as spectators. The results of our study have implications for higher education and its pedagogical practice for cultivating lifelong learners with a continuous commitment to constructing self-based, authentic futures.