Emergence of an anthropoformation paradigm of transdisciplinary research-action-formation

Abstract

During the last forty years, France has seen the birth of education as a scientific field (1967) and continuing education being formally recognized (1971 law). These events came about through the labor involved in the development of the systemic approach, linkages between research, action and formation and, more recently, transdisciplinarity. The author's career was propelled by these deliveries and by these socio-cognitive constructions, along with professional positions in research and formation. In the first part, the author identifies and locates his personal uses of the systemic approach and of action research: different-surfacing period (1968-1980), paradigmatic linkages period (1980-1992) and, lastly, paradigmatic construction (1992-2005). The second part presents a paradigmatic modeling. This modeling confronts the positivist-pedagogical paradigm structuring traditional research in education to emerging new paradigmatic elements from original research-action-formation initiatives. Finally, to open up the construction horizon, the term "anthropoformation" (human formation) is suggested to name this post-modern paradigm aiming at linking research, action and formation through a transdisciplinary systemic epistemology.