Holistic Learning-Centeredness: De-Centering the University for Social Justice

Institutions of higher education, and those of us who teach and work in them, tend to see themselves as the center of their students ’ world. Even progressive colleges and universities that emphasize learner-centered education position themselves as fonts of knowledge to which students come to imbibe. Within more enlightened classrooms, we see a welcome shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered pedagogy, but perhaps it is time to consider de-centering the institution itself in a move toward a more radically learner-centered paradigm. Such a shift can empower students; honor, celebrate, and capitalize upon diverse backgrounds; and reflect and promote the socially just, democratic, and multicultural world that most of us want to realize. In the process of effecting that shift, we might find ourselves energized, transformed, and enthusiastic teachers, in deeper partnership with our students and our communities. I hope in this essay to extrapolate from the scholarly literature on learner-centered teaching to make the case for learner-centered institutions of higher education, which would entail a de-centering of those institutions from our diverse students ’ point of view, and suggest how ePortfolios might serve as a useful and potentially transformative component of such a paradigm shift