The way of perceiving oneself as an adult learning subject and the importance of higher education in a phenomenographic reconstruction of the statements of Generation Z people about the experience of studying

Abstract

The aim of this article is an attempt to deal with the issue of adult learning from the perspective of a participant in higher education (university). The key to recognizing this issue is the phenomenographic reconstruction of the concept of studying and the way it describes the adult as a learner. The authors of the article reveal the results of their own research, the subject of which was the analysis of the experience, understanding and perception of studying by students from Generation Z. The reference to the collected empirical material present here is of a two-stage nature. First, in a simplified way, the authors present the categories of description that make up the image of studying in the perspective of Generation Z students in order to show that the key to distinguishing them is the roles that students assign to themselves as adult learning subjects. And these are the following roles: (a) participant in the formal education system, (b) user and consumer of knowledge, (c) practicing social independence, (d) adapting to the new (as opposed to school) academic didactic culture, (e) initiator of learning to be with others. The authors then look at what kind of validation of higher education (university) accompanies student-developed concepts of studying and the roles inscribed in them. As a result, they come to the conclusion that the process of justifying education in higher education takes place by emphasizing the importance of achieving the individual needs of individuals, recognizing the civilizational acceleration as a state describing the modern lifestyle, treating studying through the prism of learning that takes place on the terms of a meeting.