Expansive Learning

Focus

Individuals transforming an activity system (object-oriented, collective, socially situated, and culturally mediated human activity)

Principal Metaphors

  • Knowledge … the ever-expanding horizon of possibilities
  • Knowing is … acting (within an activity system)
  • Learner is … an actor (individual) and/or a system of activity (organization)
  • Learning is … adapting /fitting
  • Teaching is … modeling, coaching

Originated

2000s

Synopsis

Most theories associated with formal education assume a backdrop of a stable activity system (part of which is an established curriculum with clear, standard learning outcomes). Expansive Learning, a component of Activity Theory, breaks from this backdrop in two key ways: (1) it sees individuals and organizations as constantly learning, and (2) it recognizes that some of the most important transitions involve new and not-yet-known forms of activity. Expansive Learning is thus a sort of collective activity that is focused on transforming an activity system, opening a wider horizon of possibilities. Associated constructs and discourses include:
  • Deep Democracy (Greg Lewis, Myrna Lewis, 1990s) – an approach to collective process that focuses on surfacing hidden tensions and unheard voices within relational systems. The process invites groups into deep dialogue to surface underlying conflicts and tap into the wisdom of the minority voices.
  • Dialogical Organizational Development (Gervase Bushe, Rober Marshak, 2010s) – a discourse on influencingorganizational systems through emergent conversation and relational shifts
  • Indigenous Circle Practices (various nations, ancient) – Appreciating knowledge as the sense that knowledge as contextual, relational, and emerging from the whole, Circle Processes create space for dialogue rooted in relationship, story, and shared reflection.
  • Open Space Technology (Harrison Owen, 1980s) – a format where participants self-organize around topics they care about within a larger theme, enabling emergent pattern recognition and relational weaving across diverse conversations
  • Warm Data Lab (Nora Bateson, 2010s) – a type of facilitated process of group sense-making designed to help people explore complex, interconnected systems by focusing on relationships rather than isolated facts.
    • Warm Data (Nora Bateson, 2010s) – contextual information about the interrelationships within complex systems (in contrast to “cold data,” which tends to be quantitative, reductionist, and decontextualized). Warm Data aims to preserve the complexity, ambiguity, and relational nature of real-world situations.
  • World Café (Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, 1990s) – a structured conversational process where participants move between small group tables to discuss a central topic, gradually weaving insights together

The above represents a small sampling. Over the past few decades, a great many approaches and processes have been proposed that aim to foster systems thinking, relational sense-making, transdisciplinary dialogue, and context-sensitive understanding in complex environments.

Commentary

As might be surmised from the above synopsis, Expansive Learning is not well fitted to the structures and emphases of most formal educational systems. Unsurprisingly, it has not gained much of a foothold there.

Authors and/or Prominent Influences

Yrjö Engeström

Status as a Theory of Learning

Expansive Learning is not a theory of learning in and of itself.

Status as a Theory of Teaching

Whereas Activity Theory is solidly a theory of learning, Expansive Learning is more a theory of teaching. This point is most evident in its “cycles of expansive learning,” which are more prescriptive than descriptive – that is, they are designed to offer direct advice across a process that begins with noticing new possibilities and culminates in codifying new rules.

Status as a Scientific Theory

Expansive Learning is a component of Activity Theory, which is a well-established scientific theory of learning.

Subdiscourses:

  • Deep Democracy
  • Dialogical Organizational Development
  • Indigenous Circle Practices
  • Open Space Technology
  • Warm Data
  • Warm Data Lab
  • World Café

Map Location



Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2025). “Expansive Learning” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.


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