What does it mean to be a People Based Learner?
12 strategies to aid in being scholars of one another
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“We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others’ actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others’ activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness (and our learning) arises in the context of our relationships with others.” -The Dalai Lama
Previous posts on People Based Learning here.
People Based Learning maps a new way of thinking about learning -one that challenges hierarchical and rigid systems in education, advocating for participatory, responsive, and meaningful learning experiences that adapt to learners’ needs.1 It’s a way of seeing everyone as a learner, and as a teacher, dispelling rigid frameworks and models.
People Based Learning emerges from education and learning science— centering people, relationships, and dynamic adaptation as the core of meaningful progress.
In present schooling systems, we suppress the natural rhythms of growth and collaboration, seeing People Based Learning as secondary to the system’s primary drivers. This begins early, when are taught to:
separate facts from their real-world applications, reducing history, math, and science to rote exercises rather than tools for community-building or problem-solving.
value productivity over humanity, placing urgency, competition, and scarcity at the center of our lives.
In doing so, we become adept at playing the existing game, optimizing within a flawed system rather than questioning its premise or imagining alternatives. Think about the ways this shows up:
in schools that reward short-term memory and compliance,
in workplaces that prioritize deliverables over innovation,
in economies that measure success by profit rather than impact.
We are socialized to see value only in explicit productivity.2 The natural world, our own bodies, even our relationships become objects to manipulate rather than spaces to nurture and grow.
👉But what if we flipped the script?
The Big Idea
What if, instead of clinging to what is already possible, we devoted ourselves to imagining the impossible?
“Almost everything that’s ever happened was unimaginable shortly before it happened.” Dr. Jane McAGonigal
Learning generated through people is more inclusive, more resilient, and more profound. But People Based Learning isn’t easy.
It requires vulnerability, humility, and a willingness to be challenged.
It is not about smoothing over differences but leaning into them, allowing the friction between divergent perspectives to spark new possibilities.
It is interconnected, nuanced, and dependent on the contributions of many.
It requires seeing all struggles as interwoven, and all as essential.
As adrienne maree brown reminds us, the earth itself is our teacher. The soil doesn’t thrive on its own; it depends on rain, worms, air, and life to sustain it.
Making Big Ideas Usable
As we evolve the concept of People Based Learning, there are some actionable practices emerging, lessons that allow us to cultivate a world rooted in collaboration, possibility, and each other.