The Relevance of Ivan Illich's Learning Webs 50 Years On

In 1971, social critic Ivan Illich published Deschooling Society, a controversial work that critiqued mainstream education systems and proposed a radical alternative. While his work remains controversial, re-examining his ideas might advance efforts to design for learning at scale. First, we examine three design principles that emerge from Illich's writing on learning webs: (1) a holistic perspective that incorporates multidisciplinary thinking (in Illich's case, blending philosophy, politics, sociology, economics, theology, and cybernetics), (2) learning webs as a framework for thinking about learning beyond the limitations of school, and (3) broadening our view of what should be scaled (e.g., scaling opportunities rather than content). Second, we discuss three tensions in Illich's work that relate to scaling learning: (1) decentralization vs. centralization, (2) place-based vs. online learning at scale, and (3) serving the advantaged vs. the disadvantaged. In discussing these ideas and tensions, we discuss contemporary technologies and models, which may be seen as similar to learning webs. Finally, we suggest that Illich's work offers an opportunity to further connect work that sits across two related research communities: Learning @ Scale and connected learning.