Real stakeholder education? Lifelong learning in the Buffyverse

Abstract

This article examines the representation of lifelong learning in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS). Critics acknowledge the series' representation of school life, but pay less attention to its emphasis on self-directed adult learning. The article draws on the extensive range of academic BtVS writing and on relevant educational theory concerned with radical adult education, lifelong and workplace learning to support its argument that the series presents institutional learning for adults as destructive and suspect in motivation. Self-directed and dialogical education, on the other hand, is shown to be painful and potentially dangerous, but essential for survival as a human being. This US series has an international audience and this article is written from the perspective of a UK adult educator.

Keywords:

• popular culture
• critical textual analysis
• lifelong learning
• Buffy studies