“What problem does Rhizomatic learning solve?”
I don’t think the rhizome as an idea of learning is about solving problems, it’s more a different way of seeing and conceiving of learning, what Bonnie Stewart refers to as a lens. It’s not a metaphor. It affords us imagery and language to further conceptualize what this thing we call “learning” is and can be. So if the problem is “What is learning and how do we do it well on a larger scale for the benefit of all?” then rhizomatic learning as an idea can help us imagine and act it out.

As I struggled to analyze the data and write a thesis exploring a pilot learning environment , the only way I could finally make any sense of it was with D&G and the rhizome and your writing about rhizomatic learning (Thank you!). The response of a member of my committee (Dean of Ed.) at my defense was that at a gut level rhizome learning made sense, but how would teachers be able to understand it or do it? There’s a rub.

While we say teachers should also be learners, if teachers are “teaching” (instructing) a set curriculum, we forget to include them fully when we say “learners.” Rhizomatic learning provides an idea of how all learners learn and learn how to learn, self-directed, in collaboration.

Rhizomatic learning creates the possibilities for the connectedness, community and resulting curriculum.

Thesis: http://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/jspui/handle/1993/21938