A new paper of mine, Learning-as-Corresponding: An important new way to conceptualize learning’ has been published in the Fall 2025 issue of the Holistic Education Review.

In this paper, I extend the subjective character of human learning I advanced in my PhD dissertation (2023) with the help of anthropologist Timothy Ingold‘s insights about corresponding / co-responding, that he developed in much of his work of the last 15 years. Basically, Ingold recognizes and illuminates how human cultures correspond with the ‘things of the world’, that is, the substances and materials, and even mythological artifacts that inform and influence their ‘being.’

I agree with Ingold’s notions of corresponding and that such corresponding may be seen in many examples of human learning, be it through engaging with a text, an instrument or tool, a social or physical environment, or a fanciful notion conjured up in one’s imagination, including a memory.

In my paper, I unpack this conceptualization and also identify how such corresponding arises neurobiologically, as evidenced by research into mirror neurons, various specialized systems (e.g., those involved in neurotransmitter release such as the sympathetic/parasympathetic response system), and information processing networks (e.g. salience network, default mode network).

A personal example of learning-as-corresponding I bring forward is the sophisticated learning I have recently experienced in training a new dog I adopted two years ago from a local animal shelter, Ruby. Please read my paper if you want to know more about this!