When learning must contribute to resilience, and community cocreative learning ismore effective than direct instruction. This position paper draws on Hannah Arendt’s VitaActiva: Labor, Work, and Speech and Action. Labor is about meeting basic needs and creating a ‘home’ where life is good. Work concerns creating languages and culture and therefore an artificial world. Speech and Action involve organizing society and engaging in politics. Linkinglearning and education to the Vita Activa, an educational picture emerges that mainly focuses on Labor and Work, with a strong emphasis on direct instruction and the acquisition of skills and knowledge. Speech and Action, e.g., the development of ideas and working together for a better world, remain underdeveloped in education. Direct instruction may be efficient, but it is not effective in view of our overall development as human beings. Space is needed for idea development, co-creation, knowledge building, and dialogical learning.
