Mission-Driven Learning Theory: A Teleological Theory of Learning, Formation, and Responsible Contribution
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65655/openchristianpress.144Keywords:
mission-driven learning, teleological regulation, purpose in education, vocation, formation, dynamic alignment, responsible contribution, ubuntuAbstract
Purpose: This article reconstructs Mission-Driven Learning Theory (MDLT) as a teleological theory of learning, formation, and responsible contribution. It asks what changes when telos is treated not as an optional motivational add-on but as a constitutive and morally evaluative dimension of learning. Method: A systematic integrative review and critical theory-building synthesis was conducted across SciSpace and Scite, supplemented by backward and forward citation tracing and targeted DOI verification. The search identified 147 records; after deduplication, screening, retrieval, and eligibility assessment, 49 sources informed the qualitative synthesis. The review followed PRISMA 2020 reporting principles while recognising that integrative theory construction differs from intervention-effect estimation. Findings: Existing theories explain behaviour, cognition, experience, participation, motivation, identity, competence, or vocational fit, yet none alone specifies how a morally worthy mission orders the selection, sequencing, persistence, transfer, and ethical use of learning. MDLT is therefore reconstructed around teleological regulation, defined as the higher-order process by which a worthy mission confers salience, integrates identity and value, directs agentic engagement, governs competence development, and evaluates enactment. The reconstructed architecture comprises five layers: normative foundation, mission ecology, developmental mechanisms, dynamic mission-learning alignment, and responsible outcomes, connected through seasonal re-discernment. Mission opportunity structures, relational discernment and communal legitimation, and a mission-worthiness test address structural inequality, cultural plurality, self-deception, and harmful ends. Ten falsifiable propositions, differential predictions, a measurement programme, and a cumulative research agenda are presented. Originality/value: MDLT contributes a normative and explanatory account of why learning is incomplete when it produces knowledge or competence without ordering their use toward a worthy end. The theory is explicitly Christian in its originating ontology while offering a transparent public translation for plural educational settings. It reframes educational success as the truthful, competent, adaptive, and ethically accountable enactment of learning in service of a worthy mission.
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