The dilemma of diagnosis: working in adult education

This paper describes an educational encounter between an educational psychologist as teacher and researcher, and an adult with learning difficulties. The aim was to understand the learning history and the educational needs of the student and to plan her studies in adult education, but also to understand the practice of the teacher/researcher. It is concluded that intelligence as a construct cannot be defined and measured as a single capacity. Theories of intellectual capacity need to be viewed in a relational perspective. From this standpoint, the psychologist/teacher as a fellow being is part of the other's intelligence who has a function as a catalyst, facilitating or hindering the possibilities for the student to express hidden resources. An issue of great importance is how to capture, describe and understand the relational aspects of the educational encounter in existential terms.