Filmmaking as ‘Meaning-Making’ Activity: Robert Kegan’s Developmental Theory and Its Implications for Training Film Directing Students

Robert Kegan’s The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development (1982) is a psychological theory on personality development that is centered around the idea of meaning-making as the primordial activity of existence, and which proposes an understanding of the ways we conceptualize our self and other according to our current stage of development, with relevant implications for many types of care work, including education. This theory is presented here in the context of film education for film-directing university students, for which it hopes to inspire a more student-centered approach, which values process over outcome. As many of the professional abilities that are sought after in the training of film-directing students can be seen as intra- and interpersonal abilities, the conceptualization of self and other becomes especially relevant in this particular educational setup, where working with the students involves a close encounter, insufficiently recognized, with their meaning-making activity. This also brings into discussion the way we model ideals for teachers in terms of their own personal development and the role that the film school as an institution could play in this matter.