No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Transformative Learning
Abstract
My mother arrived in Canada in 1948 to marry a Canadian soldier whom she had met when the Canadian army participated in the liberation of the Netherlands. My mother grew up in Amsterdam where she was a part of a large musical and artistic family.
... A semi-structured interview guide was developed by the principal investigator (BV) based on open-ended questions within a validated survey of transformative learning, 23 and literature on various domains of transformative learning theory. 24,25 The interview guide was circulated to all coauthors involved at this stage for additional input prior to the first interview, and updated iteratively as interviews were conducted. During recruitment, additional questions were added based on comments from program directors regarding the study goals. ...
... This shift in worldview aligns closely with traditional transformative learning. Others perspectives such as the social change domain of transformative learning 24 were also present for trainees who viewed the implementation of telehealth as a potentially transformative social movement. I think one of the greatest innovations to outpatient primary care has been the ability to do telehealth visits and help protect our patients in the office, help protect our healthcare workers. ...
... In addition to the traditional cognitive, rational process of transformative learning, others have posited that some individuals make meaning of experiences through a spiritual approach. 24,25 Some graduate medical trainees closely aligned themselves with their institution's pastoral care department as a means for reflection, and this was the case for Eric as depicted in the comic ( Figure 3). Others, such as one of our interviewed fellows, commented that her primary venue for reflection was internal. ...
Phenomenon: Transformative learning is a theory in which individuals construct new or revised interpretations of the meaning of an experience. COVID-19 offers a rare opportunity to better understand how individuals respond to and make meaning within the shared context of an extraordinary event. We aimed to examine if and how residents and fellows engaged in transformative learning when caring for COVID-19 positive patients during the initial peak of the pandemic (Spring 2020).
Approach: We conducted an interpretive qualitative study to identify themes pertaining to transformative learning. We used semi-structured interviews of residents and fellows who were directly or indirectly involved in the care of COVID-19 positive patients admitted to the inpatient wards or the intensive care units during the first peak of the pandemic (defined as March 11th – May 28th, 2020) at our Mid-Atlantic academic health system. We used the medium of comics to depict select interviewees’ experiences during the pandemic as a novel way to represent themes from the interviews.
Findings: Three main themes arose from our qualitative analysis. These included “a sense of guilt,” “the impact on training,” and “venues and processes for reflection.” In comparing their experiences with colleagues and friends at other institutions with higher COVID-19 case volume, trainees reflected on how they felt lucky, and this led to guilt, although not necessarily transformation. The impact of COVID-19 on the training environment had transformative potential. Trainees challenged their previously held assumptions on the necessity of various surgeries, in-person visits, and physical examination maneuvers when COVID-19 posed a barrier. Finally, while trainees recalled multiple situations throughout the pandemic when they believed they were engaging in reflection, such reflection did not appear to reach so deep as to alter participants’ underlying assumptions until the research interview itself, suggesting that transformation was incomplete.
Insights: Our purposive sample of residents and fellows who cared for COVID-19 positive patients during the initial peak of the pandemic made meaning of their experience in multiple ways. The largest shift in worldview due to the pandemic appeared to be related to the instrumental utility of certain common medical practices or procedures. This, in turn, was the most prominent influence on how these trainees felt they would practice in the future, and translated to a shift in how they appraised evidence. However, lack of opportunity for reflection may have adversely impacted the ability for transformation to take place. Given that multiple trainees showed appreciation for the critical reflection venue that was the research interview, academic leadership should ensure similar venues exist during training, even after the pandemic ends.
... 7 Through critical reflection on a disorienting dilemma, learners may improve their own clinical practice (PBLI). Through the social change perspective of TL, 3,8 learners may recognize injustices in the health care system and intervene (SBP/QI). However, in contrast to traditional pedagogies, the worldview shift integral to TL theory may lead to more lasting individual or systems change. ...
... 31 We also stratified articles according to the 3 perspectives of TL (TABLE 1). 3,8 The cognitive perspective describes the traditional theory, beginning with the disorienting dilemma, followed by critical reflection and rational discourse, and leading to action. The beyond rational component involves recognizing insights and epiphanies and may involve doing so through spirituality, art, dreams, or other non-traditional means. ...
... 45,46 After racial injustices and police brutality yet again came to the forefront in 2020, medical residents were often those who led hospitals to join protests. 46 These disorienting events leading to structural change align well with the social critique perspective of TL. 3,8 The graduate medical educator can also experience TL as it pertains to the training of UiM residents and fellows and the care of ethnically diverse patients. Smith 47 provides a framework for utilizing reflection as a means for White individuals to develop an antiracist worldview. ...
Background
Transformative learning (TL) is an educational theory focused on deep fundamental shifts in an individual's worldview. Such shifts are well known to occur within graduate medical education (GME). However, TL in GME has yet to be formally explored.
Objective
We performed a scoping review of the literature on TL within GME to identify areas where trainees currently experience or have potential to experience TL, and to explore areas where fostering TL has been used as a pedagogical tool.
Methods
In January 2020, we searched 7 databases to identify literature on TL in GME. Additional articles were identified by hand-searching the Journal of Graduate Medical Education.
Results
A total of 956 articles were identified through database search with 3 unique articles found via hand-searching. Abstracts and manuscripts were screened by 2 authors and disagreements arbitrated by a third, yielding 28 articles for our analysis. The main components of TL (disorienting dilemma, reflection, discourse, action) took various forms. TL was closely linked with professionalism training and professional identity formation. Training programs in primary care fields were most frequently referenced. Often, trainees were experiencing TL without recognition of the theory by their educators. Gaps in the graduate medical education literature exist pertaining to TL in venues such as diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Conclusions
Our scoping review uncovered the following themes: TL and professionalism, TL and primary care, and TL by other names. TL is likely occurring but going unrecognized in some settings.
... Mezirow (2003) identified consciousness-raising and critical reflection as useful in transforming frames of reference (sets of fixed assumptions, habits and expectations ) to make them more inclusive, open and emotionally capable of change. Several theorists argue that consciousness-raising and critical reflection can facilitate changes in people's minds (Cranton, 2013; Mezirow, 2003; Taylor, 2009). Cranton (2013) writes that consciousness-raising makes habits of mind become conscious while reflection allows for analysing assumptions and values in relation to diversity. ...
... critical reflection as useful in transforming frames of reference (sets of fixed assumptions, habits and expectations ) to make them more inclusive, open and emotionally capable of change. Several theorists argue that consciousness-raising and critical reflection can facilitate changes in people's minds (Cranton, 2013; Mezirow, 2003; Taylor, 2009). Cranton (2013) writes that consciousness-raising makes habits of mind become conscious while reflection allows for analysing assumptions and values in relation to diversity. These theories suggest that engaging in these processes can generate beliefs and thoughts that guide our course of action, which can lead to a change in beliefs and worldviews. In ...
... These theories suggest that engaging in these processes can generate beliefs and thoughts that guide our course of action, which can lead to a change in beliefs and worldviews. In the context of teacher education, consciousness-raising and critical reflection may involve strategies such as journal writing, critical questioning and experiential activities (Cranton, 2013). ...
This study examined the role of critical reflection in developing cultural awareness among pre-service teachers via coursework requiring students to act and reflect on issues of diversity on a personal level. The Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory (CDAI) was used as a pretest and posttest measure of students’ multicultural attitudes, and learning journals, final reflections and focus group interviews were examined to investigate how reflection facilitated development of cultural awareness. The CDAI indicates that pre-service teachers’ multicultural attitudes were improving. Critically reflecting on the issues of culture, power and privileges, fostered pre-service teachers’ cultural awareness and created cognitive dissonance within them, which positively influenced their cultural awareness. Implications of the study for teacher education are discussed.
... 12 Cranton later framed TL into three perspectives: cognitive (whereby experience leads to development through critical reflection), 13 beyond rational (perspective transformation through unconscious, emotional, or other means besides critical reflection), and social change (transformation with the goal or outcome of challenging oppression). 14,15 It should be noted that while these TL lenses traditionally describe learning, we are interested in applying these theories to educating and teaching. The act of fostering TL is already well established in the adult education literature, 16 and we hope to explore how these perspectives may serve as distinct pedagogies in medical education (in particular, remediation). ...
... Exploration of the beyond rational perspective highlights the limitations of applying technical solutions to adaptive problems. 14,15 In GME remediation, these technical solutions are often in the form of "more of the same […] knowledge or skills teaching" that were unsuccessful the first time around. 31 The immunity-to-change model is a strategy that attempts to look beyond behavior to what drives behavior, focusing on intervening there. ...
The struggling medical resident is faced with many adaptive challenges that may require change in mindset. However, formal remediation within graduate medical education (GME) often employs overly structured technical solutions to address trainee deficiencies. These strategies may ultimately fail to result in sustained improvement. Transformative learning (TL) is an educational theory that has recently been explored as a teaching modality in health professions education. In 2013, Cranton published a three-part framework for TL. This framework, composed of the cognitive perspective, beyond rational TL, and TL for social change, has potential applications to GME remediation, specifically in helping individuals to overcome adaptive challenges. These strategies may be particularly useful within the traditionally difficult-to-remediate competencies of systems-based practice, practice-based learning and improvement, and professionalism. The authors provide a descriptive overview of each of Cranton’s perspectives, introducing concrete examples drawn from the medical literature. This article will contrast current remediation strategies with those using TL theory in order to assist graduate medical educators in applying these principles to the remediation of their own struggling residents.
... In 1978, American Jack Mezirow published his pioneering study of women returning to community college, more fully theorizing transformative learning in his seminal book Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning (1991). Canadian Patricia Cranton (1994Cranton ( , 2005 has published extensively to help interpret, disseminate, and expand on Mezirow's ideas as well as offer pedagogical strategies for practitioners and learners. ...
... Mezirow consistently defines transformation as a specifically adult process that, in Cranton's (2005) words, creates a "structural reorganization of the way a person looks at himself or herself " (p. 631). ...
In North America, transformative learning theory has been the most researched aspect of the adult education field over the past forty years (Taylor, 2005). Edward Taylor (2007) further states that transformative learning theory appears to have replaced andragogy as the central educational theory of the field. This fascination with transformation is connected to assumptions that emerged during the Enlightenment , such as the belief in the improvability of societies and individuals, and the desirability, even necessity, of profound change over tradition and continuity. Therefore, this chapter seeks to interrogate the historical groundwork of transfor-mative theorizing, describe the three dominant variants of transformative learning theory, and introduce more contemporary contributions to the theory, recognizing the unique contributions of Canadian theorizing throughout. The chapter illustrates how transformative learning theory has been evolving and expanding beyond modernist conceptions.
... While the goal of the research project was to describe the experiences of faculty members undertaking a course development process, we also recognize that using a qualitative research design is not without critique (e.g., Cranton, 2013;Cranton & Taylor, 2012;Newman, 2012). For example, Cranton (2013) argues that a case study approach with a subsequent thematic analysis will not produce new results, but more of the same. ...
... While the goal of the research project was to describe the experiences of faculty members undertaking a course development process, we also recognize that using a qualitative research design is not without critique (e.g., Cranton, 2013;Cranton & Taylor, 2012;Newman, 2012). For example, Cranton (2013) argues that a case study approach with a subsequent thematic analysis will not produce new results, but more of the same. With "subjectivity and objectivity central in understanding different approaches to research" (Cranton 2013, p. 42), alternative frameworks, such as critical or positive paradigms, may be better suited to analyzing the breadth and depth of transformative learning theory in practice. ...
This study examined the experiences of three new online instructors supported by a multidisciplinary, team-based model of course development and how their experiences may transform their knowledge of teaching and learning. In-depth, individual interviews with instructors during the course development process provided insights into participants’ perspectives. Analysis reveals faculty reflected positively on the overall development process and that they intend to incorporate new understandings in future course design, suggesting that the model provides a solid foundation for online course development and faculty support. Based on a cross-case analysis using Cranton’s (2002) adaptations to transformative learning theory, findings indicated the importance of critical reflection and discourse during the course development process. Lastly, the need for development teams to acknowledge time-management concerns and to consider instructors as novice learners is recognized as an essential requirement to online course development.
La présente étude se penche sur l’expérience de trois nouveaux instructeurs en ligne utilisant un modèle d’élaboration de cours multidisciplinaire fondé sur le travail d’équipe. Nous nous demandons comment cette expérience est susceptible de transformer leur connaissance de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage. Des entrevues individuelles approfondies avec les instructeurs pendant l’élaboration des cours nous ont permis d’observer le point de vue des participants. Selon notre analyse, les enseignants ont formulé des réflexions positives au sujet du processus d’élaboration dans son ensemble. Ils ont dit vouloir incorporer leurs nouvelles connaissances dans la conception de leurs cours à l’avenir, ce qui suggère que le modèle constitue une assise solide pour l’élaboration de cours en ligne et pour le soutien des enseignants. Fondés sur une analyse transversale faisant usage des adaptations de Cranton (2002) aux théories de l’apprentissage transformationnel, nos résultats mettent en relief l’importance de la réflexion critique et du discours dans le processus d’élaboration des cours. Enfin, nous prenons acte du fait que l’équipe d’élaboration des cours doit prendre en compte les préoccupations en matière de gestion du temps et doit considérer les instructeurs comme des apprenants débutants. Ce sont là des exigences essentielles pour l’élaboration de cours en ligne.
... This reflection, through individuals and group interactions, generated a transformation of the manager's practices (Cranton, 2013) and the meaning of creating a permeability in an individual frame of reference. This can entail referring to your teacher's questions and, at the same time, the movement of being able to step back and review your opinions. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the research on the use of reflection in the work environment, highlighting its use in the development of interpersonal skills. This study presents procedures for promoting critical reflection using critical incidents, dialogue and reflective diaries, which can be a reference for researchers, managers, consultants and corporate educators.
Design/methodology/approach
This research was guided by an interpretative qualitative approach that is suitable for the study of critical reflection. The authors chose the method of action research because of its interactionist and interventionist character, which allows for the evaluation of the leadership soft skills development experience.
Findings
A leadership soft skills development program based on the concept of critical reflection in the work context leads to leaders having potential to promote changes in management practices and enhancing behavior, and the study points out the conditions necessary for success in instituting the desired changes and transformation.
Practical implications
The proposed developmental model, based on reflective conversations of critical incidents, dialogue and reflective diaries, stimulates critical reflection. This can be applied by other actors who are interested in promoting assessment and the development of soft skills.
Originality/value
There are few studies that discuss critical reflection in the corporate environment. In particular, few present models or tools that foster a reflective view of one’s assumptions, beliefs and values. This research not only advances this proposal by introducing considerations from practical experience as developed through action research, but it also signals the high potential of the study’s approach to promoting the development of soft skills.
... Transformative learning is traditionally thought of as occurring through one or more of three processes: Cognitive Rational, Extrarational, and Social Critique [10,11,15] The cognitive rational process is based on the learner experiencing a disorienting dilemma, critically reflecting on their assumptions that created the dilemma, and engaging in reflective discourse with others, followed by some sort of action. The extrarational process involves bringing consciousness to the previously unconscious through inner psychic exploration resulting in insights or epiphanies, e.g., through art, storytelling, dreams, and spiritual endeavors. ...
Background
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a transformative effect on individuals across the world, including those in healthcare. Transformative learning is an educational theory in which an individual’s worldview is fundamentally altered through conscious reflection (Cognitive Rational), insights (Extrarational), or social reform (Social Critique). We utilized transformative learning theory to characterize the experiences of medical trainees during the pandemic.
Methods
We used the Transformative Learning Survey in September and October 2020 to evaluate the processes and outcomes of transformative learning in health professions students and housestaff at an academic medical center during the pandemic. We analyzed survey scores for three process domains and four outcome subdomains. We inductively coded the survey’s two open-ended questions and performed qualitative and mixed-methods analyses.
Results
The most prominent TL outcome was Self-Awareness, Acting Differently was intermediate, and Openness and Worldview Shifts were lowest. Cognitive Rational and Social Critique processes were more prominent than Extrarational processes. Students were more likely than housestaff to undergo transformative learning through the Social Critique process (p = 0.025), in particular the sub-processes of Social Action (p = 0.023) and Ideology Critique (p = 0.010). Qualitative analysis via the aggregation of codes identified four responses to the pandemic: negative change, positive change, existential change, or no change. Negative changes (67.7%) were most common, with students reporting more of these changes than housestaff (74.8% vs 53.6%; p < 0.01). Only 8.4% of reported changes could be defined as transformative
Conclusions
Through the theoretical lens of transformative learning, our study provides insight into the lives of learners during the pandemic. Our finding that medical students were more likely to use Social Critique processes has multiple parallels in the literature. If leaders in academic medicine desire to create enlightened change agents through transformative learning, such education must continue throughout graduate medical education and beyond.
... This transformative learning theory is actual for the current pandemic situation. Meanwhile, Cranton has indicated that there are no teaching methods that guarantee transformative learning, still a challenging environment may be the common feature that underlies teaching for transformation (Cranton, 2006). Additionally, the internet has been named as a transformative technology that is changing the way we do things and allows us to do things that we could not do before (Brenton, 2009). ...
The collection of reviewed articles entitled “Transformative Digital Learning: Emerging cases and considerations” is a research-based issue that is rooted within the framework of the Fundamental and Applied Research Project launched by the Latvian
Council of Science “Implementation of Transformative Digital Learning in Doctoral Program of Pedagogical Science in Latvia” (DocTDL) lzp-2018/2-0180.
The goal of the project was to create new knowledge and technological knowhow in the field of transformative digital learning (TDL) in higher education in Latvia based on the theoretical analysis, experience of the technological laboratory (EILAB) of the University of Ontario (Canada), and empirical research to ensure transfer of
knowledge and skills in the further development of the doctoral study program in Education Sciences with the focus on pedagogy, as well as the development of scientific and academic capacity of doctoral students and educators.
This collection offer results that proved to be most relevant in the practice of doctoral students and educators.
... It is important to recognize that it is only within the supportive familiar web of a particular inter-subjective myth system that humans can find safety, security, or beauty. It should come as no surprise then that the transformation from one myth system of ―wrong relationship‖ to another one of ―right relationship‖ (see Brown: 2009) will involve a process of grieving with all of the normal blaming, denial and so forth associated with a normal grieving process (See Scott in Cranton: 1997)). Although grieving can sometimes lead to paralysing sadness, it is also recognized as a normal transitional stage that enables new personal development and maturity. ...
An apparent paradox attaches to the concept of sustainable development: as general levels of education, technology, and scientific knowledge have increased, so has the ecological impact of humanity and the likelihood of large-scale anthropogenic catastrophe for human populations. This paradox can be at least partially explained as the result of perceptual and cognitive illusion. Human perception, cognition and meaning systems are always to some extent ―inherited‖ as a path-dependent ―traditionality‖. This difference between the world ―as it is‖ and ―as we know it‖ creates an illusion and a false sense of impunity to act in the world.
Instrumental measures to implement sustainable development thus ignore important contextual information. Making this information perceptible, comprehensible and meaningful thus requires recognition and understanding of the functioning and consequent illusion inherent to the workings of the social mind. Such a learning exercise would seem inherently transformative and enabling of a more deliberative and democratic way of being in the world.
A specific suburban community, Pointe Claire, is examined as a case study to illustrate the illusion and suggest various potentially remedial pathways. A reflexive balance model is also proposed as a partial remediation for the illusion.
... Yet, all three variants lie largely within a modernist epistemology. Mezirow, who coined the term " transformative learning, " consistently defines transformation as a specifically adult process that, in Cranton's (2005) words, creates a " structural reorganization of the way a person looks at himself or herself " (p. 631). ...
The Journal of Transformative Learning is an Open Access Journal at jotl.uco.edu. The Journal is dedicated to the application and practice of transformation in higher education.
The ELF-awareness framework for ELT pedagogy and teacher education has been put forward as a comprehensive plan for incorporating ELF-related concerns within different teaching and learning contexts. The framework’s orientation is context-dependent and prioritises a critical reflective approach to the use, teaching and learning of English. This paper aims to elucidate the critical reflective component of the ELF awareness framework. We begin by situating the notion of reflection along the four distinct levels of reflection proposed by adult education theorist Jack Mezirow. These levels extend from non-reflective mechanical thinking to thoughtful action on what is experienced by individuals, to a more analytical assessment of experience (what Mezirow calls content and process reflection), and finally to critical reflection of underlying assumptions and convictions (or premise reflection, according to Mezirow). We argue that ELF aware reflection is identified as premise reflection and go on to discuss examples of teachers’ reflective perspectives, as submitted in an online ELF awareness teacher education programme, with reference to the above levels of reflection. Finally, we argue that understanding the different forms and levels of reflection is particularly useful not only for raising teachers’ (and other stakeholders’) ELF awareness, but also for prompting them to develop autonomy and agency in their teaching practice.
This study applies a critical tourism approach and transformative learning theory to examine the factors influencing students to take a food design course and the relationships among students' learning intentions and the processes and outcomes of transformative learning. The results show that performance and effort expectancy have significant influences on students' learning intentions and that there are partially mediating effects among students' learning intentions, transformative learning processes, and transformative learning outcomes. After completing the investigated course, most students clearly expressed that, through the transformative learning approach of the course, they learned critical/liberal-thinking skills regarding global sustainable issues of food waste.
This article examines how doctoral candidates characterize factors that influence constructive engagement in their respective program experiences and how these have served as primary catalysts for learning along their doctoral journeys.
Strong family involvement in children’s education supports positive academic and social-emotional outcomes. Therefore, developing early childhood (EC) professionals’ competence in engaging and involving families in their children’s education is emphasized across state licensure requirements, personnel preparation standards, and professional recommendations (e.g., Division for Early Childhood, Council for Exceptional Children, InTASC, National Association for the Education of Young Children). Although many states have begun to require family course content as part of their licensure for educators, higher education faculty and instructors may struggle to integrate family-related content into their coursework and field experiences while also covering state standards in instructional strategies, assessment, and other content areas. In order to effectively and comprehensively include family content across university programs and courses, faculty need to evaluate their current content and systematically plan to include current and research-based family material. The purpose of this article is to provide a framework for faculty to evaluate, reflect, and plan their use of family content in university courses aligned with the Division for Early Childhood’s Recommended Practices: Family (2014). This article shares self-assessment and action plan tools for integrating family content into course materials, activities, and assignments.
Multicultural and social justice teacher education (MSJTE) scholars often have argued the importance of critical reflection in the cultivation of equity and social justice minded educators. In this critical content analysis study, we used existing conceptualizations of critical reflection to analyze reflection assignments from MSJTE courses in education degree and licensing programs in the United States to identify the nature of critical reflection incorporated into them and what distinguished critical reflection opportunities from other reflective assignments. Based on this analysis, we offer the beginnings of a typology of five approaches to reflection in multicultural and social justice education courses: (a) amorphous “cultural” reflection, (b) personal identity reflection, (c) cultural competence reflection, (d) equitable and just school reflection, and (e) social transformation reflection. We describe the characteristics of each and the role they might play in MSJTE contexts.
This article seeks to begin a conversation about pedagogical responses to the current moment. Specifically, I argue that two of adult learning’s most venerated practices—transformative learning and the use of personal narrative—are insufficiently nuanced to respond effectively to the political divisions and the epistemological chaos represented by the election of Donald Trump. I ask the adult learning community, first, to revisit the role of culture in our systems for making meaning and deepen our understanding of the relationship between personal identity, community membership, and attitudinal change. I then suggest that our focus on attitudinal change encourages us overlook aspects of our students’ lives out of which a more bracing pedagogy might emerge. I make a case for distinguishing between the hermeneutic self-awareness cultivated in transformative learning and attention to epistemological ethics as a response to “fake news” and “truthiness.” I argue for a move from Mezirow’s notion of critical self-reflection to Dewey’s positing of reflection as the active and careful consideration of truth claims, a form of reflection that Dewey himself saw as foundational to epistemological integrity.
Purpose: This paper explores transformational learning (TL) via critical reflections in a novel master’s course titled ‘Poverty Alleviation and Profitability”. This course explores how forprofit business can alleviate Poverty (SDG 1) and obtain profits, simultaneously. TL approach was adopted to challenge students’ worldviews including their existing assumptions about poverty and profits and then shifting these assumptions, with the aim of changing behaviour.
Design/Methodology/Approach: Critical reflections of students were evaluated to examine
student engagement with TL. As part of their assessment a cohort of students (50), were
required to complete two reflections, one at the commencement of the course and one at the end of the course.
Findings: An analysis of these reflections suggest that students recognised the importance in questioning their existing beliefs and values or “frames of reference”. Furthermore, there was some evidence that they engaged in TL as the questioning of these assumptions led to changes in attitudes and behavioural intentions in career choices based on the argument that opportunities exist in alleviating poverty through business strategies.
Limitations: Since a multitude of factors exists that function to shape students’ assumptions about the role of business in alleviating poverty, and this study used one method only to understand these processes (critical reflections), not all factors can be accounted. Hence, a longitudinal study that examines student’s career choices will provide concrete evidence for whether TL has occurred in the classroom.
Implications: Counter initiative arguments such as businesses engaging with the Sustainable development goals (SDGs) at a profit, requires courses to enact a TL approach. This approach will facilitate developing a holistic curriculum that moves away from the focus on content. Specifically, it requires teachers to be aware of their students’ and their own assumptions, and the effect of these assumptions on their current understanding. Furthermore, teachers have to value students as co-creators of knowledge.
Contributions: This paper systematically examines the implementation of TL approach to
incorporating SDG 1- No Poverty, in business curriculum. In doing so, it contributes new
insights to literature that calls for adopting TL in business curriculum and for using critical
reflections as a method to engage students in transformative learning.
We frequently encounter the claim that a particular Jewish educational experience will be “transformative” for the participants. The language may be hyperbole. But it may also point to educators’ aspirations to affect not just knowledge and practice but character and identity. In order to understand this phenomenon—not the phenomenon of the use of the language of transformation, per se, but the phenomenon of aspirational Jewish educational programs—this article develops three case studies (Encounter, the Bronfman Fellowship, and the Wexner Heritage Program). What emerges from these cases is a set of models or theories of transformative change: the Maimonides model, learning a habit such that, over time, habit becomes character; the paradise-and-exile model, becoming a seeker after an ideal that one has glimpsed; and the outsider-to-insider model, moving from a sense of fraudulence to a sense of confidence within a particular domain.
This study was designed to use critical reflective journaling practices to explore the experiences of preservice teachers working in a juvenile justice education program called the Reach Academy. Using a qualitative case study design, the researchers explored how 48 preservice teachers utilized critical reflective journaling to examine their own identities in relation to working in this unique school setting. Three major themes emerged from the reflective journal and interview data: (a) participants preconceived notions were challenged based on their positive interactions with Reach students, (b) preservice participants engaged in critical observation of the Reach Academy teachers and their interactions with students, and (c) participants' focus shifted from themselves to their students' needs. Findings suggest that preservice teachers reflective journaling process facilitated their ability to examine and reconsider their preconceived notions about working with students at the Reach Academy and in other diverse schooling settings.
In Folge der Frauenbewegung begannen in den 1970er Jahren immer mehr US-amerikanische Hochschulen, spezielle Studienprogramme für Frauen zu entwickeln, die bislang in Mutterschaft und Haushaltsführung ihren vornehmlichen Daseinszweck gesehen hatten, nun aber erneut in das Erwerbsarbeitsleben integriert werden s/ wollten. Als Jack Mezirow, damals Professor für Erwachsenenbildung am Teachers‘ College der Columbia-Universität, mit der Evaluation solcher Programme beauftragt wurde, stellte er weniger deren organisatorischen Belange, Einschreibungszahlen, Finanzierungsfragen oder ihr inhaltliches Angebot in den Vordergrund seiner Untersuchung denn die biographische Bedeutung, die die Wiederaufnahme des Studiums für die Frauen selbst hatte: „The major theoretical finding of this study is the identification of perspective transformation as the central process occurring in the personal development of women participating in college re-entry programs“ (Mezirow 1978a: 5).
The purpose of this chapter is to examine and analyze the concepts of power, critical reflection, and potential for transformative learning in graduate mentoring models and programs, exploring research and models that reflect these concepts in their program design and "curriculum" for mentoring. The chapter concludes with an analysis of two mentoring models/programs and suggestions for future research and practice in mentoring in higher educational institutions that may lead to transformative learning among mentors and participants in these programs.
In this chapter, the author explores how the adult learning theories of andragogy and transformative learning may be used when coaching adult learners.
This paper traces the evolution of Jack Mezirow's transformative learning theory and its conceptualisation. It discusses the three major influences, namely Thomas Khun's philosophical conception of paradigm, Freire's conception of conscientisation and consciousness growth, and Habermas’
domains of learning and the discussion of language as communicative action. The paper concludes with a discussion of the main concepts underlying the theory of transformative learning – a theory grounded in robust theoretical traditions – and presents a process of transformation
which leads the adult learner through a process that initiates in a moment of disorientation and ends in transformative self-reflection that results in the transformation of one's perspective.
The purpose of this study was to explore the practice of Farmer-Field Schools (FFS) theoretically framed from the perspective of transformative learning theory and non-formal education (NFE). Farmer-Field Schools are community-led NFE programs that provide a platform where farmers meet regularly to study the ‘how and why’ of farming and engage in an instrumental and experiential learning process imbued with local knowledge expressed through song, dance and theatre. Through a qualitative design using multiple interviews and observations of the Luhya ethnic group in Western Kenya, involving participants of several FFS programs, the study revealed an intricate picture of fostering transformative learning within the context of NFE, where findings call into question some long-held assumptions about both.
The author identifies six flaws that commonly occur in explanations of transformative learning, and suggests that transformative learning may not exist as an identifiable phenomenon. He proposes that we abandon the term transformative learning, and adopt the straightforward term good learning. Good learning, he argues, has nine aspects.
This article presents an elaboration of the epistemology of transformative learning in adult education. Transformative learning is understood as a uniquely adult form of metacognitive reasoning. Reasoning is the process of advancing and assessing reasons, especially those that provide arguments supporting beliefs resulting in decisions to act. Beliefs are justified when they are based on good reasons. The process of reasoning may involve such tacit knowledge as aptitudes, skills, and competencies. The article examines the nature of reasoning within the context of critical-dialectical discourse—the intersubjective process of communicative learning by which adults assess beliefs—and its implications for democratic citizenship and adult education.
This is Part One of a two-part article that describes a method to facilitate personal transformations in small groups. The Matrix Model forms the operational structure for the method. The roles of the group, members, and leader are examined. Personal transformation is defined within the framework of analytical psychology. The method makes extensive use of metaphors. Their nature and the manner m which metaphors are employed are examined. The method may be used with a variety of self-analytic groups.
This book describes the theory and process of transformative learning (TL) and presents practical strategies for fostering and supporting TL. In chapters 1 and 2, TL is placed within the broader context of adult learning and Mezirow's 1991 theory of TL is presented. Chapter 3 examines the following: TL's relationship to the instrumental, communicative, and emancipatory learning domains and the perspectives of psychological, sociolinguistic, and epistemic reflection; critical responses to TL theory; and the relationship between TL and self-directed learning, autonomy, and critical thinking. Chapter 4 contains a taxonomy of TL and the learner's perspective on the process of working toward transformation. In Chapter 5, Jung's theory of psychological types is used to explain the different ways in which individuals engage in TL. Chapter 6 discusses teaching roles in relation to the three domains of learning, Chapter 7 describes the process of fostering learner empowerment, and Chapter 8 presents strategies that can be used to stimulate TL (including questioning techniques, consciousness-raising exercises, and experiential activities). Chapter 9 describes ways of supporting TL and practical techniques for encouraging learners to support one another. In chapter 10, the process of TL is applied to the adult educator's role. Contains 185 references. (MN)
Adult education is facing not just indifference, but also hostility. This thesis is examined under four headings: (1) an historical perspective; (2) with respect to the institutional setting; (3) in the context of international development strategy; and (4) in light of contemporary philosophical or value debates. (Author)
Education in an open society has the charge of promoting personal transformations as one of its major aims. In specific terms, education must adopt the endin-view of helping individuals work towards acknowledging and understanding the dynamics between their inner and outer worlds. For the learner this means the expansion of consciousness and the working toward a meaningful integrated life as evidenced in authentic relationships with self and others. This view of education we have called transformative education. The need to discuss the nature of transformative education in both theory and practice is clearly recognized. For the moment, we will set aside this task and in its stead offer a brief observational description that illustrates transformative education in progress. This initial example and others which follow will anchor our discussion in concrete observations and thus avoid unrestricted abstractions.
Emotion-laden images that arise within adult learning provide a symbolic language for helping teachers and learners understand and facilitate transformation at both the individual and group levels.
This chapter updates transformative learning theory through discussing emerging alternative theoretical conceptions, current research findings, and implications for practice.
A cardinal dimension of adult development and the learning most uniquely adult pertains to becoming aware that one is caught in one's own history and is reliving it. This leads to a process of perspective transforma tion involving a structural change in the way we see ourselves and our rela tionships. If the culture permits, we move toward perspectives which are more inclusive, discriminating and integrative of experience. We move away from uncritical, organic relationships toward contractual relation ships with others, institutions and society. Perspective transformation refor mulates the criteria for valuing and for taking action. Behavior change is often a function of such transformation. In this emerging transformation theory, adult education finds its own inherent goals and functions.
Interpreting the ideas of Jurgen Habermas, the nature of three generic domains of adult learning is posited, each with its own interpretive categories, ways of determining which knowledge claims are warranted, methods of inquiry as well as its own learning goals, learning needs and modes of educational intervention. Perspective transformation is seen as one of the learning domains and the domain most uniquely adult. The nature and etiology of perspective transformation is elaborated with particular focus on the function of reification and of reflectivity. Implications of a critical theory for self-directed learning and adult education are explored. A Charter for Andragogy is suggested.
Nurturing soul in adult education
- J M Dirkx
Critical theory and transformative learning
- S D Brookfield
- SD Brookfield
Out of our heads: Transformative learning through artistic expression
- Lipson Lawrence
- R Lipson Lawrence
Group work and dialogue: Spaces and processes for transformative learning in relationships
- S Schapiro
- I Wasserman
- P Gallegos
Transformative learning theory New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education
- E W Taylor
Education for perspective transformation: Women’s reentry programs in community colleges
- J Mezirow
Trust in groups: The great mother and transformative education
- R D Boyd
- RD Boyd
Fiction and film and transformative learning The handbook of transformative learning: Theory, research, and practice
- C Jarvis
A jungian approach to transformative learning
- J M Dirkx
- JM Dirkx
Transformative learning in action: Insights from practice
- J M Dirkx
- JM Dirkx
Transformative learning in practice: Insights from community, workplace, and higher education
- E W Taylor
- EW Taylor