Down the rabbit hole: Creating a transformative learning environment

Abstract

This paper explores the transformative learning potential of an experiential, theatre-based workshop titled, Down the Rabbit Hole. Lewis Carroll’s story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, is a tale in which Alice goes down a rabbit hole and embarks upon a fantastical and transformative journey of self with others. Loosely based on this story, in this workshop we encourage learners to take an embodied journey down the rabbit hole by tuning into the personal call for adventure, identifying active stories, and initiating a journey of discovery through theatre-based activities. We explore the transformative potential of this workshop by drawing from Yorks and Kasl’s two-part taxonomy of expressive ways of knowing, which speaks to (a) creating a learning environment conducive to whole-person learning and (b) working with learners within that environment. We use this taxonomy to frame a discussion of how we create environments conducive to transformative learning and how we use theatrical conventions to work with participants in such environments. In so doing, we advance Dirkx’s notion that transformative learning can be an on-going, mythic journey of the soul and discuss how we draw upon embodied methods and theatrical conventions to provoke our collective creative potential.