Efforts to Transform Learning and Learners: The First Decade of an Innovative Doctoral Program

Abstract

Theoretical Framework Transformative learning is a critical aspect of the doctoral program and the focus of this study. Other perspectives enfolded within the program and contextual to this study include community of learners, critical reflection, and praxis. Jack Mezirow (1978, 1981, 2000) is credited with introducing the theory of transformative learning to the field of adult education in the late 1970s (Taylor, 2008). Although higher education and adult education are not synonymous, students in doctoral programs are adult learners, and the principles of adult education in general and transformative learning theory in particular have substantial applicability to doctoral study in educational leadership. According to Mezirow (2000), Transformative learning refers to the process by which we transform our taken-for-granted frames of reference (meaning perspectives, habits of mind, mind-sets) to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, emotionally capable of change, and reflective so that they may generate beliefs and opinions that will prove more true or justified to guide action. Transformative learning involves participation in constructive discourse to use the experience of others to assess reasons justifying these assumptions, and making an action decision based on the resulting insight. (p. 7-8) Drawing on Habermas's (1984) identification of learning domains, Mezirow (2000) maintains that transformation occurs in the instrumental domain when adult learners become critically reflective about the content or processes of problem solving, while transformation occurs in the communicative domain by becoming critically reflective of the premises underlying their definitions of problems. Whereas Mezirow's early work emphasized the role of a disorienting dilemma as a catalyst for what he more recently labels epochal transformations, prompted by theorizing by others and a growing body of research on transformative learning, he later acknowledged that transformations in habits of mind may be incremental in nature, involving a series of transformations in related points of view. Mezirow also offers some ideas about the conditions for transformative learning and the kind of educational environment that fosters it. He speaks specifically about the role of discourse as a ... specialized use of dialogue devoted to searching for a common understanding and assessment of the justification of an interpretation or belief. Reflective discourse involves a crucial assessment of assumptions. It leads toward a clearer understanding by tapping collective experience to arrive at a tentative best judgment. (p. 10-11) Acknowledging that our culture conspires against collaborative thinking by conditioning us to think adversarially, and pointing to Deborah Tannen's (1998) notion of an argument culture, Mezirow (2000) adds that Discourse is not based on winning arguments; it centrally involves finding agreement, welcoming difference, 'trying on' other points of view, identifying the common in the contradictory, tolerating the anxiety implicit in the paradox, searching for synthesis, and reframing (p. 13). Viewing the broad purpose of adult education as helping students realize their potential to become more liberated, socially responsible, and autonomous through critical reflection, Mezirow maintains that adult educators should seek to create opportunities for adults to do so. Students in this study were introduced to Mezirow's model of transformative learning as a part of a core course on adult learning. Beyond this didactic introduction to transformative learning, the program sought to create an environment that fostered transformative learning through learning experiences embedded in numerous courses within the curriculum. Transformative Learning Within a Community of Learners Transformative learning is not possible in isolation. …