From an essential being to an actor’s becoming: political ecology transformational learning experiences in adult education

Abstract

Adult education in political ecology entails critically and constructively observing the interactions among the actors involved in socioecological conflicts at global and local scales. This definition invites transcending environmental education and education for sustainability’s frontiers, examining the ontology, or the ‘place’, from where actors co-construct these conflicts. If actors don’t question the reified and divided assumptions of the ‘self’ and ‘reality’ at the base of these conflicts, the creative and transformative potential of becoming together cannot unfold. The transformational learning approach is a coherent way of addressing this challenge, as it promotes an ontological change in actors and their worldview. The training experience offered by the University of Santiago provides insights into how transformational education’s perspective can contribute to education in political ecology, inciting an acknowledgment of the self and the world as a complex and dynamic entanglement of actors.