Insights from an E-Dialogue of Practitioners on Arts in Transformative Learning

Abstract

This article shares contributions from a moderated e-forum in 2007 that explored the transformative potential of arts in learning and social change. It draws on examples of poetry, creative writing, and experiences of innovative practice shared through these conversations by adult educators in contexts as diverse as Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. The paper provides a conceptual frame to explore tensions in transformative learning between the mytho-poetic and the critical-rational, and between the individual and the collective. Using this frame, it connects the experiences shared by the e-forum participants to the literature. The paper reflects on how educators have used artistic and creative expression in their work and discusses how they have navigated the tensions presented in the earlier conceptual frame. It concludes by identifying four conditions that seem critical if arts and creativity are to play a role in transformative learning: authenticity, resonance, reflection, and freedom.