Transformative Learning in Developing as an Engaged Global Citizen

Abstract

This article investigates students’ experiences of learning about privilege and oppression in the context of an introductory university course in civic engagement and global citizenship. Participants included 24 students enrolled in the course during either the 2013–2014 or the 2014–2015 academic year. The authors collected data through pretests, students’ course work, posttests, and focus groups administered at the end of the course. Using Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning combined with Curry-Stevens’s pedagogy for the privileged, and employing thematic analysis to interpret data, the authors found that several students experienced transformative learning specifically in relation to philosophical, psychological, epistemic, and moral–ethical habits of mind. We provide examples of this learning while also considering limitations of students’ learning.