Transformative Learning Framework Research Articles

Heutagogical-based mobile social media space

This concise paper aims to propose a framework for enhancing intercultural communication competencies among Chinese as foreign language (CFL) learners using Heutagogical-based Mobile Social Media spaces. Integrating qualitative and quantitative data analysis with Activity Theory (AT) and the Design for Transformative Mobile Learning (DTML) framework, this study seeks to develop a potentially effective educational approach. By leveraging mobile social media, the envisioned framework intends to support autonomous learning and foster intercultural competencies among CFL learners.

Becoming Linguistically and Culturally Responsive Educators: Teacher Candidates’ Perspective Shifts in an Introductory Linguistics Course

ABSTRACT Many teacher education programs aim to address the acute need for culturally and linguistically responsive educators by fostering linguistic consciousness and awareness of language learner populations. This mixed-methods study explores how elementary education teacher candidates’ perspectives shift through critical reflection and dialogue about English learners’ education and equitable classroom practices. Using a transformative learning framework, our findings illustrate that collaborative learning tasks as well as peers’ and multilingual graduate teaching assistants’ experiences play a disorienting role in challenging monolingual and bilingual teacher candidates’ beliefs about language acquisition, bilingualism, and English learners’ education. We discuss implications for teacher language awareness and instructional practices in ESL endorsement courses.

Examining the Intersection of Sociopolitical Development and Transformative Social and Emotional Learning Outcomes: An Integrated Approach in Youth Participatory Action Research

Young people need opportunities that support their well-being while enabling them to take meaningful action. There has been strong interest in youth participatory action research (YPAR) as a form of sociopolitical action for marginalized youth seeking to address inequities that undermine individual and community well-being. The rapid growth of the YPAR literature in the last decade has involved studies analyzing the impact of YPAR on dimensions of youth empowerment, sociopolitical development (SPD), and well-being. The relatively new framework of Transformative Social Emotional Learning (tSEL) is potentially fruitful in identifying relevant constructs, skills, and strategies to support well-being during the YPAR process. This article seeks to advance our integrative conceptualization and analysis of the impact of YPAR by (1) considering the overlapping and unique dimensions of SPD and tSEL: agency, belonging, collaborative problem solving, curiosity, identity, societal involvement, and worldview and social analysis; and (2) applying this integrative lens to the analysis of novel data from an updated systematic review of U.S. and international YPAR studies (2015–2022). We summarize youth outcomes reported in 25 studies to assess the evidence for YPAR as an approach for promoting youth SPD and tSEL outcomes, identifying limitations and next steps for advancing our understanding of these impacts.

Storytelling as Pedagogical Practice in Support of Transcendence and Well-Being

The purpose of this article is to explore the potential of storytelling within business ethics education for facilitating transcendence and well-being. In doing so, the article focuses on five areas. First, a brief introduction to workplace spirituality and its association with well-being is provided. Second, consideration is given to the nature of storytelling and its benefits for relational-spiritual teaching. Third, the ways that storytelling (and specific examples of stories) can invite and enhance three interrelated dimensions of transcendent connection (Miller, 2015; Reed, 2018) of relevance in business ethics are described. These include the transpersonal, the interpersonal (including interpersonal transcendence across difference) and the intrapersonal. Within this discussion, the ways that each of these dimensions can contribute to well-being are identified. Fourth, a relational-spiritual, transformative learning framework within which storytelling can be practiced is provided. Fifth, directions for future research are discussed.

Integrated constructive robotics in education (ICRE) model: a paradigmatic framework for transformative learning in educational ecosystem

Integrated constructive robotics in education (ICRE) model: a paradigmatic framework for transformative learning in educational ecosystem

A critical analysis of volunteer tourism in post-socialist China

ABSTRACT This study delves into post-trip transformations among Chinese volunteer tourists, challenging the conventional Western-centric lens. Traditionally, research has focused on international examples in the Western context, but this study explores the less-investigated intra-country practices in China. It employs a simplified transformative learning framework, adopting a collective autoethnographic inquiry that involves the first author’s participation as a volunteer tourist in 2011, followed by an extended advisory role and authors’ cross-cultural reflexivity. The study scrutinizes psychological, convictional, and behavioural shifts while emphasizing the interconnection of transformations with pre-trip motivations, onsite host–guest interactions, post-trip actions, and the pivotal role of local organizations including long-neglected authorities. Significantly, it uncovers the mediating influence of China’s distinct socio-political landscape, contending that volunteer tourism in China serves as a top-down response to counter Western cultural dominance. This research underscores the need for a decolonized and context-specific approach to investigating volunteer tourism practices in non-Western contexts. It highlights the dynamic interplay between tourism experiences and the intricate socio-political environment in China, offering a fresh perspective on the transformative effects of local tourism practices in this unique context.

Auto-Encoding Generative Adversarial Networks towards Mode Collapse Reduction and Feature Representation Enhancement.

Generative Adversarial Nets (GANs) are a kind of transformative deep learning framework that has been frequently applied to a large variety of applications related to the processing of images, video, speech, and text. However, GANs still suffer from drawbacks such as mode collapse and training instability. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an Auto-Encoding GAN, which is composed of a set of generators, a discriminator, an encoder, and a decoder. The set of generators is responsible for learning diverse modes, and the discriminator is used to distinguish between real samples and generated ones. The encoder maps generated and real samples to the embedding space to encode distinguishable features, and the decoder determines from which generator the generated samples come and from which mode the real samples come. They are jointly optimized in training to enhance the feature representation. Moreover, a clustering algorithm is employed to perceive the distribution of real and generated samples, and an algorithm for cluster center matching is accordingly constructed to maintain the consistency of the distribution, thus preventing multiple generators from covering a certain mode. Extensive experiments are conducted on two classes of datasets, and the results visually and quantitatively demonstrate the preferable capability of the proposed model for reducing mode collapse and enhancing feature representation.

Language teachers’ identity development post COVID-19: a transformative learning perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the educational sector, leading to profound changes in teachers’ roles and identities. While these disruptions have been challenging, they also offer a unique opportunity for teachers to redefine and evolve their traditional roles and practices. This study, grounded in the poststructuralist perspective of teacher identity, investigates the impact of COVID-19 on the professional identities of seven EFL teachers at a Saudi university post-school reopening. Mezirow’s Transformative Learning framework was utilized to trace the transformations of teachers’ identities, with the pandemic serving as the catalyst for reflection and change. Teachers’ experiences were captured using narrative inquiry and Life Story Interviews, and analyzed via reflexive thematic analysis with an emphasis on professional agency as a conceptual lens. The analysis revealed three key dynamics that characterized the transformation in professional identity during these times: delegitimization, reconstruction, and empowerment. These insights contribute to the teacher education literature by offering a nuanced understanding of identity transformation and by proposing strategies to support teacher identity development in challenging contexts.

Reinventing EdD Research Methods Courses

The education doctorate program fills an essential niche that allows practitioners to earn a doctorate and make a difference in educational practice and policy. However, critics claim EdD programs are failing to effectively prepare students. There has been a push for the reinvention of the EdD which includes improving EdD student confidence in their ability to undertake research. This calls for a redesign of research methods courses and purposefully grounding them in adult learning theory. The framework of transformative learning can foster higher-order learning by including key components such as critical reflection, collaborative dialogue, and awareness of context. This article shares a transformative learning model used to redevelop an EdD research methods course that emphasised self-reflective tasks such as identity memos, research design maps, and cognitive interviews. This learner-centred, constructivist approach resulted in positive learning outcomes including increased student confidence and enhanced practical knowledge and research skills.

Computational thinking infusion as transformative teaching: investigating content area teacher perspectives and practices

ABSTRACT Background and Context Using a transformative learning framework, this qualitative study examines the perspectives and practices of 70 middle and high school content area teachers who attended two or more summer professional development workshops. Objective This study describes how teachers’ disciplinary perspectives and backgrounds influence their understanding of CT infusion and their implementation of CT-infused lessons. Method Data sources for this qualitative comparative case study analysis included: retrospective video reflections, implementation surveys, post-PD surveys, and instructional materials. Findings Analysis revealed differences in terms of disorienting dilemmas teachers faced, shifts in their frames of reference, the form of classroom CT infusion, and their integration of specific CT concepts. Implications This study contributes a comparative analysis of how teachers from different content areas come to understand CT infusion and implement CT-infused pedagogical practices to support their disciplinary teaching. Findings indicate the importance of including all teachers, STEM and non-STEM, in CT infusion efforts.

The Epistemology of Transformative Learning: A Systematic Instructional Design Framework Model in Transformative Learning

<em>Research in transformative learning has flourished in educational research in the latest decades. Among the research on transformative learning, the specific topic of how to develop instruction based on transformative learning is still very rarely found. The purpose of this study w</em><em>as</em><em> to review the epistemology of transformative learning by introducing a systematic ID framework for transformative learning. </em><em>The method of this study w</em><em>as</em><em> the systematic literature review with three review stages: planning the review, conducting the review, and reporting the review. The review was focused on the academic paper in the research scope of transformative learning. As the result, we concluded the 3 main components of designing a transformative learning model: (1) transformative outcomes, (2) transformative scaffolding, and (3) transformative learning experience. The study also proposed 7 stages of systematic ID framework in designing transformative learning.</em>

20대 남성의 반페미니즘 의식 학습과 전환학습

Objectives The purpose of this study is to examine the theoretical grounds that the anti-feminism consciousness of men in their 20s can be regarded as the result of transformational learning and the social conditions of the formation of anti-feminism consciousness.
 Methods To this end, we conceptually confirmed the social conditions of collective transformative learning by explaining the social phenomenon in which anti-feminism is formed and shared among men in their 20s as a framework for transformative learning and reviewing research and media reports in educational research and sociology.
 Results Anti-feminism consciousness learning of men in their 20s can be explained by the framework of transformative learning for the following reasons. First, the formation of anti-feminism consciousness can be explained by the concept of transformative learning in terms of learner reflection and the resulting change in identity. Second, the spread of anti-feminism consciousness through online communities can be seen as a result of collective transformative learning through discourse. Third, the case of the anti-feminism movement can be seen as expressed as social practice by solidarity of individuals who share the transition. In addition, the social conditions behind the formation of anti-feminism consciousness of men in their 20s are as follows. First, after the older generation, represented by the 386 generation, dominated the upper part of the job market, job competition intensified. Second, preferential policies for women were implemented, which were recognized as the result of ‘the meeting of gender and power’. Third, there was a trend of the times that forced the acceptance of masculinity as a potential perpetrator.
 Conclusions This study attempted to interpret social phenomena such as anti-feminism consciousness learning of men in their 20s as transformative learning theory. This is to expand the scope of existing learning theory research, which mainly limited learners to individuals, and to expand the horizon of learning research by targeting a group called generation. It is also meaningful in that it brings about a change in collective perspective by sharing individual experiences through discourse, and ultimately provides a conceptual basis for exploring the process of developing collective transformation into social practice.

Life-Changing Conversations: A Look at How One Civil Discourse Program at a Midwestern State University Impacts the Transformative Learning of its’ Participants

Adopting the first five phases of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1978; 1990; 1994; 1997; 1998; 2009; 2018) as a framework, this study examined the impact of a Midwestern university civil discourse program on participants’ transformative learning. The study sample included participants who attended the Talk Together program over multiple sessions since its inception in the fall of 2015. The participants were surveyed or interviewed. Findings revealed survey participants at least agree or slightly agree with experiencing the first five phases of transformative learning, evidenced by responses to items connected to the transformative learning framework. Most interview participants also experienced the first five phases of transformative learning. While transformative learning was undetermined from the observation data, findings led to recommendations that impact the facilitation of the Talk Together program, which, subsequently, impacts potential transformative learning for future participants.

A transformative deep learning framework for traffic modelling using sensors-based multi-resolution traffic data

A transformative deep learning framework for traffic modelling using sensors-based multi-resolution traffic data

A Transformative Deep Learning Framework for Traffic Modelling using sensors-based multiresolution traffic data.

A Transformative Deep Learning Framework for Traffic Modelling using sensors-based multiresolution traffic data.

The Transformative Potential of Service-Learning in an African Religious Context

Critical reflection is essential for achieving desired service-learning outcomes, including “transformative learning,” as developed by Mezirow (2000). However, critiques of Mezirow’s theory, particularly its focus on the individual learner and prizing of autonomy, raise questions about the relevance of a transformative learning framework for service-learning in diverse global contexts. This article describes a case study of an online service-learning program that resulted in transformative learning for students in East Africa. We offer a method of practical theological reflection that promotes individual and communal reflective praxis. This method contributed to students’ transformative learning outcomes as realized in collective action for sustainable development. Rooted in Christian religious education scholarship, the method is adaptable to service-learning curricula informed by other or non-religious traditions and in non-Western communities. We invite educators to adapt this method to other sociocultural contexts and encourage further research to track longitudinal outcomes of collective action inspired by service-learning.

Deploying Internationalisation at Home During Lockdown

This is a report on a variety of internationalisation at home (IaH) initiatives coordinated by Bordeaux University since 2020 (the start of the COVID pandemic). IaH is understood as “the purposeful integration of international and intercultural dimensions into the formal and informal curriculum for all students within domestic learning environments” (Beelen and Jones 69). On site, IaH programmes are defined in the following ways: 1) The opportunity for domestic students to study with incoming international students enrolled at Bordeaux University. 2) The opportunity to study with students from other universities through multi-institutional or bilateral virtual exchange. The institutional framework was provided by the NewDEAL project (open, student-centered and connected programmes, within a framework of transformative learning). We are therefore in a position to consider how IaH can best be deployed at University. We aim to discuss the merits and challenges of our IaH offer.

A Cultural Mapping of the Design for Transformative Mobile Learning Framework to Facilitate Learner Agency

The Design for Transformative Mobile Learning Framework utilises eight dimensions drawing upon the key affordances of mobile learning that enable learner agency. In this poster we briefly explore the potential alignment of a ninth dimension to the DTML framework to illustrate a cultural mapping of the DTML. We map the DTML framework to the Whakapiri (Engagement), Whakam?rama (Enlightenment), Whakamana (Empowerment) model for indigenous M?ori knowledge introduced by Durie who argues for “the interface between indigenous knowledge and other knowledge systems” (2005, p. 301). Shortened to WWW by Hurst (2017) the model has been utilised as a framework for reflection and practice in education. “Engagement, enlightenment and empowerment neatly describe the immediate, intermediate and ultimate concerns of education and are important markers for how effective education is practised. The concepts of transformation over information and learning as an all- of-person experience can be discerned across these three key terms” (Nichols, 2020, p. 28). Transformative mobile learning designs implement strategies to facilitate a move from a focus upon teacher-directed content (Pedagogy) towards student-determined learning or Heutagogy (Moore, 2020; Blaschke & Hase, 2019; Hase & Kenyon, 2007). This involves applying the Pedagogy-Andragogy-Heutagogy (PAH) continuum to mobile learning design (Cochrane et al., 2022) to facilitate learner agency. When put into a matrix, with DTML, PAH and WWW provides a mapping of how learners may transition into increasing self-regulation and learner-agency across the eight mobile learning relevant areas or dimensions.

Analysing mobile learning designs: A framework for transforming learning post-COVID

Mobile learning is well established in literature and practice, but under-evolved from a rigorous learning design perspective. Activity theory presents a sophisticated way of mapping and understanding learning design, but for mobile learning this does not always translate into change in practice. The reported research addresses this by coupling a mobile learning specific approach to activity theory with a practice-based framework: the design for transformative mobile learning framework mapped to the pedagogy-andragogy-heutagogy continuum matrix (the DTML-PAH Matrix). Seven case studies are analysed using this approach and presented narratively along with framework informed analysis. Findings include that the DTML-PAH Matrix can be used to provide clearer implications and guidance for mobile learning practice, and that the DTML-PAH Matrix can also be guided by the practice over time. Implications for further research and practice are discussed. Implications for practice or policy: Provide technological and pedagogical scaffolds to students. Learning designs should focus upon enabling elements of learner agency and creativity. To develop learning solutions to real world problems utilise a design-based research approach. Create authentic collaborative learning activities and tasks. Integrate mobile learning affordances in the design of the course and curriculum.

Sustainable agricultural online course development framework for community-based transformative learning

This paper examines the change drivers and challenges involved in the transitioning of the Water Research Commission’s Amanzi for Food training of agricultural educators and farmers’ face-to-face co-engaged course to an online course aligned with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (www.amanziforfood.co.za). The study drew on system thinking to analyse components within the course development activity system. Insights from stakeholder engagement and expansive learning processes fed into key emergent themes which informed the e-learning processes. The research highlights how the development and implementation of a sustainable training programme using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools bring together learning processes occurring within different interconnected dimensions and in complex and unpredictable ways. It became clear that to utilise e-learning as a mediating artifact capable of facilitating social transformation towards suitability expansively, certain conditions needed to be in place. The drivers that impacted the development of e-learning as a mediating tool included the need to find an alternative learning platform for broader dissemination of Rain Water Harvesting & Conservation (RWH&C) knowledge and alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study concludes that this transition requires specific tools, adequate time, an understanding of e-learning pedagogical processes and learning platform functionalities (requiring upskilling of the digital literacy of the development team and other actors), and workable data-efficient or data-free, smartphone-friendly training and communication platforms.