Transformative Learning Potential Research Articles

The potential of transformative learning for sustainability transitions: moving beyond formal learning environments

AbstractTransformative learning has become one of the most prominent learning theory in regard to sustainable development. It holds enormous potential for explaining and accompanying learning processes related to processes of transformation for sustainability, especially due to its emphasis on changing meaning perspectives in discussions with others in spaces free of coercion. In addition, it inspires learners and educators to pay particular attention to emotional challenges when they engage in critical thinking. This theoretical paper explores the potential of transformative learning theory by examining informal learning environments where people do not explicitly intend to learn but learning happens en passant or incidentally. It shows the ability of transformative learning theory to explain what can happen on the level of individual learning, organizational learning, learning in multi-professional networks, and learning in transdisciplinary or transformative research cooperation processes. Based on this analysis, recommendations can be derived to stimulate, enable, and accompany transformative learning processes for sustainability.

Towards the Transformative Role of Global Citizenship Education Experiences in Higher Education: Crossing Students’ and Teachers’ Views

This work analyzes the transformative learning potential of global citizenship education (GCE) in academia. This is done by examining learning conditions, processes, and outcomes and is then followed by a reflection on the opportunity to link transformative learning (TL) and GCE. Students’ views were collected through focus groups with 72 students and interviews with seven teachers. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis informed by TL theory and critical GCE. We suggest that the experiences studied offer important opportunities for potentially transformative learning; however, there is a need for more emphasis on linking GCE and TL, and on the narratives and conditions for “transformation.”

Competency as Outcome and Process through Transformative Learning Experiences

ABSTRACT Competency-based education has become a defining characteristic of higher social work education. This movement provides ample opportunity for students to have transformative learning experiences that will prepare them for professional practice. Yet, scholarly work on competency-based education runs the risk of overlooking the important developmental processes associated with competency attainment. We propose conceptualizing competency as both process and outcome to fully realize the potential of transformative learning in competency-based education. To this end, we offer two teaching case examples. The first describes a recorded role-play assignment for promoting clinical judgment and skill in a master’s level practice course. The second describes an assignment that uses photovoice to deepen undergraduate students’ understandings of macrolevel practice. These approaches present possibilities for teaching strategies that support transformational learning by attending to processes as well as outcomes that will lead to competence in social work education.

Decolonization and Transformation of Higher Education for Sustainability

This article argues that institutions of higher education (IHEs) require a fundamental paradigm shift toward an Indigenous Knowledge (IK) model inclusive of Indigenous Peoples, perspectives, and values. This model acknowledges the sacred value of nature, the rights of non human species, and the power and potential of transformative learning via collaboration with Indigenous communities. Through four personal experiences from one IHE, we highlight challenges and opportunities to decolonize higher education across the domains of policy, research, teaching, and programs. Examples include the Graduate Student Government's resistance to university policies of unsustainable construction projects; incorporating IK from Eastern traditions and world spiritual practices into course curriculum; Indigenizing higher education courses and projects through inclusion and collaboration with local Indigenous tribal members; and finally, ongoing transnational research and education collaborations with an Indigenous Mebêngôkre-Kayapó community in the Brazilian Amazon.

Down the rabbit hole: Creating a transformative learning environment

This paper explores the transformative learning potential of an experiential, theatre-based workshop titled, Down the Rabbit Hole. Lewis Carroll’s story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, is a tale in which Alice goes down a rabbit hole and embarks upon a fantastical and transformative journey of self with others. Loosely based on this story, in this workshop we encourage learners to take an embodied journey down the rabbit hole by tuning into the personal call for adventure, identifying active stories, and initiating a journey of discovery through theatre-based activities. We explore the transformative potential of this workshop by drawing from Yorks and Kasl’s two-part taxonomy of expressive ways of knowing, which speaks to (a) creating a learning environment conducive to whole-person learning and (b) working with learners within that environment. We use this taxonomy to frame a discussion of how we create environments conducive to transformative learning and how we use theatrical conventions to work with participants in such environments. In so doing, we advance Dirkx’s notion that transformative learning can be an on-going, mythic journey of the soul and discuss how we draw upon embodied methods and theatrical conventions to provoke our collective creative potential.

The Potential of Transformative Learning in Tertiary Level JSL Education

The Potential of Transformative Learning in Tertiary Level JSL Education

The Transformative Learning Potential in the Hybrid Space Between Technology and Intercultural Encounters

As many higher education institutions strive to internationalize and develop graduates as global citizens, new technologies are supposed to be creating opportunities for geographically dispersed students to meet and develop intercultural skills. We argue, however, that there is scant evidence that these opportunities are being fully exploited. In this article, we explore some of the reasons for this by using the lens of “third space” theories to interpret data from a preliminary study of an international virtual exchange project. We found that although the project afforded some scope for critical intercultural learning, this was limited by two key factors related to the second space of the traditional classroom: the skills and attitudes of the lecturers and asymmetries in project goals. We conclude by arguing that unless higher education institutions provide more fertile conditions for projects like these, further opportunities for intercultural learning will be missed.

Book Review: Library Service and Learning: Empowering Students, Inspiring Social Responsibility, and Building Community Connections

Service learning is a type of experiential learning through which students learn while engaged in a service project. A librarian’s role might involve helping students frame research questions, introducing library resources, or teaching information literacy concepts. In “Introduction to Library Service and Learning,” the editors note the transformative learning potential of service learning opportunities. These types of learning experiences allow students more self-direction and a chance to have a real impact on the community; they are hands-on, student-focused, and authentic. Twenty-one chapters detail unique examples of how academic librarians collaborated with campus or community partners to integrate the library into a service learning project. A final chapter presents a review of literature on service learning that complements the book’s contents.

“Confronting the Dragons at the Door”: A Call for Transformative Learning in Teacher Education

This paper examines the beliefs of Nepali teacher educators about the potential of transformative learning (TL) experiences in teacher education. It further explores the ways in which they are promoting TL among the graduate students aspiring to become teacher educators and among the in-service teachers in Nepal. Data collection consisted of qualitative methods, particularly narrative interviewing and observation. Key participants included three emerging transformative education practitioners (teacher educators) and a transformative education pedagogue from Kathmandu University. The narratives of the participants showed that they were stepping up to promote TL in teacher education programmes in Nepal. Their stories revealed that changing the frame of reference of the conventional teachers and thereby instilling in their mind-set the simple thought of TL was like confronting the dragons. Nonetheless, their engagement in teacher education programmes have exposed how students and educators can co-create TL experiences. Their experiences and also my observation of their training programmes showed that Nepali teachers are in want of TL opportunities. The findings suggest that teacher education should foster Critical Consciousness in teachers so that they can develop the ability in their students to analyse, pose questions, and take action on the diverse social, political, cultural, and economic contexts that influence and shape their lives. Moreover, the community of practice among the emerging transformative education practitioners should grow in focus from critical self-reflection to include an emphasis on promoting a contemplative mode of teaching and learning, which will offer an effective pedagogic model to nurture transformative learning in teacher education.

The transformative-learning potential of feminist-inspired guided art gallery visits for people diagnosed with mental illness and addiction

Consciousness-raising practices at the heart of feminism remain one of the most vital components of transformative learning theory and provide the foundation for its constructivist underpinnings. Recently, there has been a call for educators to employ consciousness-raising practices outside of traditional classroom settings and to focus greater attention on the ‘extra-rational’ aspects of education – especially when working with marginalised adult learners. This is very much in keeping with engaged feminist pedagogy that allows space for emotions in learning. Reflecting on our experiences facilitating access to art programmes with people diagnosed with mental illness and addiction at the Art Gallery of Ontario, we highlight several examples of gender-related consciousness-raising that emerged. These experiences suggest that exploring mental illness through engagement with art in a social setting allows participants to deepen their understanding of art and the political implications of their life experiences. These tours also seem to serve as a powerful counterpoint to more clinical and masculine ways of framing mental health and well-being. Ultimately we argue that it is our explicitly feminist approach to transformative learning and not the existence of accessibility programmes themselves that holds the promise of redefining what and who museums are for.

The potential of complex challenges in undergraduate research to stimulate transformative learning

In the present study, I describe and evaluate the transformative learning potential of authentic research projects that students engage in a course on tissue engineering at Chalmers University of Technology. Through the use of weekly reflective diaries and interviews, I explore how students change their perspective on what learning means to them and the purpose of higher education. Based on the empirical data and scientific literature, I discuss complex challenges as one emerging and deciding factor that helps students to have transformative learning experiences. At the end, some general pointers will be provided on how educators can approach the integration of complex challenges into their own courses and settings.

An Examination of the Transformative Learning Potential of Alternative Spring Breaks

As institutions seek to offer students an educational experience equipped with opportunities to develop as not only active learners but also engaged citizens, service-learning initiatives in the form of alternative spring breaks (ASB) have become prevalent. This study examines the potential of ASBs, as service-learning initiatives, to deliver a transformative learning experience. Findings indicate that depth of learning and growth is contingent upon trip type. Implications for practice and recommendations for practitioners are discussed.

Addressing Power in Conversation

The World Café (TWC), used as an effective conversational tool around the world, shares several tenets with other participatory approaches to learning and development. It has not been critiqued, however, for its insufficient attention to reflexivity, power differentials, and structural inequalities within its process, specifically in relation to TWC facilitators. As a group of women from diverse social locations and backgrounds committed to the pursuit of social justice, we sought this opportunity to explore and investigate the transformative learning capacities of TWC, with the broader goal of enhancing its usability in education and community settings. We reviewed and critiqued TWC conversation approach, suggesting stronger links to liberatory education and transformative learning theories. Using a participatory action research process leading to cocreated knowledge, we developed an Emancipatory Learning Charter, a new tool that can enhance the transformative learning potential of TWC.

Ethical and moral development: aspects relating to professional training in Dentistry

ABSTRACT Objective: To assess the progression of a public university's dental students through stages of moral development during the course. Methods: A cross-sectional study with 115 students (from the 1st to the 7th semester), to whom the "Opiniões sobre problemas sociais" test, adapted and translated to the Portuguese language, was applied. Results: The collected answers were charted according to the test manual's guidelines and data were analyzed by the GraphPad Prism software 6.0 and STATA v.13. Principal morality score values, expressed as a P value (%), were 40.26%; 39.32%; 36.45% and 36.27% for the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th semesters, respectively, with no statistically significant difference between the groups (ANOVA, p = 0.52). Conclusion: Students' degrees of morality did not vary significantly among the semesters compared, indicating the need for a reorientation of teaching-learning practices that takes the potential of transformative learning into account.

20. The Transformative Potential of Creative Assignments in Higher Education

This paper encourages shifts in praxis to promote the thoughtful inclusion of creativity into higher education assignments in order to broaden and deepen student experience, and offer greater integration between required assignments and the complexity of students’ lives. Obstacles to integrating creativity into academia are also briefly explored. An example of what is meant by a creative assignment, from a second-year undergraduate Community Studies course, is offered, illustrating the transformative learning potential that can be stimulated through this application. Faculty observations and quotes from student surveys serve as additional evidence of students’ enthusiasm, growth, and personal empowerment achieved through this type of assignment.

Conflict Resolution and Transformative Pedagogy

This article reports on original research designed to track the impact on student learning and development of fundamental pedagogical changes—from tradition to critical pedagogy—in undergraduate conflict resolution teaching in the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford. Using grounded theory methodology, the authors researched the transformative learning potential of the pedagogy. They found broad support for the pedagogy on student learning and development grounds in relation to the praxeological challenges of peacebuilding and conflict resolution work many of their students will expect to do after graduation. Out of the data emerged four clusters of learning experience that support transformative learning theory, particularly the role of disruption in learning and the importance of critical reflection, but that also, in a preliminary way, suggest some gaps in our current levels of understanding of transformative learning as praxis.

Emotions and the Transformative Potential of Fieldwork: Some Implications for Teaching and Learning Anthropology

In this article, I argue that the transformative learning potential of anthropology can be achieved only if emotions of anthropologists in the field are understood, articulated and added to the mainstream strengths of our qualitative method. This requires: turning our attention to emotions in research and learning; liberating emotions from the �extraordinary,� �apolitical� and �feminine�; understanding the emotional practices and regimes of our discipline and how they shape knowledge production; and, adding emotional reflexivity to the reflexive project of anthropology. I discuss some psychological defences evident in anthropological work that may be supported by academic practices, and several examples from published anthropological self-reflection, which look at the practical implications of emotions on methodology and analysis. I focus on accounts by two doctoral researchers to demonstrate the crucial importance of emotional reflexivity in knowledge-making and in teaching and learning anthropology, particularly fieldwork. I conclude by raising pedagogical questions and making some tentative practical suggestions for the teaching and learning of anthropological fieldwork.� �