Transformative Learning Process Research Articles

Transformative Learning Emerging From Challenges First-Year Students Experienced.

Doctor of physical therapy (PT) (DPT) programs are rigorous, and students report facing overwhelming challenges. Faculty may not be cognizant of the extent of these challenges and miss opportunities to support student learning. The purpose of this article is to describe factors affecting student coping abilities and the lessons they learned from managing their self-identified challenges. Given the growing body of evidence surrounding mental health issues in DPT students, educators are exploring ways to support student well-being and promote their professional development. This study is a component of a larger multisite study of first-year DPT students from 3 private universities. Participants submitted written narratives in response to a critical incident questionnaire designed to better understand first-year challenges. Responses were deidentified, researchers were blinded to participation, and confidentiality was maintained throughout. A consensus-driven interpretivist approach to qualitative data analysis was used. Strategies to ensure trustworthiness included triangulation of researchers, peer review, prolonged engagement, and use of thick rich descriptions. Seventy responses were analyzed. Two major themes are presented: (1) students described factors internal and external to the learning environment that inhibited and facilitated their ability to cope with challenges and (2) students shared academic successes and lessons learned from overcoming challenges, including the development of new behaviors, enhanced self-awareness, and personal and professional growth. Building on previous work, analysis of the lived experiences of first-year DPT students revealed a process of transformational learning through challenge. This process highlights the importance of recognizing and supporting the significant incidental learning that occurs in our students during their journey through PT school. Faculty focusing solely on content knowledge, skills, and even critical thinking may not recognize and support the incidental learning occurring and may be missing significant transformational learning opportunities.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Changes in Perspective: A Transformative Learning Experience During Teaching Practice in Remote Areas

Experiencing unfamiliar environments tends to foster transformative learning. However, limited studies investigate how experiencing contrasting localities fosters transformative learning, such as teaching practice in remote areas by pre-service teachers who are from elsewhere. This study focuses on revealing pre-service teachers’ transformative learning experiences during their teaching practice by investigating the changes associated with their teaching practice and how these changes occur. Using semi-structured interviews, we questioned forty-one pre-service primary teachers about their 1-year teaching experiences in remote areas of Indonesia. The findings show that pre-service teachers undergo changes in perspective, which indicate a transformative learning outcome. Three elements of the transformative learning process—disorientation, exploring new roles, and reflection—are also identified in the data. These three elements of the transformative learning process influence pre-service teachers’ perspectives. This implies that teaching practice in remote areas stimulates pre-service teachers to experience transformative learning.

Academic Visits as Transformative Learning Opportunities: The Case of Chinese Visiting Academics

Cross-border academic visits by university faculty members are becoming prevalent globally. Unlike previous research, which has focused on the cross-cultural adaptation arising from the cross-border movement of people, we view scholars’ visiting experiences as a learning opportunity in light of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory (TLT). We employ Addleman et al.’s three-stage proposal to better understand the transformative learning process of Chinese visiting scholars. Drawing on Hoggan’s typology, we identify changes in scholars’ worldviews, selves, and behavior as outcomes of transformative learning. We conclude that international experience is beneficial for scholars and call for more study abroad opportunities for Chinese university faculty.

A collaborative autoethnography of developing a ‘Cultural Stories’ exercise for intercultural teaching in China

ABSTRACT Intercultural teaching often emphasizes exposure to and understanding of cultural differences. Although it acknowledges the importance of cultural self-awareness, little research has been done to explore how such a goal is achieved. This article adopts collaborative autoethnography (CAE) to explore the creation, development, and use of variations of the ‘Cultural Stories’ exercise to enhance cultural self-awareness in intercultural education. Three culturally diverse instructors (in background, generations, contact/integrated cultures) narrate developments of this process for foreign language teaching in China as creators, teachers, and researchers. Analysis focuses on: (1) transformative learning process and experience of using the ‘Cultural Stories’ exercise; and (2) enhanced pedagogical understanding of intercultural teaching in China gained through developing and using this exercise. Results indicate that: (1) cultural stories have the potential to shape or start transforming students’ originally essentialized understanding of culture and identity, and (2) contextualized pedagogical implementation and reflective professional commitment help inspire and bring greater reflection or transformation to the teachers’ understanding of intercultural teaching. Implications of this instructional intervention and the research process are also discussed.

A conceptual validation of transformative learning theory

ABSTRACTObjectivesThe aim of this study is to evaluate the integrated transformative learning theory and quantitative measurement model developed by Stuckey and colleagues in 2013.MethodsThe Transformative Leaning Survey (TLS) was administered as a cross‐sectional web survey to 467 respondents recruited from a variety of sources. The questionnaire includes four transformative learning outcome measures (acting differently, deeper self‐awareness, holding more open perspectives, experiencing a deep shift in worldview) and 14 transformative learning process measures in three domains (extra‐rational, rational, social critique).ResultsThe majority of respondents were female (73.7 percent), white (70.7 percent), with a graduate degree (57.2 percent), and professional employment (56.1 percent); the median age was 35–44. Reliabilities (alpha) of TLS scales ranged from 0.68 to 0.91 (median = 0.78). Multivariate regression identified two rational process factors (Action, Disorienting Dilemma) and two social critique process factors (Empowerment, Unveiling Oppression) that had significant (p < 0.05) positive independent associations with multiple transformative learning outcome measures; no extra‐rational process measures were significant.ConclusionsThis study replicates, validates, and extends the development of the Transformative Leaning Survey and advances transformative learning theory by identifying drivers of transformative learning outcomes. Further quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method research on transformative learning is needed.

The continuing formation of relational caring professionals

Learning to work as a relational caring professional in healthcare and social welfare, is foremost a process of transformative learning, of Building, of professional subjectification. In this article we contribute to the design of such a process of formation by presenting a structured map of five domains of formational goals. It is mainly informed by many years of care-ethical research and training of professionals in healthcare and social work. The five formational domains are: Relational Caring Approach, Perception, Knowledge, Interpretation, and Practical Wisdom. The formation process, described as the recurring detour of a continuing practice, requires ‘exposure’, in-depth learning and learning communities. Relational caring—care consequently resulting from and structured by relational thinking, exploring, and steering—requires ‘inquiry’ as a continuous learning process in practice. The process is ultimately aimed at fostering mature, competent, and practically wise professional caregivers who are able to relationally connect with and attune to care receivers, and adequately navigate existential, moral, and political-institutional tensions in relational caring in complex organizations in Late-Modern society.

Nursing, Social Justice, and Health Inequities: A Critical Analysis of the Theory of Emancipatory Nursing Praxis.

Walter's theory of emancipatory nursing praxis (ENP) was created to explore nurses' social justice-related transformational learning process. We analyzed the theory within the context of stigma-related health inequities faced by transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) people. The theory of ENP provides a theoretical framework to incorporate social justice in nursing practice, research, education, and policy. We also determined the theory bridges the gap in understanding the role of nurses in advancing social justice through embodied actions and social activism. The theory of ENP underscores the moral, ethical, and professional obligations for nurses to abolish health inequities for TGD people.

Using Guided Critical Reflection to Discover Deepened and Transformative Learning in Leadership Education

This qualitative study used guided critical reflection as a pedagogical strategy to explore transformative learning and leadership development of students in a leadership doctoral program. In written reflections after a weekend of classes, students ( N = 19) reflected using carefully constructed questions to focus their thinking. The reflections were analyzed through the lens of transformative learning theory. Students noted increased self-awareness, questioned their assumptions/beliefs, experienced shifts in their mindsets, and were moved to action/proposals for action. Guided critical reflection, then, is presented as a viable learning strategy for leadership development. The transformative learning process aligns with the critical reflection process.

Tracing the Threads

While spirituality has emerged as a topic of interest in adult education, much of the current scholarship considers spirituality as distinct from religion. This literature review questions those conclusions, including the use of theistic terminology to describe a concept (spirituality) that many posit is non-theistic. Spirituality is also considered in terms of transformative learning theory and spiritually centred transformation, specifically as a type of non-cognitive transformation. In this way, spirituality is placed alongside other types of affective or emotionally based ways of knowing, learning, and transforming. Finally, experiences of religious doubt—defined as dissonance or uncertainty in one’s religious and faith beliefs—are identified as potential catalysts that launch the transformative learning process. The review concludes by identifying the need for more research into the intersections of religious doubt and transformative learning in terms of what this research might tell us about the nature of both doubt and transformation.

(De)Colonizing Pedagogy: Possibilities and Tensions in Undergraduate Transformative Learning Through Simulation

This article employs transformative learning and decolonial theories to investigate the efficacy of simulation pedagogy for undergraduate student learning about refugees and the internally displaced. The simulation of refugee experience was adapted from the Doctors Without Borders’ Forced From Home exhibit and facilitated by an experienced affiliate for eighty-nine education and economics undergraduate students. Data include surveys, debriefing discussions, and written reflections. We ask: Does simulation pedagogy support transformative learning toward the decolonial goals of recognizing and deconstructing current power relations? How or how not? Overall, we find that simulation pedagogy successfully supports initial stages of transformative learning through engaging a combination of kinesthetic (body), affective (heart), and cognitive (mind) realms to shift students’ perspectives and knowledge. Through a decolonial lens, we chronicle the strengths and limitations of transformative learning processes and find that the simulation pedagogy achieved a combination of colonial and decolonial purposes.

Lifestyle transformation and reduced consumption: a transformative learning process

Overconsumption habits and structures have a huge environmental impact. The article uses a qualitative interview study of environmentally conscious Swedish citizens undertaking a lifestyle transformation process to reduce their overall consumption in the context of mass consumption society. The purpose is to emphasise the importance of a transformative learning perspective to understand pathways and challenges for transforming towards less consumerist lifestyles. The study demonstrates five mutually bolstering aspects of learning experiences in this lifestyle transformation process: 1) factual and theoretical learning; 2) practical, corporal and tacit learning; 3) personal and emotional learning; 4) social relational learning; and 5) critical learning. It stresses the importance of a social dimension including the interplay of macro, meso and micro levels.

Self-Reflection as an Assessment of Student Preparation for Practice in Humanitarian Crises

Abstract This article explores the impact of a critical pedagogy of forensic science approach combined with an immersive field experience to train student members of a volunteer humanitarian forensic science team in preparation for immersion in the politically charged and emotionally challenging conditions surrounding migrant death at the United States-Mexico Border. Utilizing self-reflections from student team members before and after their fieldwork, the impact of a holistic and multi-faceted training approach can be evaluated. The goal of this training approach is to produce capable forensic scientists, as well as anthropologists who recognize the power structures inherent in such situations and subsequently work to kindle social change. Comparing expectations before fieldwork to experiences obtained during fieldwork can be a powerful way to gauge their progress in a transformative learning process.

The transformative learning nature of malaysian homestay experiences

Travel can have a transformative power; that is, the possibility of generating deep change and impact on individuals’ self while on vacation. Transformative experiences could impact travellers at different levels and influence their understanding and interpretation of reality. Moving on from theoretical concepts, such as transformative learning, free choice learning and experiential learning together with adoption of an innovative mobile-enhanced data collection methodology in the field, this study investigates the Malaysian homestay tourism experience and its transformative power. It presents a preliminary framework to generate a better understanding of the anatomy of transformative travel, postulating that immersive and co-created experiences could trigger transformative learning processes in travellers, thereby impacting on their knowledge, skills and attitude towards generating a differential understanding and possible interpretation of the reality.

Transformative Learning in an African American Agriculture Course

Despite agricultural education’s prioritized efforts to increase diversity, people of color remain minimally represented. The overwhelming majority of all School-Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) teachers are White, non-Hispanic. The limitations of SBAE teachers’ prior experiences or knowledge base of ethnic and racial diversity could lead to challenges in successfully supporting minority students. Agricultural education programs play an essential role in supporting preservice teachers’ attainment of deeper understanding by providing multicultural education curriculum that encourages growth in their critical awareness of diverse cultures. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the transformative learning experience of students completing an African American (AA) Agriculture course. This study analyzed responses provided by students both at the beginning and end of the course experience to understand if and to what degree the transformative learning process occurred. Findings revealed evidence of transformative learning among the students in the way of six emergent themes that described their perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about AA agriculture when comparing responses acquired before and after the completion of the course. With the limited representation of AA teachers in SBAE programs, the evaluation of the transformative learning process of students in this course may open the door to create a more culturally inclusive environment in SBAE and the agricultural industry as a whole.

Transformational learning and identity shift: Evidence from a campus behind bars

Identity-driven theories of desistance provide a useful model for understanding change in a carceral context. However, these theories often are not grounded in specific programmes or practices that might catalyze identity shift, and tend to focus narrowly on recidivism as the sole outcome of interest. In this study, we examine the role of prison higher education in identity-driven change through the process of transformative learning. Using administrative information on college-level course completion and an original longitudinal survey of prison college students, we show evidence of both between- and within-subjects shifts in individuals’ sense of self-efficacy, as well as their broader civic orientation. We further explore the role of identity using a survey experiment that randomly assigns individuals to a “student” versus “prisoner” identity label. We find that identity labelling has significant effects on both confidence in accomplishing one's goals and perceived likelihood of recidivism. We supplement these quantitative findings with qualitative interviews of prison college alumni. Our study suggests that access to higher education can be consequential for those in prison, and provides a broader framework through which to analyze the effects of prison programming that extends beyond recidivism.

Rethinking Quality Science Education for Climate Action: Transdisciplinary Education for Transformative Learning and Engagement

Latest findings of the IPCC highlight the fact that there is an urgent need for climate action on both individual and societal levels, because political regulations and technical advances just would not be enough to counter climate change. Acknowledging young people’s role as present and future decision-makers, their engagement is absolutely imperative in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 13, “Climate Action.” Therefore, new methods of teaching and learning are necessary, and they need to encourage transformative learning, which, it is assumed, will lay foundations for transformative engagement. Research in the field of science education credits scientific literacy vision III as fostering transformative learning and engagement. In this study, transdisciplinary education is analyzed as a promising concept that enables exchange of knowledge, experiences, and perspectives between students and scientific partners while they jointly complete research on real-world issues. A quantitative analysis capturing scientific literacy and transformative engagement for climate action of Austrian and German secondary school students (N= 162) is carried out alongside a literature review. This study reveals that the didactical concept of transdisciplinary education notably contributes to the implementation of scientific literacy vision III as well as vision II. According to the results, the three visions of scientific literacy are predictors for transformative engagement for climate action, assuming to be preceded by a transformative learning process. These encouraging findings need to be replicated by further scholars in other contexts.

Exploring the Process of Transformative Learning in Executive Coaching

ProblemThe important role played by executive coaching in the development of leaders is well established in the literature. While some scholars suggest that executive coaching fosters transformative learning (TL), there is insufficient empirical evidence to support this.SolutionThis study set out to investigate the process of TL in executive coaching from the coachee’s perspective. A longitudinal multiple case study was adopted to examine how three key transformative learning elements—disorienting dilemma, critical reflection, and rational dialogue—occurred in an executive coaching engagement and the learning outcomes that emerged. A key finding was that, in addition to the three accepted elements, there is a fourth element (acceptance) that precedes the rational dialogue. The results of this study informed the development of a transformative learning model, which could guide future research, theory, and practice in the field of human resource development (HRD).StakeholdersThe study will benefit scholars and practitioners in the fields of human resource development, executive coaching and leadership development.

Transformative learning through participation: experiences at a rural clinical training site in South Africa

BackgroundDistributed training has been cited as an opportunity that offers transformative learning experiences in preparing a future workforce to address local needs. For this reason, rural and longitudinal placements are increasingly being adopted by medical schools across the world. Place, participation and person are considered integral in the process of transformation of medical students into responsive graduates on the distributed platform. This article aims to explore the experiences and perceptions of student learning on a rural training platform in South Africa while considering the interrelation between person, place and participation as a process of transformation to becoming a health care professional. The research forms part of a 5-year longitudinal case study, initiated in 2019 to explore a university-rural hospital collaboration on students, staff and the local health care system.MethodsData was collected using interviews and surveys from 63 purposively selected and consenting participants between January and November of 2019. All qualitative data were inductively analysed using an interpretivist approach to thematic analysis for the purposes of this article. All quantitative data was analysed descriptively using Microsoft Excel. Ethics and permission for this research was granted by the Stellenbosch University Human Research Ethics Committee, the Undergraduate Students Programme Committee and the Northern Cape Department of Health, South Africa.FindingsFour themes, namely: authenticity of context; participation in a community of practice and social activities; supervision and reflection; and distance support were extracted from the data. These findings contribute to the theory of transformative learning on the distributed platform by expanding on the interrelationship of person, place and participation, specifically as it relates to participation within various communities and practices. The value of active participation in reflection and supervision, distance academic support and social support systems are explored.ConclusionsThe three dimensions and interrelationship of person, place and participation in the process of transformative learning on the rural training platform can be further unpacked by exploring the types of participation that have facilitated student learning in this research context. Participation in interprofessional teams; supervision, reflection and distance support appear to be the most crucial elements during this transformative learning process.

Facing Crises of Unsustainability: Creating and Holding Safe Enough Spaces for Transformative Learning in Higher Education for Sustainable Development

The multiple crises of unsustainability are provoking increasing stress and unpleasant emotions among students. If higher education is to fulfill its mission to support transformation processes toward sustainable development, it must adapt its pedagogical approaches to help students deepen their critical thinking and empower them to engage in these transformation processes. For this reason, emotions – which can also prevent critical thinking – should be carefully addressed within transformative learning journeys. However, these journeys are themselves challenging for learners and educators. They push them to abandon stable meaning perspectives, causing feelings of incoherence and tension. Learners need safe enough spaces to navigate these situations of uncertainty. The central questions of this manuscript are: What is meant by safe enough spaces? How can learners, educators, and higher education institutions create and hold such spaces? These questions are explored on three different levels: (1) the intrapersonal level, (2) the interpersonal level, and (3) the organizational and systemic level of discourses in higher education. For the intrapersonal level, perspectives inspired by neurobiology are used to discuss reaction patterns of our autonomous nervous system and present insights into stress development. Learners should feel bodily safe when engaging in transformative learning processes. This is supported by balancing the challenges learners face with the resources they have. For the interpersonal level, the manuscript argues that focusing solely on rational discourse is insufficient to support safe enough spaces for transformative learning. We call for a culture of edifying conversations supported by respectful relationships among learners, as they are more adequate for regaining self-direction. For the organizational and intertwined systemic level, the ambition is followed to make higher education institutions offer learning environments that feel safe enough for all involved. However, as these institutions are strongly influenced by dynamics of economization and competition, they do not necessarily empower learners to challenge and disrupt unsustainable and neoliberal discourses. The manuscript explores how learners and educators can cultivate engaged critique by acknowledging their own embeddedness in neoliberal dynamics and opening up so-called transformative spaces for institutional change. Finally, recommendations for educational practices in higher education for sustainable development are offered.

TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING MODEL FOR PARENTING EDUCATION PROGRAM

The purpose of this study is to produce a transformative learning model in parenting education programs organized by early childhood education institutions in changing the terms of reference for children's education to be even better and in synergy with those carried out by educational institutions. This research includes development model research. The results of this study are a transformative learning model in a parenting education program that uses five components, namely (1) syntax; (2) Social System; (3) Reaction Principle; (4) Support System and (5) Instructional Impact and Accompaniment. The steps of Transformative Learning used in the parenting education process consist of 4 steps of field activities, namely: (1) problem development steps; (2) critical reflection development steps; (3) location of determination and implementation of action; and (4) assistance steps taken by educators of early childhood education institutions to early childhood parents in the form of consultations, group discussion activities, and face-to-face activities (class sessions). The success of transformative learning in this parenting education program is that there is a change in the frame of reference of the parents of early childhood which comes from themselves, and the function of educators in this transformative learning process is as a facilitator and counselor in helping towards the change process.