Transformative Learning Perspective Research Articles

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.

Development of leaders of technologically-based companies: a trans-formative learning perspective

This research aims to understand the learning processes of leaders of technology-based companies (TBCs) from the perspective of transformative learning, in which leader development is a process of changing awareness and transformation throughout life. A qualitative methodology consistent with the interpretative paradigm was applied, using thematic oral history as a method. Data were collected in semi-structured interviews with six EBT leaders. Data analysis was conducted based on the deductive and inductive coding approach. The findings suggest that learning processes and their outcomes implied changes in the way of leading. In processes, the informal character of transforming experiences, disorienting dilemmas as learning triggers, the role of critical reflection, and emotions during transformation stands out, in addition to “urge for change”, an aspect rarely included in empirical research on transformative learning. In the outcomes of the processes, data revealed learning in different dimensions: world view, self, epistemological and ontological learning, behavior, and capacity. The scientific contributions to the literature refer to the unprecedented use of the theoretical perspective of transformative learning to understand the development of TBCs leaders, especially the relationship between processes and learning outcomes, something that has not been studied so far in this type of organization.

Promoting Pre-service Teachers’ Domain-general Metacognition

The current study explores the possibilities of promoting the prospective teacher’s domain-general metacognition in the university study process.The aim of the study is to investigate which content of reflection is more relevant for effective enhancing teacher education students’ domain-general metacognition.To reach the aim, the structure of metacognition is analysed; metacognition (MC) components are interpreted from the perspective of transformative learning to define the indices for the domain-general metacognition; a set of open-ended sentences is constructed for reflection which includes all components of MC; and the significance of different sentences for providing the students’ domain-general metacognition is proved in a mixed-methods study.

New Wine Needs to Be Put Into New Bottles: Legitimating Education for Sustainability in South Korea's Higher Education Institutions

Abstract The aim of the paper is to critically examine the practices of teaching and learning for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Korea (Korea). With the use of a case study, this paper offers a close examination of the practices carried out at Seoul National University and Kyung Hee University in Korea, focusing on how the SDGs are embedded in teaching and learning for sustainable development and identifying barriers and challenges in the process. A few specific initiatives and curriculum developments to meet the SDGs have been identified, but their rhetorical visions and practices of teaching and learning contradict, resulting in little actual transformation. This study reveals the gap between the rhetoric and the reality of teaching and learning for the SDGs from the perspective of transformative learning and offers policy suggestions to provide a well-rooted practice of educating the SDGs in Korean HEIs.

A Qualitative Study on Married Migrant Women’s Experience of Participation in Self-help Groups from the Perspective of Transformative Learning

This study examined self-help groups for married migrant women which have not been discussed from the viewpoint of learning from the perspective of transformative learning and tried to suggest the direction of self-help groups. For this, the research question was set as 'What does married migrant women's experience of participation in self-help groups from the perspective of transformative learning?'. For the study, data were collected by arranging in-depth interviews with 7 married migrant women who participated in self-help groups for more than 2 years in the B Family Center in A City. And based on this, the in-depth meanings in the experience were analyzed. Based on the collected data, each three central meanings were drawn from the categories of experience by conversion stage, the level of conversion and introspection, and the results of the conversion. Married migrant women planned and attempted a meaning life by experiencing dilemmas and experienced problem solving through sympathy and cooperation in their self-help groups. It has found that the level of conversion and introspection appeared in the form of self-awareness, professional competency development, and introspection as migrant women and the results of the conversion appeared in the domain of individuals, families, and society. The above research results show that self-help groups promote the shift in married migrant women's perspectives and become the learning center that they can be expanded to indivisual and social growth. Based on the results of the study, it found educational implications of self-help groups for married migrant women and sought the direction for their development.

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.

Sustaining Faculty Development through Visiting Scholar Programmes: A Transformative Learning Perspective

International academic visits by university faculty members are common around the world. While most researchers approach such an international experience in terms of intercultural communication and acculturation, in this study we view the travel experience as a learning opportunity in light of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory (TLT). Drawing on Singleton’s ‘3H model’ (head-heart-hands), we find that the outcomes of transformative learning (TL) are related to cognitive, affective and behavioral domains, the prevalence of which were then explored among 314 visiting scholars. The results are further interpreted by drawing on key concepts from TLT to better understand the learning process. We conclude that the international experience is beneficial for scholars’ sustainable development, and call for more study abroad opportunities for Chinese university faculty.

Evolution of entrepreneurs’ expectations using instagram as a business practice: A transformative learning perspective in the case of sustainable fashion entrepreneurs in Mexico

Sustainability entrepreneurs act based on expectations about how products will be received by consumers, in which directions markets and demand will develop, or which business models and innovations will prevail. Through their action-guiding function, expectations play an important role in how sustainability ventures develop in and out of niches. However, little attention has been paid to how new communication media, especially increasingly important social media, affect the way entrepreneurs articulate and change their expectations. This paper addresses this research gap using transformative learning theory to examine the communication of Mexican sustainable fashion entrepreneurs on Instagram. We used snowball sampling to select a representative sample of fashion brands operating in the sustainable fashion niche in Mexico. We used a mixed-methods approach: To analyze entrepreneurs' expectations, their use of social media and other learning outcomes, we employed semi-structured interviews. To track the evolution of entrepreneurs' expectations and their activity on Instagram, we scraped content (posts) from their respective brands' pages. Fashion brands in Mexico with business models based on sustainable fashion are a mixture of market-based and grassroots initiatives. Although sustainability concerns drive the ventures of sustainability entrepreneurs, Instagramhas played a crucial role in the evolution of entrepreneurs' expectations towards innovation with products and business growth. This change in expectations can be understood as a transformative learning process that underscores different phases, action engagement, disorienting dilemmas and discourse. We contribute to opening and exploring the black box regarding the learning processes in the articulation and evolution of expectations.

Tacit knowledge sharing and creative performance: a transformative learning perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between tacit knowledge-sharing and creative performance of employees from a transformative learning perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses Structural Equation Modeling to analyze data collected from 440 employees working in Information Technology industry, using a survey-based questionnaire.FindingsThe dimensions of tacit knowledge-sharing - tacit knowledge-seeking and tacit knowledge-contribution, positively affect employees' creative performance. Further, an individual’s bisociative cognitive style reinforces the positive association between tacit knowledge-sharing and employee creativity.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the field of knowledge management by using a new theoretical lens, Transformative Learning Theory, to examine how tacit knowledge-sharing adds value to knowledge workers in terms of enhancing their creativity.

Translating the transformative learning approach into practice: the case of a training of trainers’ pilot in client-centred extension approach

ABSTRACT Purpose To analyse the experiential learning approach to induce attitudinal change in the Ethiopian agricultural extension system to transform services from a top-down teaching to a participatory and interactive way. Design/Methodology/Approach Reconstruction of three training of trainers’ pilot trainings in a regional Ethiopian extension system from 2017 to 2020. The article analyses authors’ reflections and trainees’ self-assessment of the process and learning outcomes in view of the experiential and transformative learning perspective. Findings The article showcases how theories are translated to concept development and application of an innovative training of trainers’ pilot. It describes the actors, processes, outcomes and main learnings of a repeated training of trainers. Experiential learning-based training has the potential to activate individual agents as starting points that enable transformative changes in the Ethiopian extension system. In order to increase that potential, such a design should consider the prerequisites inside the extension system and among its agents. Practical implications The study offers insights for practitioners working towards enhancing the competences of agricultural advisors. Based on learned lessons, it serves as a guidance in the design of training the trainer approaches in similar contexts and whenever reorganisation of advisory services is required. Theoretical implications There is a need to include the long-term dynamics of knowledge and attitudes between individuals and their organisations; the way how organisations learn and transform themselves and how systematic reflections can be used to better assess the effectiveness of innovative training methods for more participatory advisory systems. Originality/Value The iterative sequence of theories, concepts, application, and outcomes, and referring back to concepts, and the clear demonstration of peer learning processes.

Leveraging third space amid Chinese and Spanish student teachers’ teaching practicums: a transformative learning perspective

ABSTRACT This paper examines Chinese (n = 11) and Spanish (n = 11) student teachers’ learning-to-teach experiences during the teaching practicum or placement period through the lenses of transformative learning theory and third space construct. We traced student teachers’ transformative learning experiences through observation, interviews, reflective journaling, and metaphoric identity narratives. Five major themes emerged related to the participants’ professional learning experiences: (1) the disorienting dilemmas, (2) reflections and explorations of assumptions, (3) gaining confidence in a new role, (4) behaviour changes, and (5) integration of new perspectives. Moreover, third space helped the participants negotiate a series of binaries undesirable in teacher education, such as episteme and phronesis, stability, and evolution of their professional identities. This paper contributes to a fine-grained account of Chinese and Spanish student teachers’ professional learning experiences in different sociocultural contexts. Implications for fostering Eastern–Western dialogues on teachers’ transformative learning experiences and creating third space (hybridity and boundary-crossing) in teacher education are discussed.

Student voice in Lesson Study as a space for EFL teachers’ learning: a case study in Kazakhstan

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report the findings from a case study of an action research project in the context of a secondary school in Kazakhstan where, for the first time in their teaching practice, three English as a Foreign Language teachers introduced student voice (Flutter and Rudduck, 2004) into their practice within the Lesson Study (LS) framework. The research aimed at conceptualizing Student Voice Space in LS as one of the valuable factors capable of triggering situations of disjuncture (disorienting dilemma, disruption) for teachers which could potentially lead to teacher’s transformative learning, educational beliefs change and improved practice.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts the qualitative research design and follows narrative inquiry methodology (Lyons and LaBoskey, 2002) with a series of narrative interviews (Bauer, 1996) as the main method of data collection within a single case study (Bassey, 1999) of an action research project. The data were analyzed as text following a general inductive approach (Thomas, 2003) where emerging themes were identified by means of data reduction.FindingsThe findings suggest that listening to student voice triggers teachers’ going through certain stages of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory including critical assessment of own assumptions, testing new options for behavior and reflecting critically on the teaching practice. Therefore, the authors suggest that Student Voice Space in LS is one of the important factors capable of triggering the teacher’s transformative learning. Moreover, it has an enormous potential not only to bring about positive changes in teachers’ practice but also challenge the ossified teachers’ educational beliefs, and thus, potentially, pave the way for a gradual change from “inappropriate beliefs” (Mayrhofer, 2019), or subconscious assumptions that lie in the core of teachers’ folk pedagogies (Torff, 1999), or taken-for-granted frames of reference (Mezirow, 2000) into true, justified or informed educational beliefs.Research limitations/implicationsFurther analysis of teachers’ narratives is required to elicit and categorize reported changes (shifts, transformations) concerning specific teachers’ educational beliefs, and draw a more clear line between student voice and its impact on the research lesson planning and its modification in LS. Finally, a supplementary study utilizing classroom observation methods is needed to explore if student voice intervention results in tangible (actual) changes in teachers’ classroom practice and educational beliefs, rather than potential transformations that are mainly reported in this study.Originality/valueCarried out in the largely overlooked by the academic literature context of the Reform at Scale (Wilson et al., 2013) in Kazakhstan and building on the original combination of theoretical lenses, the research contributes to the academic literature aiming at illuminating “the black box of teachers’ learning” in Lesson Study (in Widjaja et al., 2017, p.358) since it is one of the rare studies attempting to connect teacher learning, student voice and Lesson Study (Warwick et al., 2019). Additionally, approaching teacher learning in Lesson Study from the transformative learning perspective combined with the literature on teachers’ educational beliefs and student voice, this study contributes to the further development of a shared vocabulary for discussing teacher learning in Lesson Study.

Examining Chinese and Spanish preservice teachers’ practicum teaching experiences: a transformative learning perspective

ABSTRACTThis paper examines how Chinese (n = 11) and Spanish (n = 11) preservice teachers reflect on their learning-to-teach experiences during the teaching practicum period through the lenses of transformative learning theory and third space conceptualisation. Specifically, the authors adopted the five-stage transformative learning model and collected reflective journals from the participants. Framed by this model, the authors traced the Chinese and Spanish preservice teachers’ transformative professional learning experiences evidenced by (1) disorienting dilemma, (2) reflection and exploration of assumptions, (3) gaining confidence in a new role, (4) behaviour changes, and (5) integration of new perspectives. Implications for fostering a third space, namely hybridity and boundary-crossing between university and schools, during teaching practicum are discussed in this paper.

Transformative learning in community college human geography: a mixed methods study

ABSTRACTThe study explores the extent to which transformative learning occurs using quantitative and qualitative methods in a human geography course (N = 35) and explores student affect in relation to the learning environment. We used the eight-scale Transformative Learning Environments Survey (TLES) instrument for the quantitative analysis and an aligned analysis of student reflective work to capture the “voice” of the student as a qualitative approach that provided a rounded perspective of transformative learning. The TLES proved reliable where the sub-scale Alpha reliability ranged from 0.71 to 0.93 and a separate affect scale of Satisfaction was 0.95. The standardized regression coefficient between Satisfaction and the sub-scale of Student-Acting demonstrated the strongest positive association (0.27), followed closely by Disorienting Dilemma-Environment (0.24). The qualitative results supported the quantitative associations in most cases, but not all. The qualitative aspect to this present study offers a deeper look – beyond just statistical outcomes – using students’ own voices to explain their perspectives related to transformative learning.

전환학습 관점에서 본 이주민설화조사 연구자의 다문화감수성발달에 대한 연구

전환학습 관점에서 본 이주민설화조사 연구자의 다문화감수성발달에 대한 연구

Being a Teacher of Holistic Profession: A Perspective of Transformative Learning

This study explores how to be a teacher of holistic profession from a perspective of transformative learning. Cultivating holistic profession in transformative learning involves the process of changes in communicative and instructional learning, the process of learning practical experience, and the process of critical reflection. These transformative learning processes contribute to the construction of teachers’ holistic profession contextually. The rationales of applying a perspective of transformative learning concentrate on three major reasons. Cultivating teachers’ profession as one type of adult learning is the core subject of transformative learning. Development serves as core idea of teachers’ holistic professional consciousness. The learning transformation occurred from semi-profession to holistic profession. In this sense, the transformative learning model for teachers’ profession is initially proposed to identify a special lens to shape an explicit pathway of being a teacher of holistic profession. In this model, transformative learning involves identifying “learning being professional”. Transformative relationship focuses on “teaching being professional”. Transformative context view concentrates on contenting being professional. Transformative context view involves contenting being professional. The conclusion and remarks are offered to summarize the rewards of being a teacher of holistic profession.

Embracing the tension between vulnerability and credibility: 'intellectual candour' in health professions education.

The tension between expressing vulnerability and seeking credibility creates challenges for learning and teaching. This is particularly true in health care, in which practitioners are regarded as highly credibleand making errors can often lead to dire consequences and blame. From a transformative learning perspective, expressing vulnerability may help individuals to access different ways of knowing. By contrast, from a sociological perspective, seeking to maintain credibility results in ritualised interactions and these ritualised encounters can reinforce credibility. One means of embracing this tension between expressing vulnerability and appearing credible is 'intellectual candour', an improvisational expression of doubts, thoughts and problems with the dual purpose of learning and promoting others' learning. Educators' revelations of inner struggles are proposed as a means of inviting reciprocal vulnerability. This builds trust and a platform for learning, particularly of the transformative nature. It also allows modelling of how to balance the vulnerability-credibility tension, which may provide a template for professional practice.

On disruption, disorientation, and development in clinical supervision: a transformative learning perspective

ABSTRACTMight Practice Self (or therapist identity) formation in clinical supervision be profitably conceptualized as a transformative learning process? In this article, drawing on Mezirow’s (2000, 2003, 2006, 2012) transformative learning theory, we consider that question. We give particular focus to Mezirow’s ten-phase process of transformation, whereby identity becomes constructed, reconstructed, or reworked and propose that the process of transformation serves as a useful metaphor for thinking about the vagaries and vicissitudes of the therapist’s own Practice Self development. We then apply those ten phases to the therapist’s journey of becoming, providing a developmentally descriptive, process-driven narrative of Practice Self formation.

Transformative learning of mentors from an immigrant workplace connections program

ABSTRACTMentorship programs have been deployed within immigrant and settlements services to integrate newcomers to the Canadian labor market. These programs are often assessed for their impacts on immigrant mentees. Little attention has been paid to how they may have influenced mentors. In this context, this study, from the perspective of transformative learning, examines the experiences of 19 mentors who were involved in a mentorship program designed to enhance the employment prospects for immigrant professionals in Canada. Findings indicated that in the process of mentoring immigrants with diverse backgrounds, mentors engaged in both informational and transformational learning. Through informational learning, the mentors expanded their cultural and work-related knowledge, hence their life horizons. For some mentors, their learning was also transformational. Some developed new awareness of and relation to the self. Some also started recognizing the structural and cultural barriers facing newcomers, and sometimes taking actions to effect social change. Both kinds of learning – informational and transformational – we argue, may contribute to disrupting relations of inequality between newcomers and the host society. The study suggests ways through which mentoring programs can contribute to a two-way process of integration involving changes and learning for both newcomers and the host society.

The perils, privileges and pleasures of seeking right from wrong: reflecting upon student perspectives of social processes, value systems, agency and the becoming of identity in the dance technique classroom

This essay reflects a pedagogical qualitative action research study conducted in my university contemporary technique courses that explored constructivist, emancipatory, and transformative learning perspectives. The study offered me the opportunity to critically reflect upon my teaching practices and values in light of student perceptions of social processes at play within my classroom and how these related to understandings gained, values students practiced inside and outside of the classroom, and identity construction.