Mention of transformative learning immediately reminds scholars and learners of its chief proponent, Jack Mezirow, who is Emeritus Professor of Adult and Continuing Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, Former Chairman, Department of Higher and Adult Education, and Director for Adult Education. It was Mezirow who popularized the theory of transformative learning in the early 1980s. Mezirow’s theory is such that individuals’ meaning perspectives are transformed through a process of construing and appropriating new or revised interpretations of the meaning of an experience as a guide to awareness, feeling, and action (Jarvis, 2002, p. 188). Later, scholars such as Cranton and King, expanded this theory of transformative learning by publishing two more books in this area. Cranton (1994) published a book titled Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning. King (2005) published another titled Bringing Transformative Learning to Life. Both books, including Mezirow’s original books, have greatly enhanced the theory in the field of adult learning.
Comparative adult and continuing education: A guiding essay
