scholarly journals Learning to Be: Emerging Discourse in Awakening Transformation in Education

in education ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Vanessa V. Tse ◽  
David F. Monk

This paper explores the disconnection between knowledge of social and environmental injustices and actions to right them. Through our discussion, we consider possible reasons for this disconnection, whether a lack of knowledge, personal accountability and responsibility, or a fear of being swallowed up in the depths of the suffering in the world. We then critically reflect on our role and the role of education to broach this gap. We adopt O’Sullivan’s (2002) transformative learning theory as a guide and suggest that disruptive dialogues, like the one that has guided this paper, can challenge habits of mind, shift perspectives, and lead to action for a better, more equitable world. Ultimately, we conclude that such conversations are organic and ever changing and are integral to education.Keywords: Social justice; critical discourse; transformation 

Author(s):  
Rachel C. Plews ◽  
Moira Laffranchini Ngoenha

This chapter explores the ongoing collaboration between an educational developer and a faculty member at a university of teacher education in Switzerland as an inquiry into one's teaching practice to improve the implementation of the flipped classroom approach. Through the lens of transformative learning theory, the chapter examines how SoTL can serve as faculty enrichment in addition to an approach for systematic reflection on practice. Special attention is paid to the role of the educational developer as a mentor throughout the inquiry. The chapter concludes with practical strategies for developing a productive SoTL relationship between educational developers and faculty member, as well as visibility across an institution.


2019 ◽  
pp. 154134461986406 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Edward Watkins

The beginning period of psychotherapist development has been conceptually and empirically identified as the most difficult and potentially problematic. The budding therapist is struggling to define a therapist identity, settle into the role of being a “helper,” and come to grips with being a helper who can “heal.” That struggle, I contend, is at its core a transformative learning process that involves developing a guiding vision of oneself as therapist, where the shift from becoming to being is made reality. In what follows, I examine transformative learning theory as a framework for enhancing our understanding about the beginning period of therapist development. The specific question that I consider is: What transformative learning outcomes occur for the beginning psychotherapist in the process of developing a therapist identity? I draw on and analogize from Hoggan’s typology of transformative learning outcomes in providing an answer to that question.


2020 ◽  
pp. 104515952098116
Author(s):  
Renee Owen

Implicit bias classes have become a common practice with the aim of creating more inclusive work and learning environments. Such classes are aimed at helping individuals identify unconscious habits of mind and behaviors around race, which can be a disorienting experience. By seeing such classes through the lens of transformative learning theory, the instructor can help students through the disorienting experience with a transformative learning process. Transformative learning is a process of changing perspectives and habits of mind, ultimately resulting in changes in behavior. Recent research around the practice of mindfulness reveals a strong indication that a regular mindfulness practice can aid in helping individuals change habits of mind and behavior. The article provides brief examples of how teaching students about the neuroscience of bias, coupled with leading mindfulness techniques, enhances students’ grasp of concepts around bias to better embed the learning in multiple ways. Mindfulness becomes a tool for helping students develop awareness of their biases and for transforming inherited habits of mind into more positive and inclusive mind-sets.


Author(s):  
Susan Cahill ◽  
Michelle Bulanda

Purpose: Pediatric occupational therapy and physical therapy interventions for children with disabilities are designed to increase function and often focus on developmental skills instead of on the environmental context and promoting self-determination skills. A professional development course was developed to help therapists develop intervention strategies to meet developmental outcomes, while also promoting children's self-determination and creating opportunities for children to authentically participating in daily routines, including leisure and community play. Transformative learning theory was used as a basis to develop this course. The purpose of this article is to report on course activities and the assessment of participants' "transformation" at the completion of the course. Method: A pre-test/post-test design was used to determine whether participants in this course (n=3) had made transformations in their habits of mind when designing client goals, intervention plans and recommendations for a fictional case study of a child with a disability. Results: Participants wrote pre-test goals that focused on building skill in typical developmental sequences; whereas post-test goals focused on using strengths the child had and changing the environment to encourage authentic participation of the child. In addition post-test goals and interventions focused on determining the child's preference and choice about activities to participate in. Pre-test referrals were for equipment and other programs to address skill development; while post-test referrals focused on play and recreation opportunities. Conclusion: Following completion of a course using transformative learning strategies, participants demonstrated changes in habits of mind upon completion of a post-test case study in which goals, interventions, and referrals were more consistent with themes of the course including self-determination and authentic participation.


Author(s):  
Patricia Cranton

The purpose of this article is to explore the potential for fostering transformative learning in an online environment. It provides an overview of transformative learning theory, including the variety of perspectives on the theory that have evolved as the theory matured. Strategies and practices for fostering transformative learning are presented, followed by a description of the online environment and how strategies for encouraging transformative learning might be carried into that environment. Students’ voices are brought in to corroborate and to question the importance of these strategies. The article concludes with a discussion of how an educator’s style and strengths can be brought into online teaching, especially with a view to helping learners examine their meaning perspectives.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Kojo Fenyi ◽  
◽  
Georgina Afeafa Sapaty ◽  

This study sets out to investigate, examine and understand the hidden ideologies and ideological structures/devices in the 2013 State of the Nation Address of President John Dramani Mahama. The study specifically aimed to (i) ascertain the ideologies embedded in the speech and (ii) investigate linguistic expressions and devices which carry these ideological colourations in the speech under review. It uses Critical Discourse Analysis as the theoretical framework to examine the role of language in creating ideology as well as the ideological structures in the speech. These hidden ideologies are created, enacted and legitimated by the application of certain linguistic devices. The researchers deem a study of this nature important as it will expose hidden motives that Ghanaian presidents cloth in language in order to manipulate their audience through their speeches in order to win and/or sustain political power. Through thematic analysis, it was revealed that Mahama projected these ideologies in his speech: ideology of positive self-representation, ideology of human value, ideology of economic difficulty, ideology of power relations and ideology of urgency. It also revealed that Mahama projects his ideologies through the following ideological discursive structures: pronouns, biblical allusion and metaphor. The study has shown that language plays a crucial role in human existence as a means of socialisation. Language has been revealed as a means of communicating ideologies and events of the world. In the tradition of CDA, this study has confirmed that text and talk have social and cultural character and that discourse functions ideologically.


2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-13
Author(s):  
Braden Hill ◽  
Grantley Winmar ◽  
Jenna Woods

Transformative learning theory articulates a process whereby students experience a change in perspectives that expands and transforms their worldview. Despite being well established and regarded within the literature relating to adult and continuing education, Mezirow's (1978) seminal education theory remains largely absent in the research relating to Indigenous higher education. This study explores the transformative impact of university learning on the student journeys of three Aboriginal graduates from a Western Australian university. Applying a collaborative auto-ethnographic approach, each author-participant's personal narrative of their student experience was exposed to comparative, thematic and critical analysis. It was found that each author had faced similar cognitive and emotional challenges at university. Significantly, it emerged that university had changed the author-participants’ identities in ways that aligned with Mezirow's transformative learning construct. The narrative data also revealed elements that appeared related to the students’ negotiation of Nakata's cultural interface. A dominant theme in the data referred to the relationships formed during university, as being integral to transformation. Furthermore, family was understood to have a paradoxical influence on their educational journey. The insights garnered from this study prompt further consideration as to how transformative learning theory might be mobilised at the cultural interface.


10.33287/1195 ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 49-57
Author(s):  
Ю. І. Коломоєць

Russian political emigration from the beginning of its birth in the first half of the nineteenth century was constantly in search of forms and methods of struggle with royal power in the homeland. Detachment from Russia, the feeling of isolation that was inherent in emigration to the early twentieth century, were an important factor in the ongoing conflicts that took place in its environment. We note the conflicts between the «old» and the «young» emigration in the late 1860’s, between the Marxists and the populists of the 1880’s, between the revolutionary Marxists and the «economists» at the end of the 1890’s. All of these, as a rule, were due to excessive the ambitions of some leaders, the attempt to become the «rulers of ideas» for revolutionary youth, due to significant financial problems. In the list of these and similar conflicts there are events of 1870, when in the environment of political emigration there are two serious confrontations between the leader of anarchists M. Bakunin on the one hand and S. Nechaev or «Russian section of the First International» - on the other. These conflicts significantly influenced the situation in emigration, disorganized it, weakened the ability to fight the tsarist regime. They were accompanied by sharp accusations, searches for compromising materials, attempts to get support from leaders of the world revolutionary movement. The ambitions of young revolutionaries such as S. Nechaev or M. Utin were also connected with the attempt to take the main place among the emigrants, moving to the background of former leaders M. Bakunin, M. Ogarev, P. Lavrov. All this led to split in emigrant colonies, which consisted mainly of student youth. Violent discussions, accusations, boycotts became a hallmark of emigrant life. Basically, all these events took place in Switzerland, which at that time already became the center of not only Russian, but also international political emigration. Conflicts were directed at the political annihilation of the opponents, which subsequently resulted in the arrest and extradition to the Russian government of S. Nechaev in 1872, the cessation of the activities of the Russian Section of the First International and the return of M. Utin to Russia and the cessation of revolutionary activity in general. The positive side of these conflicts was the rallying of emigrants around their leaders, better information on the state of affairs in their environment, the development of new forms and methods of interaction and the strengthening of the role of revolutionaries from Russia itself.


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