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.

Transforming Technology Purpose and Integration

While the shift to emergency remote teaching was sudden and caught many off-guard, the reality exists that we need to better prepare faculty to utilize technology in a meaningful way and integrate it into lessons. This chapter provides an overview of two aspects: 1) preparing faculty for use of technology through a modified transitional learning model so that they are supported with just-in-time professional learning and 2) introducing them to the PICRAT technology framework to assist them in the design of their lessons. Both the model and the framework are constructivist in nature and align with transformative learning theory. Examples of what each of these structures look like are provided within the narrative.

Whither Transformative Education? Taking Stock Well into the Twenty-First Century

This article develops a framework for this special issue of JTE, and assesses the assessment of transformative learning. What and whom are the contributors assessing? For what ends? And how effectively? The call for manuscripts cited two “megatrends” in the transformative learning literature: 1. The importance of deep and transformative learning experiences that profoundly affect adult learners’ sense of self and their relationships and behavior in their community and broader world; 2. The need to clearly document these learning experiences and interventions and rigorously assess their outcomes, both proximal and distal. In what follows, I pose questions that these trends suggested to me and use them to take stock of transformative learning theory and education in the 21st century. At the end of each section, I synthesize what I found to be relevant from my review of the articles in this issue, highlighting what I see to be major contributions.

Using the Graphic Narrative to Stimulate Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory in Learners

This article describes a bounded action research case study that examines how reading and discussing a graphic narrative ( March Book Two, a comic autobiography of John Lewis’s life as a civil rights activist) enabled transformations in a group of seven adult student participants at a Canadian postsecondary institution. Data primarily gathered from photocopies of student work, including reflective journal entries, postsemester interviews, and the primary researcher’s daily reflexive and reflective research journal entries, were evaluated with Kitchenham and Chasteauneuf’s framework of assessing transformative learning with critical reflection types such as objective and subjective reframing of assumptions. The authors found that both the participants and the primary researcher engaged in a number of shifts, including engaging in systemic critical self-reflection of and on assumptions.

Exploring Student Support in a Completely Online Module Within an Open Distance eLearning Institution

Most first-year students lack technological skills, which hampers their learning. Within the University of South Africa (UNISA), as an open distance and e-learning (ODeL) institution, first-year students require support to succeed, particularly because they are responsible for managing their own time and studies. Using a signature course, such as ‘Language through an African Lens' (AFL1501), which is a completely online module offered by the College of Human Sciences, the author explores how qualtrics data and narrative analysis aid students in completing their coursework. The article further touches on the significance of UNISA tools and other online resources as fundamentals of connectivism, the theory of technology as an extension of human faculty, and transformative learning theory as a support mechanism. The contributions of the lecturer and teaching assistants in facilitating first-year students' success in the online module are invaluable, as is evident from this report involving 600 survey respondents from Unisa.

Transformative Learning in an Online Environment

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 described, 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, as it turns out to question the importance of these strategies. The article concludes with a focus building transformative relationships in the online environment.

A Disorienting Dilemma: Teaching and Learning in Technology Education During a Time of Crisis

The way individuals interpret and reinterpret their experience is central to meaning-making and, ultimately, to teaching learning. Grounded in Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory, this research explores whether pandemic-related emergency remote teaching manifested in a disorienting dilemma for technology educators. Educators negotiated curricular outcomes between physical aspects of making and doing and design and creative problem solving resulting in a pandemic transformed pedagogy. Thematic analysis revealed that making and doing was severely challenged due to decreased communication, student motivation and engagement. However, most concerning to educators was the heightened disparity in equity and access in their most vulnerable and at-risk students.

TRANSFORMATION OF EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS THROUGH CO-OP EXPERIENCES

The structure of co-operative programs gives students the opportunity to transform employability skills. Using a proposed conceptual framework and inspirationfrom Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory, this paper analyzes four engineering students in varying disciplines across the three contexts that a co-op experience provides: pre co-op school setting, co-op work placement and the post co-op school setting. Using reflection and by adapting to their settings, these students transformed their communication, organization/ time management and initiative/ responsibility skills. Analyzing these skills and experiences against the framework, we can see how the details and specifics of the transformation varies for each student; however, each student needs to experience each stage for successful transformation. Each of the stages then feeds into and helps further the skills as it changes.