Expanding the Boundaries of Transformative Learning Essays on Theory and Praxis

by O'Sullivan, Edmund V.; Morrell, Amish; O'Connor, Mary Ann

• ISBN13: 9780312295073
• ISBN10: 0312295073
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-03
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Transformative learning involves experiencing a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings, and actions. It is a shift of consciousness that dramatically and permanently alters our way of being in the world. Such a shift involves our understanding of ourselves and our self-locations; our relationships with other humans and with the natural world; our understanding of relations of power in interlocking structures of class, race and gender; our body awarenesses; our visions of alternative approaches to living; and our sense of possibilities for social justice and peace and personal joy. The editors of this collection make several challenges to the existing field of transformative learning-the first is to theoreticians, who have attempted to describe the nature of transformative learning without regard to the content of transformative learning. The editors argue that transformative learning theory cannot be constructed in a content-neutral or context-free way. Their second challenge, which assumes the importance of content for transformative learning, is to educators as practitioners. The editors argue that transformative learning requires new educational practices consistent with the content. Arts-based research and arts-based teaching/learning practices are one example of such new educational practices. Education for the soul, or spiritual practices such as meditation or modified martial arts or indigenous peoples' forms of teaching/learning, is another example. Each article in the collection presents a possible model of these new practices.

Author Biography

Edmund V. O'Sullivan is the Director of the Transformation Learning Centre, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, at the University of Toronto.

Amish Morrell is a doctoral candidate, OISE, University of Toronto.

Mary Ann O'Connor is Director of the Women's Educational Center at the University of Michigan-Flint.

Table of Contents

Introduction--O’Sullivan, Morrell, O’Connor

Toward a People’s Journalism: Our Stories, Our Perspectives and Our Future--Paul Boin

Towards Transformative Learning: Ecological Perspectives for Adult Education--Darlene Clover

The Labyrinth: Site and Symbol of Transformation--Vanessa Compton

The Right to a New Utopia: Adult Learning and the Changing World of Work in an Era of Global Capitalism--Budd Hall

The Culture of Peace--Anne Goodman

Situating Spirituality in the Agenda for Transformative Learning--George J. Sefa Dei

Transforming Research: Possibilities for Art-Informed Research?--J. Gary Knowles and Ardra Cole

What is Curriculum Anyway?--Matt Maxwell

Transformative Learning and the Tao of History: Spirituality in the Postindustrial Revolution--Brian Milani

Learning from a Spiritual Perspective--Jack Miller

Experiences in Radical Pedagogy of Race and Gender--Shahrzad Mojab

Traces of the Forgotten: Photographic Ambiguity and Critical Histories--Amish Morrell

Exploring Healing and the Body through Chinese Medicine: Notes on Pedagogy and Embodiment--Roxana Ng

The Integrative Power of Fiction as Research: New Paradigms for Scholarship in Transformative Learning--Mary Ann O’Connor

Transforming the Ecology of Violence--Eimear O’Neill and Edmund O’Sullivan

The Transformative Power of Creative Dissent: The Raging Grannies Legacy--Carole Roy

Bringing Latin American Traditions of Transformative Learning to the North--Daniel Schugurensky

Journey of our Spirits: Challenges for Adult Indigenous Learners--Renee Shilling

The Signature of the Whole: Radical Interconnectedness in Education--David Selby

African Women, the Land, the Universe and Creation: A Spiritual Connection--Njoki Wane