Expanding the Boundaries of Transformative Learning : Essays on Theory and Praxis

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

• ISBN13: 9780312295080
• ISBN10: 0312295081
• Format: Paperback
• 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

Acknowledgments	vii
Contributors	ix
Introduction	xv
Amish Morrell
Mary Ann O'Connor
The Project and Vision of Transformative Education: Integral Transformative Learning	1	(12)
Edmund O'Sullivan
What Is Curriculum Anyway?	13	(10)
Matt Maxwell
Feminist Perspectives on Globalization and Integrative Transformative Learning	23	(12)
Angela Miles
The Right to a New Utopia: Adult Learning and the Changing World of Work in an Era of Global Capitalism	35	(12)
Budd L. Hall
From Opposition to Alternatives: Postindustrial Potentials and Transformative Learning	47	(12)
Brian Milani
Transformative Learning and Transformative Politics: The Pedagogical Dimension of Participatory Democracy and Social Action	59	(18)
Daniel Schugurensky
The Signature of the Whole: Radical Interconnectedness and Its Implications for Global and Environmental Education	77	(18)
David Selby
Learning from a Spiritual Perspective	95	(8)
John (Jack) P. Miller
The Labyrinth: Site and Symbol of Transformation	103	(18)
Vanessa Compton
Spiritual Knowing and Transformative Learning	121	(14)
George J. Sefa Dei
African Women and Spirituality: Connections between Thought and Education	135	(16)
Njoki Nathani Wane
Journey of Our Spirits: Challenges for Adult Indigenous Learners	151	(8)
Renee Shilling
Toward Transformative Learning: Ecological Perspectives for Adult Education	159	(14)
Darlene E. Clover
Transforming the Ecology of Violence: Ecology War, Patriarchy and the Institutionalization of Violence	173	(12)
Eimear O'Neill
Edmund O'Sullivan
Transformative Learning and Cultures of Peace	185	(14)
Anne Goodman
Transforming Research: Possibilities for Arts-Informed Scholarship?	199	(16)
J. Gary Knowles
Ardra L. Cole
On Speaking Terms Again: Transformation of the Human-Earth Relationship through Spontaneous Painting	215	(14)
Lisa M. Lipsett
Traces and Transformation: Photographic Ambiguity and Critical Histories	229	(12)
Amish Morrell
Transformative Learning and New Paradigm Scholarship	241	(16)
Mary Ann O Connor
The Transformative Power of Creative Dissent: The Raging Grannies' Legacy	257	(16)
Carole Roy
Index	273