Chad Hoggan

Transformative Learning as a Metatheory: Definition, Criteria, and Typology.

This article addresses a significant problem with transformative learning theory; namely, that it is increasingly being used to refer to almost any instance of learning. This article offers several points of clarity to resolve this problem. First, it portrays a subtle but important evolution in the way the theory has been used in the literature and, as a solution, positions transformative learning as an analytic metatheory. It then presents a typology of transformative learning outcomes as a conceptual tool scholars can use to describe learning phenomena. Finally, this article suggests a definition and criteria for transformative learning to provide parameters around the phenomena that the metatheory of transformative learning should address.

Promoting Transformative Learning through Reading Fiction.

This article is a report on research into the role of fiction in promoting transformative learning in higher education settings. Participants were 131 undergraduate and graduate students from two universities in the United States. To determine the type of learning promoted by reading fiction, we performed qualitative analyses on participants’ written reflections following a learning activity that included the reading of a fictional short story. Our major findings consisted of the following three categories: promoting change (with subcategories of promotes desire for change and stimulates change), new perspectives (with subcategories of opens eyes to new perspectives and opens new/more holistic perspectives), and fosters critical reflections. Supplementary findings were connections with personal experiences, emotional responses, and role models in the story. The types of learning described by our participants coincide with processes that promote transformative learning.

Insights From Breast Cancer Survivors The Interplay Between Context, Epistemology, and Change

This study explored the processes by which a group of breast cancer survivors experienced positive learning and growth from their cancer experiences. The author argues that such learning and growth can be considered transformative learning, especially from ontological perspectives of the theory. The participants’ change process consisted of different types of experiences that can be classified as Crisis, Coping, and Engagement. These types of experiences illustrate a process of adaptation to a new context. The findings suggests that the specific context in which transformative learning occurs has a profound effect on the epistemology used to negotiate that learning and growth, and in turn shapes and informs the types of change that occur.

Developing the Theory of Perspective Transformation.

Mezirow’s theory of perspective transformation has proved to be a great asset to the scholarship of adult education and has provided a solid theoretical base for understanding complex learning phenomena. However, in the discussions surrounding Mezirow’s work, a certain “stuckness” appears which we think is unproductive. Critiques of Mezirow are often repeated, secondhand or thirdhand, causing important issues and tensions to become simplified and dichotomized, which causes complex aspects of the theory to lose the nuance that a good theory provides. This article draws on recent contributions to the literature in order to elaborate on the theory of perspective transformation in light of these recurring critiques. In so doing, we introduce three key concepts to the lexicon of perspective transformation: continuity, intersubjectivity, and emancipatory praxis. For each, we address the underlying omission or weakness in Mezirow’s theory and offer revised conceptualizations of the theory.

A Tale of Two Transitions: Female Military Veterans During Their First Year at Community College

Surprisingly few empirical studies examine the experience of veterans as they transition into community college. Using Schlossberg’s transition model and 4S framework—situation, self, supports, and strategies—this article portrays a subset of findings from a qualitative study involving recent military veterans transitioning into community college. Findings comprise biographical vignettes of two female veterans entering their first year of community college. Although the findings align with some existing research, this study illustrates the complex and nuanced issues that veteran students face, including strained finances and lack of familiarity with college structure. For female veterans, these issues are often further complicated by circumstances such as motherhood and marriage.

Transformative Learning Through Conceptual Metaphors: Simile, Metaphor, and Analogy as Levers for Learning

This article presents findings from a research study wherein participants demonstrated the use of similes, metaphors, and analogies, termed conceptual metaphors, in response to disorienting dilemmas instigated by breast cancer. In this qualitative case study of 18 breast cancer survivors, conceptual metaphors were used in three distinct ways: (a) to uncover tacit ways of making meaning, (b) to name experiences, and (c) to imagine new possibilities. The experiences were considered transformative because the participants claimed new ways of thinking and being, leading to a fuller and richer lived experience. Educators aspiring to promote transformative learning may want to add techniques that incorporate conceptual metaphors to their (metaphorical) toolbox of pedagogical resources.

A typology of transformation: Reviewing the transformative learning literature

Abstract This article depicts the literature on transformative learning theory in two ways. First, it conveys an historical evolution of the theory that has taken place over the past four decades. Second, it reviews the research literature on transformative learning within the field of adult education over the past 12 years in terms of its portrayal and description of learning outcomes. Based on these depictions, this article offers a reconceptualisation of transformative learning as a metatheory under which specific theories aggregate. It provides a new definition of transformative learning that is capable of encompassing the wide variety of learning outcomes conveyed in the research literature, as well as concepts to serve as criteria for learning outcomes to be considered transformative. Lastly, this article offers a typology for future scholars to use in articulating outcomes of transformative learning.

The Association Between Worldview Climate Dimensions and College Students' Perceptions of Transformational Learning

Based on 13,776 student respondents to the Campus Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey (CRSCS) across three academic years at 52 colleges and universities, this study examined how aspects of the campus climate for religious and spiritual diversity related to student perceptions of transformational learning in college. Perceived transformational learning was associated with college experiences that provoked new ways of thinking and presented challenges to preexisting assumptions of reality, ceteris paribus. Some effects were conditioned on students’ self-identified religion/worldview. Implications are discussed.

Exercising Clarity with Transformative Learning Theory

Transformative learning suffers from evacuation, or the use of a term to refer to such a wide variety of phenomena that it loses any distinctive meaning. Hoggan addresses this problem in three ways. First, this chapter provides a historical overview of the evolution of the learning outcomes described in the transformative learning literature. It then positions transformative learning as a metatheory and provides a suitable definition. Three criteria of depth, breadth, and relative stability are offered as parameters around the metatheory. Last, this chapter presents a typology of transformative learning outcomes, and demonstrates how the criteria and typology can work together to exercise clarity around transformative learning.

Recognizing the Value of Threshold Concepts: Application of a Conceptual Tool to Professional Students Learning to Be Researchers

ABSTRACT Threshold concepts, as theorized by Meyer and Land, are key understandings, ways of thinking, and subjectivities that are necessary for newcomers to learn in order to participate successfully in a given field of study or practice. Every discipline and profession has threshold concepts, but often they are so integral to veterans’ participation in their field that they remain implicit until an effort is made to articulate tacit understandings into explicit learning outcomes for newcomers. Library and information science uses threshold concepts as a framework for educating all types of students in information literacy competencies expected of novice researchers. This report demonstrates how threshold concepts were articulated and implemented into a summer research scholars program for veterinary students. This article uses a typology of transformative learning outcomes as a guide to articulate threshold concepts specific for researchers in veterinary science. Through examining the context of a summer research scholars program for veterinary students, these concepts were further elucidated and considered in the implementation of information literacy learning opportunities for this program.