Elizabeth Lange

Transformative and Restorative Learning: A Vital Dialectic for Sustainable Societies:

This study explores the potential of critical transformative learning for revitalizing citizen action, particularly action toward a sustainable society. Through an action research process with 14 university extension participants, it was found that a dialectic of transformative and restorative learning is vital for fostering active citizenship. This study also found that transformation is not just an epistemological process involving a change in worldview and habits of thinking; it is also an ontological process where participants experienced a change in their being in the world. As participants shifted into a new mode of relatedness with their material, social, and environmental realities, they sought avenues for socially responsible involvement as active citizens.

Is Freirean Transformative Learning the Trojan Horse of Globalization and Enemy of Sustainability Education? A Response to C. A. Bowers

In an earlier article in this journal, C. A. Bowers suggests that transformative learning, particularly Paulo Freire’s pedagogy, is a Trojan horse of western globalization, by deepening the ecological crisis and colonizing indigenous cultures. He charges that critical pedagogues avoid their own complicity in neoliberal globalization; he advocates for an alliance between conservative politics and environmentalism; and he promotes a “conserving education.” This article will critique the first three facets of Bowers’ argument: first, by agreeing with the critique of the enlightenment underpinnings in transformative learning theory but resolving them in more nuanced ways; second, by explaining the ontology implicit in Freire that Bowers misunderstands; and third, expanding the critical stream of transformative learning by arguing that every sustainability educator needs a strong political economic as well as cultural analysis, combined with honoring local contexts, including indigenous traditional knowledge.

Transformative Learning and Concepts of the Self: Insights from Immigrant and Intercultural Journeys.

This article examines Canadian immigrant and intercultural learning as an insightful context for examining transformative learning. Theories of intercultural communication are explored, particularly the concept of transculturality and Bhabha’s concept of ‘Third Space’. Various concepts of the self are also compared, particularly two conceptions implicit in theories of transformative learning, the autonomous self and the relational self. Finally, three empirical studies from Canada are reviewed and findings discussed regarding the transformative process of learning into transculturality as well as the relational self and relational knowing in transformative learning.

(Re)igniting a sociological imagination in adult education: the continuing relevance of classical theory

This article argues that sociology has been a foundational discipline for the field of adult education, but it has been largely implicit, until recently. This article contextualizes classical theories of sociology within contemporary critiques, reviews the historical roots of sociology and then briefly introduces the classical theories illustrating the continual presence of sociological thinking in the adult education field. Finally, it periodizes the lineage of the sociology of adult education, highlighting recent contributions. With 30 years of neoliberalism, social justice is eroding, authoritarianism is increasing and democracy—as the idea of a self-governing people deliberating issues of mutual concern in the public sphere—is further subordinated to the idea of society as an economy for exchanging goods and services. It is time to (re)ignite a sociological imagination among adult educators/learners, building on familiarity with both classical and contemporary sociology theories, more robust sociological analysis of the field and a (re)commitment to the historical principles of social justice and deep democracy. While international in focus, Canadian exemplars will be used.

Accounting and incentives for sustainability in higher education: an interdisciplinary analysis of a needed revolution

Purpose – The purpose of this interdisciplinary paper is to explore the constraining role of accounting in the higher education pursuit of sustainability goals and to provide recommendations to transform accounting in ways that create incentives for sustainability and a dialogic reporting culture in higher education accounting.Design/methodology/approach – Critical social theory and “strong” sustainability provide the theoretical framework for this interdisciplinary analysis. A literature review and collection of anecdotal evidence supports conceptual development of accounting technologies that provide incentives for sustainability practices in higher education.Findings – Conventional accounting practices are founded on positivism, managerialism, and neo‐classical economics, creating a psychic prison for the accounting discipline that fails to recognize the socially constructed nature of accounting reports and their explicit valuation role. University rewards structures, reporting mechanisms, and curricul...

Transformative Sustainability Education: From Sustainababble to a Civilization Leap

With the realities of climate change pressing in on us, sustainability discourse has gained currency, although some consider it to have been co-opted and emptied of meaning—‘sustainababble’. This chapter reviews the state of sustainability education, including a brief update on the state of sustainability vis-a-vis climate challenges, the contested meanings of sustainability and the historical development of sustainability education particularly in relation to environmental education and the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The chapter ends with a glimpse into the polyarchy of learning edges in transformative sustainability education and the shift towards a relational ontoepistemology, creating conditions for a civilizational leap.

Transforming Transformative Education Through Ontologies of Relationality

It has been charged that transformative learning theory is stagnating; however, theoretical insights from relational ontologies offer significant possibilities for revitalizing the field. Quantum physics has led to a deep revision in our understanding of the universe moving away from the materialism and mechanism of classical physics. Some scientists observe that this shifting view of reality is catalyzing a profound cultural transformation. They have also noted significant intersections between the New Science and North American Indigenous philosophies as well as Eastern mysticism, all relational ontologies. These intersections as well as the theory of agential realism of Karen Barad, feminist physicist, are used to propose a next generation of transformative learning theory, one that is embedded in ontologies of relationality. The author came to relational ontology through environmental and sustainability education. This fruitful cross-fertilization helps illuminate a transformative approach to sustainability education or transformative sustainability education—which has not yet been explicitly theorized. Relationality demands an ethical, ontological, and epistemological transformation. The six criteria that emerge in the overlap between quantum physics, living systems theory from ecology, and Indigenous philosophies can reframe our understandings of transformative education, particularly toward socially just and regenerative cultures, completing the work of unfinished justice and climate movements. Pertinent to adult educators, Naomi Klein (2014) asks, “History knocked on your door, did you answer?” (p. 466).

Introduction to Special Issue on Transformative Sustainability Education

In a time of integration and convergence rather than reductionism and specialization, we invite you to read this special issue on transformative sustainability education. This collection of articles examines the cross-fertilization between transformative learning and sustainability education, with significant insights for each field. While much of sustainability education aims for transformative outcomes and transformative educators often embrace the intention of a sustainable and just society, this issue teases out theoretical and practice-based knowledge related to both fields. In the 1980s, a sustainable society was defined as a society that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability discourse has gained currency over the decades, with rising public awareness and debate. Further, the global field of sustainable practice has become immense, proliferating, and evolving quickly across disciplines, sectors, and technologies. Now, with climate realities pressing in on us, educators are discussing “teaching for turbulence” in the 50 years ahead. The final report of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development indicates that entire education systems are straining at their edges to accommodate the needed transdisciplinary approaches and other transformations in education systems. The way forward often lays outside the strictures of formal, institutionalized contexts within nonformal and informal adult learning sites. In this polyarchy of learning edges, there are opportunities for the field of adult education and lifelong learning. While we had limited space, we invited some leading global thinkers who could bring a variety of perspectives and contexts to the emerging theory and practice of

Re-Narrating a Moral Self

In 30 years, the rise of neoliberalism has systematically denigrated the social welfare state, dissembled various forms of social solidarity, desiccated active democracy, and undermined the state role as regulator and arbiter, while increasing the power of economic elites, corporate freedom and individualism (Harvey, 2005).