Patricia Cranton

Musings and Reflections on the Meaning, Context, and Process of Transformative Learning A Dialogue Between John M. Dirkx and Jack Mezirow

Jack Mezirow and John Dirkx engage in a dialogue in which they explore the similarities and differences between their views of transformative learning. Mezirow describes a rational process of learning that transforms an acquired frame of reference. Dirkx focuses on the nature of the self—a sense of identify and subjectivity—which he sees as soul work or inner work.

Fostering Transformative Learning

When we are children, growing up in a family, community, and culture, we absorb the values and beliefs we encounter in our surroundings. We believe that our parents and teachers know best, and we strive to please those important people in our lives by following their values and beliefs.

Developing Authenticity as a Transformative Process

The authors explored the meaning of authenticity in teaching by talking to a group of 22 educators over 3 years. Educators’ ways of being authentic in their teaching moved from concrete understandings of self, others, relationships, context, and reflection through to multifaceted and integrative perspectives. The authors used transformative learning theory and Jung’s concept of individuation to understand the development of authenticity.

When the Bottom Falls Out of the Bucket Toward A Holistic Perspective on Transformative Learning

Transformative learning theory has been fragmented in a variety of ways. There has been debate between those who view it as a cognitive, rational process and those who prefer an imaginative, extrarational interpretation. Some scholars emphasize the affective component of the journey; some see social action as preceding individual change. Perspectives such as those from depth psychology and humanism have much to contribute to transformative learning theory. What we attempt to do in this article is to bring together some of the various perspectives on transformative learning and integrate them through the concepts of individuation and authenticity. We hope that this initiative will lead other theorists and writers to continue to contemplate how we can build a holistic perspective of transformative learning theory.

The Transformative Educator as Learning Companion

This study seeks to understand how adult literacy educators foster transformative learning through being a learning companion. Based on interviews with eight literacy educators, it explores how the educators deliberately and consciously create a safe environment, build trust, help learners overcome their fears, create possibilities, foster self-discovery, and work with the whole person.

A transformative perspective on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

In this paper, I explore the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning through the lens of transformative learning theory and critical theory. In doing so, I expand the notion of a Scholarship of Teaching so as to go beyond the solving of practical problems in teaching and the improvement of teaching effectiveness. I focus on an emancipatory Scholarship of Teaching that centres on critical reflection and action on the contexts of teaching: the discipline, the institution, the community and the state and society in which we practice.

Critically Questioning the Discourse of Transformative Learning Theory

In this article, the authors critically examine the way discourse enters into and becomes embedded in transformative learning theory, especially from the extrarational or depth psychology perspective. The authors begin by providing an overview of how transformative learning theory has developed in diverse directions, including the extrarational approach. In this latter perspective, concepts from depth psychology tend to be used to describe transformative learning, without there being a critical analysis or a common understanding of the meaning of these concepts. By treating knowledge about transformative learning as practical knowledge (from the perspective of Habermas’s framework), the authors are able to critically question the knowledge claims inherent in the discourse within the extrarational approach to transformative learning theory development.

Reflecting on teaching: The influence of context

The nature of teaching and learning in higher education is dependent on a complex web of factors: the philosophy and personality of the faculty member, the characteristics of students, the discipline and the course content, the vision and the atmosphere of the institution, and the larger social context within which the teaching takes place. When any one of these factors changes, teaching changes. It is our intent in this paper to describe how faculty experience a change in teaching context, how that change leads to reflection on practice, and how beliefs and assumptions about teaching may be revised.

A Response to Michael Newman’s “Calling Transformative Learning Into Question: Some Mutinous Thoughts”

Editors’ Note In a previous issue, Michael Newman presented a provocative article on transformative learning. The editors thought that it would be of interest to extend the discussion by inviting several authors to present alternative views. In the following articles Patricia Cranton and Elizabeth Kasl and John Dirkx present their critiques and Michael Newman responds. We realize this dialogue may prompt further thoughts and discussion and invite further response from readers. We will try to publish these as space permits.

Developing a Survey of Transformative Learning Outcomes and Processes Based on Theoretical Principles

The purpose of this research was to develop an inclusive evaluation of “transformative learning theory” that encompassed varied perspectives of transformative learning. We constructed a validated quantitative survey to assess the potential outcomes and processes of how transformative learning may be experienced by college-educated adults. Based on a review of the rational/cognitive, extrarational, and social/emancipatory perspectives of transformation learning theory, the survey reflects the assumptions underlying these perspectives through survey items and allows the survey to be used in multiple contexts both inside and outside the formal classroom. Survey development included a comprehensive review of the literature, external review by experts in adult education, focus groups for clarification of the items, the calculation of interitem correlations for each scale and cross-scale correlations, and the calculation of Cronbach’s α reliability coefficients. This survey has the potential to advance the study of transformative learning by being inclusive of several existing theoretical perspectives that have common outcomes.