Presented by Annmarie Dumont, Charles Burke, Ruth Ronan

Transformational Learning

Is about change,dramatic,fundamental change in the way we see ourselves and the world in which we live.Merriam (2007)Think about some life changing events in your life.

How does Transformational Learning occur?

How we see the world and how we engage in the world.

Transformational learning occurs when the learner is willing to change.

Lenses of Transformation

Lenses allow us to see things and limit our view Individual Socio-Cultural

Psycho-critical Socio-emancipatoryPsychodevelopmental Cultural-spiritual Psychoanalytical Race-centric Planetary approaches

Transformation

Transformational Learning

The world has been transforming for a long time.

We constantly challenge the way we think and conduct business.

We then transform our behavior and modify our principles to become more product and humane.

Transformation in Business

Light the way to a new future

Focus on a Theorist: Jack Mezirow

(Another Old Guy)

Who is Jack Mezirow• Age 89

• Emeritus Professor of Adult and Continuing Education at Teacher's College, Columbia University

• Former Chair,Dept of higher Ed and Director of Adult Ed, Columbia University

• Former Associate Dean, Statewide Programs University at the University of CA Extension

• Pioneered Doctorate Program in Transformational Learning, Columbia University

Mezirow Definition of Transformational Learning

"The process of using a prior interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of one's experience in order to guide future action"

(Mezirow, 1991)

Focus on a Theorist: Mezirow

Mezirow :Four Main Steps to Transformational Learning

Four Main Steps: 1.Experience 2.Critical Reflection 3.Reflective Discourse 4.Action

Experience Critically self-examine the assumptions and beliefs that have structured how experiences have been interpreted.

Until you walk in the shoe's of another

Critical Reflection

Where do our meaning schemes and perspectives come from?

How did I come up my my belief system?

Experience

Reflective Discourse

Discourse is not a war or debateIt is a conscious effort to find agreementto build a new understanding. Mezirow

Action

Delayed, Immediate or reaffirmation of existing pattern.

Transformational Learning

Meaning Perspectives Meaning Schemes

Perspectives Schemes(Habits of Mind) (Points of View)

Meaning Scheme

Points of View

Components which contain specific knowledge, values and beliefs about one's experience.

Collective meaning schemes work together tocreate one's meaning perspective.

Meaning Perspective

Habit of Mind Overall World ViewAcquired passively during childhood and are the target of the transformation that occurs through experience during adulthood. Natural change in response to life experience, induce powerful emotional responses in an individual. Life Changing Events.

Reflect upon this picture

A Life Changing/Saving Event

Transformational Activity

Paulo Freire

Brazilian educator, philopher and theorist of critical pedagogy

1921-1997

The People Freire Served

Freire's Seminal Work“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.”

― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Freire’s Terminology• Praxis• Generative Themes• Easter Experience• Dialogue • Conscientization• Codification • Banking

Key Concepts

Culture Circles

Situations Activity

Relevance for Community Colleges

“For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.”

─ Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

“Bit by bit, these groups begin to see themselves and their society from their own perspective; they become aware of their own potentialities. This is the point at which hopelessness begins to be replaced by hope… Society now reveals itself as something unfinished, not as something inexorably given; it has become a challenge rather than a hopeless limitation. This new critical optimism requires a sense of social responsibility and of engagement in the task of transforming society; it cannot mean simply letting things run on.”

─ Paulo Freire, Education for Critical Consciousness

Transformation and Hope

The Heart of Paulo Freire

Focus on Theorist: Daloz

Laurent Daloz known for a book he wrote on mentoring and the role mentors

play in adult's returning to school. He focused on holistic and intuitive vs. rational and

reflective.

Robert Boyd

He believed if we study and analyze ourselves and learn to integrate our emotional and spiritual parts transformational learning will occur.

The practice of critical reflection requires a community of peers to assist the learner in uncovering commonly held and possibly false assumptions.

Stephan Brookfield

Johnson-Bailey

Highlights the role of race and suggests that struggle is part of the transformative learning process.

Patricia Cranton

"Fostering transformative learning involves helping bring the source, nature, and consequences of taken-for-granted assumptions into critical awareness so that appropriate action can be taken."

ResourcesBrookfield, S. (1987).Developing critical thinkers: Challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Journal of Extension February 2007 // Volume 45 // Number 1 // Feature Articles // 1FEA1 Copyright © by Extension Journal, Inc. ISSN 1077-5315

Adult Education Theories: Informing Cooperative Extension's Transformation

Merriam, S.; Caffarella, R.; Baumgartner, L. (2007). Learning in Adulthood a comprehensive guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Dirkx, J. (1998). Transformative Learning Theory in the Practice of Adult Education: An Overview. PAACE Journal of Lifelong Learning, Vol. 7, 1-14.

Resources Continued...Bartlett, L. (2008). Paulo Freire and Peace Education. Encyclopedia of Peace Education,

Teachers College, Columbia University. Retrieved from Encyclopedia of Peach Education, Teachers College, Columbia University: http://www.tc.edu/centers/epe/entries.html

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oprressed. New York: Continuum.

Freire, P. (1974). Education for Critical Consciousness. New York: Continuum.

McLaren, P. (2000). Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and the Pedagogy of Revolution. Lanham, Maryland: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Smith, M. K. (2012, May 29). Paulo Freire and informal education, 1997, 2002. Retrieved from The Encyclopedia of Informal Education: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-freir.htm

University of Central Lancashire: Freire Institute. (2012, Nov 11). Concepts Used by Paulo Freire. Retrieved from Freire Institute: http://www.freire.org/paulo-freire/concepts-used-by-paulo-freire/