Expanding the Boundaries of Transformative Learning

Essays on Theory and Praxis

E. O'Sullivan, A. Morrell, M. O'Connor, E. O'Sullivan, A. Morrell, M. O'Connor

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780312295073
• eBook ISBN:
  9781349635504
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

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 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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowlegments
• Contributors
• Introduction
• 1. The Project and Vision of Transformative Education: Integral Transformative Learning
• 2. What Is Curriculum Anyway?
• 3. Feminist Perspectives on Globalization and Integrative Transformative Learning
• 4. The Right to a New Utopia: Adult Learning and the Changing World of Work in an Era of Global Capitalism
• 5. From Opposition to Alternatives: Postindustrial Potentials and Transformative Learning
• 6. Transformative Learning and Transformative Politics: The Pedagogical Dimension of Participatory Democracy and Social Action
• 7. The Signature of the Whole: Radical Interconnectedness and Its Implications for Global and Environmental Education
• 8. Learning from a Spiritual Perspective
• 9. The Labyrinth: Site and Symbol of Transformation
• 10. Spiritual Knowing and Transformative Learning
• 11. African Women and Spirituality: Connections between Thought and Education
• 12. Journey of Our Spirits: Challenges for Adult Indigenous Learners
• 13. Toward Transformative Learning: Ecological Perspectives for Adult Education
• 14. Transforming the Ecology of Violence: Ecology, War, Patriarchy, and the Institutionalization of Violence
• 15. Transformative Learning and Cultures of Peace
• 16. Transforming Research: Possibilities for Arts-Informed Scholarship?
• 17. On Speaking Terms Again: Transformation of the Human–Earth Relationship through Spontaneous Painting
• 18. Traces and Transformation: Photographic Ambiguity and Critical Histories
• 19. Transformative Learning and New Paradigm Scholarship
• 20. The Transformative Power of Creative Dissent: The Raging Grannies’ Legacy
• Index