The Aim of the Collection
Jack Mezirow’s Transformation Theory, which he addressed to the community of adult educators beginning in 1978, had a catalytic role in creating the “transformative learning movement”. Mezirow made an enormous contribution to adult education and learning theory and mobilized a highly active and diverse community of scholars concerned with transformative education and learning. Part of this contribution is that Mezirow’s work was broad and rich enough to create common ground and lead to the reciprocal enrichment among varied views of transformative learning. Since then a large number of scholars developed parallel but related perspectives, that sometimes have similarities or affinities with Mezirow’s view and sometimes in ways that are quite divergent from Mezirow’s original conception. Through this process there has been a remarkable increase in research and publications concerning the entire field. However, this sometimes means the distinctions between Transformation Theory and other theoretical understandings of transformative learning1 have been played down. Without careful theoretical scrutiny transformative learning as a body of evolving and somewhat conflicting ideas will wither and not achieve its potential to inform learning, education, research and policy formulation.
The objective of the book is to explore a “living theory” by paying careful and critical attention to how Mezirow’s ideas have been received and interpreted in Europe. It offers practitioners, scholars and students a detailed overview of the development of the theory of transformative learning by European researchers and how it has built upon, critiqued, and enriched Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning.
For a long period the development of the theory of transformative learning in Europe has lagged behind North American scholarship and research but as these ideas now move toward center stage in Europe this is an opportune moment to ask important questions. This collection asks primarily whether there is a European perspective on Mezirow’s view of transformative learning that reflects this continent’s traditions and contexts; what is the nature of that European perspective; and how it may be similar or different to that of our American colleagues.
To this end we have gathered a number of scholars from Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and the UK in a research project. The varied understandings in the book’s texts are included under the heading of transformative learning that refers to this widening and sometimes diverging field with a special interest in exploring how they correlate with Mezirow’s view. The book illustrates the unique European emphases on transformative learning theory; outlines new theoretical perspectives crucial for the future evolution of transformative learning’s theoretical framework; explores theoretical perspectives in relation to practice across of range of settings (higher education, workplaces, teacher training and health care training and development) and raises new questions and opportunities for future development of transformative learning.
The various ways transformative learning theory has been approached in Europe reflects the development of adult learning theory and indeed the field of adult education in Europe where national agendas, languages, educational histories and cultures play important roles. Individual approaches, whether the Workers’ Education Association in the UK or Grundtvig inspired folk schools (Volkshochschule) in Austria, Hungary, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries, as well as the movements of popular education in Greece and Italy, all contribute to this diversity and richness.
Since the establishment of the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) in 1992, there has been a more explicit, if not unified, European perspective on research (Nicoll, Biesta, & Morgan-Klein, 2014). Its European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults , established in 2010, plays a key role in supporting a European community of practice in the scholarship of adult learning. The ESREA network “Interrogating Transformative Processes in Learning and Education: An International Dialogue” reflects the growing interest in the theory and with conferences, seminars and collaborations supports a strong pan-European movement of transformative learning scholars, researchers and students.
This collection is not intended to mark any trans-Atlantic fault lines or divergences in approaches as cooperations and collaborations are rich and mutually beneficial. It is worth noting that the editors and the contributors actively participate in events and publications in North America and Europe. But we have also become aware of interesting and generative differences: We can trace orientations and certain lines of inquiry that point toward distinct theoretical priorities over the years. It is clear, for instance, that the soul work of Tisdell and of Dirkx along with the environmental orientation of O’Sullivan in Toronto give the American version of the theory a trajectory that Europeans do not have. The important influence of John Dewey on Mezirow’s original work continues in America particularly in the scholarship associated with Teachers College. On the other hand, an interest in social theory and critical theory and the development of transformative learning theory, which we capture in this collection, give the European perspective its defining character. This is linked to differences across the adult education field as well as much wider experiences of politics and movements. It is remarkable how the work of a number of scholars in either Europe or America has been important in defining the approaches. Along with the early work of Illeris, we now add the work of an expanding number of scholars, some of whom collaborate in this present book.
Structure of the Collection and the Authors
The editors (Fleming, Kokkos and Finnegan) outline in Chap. 2 the context, contrasts and the European perspective on transformative learning theory as they find it in this collection. As emancipatory learning is central to Mezirow’s work Finnegan (Ireland) takes up in a more explicitly differentiated conception of transformative learning which distinguishes between, and theorizes across, individual and collective forms of reflexive agency linked to emancipation and human flourishing. Kokkos (Greece) addresses the important pedagogical challenge of teaching through Transformation Theory particularly through the use of the arts as a prompt for reconsidering dysfunctional perspectives. Fleming (Ireland) addresses two critiques of Transformation Theory (as overly rational and individual in understanding adult learning) and maps a way forward utilizing the connected knowing of Belenky and the recognition theory of Honneth as allies.
Mälkki (Finland) suggests that our abilities to engage in transformative learning and critical reflection on our taken-for-granted assumptions may be significantly strengthened by gently yet critically harnessing “edge-emotions,” which provide resistance to learning and change.
Eschenbacher (Germany) outlines how systems-thinking offers an in-depth perspective on processes of change and transformation involving above all the relational nature of those processes. She expands an understanding of Transformation Theory through systems theory.
Alhadeff-Jones (Switzerland) explores the role of temporality in the theory of transformative learning and outlines an exciting and novel proposal for putting “rhythmana...