Transformative learning

Session Four

Lenses of transformative learning

O “Lenses simultaneously allow us to see things and limit our view” (Merriam et al., 2007: 131)

Lenses of transformative learning

O Robert Boyd – psychoanalytic perspective – the importance of symbols and the unconscious in transformative learning;

O Laurent Daloz – psychodevelopmental approach: the intuitive nature of transformation learning; the importance of stories in the journey towards expanded worldview;

O William - Race-centric view of transformative learning puts African descent at the centre.

Lenses of transformative learning

O Elizabeth Tisdell – cultural-spiritual view of transformative learning;

O Freire – emancipatory learning;O O’Sullivan – planetary, cosmological,

and ecological view of transformative learning.

… (Taylor, 2008)

Mezirow’s psychocritical perspective

Kitchenham, A. (2008). The evolution of John Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory, Journal of Transformative Education, 6(2): 104-123.

Kegan’ constructive-developmental theory

Integrated (planery) perspective of tranformative learning

O Transformative learning involves experiencing a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feeling 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 (O’Sullivan, 2003: 326).