Education Commons^™

Experiencing Transformative Learning During Participatory Needs Assessment Of A Public School: Journeys And Arrivals To Relational Ontology(Ies), Shree Krishna Wagle Dr., Parbati Dhungana Dr., Bal Chandra Luitel Prof., Erling Krogh Prof., Niroj Dahal

The Qualitative Report

This paper discusses experiences from school-based needs assessment within a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project aimed at facilitating quality education in public schools of rural Nepal. Being often a first stage in the process of research-action, Participatory Needs Assessment (PNA) offers space for community members’ perceptions and attitudes toward their collective needs. In this light, this paper takes evidence from the first and the second authors’ Ph.D. experiences, under the supervision of the third and the fourth authors to initiate PNA of a school. Also, incorporating the reflections from the fifth author as a critical friend, it observes the political, …

A Narrative Inquiry On Chinese International Doctoral Students’ Perspectives On Developing Critical Thinking In The U.S., Shuaipu Jiang

Doctoral Dissertations

Guided by transformative learning theory and Perry's scheme of intellectual and ethical development, this dissertation study examines Chinese international doctoral students' critical thinking development process in the US. The two research questions that guided this study are: (1) How do Chinese international doctoral students understand and conceptualize critical thinking? and (2) How have Chinese international doctoral students developed critical thinking during their doctoral studies in the U.S.? Narrative method design is applied to the study, which interviews eight participants. Using narrative thematic analysis of data, four key themes emerged from the study: a) awareness of critical thinking in Western versus …

From Experiences To Beliefs: An Exploratory Case Study On Science Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Emergent Bilinguals, Yamil Ernesto Ruiz

All Dissertations

Emergent bilingual (EB) students in the US are those who are in the process of developing academic English proficiency. EBs are some of the fastest growing populations of students in American public schools. There exists a great deal of research geared towards developing both curricular resources and instructional strategies to best support EBs in the science classroom, however many of these professional development studies lament the lack of growth in terms of achievement in science learning outcomes of EBs. It is possible that due to a lack of transformation in their beliefs that the teachers in these studies do not …

Opportunity That Transforms Lives: Exploring The Lived Experience Of Graduates From A New Community College In The Dominican Republic, Sally Joslyn Peña Martinez

Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of graduates from a recently established community college in the Dominican Republic (DR). The study sought to understand from graduates' perspective the influence of completing an associate degree at the first Dominican Community College, Instituto Técnico Superior Comunitario (ITSC), and if their experience was transformative. Enrolling in higher education initiates a potentially transformative journey, consciously or unconsciously (Taylor et al., 2000). These changes stem from personal reflections on new experiences, forming new beliefs and assumptions that infill life with new meaning (Brookfield, 1984; Mezirow, 1978). This phenomenon is evident in community college students …

Identity Transformation Through Transformative Learning: Nepali Mathematics Educators' Perspectives, Tara Paudel, Bal Chandra Luitel, Niroj Dahal

Transformations

This paper reflects the perspective of identity transformation of mathematics educators through the lens of transformative learning, foregrounded on Tara’s doctoral research journey. The process of identity transformation seeks to foster reformative skills at various levels by altering individuals and their identities. This is achieved by posing questions about the past that challenge deeply ingrained assumptions, beliefs, values, and perspectives. Therefore, this paper’s focus is on how transformative learning facilitates a shift in identity. This issue signifies a theoretical void that warrants further investigation. Consequently, this paper examines identity transformations through the theories and lens of transformative learning. In doing …

Weaving The Threads Between: Collaborative Auto-Ethnographic Reflections On Experiences Of Migrant Learning And Teaching In Australia, Paul Throssell Dr, Jinjin Lu Dr

The Qualitative Report

This article aims to use the two authors’ life experience, as English teachers, and university academics in the U.K., China and Australia, to improve an understanding how life trajectories can assist exploration of cultural difference and changes. Our experiences can be utilized as a means of understanding how responses to change and cultural differences can be influenced. Using a collaborative auto-ethnography research method offers readers opportunities to engage with the text through encountering the cultural nuances in these transitional journeys. The analysis is undertaken through the theoretical lens of transformational learning, cultural identity, and space. This paper will be of …

A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Of Surgical Technology Graduates Who Achieved Transformative Learning, Anna Danielle Campbell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the experiences of successful surgical technology graduates who achieved transformative learning during their CAAHEP accredited surgical technology program while encountering risk factors for failure. The study’s central research question is: What experiences of successful surgical technology graduates contributed to transformative learning? The theory guiding this study is Mezirow’s (1981) theory of transformative learning. Mezirow’s theory relates to this study as it requires individuals to find meaning in learning in order, through a disorienting dilemma, to acquire new perspectives on their subject matter. The setting of this study is Commission on …

Transformative Learning Experiences Of The Vocationally Interested And Vocationally Disinterested Pre-Service Teachers In Teacher Training Colleges In Zimbabwe, Esnati Macharaga, Tabitha Grace Mukeredzi

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article reports on some of the findings from a doctoral research project that explored how the vocationally interested and vocationally disinterested pre-service teachers in selected teacher training colleges in Zimbabwe experienced transformative learning. Through multiple-site case study and qualitative approach within an interpretive paradigm, guided by Mezirow’s ten-phase Transformative Learning Theory, the study sought to understand the pre-service teacher transformative learning experiences. The study employed a multi-modal approach which involved focus group discussions, individual face to face interviews and continuum drawing and discussions to generate data from a purposive sample of 40 participants. Findings suggest that, both vocationally interested …

Transformation At The Cultural Interface: Exploring The Experiences Of Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander University Students, Braden Hill, Caroline Nilson, Bep Uink, Catherine Fetherston

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Research on transformative learning (Mezirow, 1991), particularly within the context of higher education, has demonstrated the significant impact university learning can have on a wide range of cohorts across diverse learning contexts. However, the extensive body of literature pertaining to transformative learning remains largely silent on the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students and the extent to which their engagement with academia can be transformative. Nevertheless, Nakata’s (2007b) cultural interface theory has shaped policy, practice and thought in Indigenous higher education, elucidating the nuances, complexities and challenges that confront Indigenous students in their journey through university. In …

Digitizing Borderless Higher Education Landscapes Through Curriculum Policy Change To Educate Global Citizens, Hanife Akar, Elanur Yilmaz-Na, Rukiye Ayan-Civak, Anil Kandemir

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Advancements in science and technology are mobilizing higher education landscapes into borderless settings. Such changes also urge higher education settings to adopt transformative learning opportunities into their curriculum policy. Universities are accountable for helping youth build on their 21st Century competences by highlighting societal issues at global levels such as climate change, refugee crises or big human movements due to poverty, politics, conflicts, wars, or natural disasters. Youth need to build on knowledge, skills, and competences to recognize that any crises in one location can have an immediate impact on neighboring countries primarily and the whole world and challenge their …

Courage Under Fire: Culturally Responsive Teaching In A Divisive Time, Colin Perucco

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone addresses the question: How can educators create culturally responsive and sustaining classrooms and curriculum that best reflect students while navigating the rapidly changing public perception of cultural relevance in the classroom? Based on one educator’s experience with a public reaction to culturally responsive practices in their classroom, the project seeks to examine the work being done in classrooms to help students examine and honor the culture they experience every day through education. Included in the project is a literature review addressing the history and progression of culturally responsive teaching, the impacts of culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom, …

Relational Ecologies: Artistic Engagement And Mentorship Of Adults In Community Spaces, Rebecca Bourgault

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

In this article, I share insights from research and experience working as a teaching artist and mentor inside and outside traditional institutions. I investigate how relational and contemplative pedagogies promote and sustain authentic relationships of reciprocity. Narrating recent experiments with mentoring practices that emerged from the cultural landscapes of adults engaged in arts learning, the paper highlights new connections discovered through a research model borrowed from intuitive inquiry. Findings are presented as reflective stories, journal entries, or field notes gathered while mentoring graduate art education students and participating in a community of practice in the visual arts. The article demonstrates …

Curriculum-Based Professional Learning: The State Of The Field, Elizabeth Chu, Grace Mccarty, Molly Gurny, Naureen Madhani, Mahima Golani, Joanna Pisacone

Center for Public Research and Leadership

Providing curriculum-based professional learning at scale is challenging, complex, and contextualized. It requires time, people, money, and expertise at the systems-level and at the ground-level. No single school system, organization, or actor can accomplish it alone. Instead, scaling the curriculum-based professional learning on which HQIM relies requires a field of diverse, interdisciplinary actors from across the education sector who collectively co-produce improved professional learning through research, strategy, policy, and direct service. Put another way, to strengthen educational experiences and outcomes for students, proponents of HQIM and curriculum-based professional learning must build a strong, resilient field of individuals and organiza­tions working …

Devising A Strategic Approach To Increase Faculty’S Competence For Formalized Intercultural Teaching And Learning Opportunities In An International School In Africa, Kristine Greenlaw

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

The international school is a unique site where a diverse community of host country nationals and expatriates come together to participate in a transnational learning experience. Within this context, the international school is challenged to deliver a culturally responsive learning program with intercultural learning opportunities to meet the needs of a diverse learning community. In addition, it is perceived that with intercultural competence, an international school graduate can gain competitiveness for post-secondary institution admissions and job market movement in an increasingly globalized economy. This organizational improvement plan problematizes a lack of strategy to improve intercultural teaching and learning at a …

Your Discomfort Is Valid: Big Feelings And Open Pedagogy, Liz Pearce, Silvia L. Lin Hanick, Amy R. Hofer, Lori Townsend, Michaela Willi Hooper

Publications and Research

This article explores the affective reactions of 13 community college students engaged in an open pedagogy textbook creation project. The instructor and first author, a human development and family services faculty member and department chair at a community college in Oregon, received feedback from her students that the project impacted them differently than past learning experiences. Student engagement with research and the diverse personal experiences of their classmates fostered both personal challenges and growth. This article groups these experiences into themes and explores different theoretical lenses, including scaffolding (constructivism), transformative learning, threshold concepts and safe spaces/brave spaces. We discuss the …

Transformative Ecoliteracy Development In Postsecondary Education: Cultivating Intentional Relationships Through Garden-Based Learning, Shevawn Armstrong

Dissertations and Theses

Education can play a critical role in empowering learners to address the global, complex, and interconnected sustainability problems humanity currently faces. Ecoliteracy, as an educational aim, may support the cultivation of values, attitudes, and skills required for the development of sustainability solutions and our collective ability to design regenerative ways of living. However, empirical research that explores and supports the development of ecoliteracy in adults is limited. This grounded theory action research study aimed to contribute to this body of knowledge. This study explored how adult ecoliteracy and practical gardening skills may be cultivated through an intentionally designed, holistic, garden-based …

Assessing The Relationship Between Mandatory Faculty Development For Online Career College Instructors And Transformative Learning, Tremayne Simpson

Dissertations

Online teaching and learning has become a primary focal point for higher education administrators. Institutions have focused their strategic plans to maximize opportunities to grow their campuses, through distance education. A consistent issue that has surfaced with distance education initiatives is teacher preparation for online education. The issue is further compounded in proprietary institutions that may have limited resources and guidance for structuring effective faculty development programs. It is beneficial for faculty program developers to implement adult learning concepts into their courses to improve the overall training transfer for instructors. Transformative learning is an adult learning theory that focuses on …

An Exploratory Case Study Into Understanding Teaching Practice And Towards Enhancing Transformative Learning And Graduate Employability At Tu Dublin, Ellen Kampinga

Masters

This research focuses on understanding and enhancing the educational practice towards using pedagogies like transformative learning to enhance graduate employability at a new technological university, TU Dublin, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It was found that teaching practice depends significantly on the lecturer, the discipline area, the graduate skills that are sought after in each module and discipline, and the context of the delivery. The PAGE (Pedagogy Assisting Graduate Employability) framework developed from this research, aims to visualise the connection between the teaching process, pedagogy, and graduate employability. Application of the framework will offer insight into how each unique lecturer …

Learning Of Older Adults In Makerspaces, Yong Ju Jung, Hyewon Park, Ellen L. Rubenstein

Adult Education Research Conference

To address inclusion and equity issues related to older adults in makerspaces, we examine the void in current discussions of the maker movement and its intersection with adult learning theories.

Myth-Busting In An Aboriginal Pre-University Bridging Program: Embedding Transformative Learning Pedagogy, Rebecca Bennett, Karin Strehlow, Braden Hill

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Pre-university bridging programs can address the significant under-representation of Indigenous students in Australian universities by providing culturally supported alternative pathways into undergraduate study. However, successful completion of bridging programs does not always correlate with university enrolment for Indigenous students. This paper offers a pedagogical rationale for an Indigenous bridging program that aims to address this discrepancy. The program curriculum challenges deficit myths about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and education, while developing foundational academic skills for university study. Leveraging Transformative Learning and Cultural Interface theories, the program aims to empower students with the opportunity to develop their own narratives …

“Give Me A Path To Follow”: A Deweyan Inquiry Into Training Volunteer Eal Tutors Of Adult Refugees, Maria Enriquez Watt

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Volunteer English as an additional language (EAL) tutors working through adult community education (ACE) organisations play a key role in the development of adult refugee literacy and language skills in Australia. There are few requirements to work as an EAL volunteer tutor (VT), other than fluency in English. Yet refugee learners are known to have complex learning problems potentially resulting from their pre-migratory experiences. However, as the ACE sector is unregulated, provision for training VTs is uncoordinated, with many VTs receiving little or no training. Available training has largely been found to be ineffective and to support ideologies that potentially …

Transaction Or Transformation: Why Do Philosophy In Prisons?, Mog Stapleton, Dave Ward

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

Why do public philosophy in prisons? When we think about the value and aims of public philosophy there is a well-entrenched tendency to think in transactional terms. The academy has something of value that it aims to pass on or transmit to its clients. Usually, this transaction takes place within the confines of the university, in the form of transmission of valuable skills or knowledge passed from faculty to students. Public philosophy, construed within this transactional mindset, then consists in passing on something valuable from inside the academy to the outside. In this paper, we reflect on our experiences of …

Trust, Power, And Transformation In The Prison Classroom, Fran Fairbairn

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

This article does three things. First, it asks a new question about transformative education, namely ‘what is the role of power and trust in the decision of whether to transform one’s meaning scheme in the face of new information or whether to simply reject the new information?’ Secondly, it develops a five-stage model which elaborates on the role of this decision in transformative learning.[1] Finally, it uses grounded-theory and the five-stage model to argue that power and trust play an important role in facilitating transformative learning.

[1] This account should be thought of as complementary to (not exclusionary of) Mezirow’s …

Transformational Learning In A Washington State Veterans Therapeutic Court: A Holistic, Multiple-Case Design Study, Thomas Lee Williams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this holistic, multiple-case design case study was to describe the transformative learning journey of justice-involved veterans assigned to one of Washington State’s veterans treatment courts (VTC). Veterans treatment courts are designed to help justice-involved veterans break their criminogenic cycle, but the VTC’s efficacy is still debated. Yet, when applied to other modalities, transformative learning has proven effective in changing counter-societal behavior. The guiding theory for this study is Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning, one of the premiere adult learning theories, and will be used as the rubric to evaluate if veteran transformative learning indeed occurs. The central …

A Framework For Guiding Transformative Growth After School Shootings, Lucienne Lunn, Karen Campion, Steven James, Gabriel Velez

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

For the last 20 years, gun violence has severely compromised safety, learning outcomes, social development, and psychological well-being in many high school communities. An emerging body of international research describes strategies developed to support students and staff members in the wake of school shootings. However, these protocols are typically designed to help administrators manage the immediate sequelae of these incidents, leaving survivors to handle the lasting consequences of their experiences on their own. This article presents a broad framework for facilitating long-term psychological growth that can be integrated into high school curricula. It is based on the complementary theories of …

Analogy Co-Construction As A Learning Strategy In Life-Span Development Classes, Joseph A. Mayo

Perspectives In Learning

Analogies are commonplace heuristic tools in classrooms across all educational levels and content areas. In the present investigation, analogy-enhanced learning was examined in relation to conceptual applications of major developmental theories in undergraduate life-span development classes. To this end, systematic comparisons were undertaken between a learning condition in which individual students created their own analogies and a learning condition involving analogy co-construction as generated by small groups of students working cooperatively. On all quantitative and qualitative measures, results favored group co-construction of analogies over self-generated analogy creation. Findings are discussed in terms of social-constructivist and transformative-learning principles.

Dual Language Effectiveness To Narrow Achievement Gaps: A Quantitative Correlational Study, Belinda Reyes Ed.D.

Journal of English Learner Education

An increase in the English learner (EL) population is evident in public schools throughout the United States. Academic achievement gaps between ELs and non-EL peers persist from early childhood through the post-secondary level (Florida Department of Education, 2019c). The gap in the literature is the lack of studies analyzing the language acquisition of ELs enrolled in dual language programs to narrow the achievement gap of ELs. Transformative Learning Theory and the Dynamic Systems Theory are the foundation of the theoretical framework. Key research questions seek data on the relationship between standardized assessments measuring language acquisition and academic performance of third-grade …

Fundamental Principles Of Metacognition: A Qualitative Study Of Metacognition, Pedagogy And Transformation, Philip Hulbig

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigated the transformative quality of a metacognitive education. It examined a transformative metacognitive education from both the subjective personal perspective of the student who has gone through the process of transformation and the more objective pedagogical perspective of the professors who work to bring forth such transformational experiences in their students. Through interview and analysis these perspectives were integrated to produce a pedagogical theoretical framework derived from experience and grounded in observations about metacognition across various scientific disciplines. The personal elements of metacognition that promote educational transformation from within the students were contrasted with the pedagogical approaches of …

Action Is Demonstrative Of Critical Reflection And “Disorienting Dilemma” Is Démodé, Carol A. Olszewski, Catherine A. Hansman

Adult Education Research Conference

This paper explores transformative learning and 1) roles of decision-making and actions as outward expressions of critical reflection and 2) vocabulary that encapsulates the essence of the “disorienting dilemma.”

Interprofessional Reflective Journals: Content Themes And Self-Regulated Learning, Joan M. Tunningley

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Self-reflection has been linked with clinical reasoning, academic, and clinical outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine self-reflective journal entries from thirty students for interprofessional core competencies and for self-regulated learning components. The text data was analyzed using an in-depth three cycle coding process, thoroughly described in the methods. The findings were structured into two themes confirming interprofessional content learning: collaboration, team, and communication; and respect and roles. One additional theme emerged, transformation and relatedness, which indicated self-regulated learning components as well as supporting transformative learning. This qualitative case-study contributed to the research of occupational therapy students’ self-reflection …