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Full-Text Articles in Education

Portrait Of Hal: A Narrative Case Study That Illuminates The Transformative Influence Of Generativity And Life Stories On The Legacy Of An Adult Educator/Learner, Margaret Ann Voelkel Dec 2011

Portrait Of Hal: A Narrative Case Study That Illuminates The Transformative Influence Of Generativity And Life Stories On The Legacy Of An Adult Educator/Learner, Margaret Ann Voelkel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative narrative case study uses the Social science portraiture approach to explore how the learning experiences of a retired manufacturing manager have influenced his identity and his choice of an encore career in education. Hal B. is a retired manufacturing manager in his 70s who is now an instructor of leadership, management, and process improvement for working adults in a mid-south regional university. The portraiture approach to Hal's experience of a second career as an educator exemplifies the ways in which generativity, a person's need to care for and prepare future generations (Erikson, 1980), and storytelling are factors that …


What's So Different About Making A Difference?! Transforming The Discourse Of Worklife And Career, Burton Israel Woolf Sep 2011

What's So Different About Making A Difference?! Transforming The Discourse Of Worklife And Career, Burton Israel Woolf

Open Access Dissertations

This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of five individuals who shifted their work and career from the business world to the nonprofit service sector. Through in-depth personal accounts, I show how the research participants made sense of "work" and "career" as they moved through, and after they completed the transition out of the business setting; and the degree to which their subjective experiences in the nonprofit work environment transformed their prior perspectives on "work life" and "career" that had been shaped by their experiences in the business world. According to the literature of subjective career development (how people shape …


Transformative Learning And The Ecological Crisis: Insights From The Tao Of Liberation, Mark Hathaway Jun 2011

Transformative Learning And The Ecological Crisis: Insights From The Tao Of Liberation, Mark Hathaway

Adult Education Research Conference

The complexity and scale of the ecological crisis poses unique challenges to transformative learning. To address these, The Tao of Liberation (Hathaway & Boff, 2009) offers insights to reconceptualize transformative learning from an ecological perspective, including new ways of framing learning goals, the nature of liberation, and the process of worldviews transformation. The Tao also provides analysis addressing some of the key psychological obstacles impeding transformative learning related to the ecological crisis. Finally, The Tao outlines four “paths to liberation” that suggest concrete processes that can foster integral transformative learning.


Catalysts For Transformative Learning In The Making Of Scientist- Environmentalists: A Consideration Of The Lives Of Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, And David Suzuki1, Pierre Walter Jun 2011

Catalysts For Transformative Learning In The Making Of Scientist- Environmentalists: A Consideration Of The Lives Of Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, And David Suzuki1, Pierre Walter

Adult Education Research Conference

This is a study of the role of transformative learning in the lives of three well-known scientist-environmentalists. It identifies catalysts for transformative learning in their life transitions from positivist-scientists to scientist-environmentalists. The paper concludes that transformative learning was not only an individual process, but also that each scientist helped provoke a collective process of transformative learning and social change.


Theological Education In Action: A Study Of Racial Perspective Change Among Participants In The Student Interracial Ministry Of Union Theological Seminary (1960-1968), Kirk A. Moll Jun 2011

Theological Education In Action: A Study Of Racial Perspective Change Among Participants In The Student Interracial Ministry Of Union Theological Seminary (1960-1968), Kirk A. Moll

Adult Education Research Conference

This qualitative research study investigated the role played by white theological seminary student participation in the Student Interracial Ministry (1960-1968) in the transformation of the participants’ racial perspectives. The central theoretical framework was transformative learning. The role of racism as a disorienting dilemma; interpersonal, affective, and spiritual/religious factors, and transformative learning across the lifespan were explored.


A Transformative Dance Through “Language Mountains” And “Blind Spots”: Park Educators Learn Responsiveness To Immigrant Newcomers, Elizabeth Lange, Peter Vogels, Zenobia Jamal Jun 2011

A Transformative Dance Through “Language Mountains” And “Blind Spots”: Park Educators Learn Responsiveness To Immigrant Newcomers, Elizabeth Lange, Peter Vogels, Zenobia Jamal

Adult Education Research Conference

This paper describes a project Learning Language, Learning the Land, created to enhance park accessibility and social belonging for immigrant newcomers by combining language learning and environmental literacy in a city park and provincial park setting. This paper reports on the dialectics of transformative learning for parks staff as they discovered the inappropriateness of didactic methods and how effective adult learning emerges from rapport, educational responsiveness and ethnocultural knowledge. Second, through informal learning, staff became allies in these traditionally white, middle class spaces, helping build a sense of place and social belonging.


Methodological Challenges In Studying Transformative Learning, Seon Joo Kim, Sharan B. Merriam Jun 2011

Methodological Challenges In Studying Transformative Learning, Seon Joo Kim, Sharan B. Merriam

Adult Education Research Conference

First discussed are philosophical perspectives in relation to the research design and methodology for studying transformative learning. Second, several promising research designs for studying this phenomenon are reviewed including narrative analysis, arts-based research, critical approaches, and action research. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of methodological challenges at this point in the evolution of the knowledge base of transformative learning.


Transformative Professional Development In Unlikely Places: Twitter As A Virtual Learning Community, Kathleen P. King Jun 2011

Transformative Professional Development In Unlikely Places: Twitter As A Virtual Learning Community, Kathleen P. King

Adult Education Research Conference

This case study reveals new dimensions of transformative learning occurring through informal learning opportunities. The research results demonstrate that the individual’s learning spans understanding, networking, professional identity development, and transformative learning. Specifically, virtual online communities facilitated through social media provide professional networks and social relationships beyond the scope of the individual’s usual interactions and experience. Discussion and recommendations include using social media and virtual communities as instructional strategies for graduate studies and continued learning beyond formal education. The educational significance includes facilitating transformative learning in informal learning contexts, and using social media and online communities for professional learning.


Transformative Learning With Women: A Critical Review Proposing Linkages For The Personal And Political Spheres*, Catherine J. Irving, Leona M. English Jun 2011

Transformative Learning With Women: A Critical Review Proposing Linkages For The Personal And Political Spheres*, Catherine J. Irving, Leona M. English

Adult Education Research Conference

Theoretical developments in the field of transformative learning have progressed significantly over the past two decades, yet little attention has been paid to women’s experiences of transformative learning and to the issues of race, class and gender in this learning. We explore the apparent hesitation at both the personal and political ends of the transformative learning spectrum, and help to create alliances and strengthen the theory.


A Transformative Learning Perspective On Workplace Safety, R. Bruce Dodge Jun 2011

A Transformative Learning Perspective On Workplace Safety, R. Bruce Dodge

Adult Education Research Conference

Workplace injuries and illness are a problem of epidemic proportion yet safe workplaces can be created. Using the lens of transformative learning this case study, informed by ethnography, examined the experience of a long term seniors’ living facility which had dramatically reduced injury rates and costs. The study sought to understand the apparent perspective transformation of senior leaders and how that change impacted the organization. Disorienting dilemmas, discourse and critical reflection were seen as contributing to a new frame of reference which guided the actions of leaders.


Using Transformative Learning Theory To Investigate Ways To Enrich University Teaching: Focus On The Implementation Of Student-Centered Teaching In Large Introductory Science Courses, Ioana Alexandra Badara May 2011

Using Transformative Learning Theory To Investigate Ways To Enrich University Teaching: Focus On The Implementation Of Student-Centered Teaching In Large Introductory Science Courses, Ioana Alexandra Badara

Doctoral Dissertations

Previous studies have reported high attrition rates in large-enrollment science courses where teacher-centered instruction was prevalent. The scientific literature provides strong evidence that student-centered teaching, which involves extensive active learning, leads to deepened learning as the result of effective student engagement. Consequently, professional development initiatives have continually focused on assisting academics with the implementation of active learning. Generally, higher education institutions engage faculty in professional development through in-service workshops that facilitate learning new teaching techniques in a specific context. These workshops usually do not include self-scrutiny concerning teaching or do they provide continuous support for the implementation of strategies learned …


Becoming A Good Teacher: Struggles From The Swampland, Mary Beth Schaefer Jan 2011

Becoming A Good Teacher: Struggles From The Swampland, Mary Beth Schaefer

Curriculum & Instruction Faculty Publications

One seventh-grade English language arts teacher engaged in teacher research in order to become a more understanding, responsive, and confident instructor. Systematic inquiry into her own practice revealed a conflict between what students perceived as their literacy needs and desires (discrete reading skills) with what she perceived to be important and valuable (deeper literary understandings through reflective response to literature). The teacher sought to address the conflict by listening closely to students' talk, orchestrating activities to blend reading skills with responses to literature, and negotiating class conversations to produce knowledge.


Liberation Is Not Always So Liberating: Rethinking Paulo Freire's Critical Pedagogy For The Writing Classroom, Joshua Daniel Shinn Jan 2011

Liberation Is Not Always So Liberating: Rethinking Paulo Freire's Critical Pedagogy For The Writing Classroom, Joshua Daniel Shinn

Theses Digitization Project

The goal of this project is to reconsider the ways in which liberatory and/or critical pedagogy, and its desire to combat the "banking" method of education, can unintentionally create some of the same institutional and ideologically oppressive classroom conditions that more traditional methods of instruction have been charged with creating. This thesis first discusses the origins of liberatory pedagogy and its effect upon education, the writing classroom, and critical pedagogues.