Tag: change

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An appreciative inquiry into the transformative learning experiences of students in a family literacy project

Author/s: David Giles and Sharon Alderson

Edition: Volume 48, Number 3, November 2008

Summary: Educational discourse has often struggled to genuinely move beyond deficit-based language. Even action research, a predominant model for teacher development, starts with the identification of a problem (Cardno 2003). It would appear that the vocabulary for a hope-filled discourse which captures the imagination and influences our future educational activity seems to have escaped us. Moreover, we seem bereft of educational contexts where the experience for students is holistic and transformative. Appreciative inquiry is a research approach that seeks to facilitate change based on participants’ actual experiences of best practice (Cady & Caster 2000, Cooperrider & Srivastva 1987, English, Fenwick & Parsons 2003, Hammond 1998, Hammond & Royal 1998). Based on assumptions that ‘in every organisation something works’ and ‘if we are to carry anything of our past forward in our lives, it should be the good things’, appreciative inquiry energises participants to reach for higher ideals (Hammond 1998, Hammond & Royal 1998). Rather than giving priority to the problems in our current practice, appreciative inquiry gives attention to evidence of successful practice. In this way, proponents describe it as ‘dream forming’ and ‘destiny creating’. This paper will outline an appreciative inquiry with adult students in the context of a tertiary bridging program. The inquiry was able to capture the students’ stories of transformative learning experiences.

Keywords: change, experience, appreciative inquiry, adult learners, bridging, transformative learning

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Study circles and the Dialogue to Change Program

Author/s: Mary Brennan and Mark Brophy

Edition: Volume 50, Number 2, July 2010

Summary: The origins of study circles can be traced back to the Chautauqua movement in the USA in the late nineteenth century. However, interest diminished in the USA and the Swedes discovered and enthusiastically imported the study circle idea as a remedy to their problems of poverty and illiteracy and to educate the broadest possible spectrum of society in the art of democracy. Over the next 100 years, Sweden developed the process to such an extent that the Government now subsidises this form of education and uses it not only to educate people about government policies, but to receive feedback from the public.

Keywords: study circles, change, feedback, public

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 50_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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The learning society: Two justifications

Author/s: Ya-hui Su

Edition: Volume 50, Number 1, April 2010

Summary: This article examines the view that has long been fashionable in related policies and literature that the establishment of the learning society is a necessary response to changing times. This article suggests that the association between the learning society and current change may be defensible but is limited. The justification of the learning society should be expanded beyond that association, and the learning society should be promoted as a good in its own right. This article begins with an exploration of the phenomenon of change, which has been the primary argument for the establishment of the learning society. Then, it examines the claim that the learning society is essential. Finally, I suggest that discussions of the learning society should shift from the current paradigm of justification based on external relationships to an appreciation of the learning society in its own right.

Keywords: learning society, change

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 50_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.