Tag: transformation

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On the borders of Pedagogy: Implementing a critical pedagogy for students on the Thai Burma Border

Author: Jen Couch

Australian Catholic University

Edition: Volume 57, Number 1, April 2017

Summary: This article uses an auto-ethnographic approach to explore the reflections and insights that occurred during my teaching of a subject in adolescent development on the Thai Burma border. This paper adopts a relatively descriptive style to a personal reflection of teaching on the border and how it transformed the way I teach and made me look at the pedagogy that underpins my teaching practice. I found a lack of congruence between the pedagogical theories that are espoused and how I could apply these to a border setting. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explore some of the ways I began to develop a Thai Burma classroom praxis that drew on the theoretical underpinnings of a humanising critical pedagogy.

Keywords: refugee, Burmese, critical pedagogy, transformation, collaboration

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 57_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Abridged too far? Credit transfer: Examining the transition process from TAFE to University

Author: Theresa Millman, University of Wollongong

Edition: Volume 53, Number 2, July 2013

Summary: In responding to a global audience, universities are increasingly bound up in priorities of maintaining viability within landscapes of globalised market imperatives, and with changing paradigms of purpose; universities need to be accessible to all. In Australia, pathways to university provided by Credit Transfer have increased student mobility; the dichotomy however, is that alongside discourses of inclusivity is the need for students to adjust to the often rigorous academic demands of higher education. This paper examines the Bachelor of Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong (UOW), and the Diploma of Communication & Media Studies at the Illawarra Institute of Technical and Further Education (TAFE). Some of the common challenges transitioning students face in their first year at UOW are discussed, including; adapting to different workloads and the demands of self-directed, independent learning. A potential solution is a pre- university entry induction program for TAFE students.

Keywords: transition, credit transfer, advanced standing, Mezirow, transformation

 

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 53_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Humanities education as a pathway for women in regional and rural Australia: Clemente Ballarat

Authors: Ann Gervasoni, Australian Catholic University; Jeremy Smith, University of Ballarat; Peter Howard, Australian Catholic University

Edition: Volume 53, Number 2, July 2013

Summary: This paper provides insight into the experience of Clemente humanities education for six regional and rural Australian women living around Ballarat. Each took part in an audio-taped semistructured interview which explored the impact that university study had on their lives. Their responses suggest that Clemente Ballarat was life-giving. The student insights identified the critical importance of: providing a supportive learning environment for people lacking life opportunities and routine; students feeling better and happier with themselves resultant from personal learning achievements; doing something that was about ‘me’; support from others including Learning Partners and the program’s counsellor; students appreciating their academic and inner strengths; rekindling dreams and hope; seeking ways out of poverty for their family; finding friendships and connection; appreciating the academic disciplines; improvements in well-being and mental health; and pride in achievements. Students also were apprehensive about what the future may hold after completion and graduation. These insights highlight the treasures that students found when engaged in humanities education based upon community embedded socially supported structures that enable learning. Further, these insights provide contextual outcomes for the Clemente program, which could be implemented across regional and rural Australia for people experiencing multiple disadvantages or social exclusion.

Keywords: social inclusion, equity, disadvantage, transformation, humanities education, community engagement.

 

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 53_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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‘I’m not stupid after all’ – changing perceptions of self as a tool for transformation

Author/s: Ms Julie Willans and Ms Karen Seary

Edition: Volume 47, Number 3, November 2007

Summary: When adult learners return to formal education after a period of absence, coping with change is a constant and often omnipresent challenge. As they come to break down previous barriers to success in an educational arena, many adult learners are able to change the perceptions they have of themselves as learners. Previously held assumptions are often challenged and perceptions of how individuals come to hold these views undergo scrutiny. Using Cranton’s (2002) phases of perspective transformation as a framework, this paper explores the notion that some learners can and do change their perspectives regarding their abilities as learners. This occurs when they are provided with opportunities to reflect critically upon themselves as learners, and deconstruct the origins of past assumptions. Based on data collected during the thirteen week academic writing course within the Skills for Tertiary Education Preparatory Studies (STEPS) program at Central Queensland University, evidence suggests that upon critical reflection of previously held assumptions about their learning abilities, many students revise those assumptions and become more empowered individuals.

Keywords: formal education, adult learners, transformation, opportunities, reflection

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Diverse pathways into higher education: Using students’ stories to identify transformative experiences

Author/s: Robyn Benson, Lesley Hewitt, Margaret Heagney, Anita Devos and Glenda Crosling

Edition: Volume 50, Number 1, April 2010

Summary: This paper is based on findings from the first phase of a longitudinal project examining how a group of students from diverse backgrounds succeed in higher education. The concept of perspective transformation is used to explore students’ stories about factors that influenced them on their journey to university, including socio-economic background, family difficulties, gender, the effect of being first in family to enter higher education, migration, location and experiences of schooling. The paper argues that, for some participants, the decision to enrol was not primarily the effect of perspective transformation, but rather the result of other aspects of their lives. Finally, we comment on the value of narrative inquiry for revealing participants’ experiences and, potentially, for supporting the process of transformation.

Keywords: diverse backgrounds, transformation, socio-economic, gender, enrolment

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

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Art, disability, learning and the dance of my life

Author/s: Faith Thorley

Edition: Volume 51, Number 4, Special edition, December 2011

Summary: I use my passion and skills as an artist to deal with my various disabilities resulting from brain tumour surgery. The ‘artvantages’ of this approach have been many: improved self-esteem and a greater sense of wellbeing, to name just two. On reflection and after revisiting the experiences of my healing journey, I now know when this journey began. Today I’ve come to recognise its beginning as the onset of my personal transformation.

My aim in this paper is to explain how I believe my personal transformation happened after my brain tumour surgery and to describe the transformative learning process that followed. I will support these explanations with valuable insights that I’ve gained from research in adult education and my involvement with others with disabilities. Next, I will introduce my interpretation of a phenomenon that I call ‘arts-based resistance learning’. This has been a major phase in my personal transformative journey and the subject of my current PhD inquiry. I am strongly committed to my research inquiry because it is uncovering new ways of using art to enhance life, which gives me hope, and may inspire and so assist other like afflicted people, health professionals and concerned individuals.

Keywords: disability, transformation, brain tumour, adult education, wellbeing

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 51_4_Special Edition. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.