Tag: transformative learning

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“Come in and look around.” Professional development of student teachers through public pedagogy in a library exhibition

Authors: Anne Hickling-Hudson & Erika Hepple, Queensland University of Technology

Edition: Volume 55, Number 3, November 2015

Summary:  This paper describes a public pedagogy project embedded into The Global Teacher, a subject within the Bachelor of Education program for student teachers at an Australian university. The subject provides a global perspective on socio-political issues that shape education. In 2013, The Global Teacher introduced an approach that asked student teachers to create a museum-style exhibition depicting six global education themes. This exhibition was displayed in the State Library and the public were invited to engage with the installations and the student teachers who created them.

Our paper describes how the project was implemented by means of close collaboration between the QUT teacher educators, curators at the State Library of Queensland (SLQ), and student groups working
on visually translating their understandings of global educational issues into a public exhibition. We discuss what was learned by our students and ourselves, as teacher educators, by engaging in this public pedagogy.
Keywords: global education, public library, group work, transformative learning, social justice, public learning space.

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 55_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Diversity and achievement: Is success in higher education a transformative experience?

Authors: Robyn Benson, Margaret Heagney, Lesley Hewitt, Glenda Crosling and Anita Devos; Monash University

Summary:  This paper reports on a longitudinal project examining how a group of students from diverse backgrounds succeeded in higher education. The project explored participants’ pathways into higher education, how they managed their studies, and their reflections at course completion. In this paper, the concept of perspective transformation is used to consider the extent to which their success in higher education was a transformative experience. Data from the project’s first stage identified the role of perspective transformation in influencing participants’ pathways to higher education, while here we focus on the impact of their university study on perspective transformation, comparing evidence of transformative experiences during study with those that led to enrolment. Analysis of participants’ reflections at course completion indicated that higher education success was a transformative experience for most of them and that perspective transformation affected more participants during study than before it. Participants identified several aspects of the course that contributed to the changes experienced in their perspectives. We consider some implications for university staff, which may help others involved with students from diverse backgrounds.

Keywords: Higher education, perspective transformation, transformative learning, student diversity, student success

 

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 54_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Transformative pedagogy for social capital

Author/s: Peter Willis

Edition: Volume 47, Number 3, November 2007

Summary: This paper explores ways in which pedagogy for an elaborated form of transformative learning can be a useful catalyst for the development of social capital in community and workplace groups and networks. I begin with an example and then explore ideas of learning challenges embedded in building and maintaining social capital. I consider the usefulness of a four-dimensional approach to transformative learning as a suitable pedagogy for its development and maintenance. The paper concludes with brief profiles of four educators whose work, in different ways, could be said to have promoted forms of social capital, directly or indirectly: Desmond Tutu, Anne Sullivan, Jesus and Socrates. Each of these educators, without excluding other approaches, tended to emphasise one of the four transformative pedagogies.

Keywords: transformative pedagogy, transformative learning, social capital

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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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Facilitating transformative learning: a framework for practice

Author/s: Judi Apte

Edition: Volume 49, Number 1, April 2009

Summary: This paper explores some of the challenges that are involved in facilitating transformative learning. It presents a framework for practice that considers transformative learning from the perspective of the facilitator. These ideas were developed through a doctoral study in which adult educators were interviewed about their experiences in facilitating transformative learning. The framework comprises four components: confirming and interrupting current  frames of reference, working with triggers for transformative learning, acknowledging a time of retreat or dormancy, and developing the new perspective. Using the four components of this framework for practice, I outline a series of questions for reflection. Through detailed reflection on aspects of program design and the  interactions in the learning group, we can further our knowledge about the transformative aspects of our programs.

Keywords: transformative learning, program design, interaction, adult learning

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 49_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Teaching practice in the making: Shaping and reshaping the field of adult language, literacy and numeracy teaching

Author/s: Jacquie Widin, Keiko Yasukawa and Andrew Chodkiewicz

Edition: Volume 52, Number 1, April 2012

Summary: The field of adult language, literacy and numeracy in Australia is a site of struggle as policy changes, new learner groups and new economic imperatives challenge teachers’ expertise and beliefs about good teaching practice. Continue reading “Teaching practice in the making: Shaping and reshaping the field of adult language, literacy and numeracy teaching”