Introduction
I sat staring at a blank legal pad for 10 minutes waiting for the right words to fall into my head. While waiting for the magic to happen my eight year old asked what I was doing. I told her that I have to write a blog about transformational learning. Naturally she asked, “What’s transformational learning?” I said from what I understand it’s the process of learning using stories to make connections to the world. I said for example, do you remember all the stories grandma’s told us about growing up in the south? They’re all about her constant struggle for equality. She said those experiences changed her personally as well as her view of the world. She tells her story as “a way of making sense of life changes.” I said that’s what transformational learning is, experience that shape your life, changes that come as a result of experience and passing on your story. She said, “Mommy what’s your story?”
What is Transformational Learning?
My grandmother taught my mother that all people are created equal. Arkansas in the 1930’s taught my mother about inequality. Transformational learning is “dramatic, fundamental change in the way we see ourselves and the world.” Tisdell (2003) explains the cultural, spiritual view of transformational learning. This approach emphasizes the connection between individuals’ various socially constructed positionalities (race, class, gender) and their knowledge construction through story telling. (Merriam, Caffarella, Baumgartner pg. 131) We are the sum of our experiences and learning would not be possible without exploring those experiences.
Point of View in Transformational Learning
Learning requires a “point of view”. A point of view is made of “meaning schemes, which are sets of immediate, specific beliefs, feelings, attitudes and value judgments.” (Mezirow, 2000 p.18) According to Mezirow (2000) “transformation occurs when there is a change in one of our beliefs or attitudes (a meaning scheme), or a transition of our entire perspective. When my mother realized that the Deep South was not a pleasant place for people of color her perspective changed. She saw people as potentially dangerous which affected her outlook, temperament, and judgment. Life is a series of experiences that shape who we are. We spend our days naming and remaining the world in an attempt to find meaning. Transformational learning is a change in the way we see ourselves and point of view give meaning to the changes.
Transformational Learning is Essential
Transformative learning is an integral part of the learning process.
We make meaning with different dimensions of awareness and understanding; in adulthood we may more clearly understand our experience when we know under what conditions an expressed idea is true or justified. In the absence of fixed truths and confronted with often rapid change in circumstances, we cannot fully trust what we know or believe (Mezirow, 2000, p. 3-4).
References
Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., & Baumgartner, L. M. (2007). Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Mezirow. J., & Associates. (2000). Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
