Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning: A Guide for Educators of Adults
By Patricia Cranton. 2009
498 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Patricia Cranton’s ongoing exploration of the transformative power of teaching and learning is compellingly described and documented in this second edition of Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning: A Guide for Educators of Adults . In her preface, Cranton reiterates the original intention of her 1994 book, namely, “to explain transformative learning theory, describe the process from the learners’ perspective, explore individual differences in transformative learning, present practical strategies for fostering transformative learning, and discuss how adult educators themselves are transformative learners” (p. vii). In our work as adult educators and as designers of continuing education courses, we routinely refer to the “transformative” impact of our efforts. In this new edition, Cranton includes references to John Dirkx’s (2000) ideas about the role of imagination and spirituality in transformation. Her “guide for adult educators” addresses the power of the affective, as elicited through the use of poetry, music, or the visual arts, to enrich learning—even on topics not obviously arts related. “Any strategy that connects learners to soul work” is to be encouraged, Cranton suggests, echoing Dirkx, who describes this as “critical” to personal transformation (p. 67). A line from “The Dry Salvages,” in T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets , comes to mind: “We had the experience but missed the meaning / And approach to the meaning restores the experience in a different form.” In the course of our professional activity, we often experience transformative learning—our own and our students’—without fully appreciating either its source or its meaning. Cranton’s book invites us to reflect on both and, in the process, serves not only as a guide but also as an affirmation of our own best practices.
Subfields: Education
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ff31d8315d282f76218114278e5cbb2fe3efe3c9
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Citations in the corpus
- An update of transformative learning theory: a critical review of the empirical research (1999–2005) (2007, unknown): “Each study: (a) used transformative learning as its primary theoretical framework (e.g. Freire 1984, Mezirow 1991, 2000, Cranton 1994, Boyd and Meyers 1998), (b) had a definitive methodology section and (c) offered findings that informed the study of transformative learning theory.”
- Development of Heterosexuals into Sexual-Minority Allies: A Qualitative Exploration (2010, background): “Concepts from the transformative learning literature (Cranton 1994, 2002) have called these interactions that highlight social inequities trigger events. These events are understood to be central to important change processes, 10 Sex Res Soc Policy (2010) 7:2–14”