The purpose of this study was to verify Mezirow's (1978) Transformative Learning Theory as a model to explain how study abroad participation facilitates efforts to internationalize students in higher education. Specifically this study used block-entry, logistic and linear regression models to explore the relationship between transformative learning processes and study abroad outcomes. Data were collected from business students (N =107) at Brigham Young University using a retrospective pretest method. Findings indicated transformative learning was occurring in short term study abroad settings and transformative learning phases were related to increases in Intercultural Competence. These findings were consistent between year cohorts suggesting the impacts were lasting.

Seminarians’ existential crises of faith are often-experienced but little-studied. Through surveys of Millennial MDiv students (n=30) and seminary Student Affairs and Student Services Professionals (SASSPs) (n=44), this study suggests crises of faith are fundamental to MDiv students’ spiritual formation, mirroring the pattern of Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory model (TLT). TLT also undergirds secular Student Affairs, where SASSPs regularly provide co-curricular “student learning” support. This study recommends training seminary SASSPs to be similarly-utilized within theological education, which would require resources for professional development from both their institutions and the Association of Theological Schools. Implications for multi-cultural theological education are also discussed.

This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of five individuals who shifted their work and career from the business world to the nonprofit service sector. Through in-depth personal accounts, I show how the research participants made sense of "work" and "career" as they moved through, and after they completed the transition out of the business setting; and the degree to which their subjective experiences in the nonprofit work environment transformed their prior perspectives on "work life" and "career" that had been shaped by their experiences in the business world. According to the literature of subjective career development (how people shape their personal identity through their work over a lifetime) and transformative learning (how people change their worldview perspective to accommodate significant changes in their life circumstances), people who shift from business careers to nonprofit jobs are likely to be confounded by certain realities in the nonprofit world that cannot be readily understood or explained through past experience in the business workplace. The real-life personal stories of five such career shifters manifest clear differences in the "discourse of work and career" across the two sectors, resulting in an apparent disorienting paradox between the profit-driven "business mindset" (where the fundamental motivation is survival of the enterprise and objective personal advancement) and the mission-driven "nonprofit worldview" (where the fundamental motivation is service for a better world and subjective personal meaning-making). An analysis of these paradoxes of discourse suggests that the mission-driven nonprofit discourse ("we work for a better world") offers a valuable and constructive counterpoint to the more dominant enterprise-driven business discourse ("we work to sustain the company") that pervades the organizational landscape of our society. The implications of these findings as reviewed in the last chapter are significant for policy, practice and research in both nonprofit management and business organizational development. The work concludes with the suggestion that the nonprofit mindset opens the possibility for re-orienting one's "career" to a life-long process of self-actualization, where one works to find meaning and purpose through making a difference toward improving quality of life for a better world.

This multi-article dissertation focuses on the role of narrative distance in instructional design. Narrative distance is defined œas the cognitive or emotional space afforded by indirect communication that invites listeners to make sense of content (Taeger, 2018, p. 6). Whereas fields associated with the arts have long used the indirect nature of story to create powerful experiences, instructional design has not examined how this aspect of narrative might be used in instruction. The first article in this dissertation explores the literature related to narrative distance and how designing for this phenomenon meets many of Wilson and Parrishs (2011) key indicators for transformative learning experiences. This article also suggests six principles for incorporating narrative distance into instructional design. The second article is a qualitative study of six experts from a variety of fields who design narrative distance into their work. Professionals in film, theatre, writing, art, and homiletics were interviewed three times over a period of several months using Fleming, Gaidys, and Robbs (2003) Gadamerian-based hermeneutic approach. The findings from this study discuss further principles and practices for integrating narrative distance into instructional design, especially as it relates to facilitating transformative learning experiences. These principles and practices are organized under four themes: cognitive space, emotional space, invite change, and meaningful content. Further research possibilities related to narrative distance are also briefly mentioned. The third article builds on the findings discussed in article two by offering examples of narrative distance in instruction. In addition, specific design steps are presented to help practitioners create narrative distance in a way that can lead to transformative learning experiences.

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No / This article reports on original research designed to track the impact on student learning and development of fundamental pedagogical changes - from tradition to critical pedagogy - in undergraduate conflict resolution teaching in the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford. Using grounded theory methodology, the authors researched the transformative learning potential of the pedagogy. They found broad support for the pedagogy on student learning and development grounds in relation to the praxeological challenges of peacebuilding and conflict resolution work many of their students will expect to do after graduation. Out of the data emerged four clusters of learning experience that support transformative learning theory, particularly the role of disruption in learning and the importance of critical reflection, but that also, in a preliminary way, suggest some gaps in our current levels of understanding of transformative learning as praxis.

The purpose of this research was to provide a better understanding of handbooks and to establish criteria guidelines for handbook selection and use. Content analysis utilizing the library as fieldwork identified 15 handbooks for MsWs meeting selection criteria for this study. Coding and diagramming of over 2000 pages resulted in identification of 15 themes which grouped into 3 types of relationships: personal (to self and God), familial (to husband and children), and congregational (to the church). Six of these themes were recognized as distinctive to the life of the MsW. Three time frames (1940 to 1960, 1960 to 1980, and 1980 to 1998) were established, and handbooks were found to be consistent with the social context of their respective era. An unfolding picture of the life of the MsW as portrayed by key informants revealed a shift in emphasis, with earlier handbooks portraying a lifeworld revolving around role fulfillment, and later handbooks emphasizing development as a person. A lack of learning opportunities for MsWs was noted throughout the eras. A 30+ page appendix of metaphors indicates that MsWs use their gift of reasoning through word pictures. The authors taught lived world truth as they perceived it. This study indicated clues as to appropriateness of content in handbooks and safeguards to be taken in reading them for self-directed learning or other training purposes. The implication is that handbooks are adult education by default. Two original products resulting from this research were a schemata of the process of using handbooks as a format for learning and selection criteria guidelines for choosing a handbook. The process may be utilized in self-directed learning (individual or guided) and within other educational settings, and the guidelines may be adapted to handbooks for other populations. This research should encourage related studies to broaden the knowledge base of understanding handbooks and recognizing their place in training, utilizing field research using literature sources, and assisting MsWs with learning how to effectively manage their myriad roles and relationships. / Ed. D.

The neoliberal political economy guiding our present food system has contributed to our present unsustainable situation, characterized by wicked problems such as environmental degradation, food insecurity and diet-related illness. Our current condition demands a new conception of sustainability to guide creative and counter-hegemonic interventions that can supplant the dominant oppressive structures and processes presently characterizing development efforts. While community gardens have been recognized as common grounds for food systems transformation, research has largely missed this opportunity for exploration. Drawing from the planetary and emancipatory frameworks of transformative learning, and a conception of sustainability rooted in life values, counter-hegemony, and social justice, this case study explores how a collective community garden is a critical pedagogy space for stakeholders to change their own reality within their food system. Using narrative inquiry as a methodology, I conducted semi-structured interviews with garden stakeholders (n=12). The lived experiences of study participants revealed the transformative potential of the Farmacy Garden rooted in the community food security movement. As a space that inspires critical consciousness for humanization, study participants deepened their awareness of new choices and possibilities in their food system rooted in life values. As a space that inspires social action for community economies, the Farmacy Garden promoted transactions rooted in reciprocity and gift-based exchange. Through critical hope and creative imagination for integral development, study participants are envisioning and exploring alternatives that can guide us in the challenging and contradictory work of "making new worlds" (Gibson-Graham, 2008, p. 628). / Master of Science in Life Sciences / The Farmacy Garden (FG) is a collective community garden built on public land in a small town in rural, southwest Virginia, with a mission to promote health, increase food security, and build community capacity among low-income residents in the region. As an educational garden funded within a public health context, the FG programs and evaluation parameters have prioritized health outcomes over other potential benefits of the site. This study embraces a whole-systems perspective, providing an opportunity to cultivate a richer understanding of the role the FG plays as a critical pedagogy space for sustainability and food systems transformation. Drawing on the planetary and emancipatory conceptions of transformative learning, and narrative inquiry as a methodology, this case study explores the perceptions and experiences of FG participants and practitioners (n=12) through story and critical reflection using semi-structured, narrative interviews. The lived experiences of these stakeholders reveals the FG's role as an educational site that enables participants and practitioners to cultivate new understandings of themselves, invigorate new forms of social action, and nurture new imaginaries that provoke possibilities beyond the current condition.