<p>The overarching objective in undertaking this study is to examine the impact of the implementation of EGP and ESP program for ESP teachers in China, to explore into tertiary-level ESP teachers’ transformative learning experiences as well as the personal, institutional and societal factors that either facilitate or constrain such transformation. I employed narrative inquiry as the research methodology to reflect teachers’ profound transformative learning experiences from story collections through co-construction and collaboration with participant teachers in all phases of research. Five ESP teachers’ unique trajectories mirror their unique learning and professional development roadmap.</p> <p>Through detailed examination, I concluded that teachers stepped into the new territory of ESP instruction with various degrees of hesitation and resistance. Their non-linear transformative learning experiences shed lights on the uncertainty and struggles they confronted along the journey, and demonstrate how teachers hold their own stance adjusting the complex instructional ecosystem to enhance their potential success being as an ESP instructor.</p> <p>The significance of this study lies in the exploration of ESP teachers’ transformative learning from a critical perspective. By taking into consideration the essence of a teacher as an adult learner, this study will not only break through the existing studies’ inadequate attention to teacher’s transformative learning, but also emphasizes the value of teacher learning for their own transformation, emancipation and professional advancement.</p>

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This qualitative study uses narrative analysis to explore the outcomes of information seeking and use among public library users. Twelve women between the ages of 51 and 72, all residents of Fayetteville, Arkansas who self-identified as regular library users, were interviewed to gather their life stories and their experiences using the public library. The participants in this study used information to enable learning and, often, a change in their affective state. The participants used the new information they encountered constructively, to engage with the knowledge and experience they possessed; this use of information always involved reflection, dialogue, or both. The outcomes from these actions are the creation of new knowledge, a change in the participants' meaning schemes, and/or an affective change. In addition, the narratives strongly suggest that information seeking and use by adults in public libraries can sometimes facilitate or, on its own, precipitate a perspective transformation and the adoption of new meanings. Overall, the findings support Mezirow's theory of transformative learning as a model for understanding information use and outcomes among users of the public library. The major implications of this study are two-fold. One, it introduces to information science Mezirow's theory of transformative learning which could provide greater understanding of how adults use information, and the outcomes that arise from this use. Two, it provides library professionals with information about the library in the lives of their users and concrete information about how libraries can enable transformative learning.

Transformative Learning seeks to encourage learners to critically reflect on their assumptions and preconceptions, thereby transforming their existing frameworks and perspectives. This qualitative study investigates what Transformative Learning looks like in a diverse group of adult learners at a graduate school of education who attended sculpture classes intentionally designed to enable such change. When Transformative Learning is part of the teacher’s intention, how, if at all, does learning through artmaking in mixed media sculpture classes transform these adults with regard to their understanding of their identities as artists and learners (“Who am I?”), their approaches to artmaking (“How do I make art?”), and their understanding of art (“What is art?”)? Furthermore, the study seeks to understand what aspects of their class experiences contributed to these transformations. The study examines the studio creations and artmaking processes of five adults from diverse backgrounds and experiences and analyzes what they reported about their artmaking experiences. Data gathered from semi-structured interviews, retrospective surveys, and class artifacts are organized and analyzed based on three stages of the Transformative Learning cycle—Stability, Reflection, and Transformation. The five participants’ three stages are then discussed according to the participants’ perceptions of their identities as artists, their understanding of art, and their approaches to artmaking, based on the research questions. The findings of the study suggest that the participants experienced heightened levels of Transformative Learning in individualized ways. Data indicate that specific class activities—a gallery trip, in-class artmaking sessions with material and time constraints, and an artist statement exercise—contributed to participants’ transformations over the course of the semester. Once the semester ended, some participants took further actions based on their changed perspectives of artist identities, understanding of art, and approaches to artmaking, which indicates that dramatic shifts and multiple perspectives can be achieved in an art class designed to teach for Transformative Learning.

Thesis advisor: Jane Regan / American society has been labeled a consumer culture. Consumer culture is not another term for materialism or a framework to explain one's relationship to money; it is an evolving ethos shaping our vision of ourselves, of our neighbor and the common good. The breadth and depth of commodification in the contemporary West informs the collective imagination in unprecedented ways. This dissertation brings together social science critique, educational tools and theological resources to create models for effective adult disciple building that are adequate for addressing challenges of a dominant culture's ideology and practices. Christian formation practices should heighten the Christian community's awareness of its role in dominant culture, both as inheritors of culture and as agents. This awareness requires transformation in many dimensions of one's being: a holistic discipleship. Jesus reminded his followers, "Where your treasure is there your heart will be also." One of the driving questions of this dissertation is: how can the Christian community wrestle ultimate concerns back from the consumer culture to the heart of God for the world? To address that question the discourse of the dissertation is interdisciplinary while maintaining an ultimate vision for an approach to educating for mature Christian discipleship. The dissertation is structured to include social analysis, a vision of alternatives to the dominant lifestyle promulgated by the consumer culture, and effective pathways toward achieving that vision. The first half of the dissertation analyzes the relationship of contemporary consumer culture and Christian experience. The sociological and historical descriptions of this phenomenon lead toward the question, what are the implications for religious identity and meaning-making in light of the consumerist context? Theological resources include the gospel of Luke, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Gustavo Gutierrez for highlighting key dimensions of culturally responsive discipleship. There are also two brief cases presented of organizations who are attempting to live out promising approaches to Christian community in light of consumer culture patterns.The second half explores theories that can serve as a framework for Christian education practices. Transformative learning theory is introduced as a resource for cultivating awareness of underlying assumptions shaped by culture that are operative in adult decision making and worldview. Henriot and Holland's pastoral circle is described as a transformative learning tool. The dissertation moves toward a model of adapting the pastoral circle for educating congregations to think theologically about culture for the sake of personal transformation and social action. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Mindfulness and the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programme is becoming increasingly popular in the Western world. These days, there are many institutes and organisations that support and promote mindfulness, while there is also a growing body of research and academic literature on the topic. Yet, despite the implicit connection to social change, the focus of secular mindfulness in the Western world has primarily remained on the benefits that mindfulness hold for the individual. This notion prompts the question whether there is a relationship between mindfulness and social change. The key theoretical constructs that constitute the theoretical framework of my study include Habermas’s critical theory and his emancipatory-cognitive interest in knowledge creation, and Mezirow’s transformative learning theory, which expanded the Habermasian theory in terms of adult education and learning. Guided by my theoretical framework, the primary research question was formulated as follows: ‘What are the relationships between mindfulness, emancipatory learning and social change?’ In order to address this research question, I selected a case study research approach and collected data using both quantitative and qualitative instruments. For my empirical investigation I selected, as my case study, an MBSR programme offered in Cape Town, South Africa. The data were collected from 55 adult learners who participated in the programme. To my knowledge, this is the first academic research study that investigates the MBSR programme in the field of adult education and learning in a South African context.

As international education continues to expand, countries providing such opportunities not only benefit but also face challenges. For traditional destinations, including the United States and the United Kingdom, the number of international students has been falling. At the same time emerging economies, such as China, are witnessing a rapid increase in the number of international students enrolled in their universities. China is, therefore, beginning to play an important role in the competitive global market for higher education. This thesis analyses and compares the experiences of international students in the UK and China using Transformative Learning theory. While there is an extensive literature on both international higher education and also Transformative Learning theory there are three important contributions that this thesis makes. First, this research applies the theory to two international student groups: UK students in Chinese universities and Chinese students in UK universities. Second, this study includes a focus on the intercultural learning of Chinese doctoral students in the UK filling a gap in current research. Finally, this investigation has extended the very limited number of current research projects on UK students in China. It is generally acknowledged that international students will experience various challenges when they are in a culturally different context. Little research has focused on how and why learners are transformed through exposure to their new environment and, also, why sometimes they are not. This study applies Transformative Learning theory to address two research questions: first, do UK international students in Chinese universities and Chinese international students in UK universities experience transformational learning in/during their overseas studies? Second, what factors foster or impede international students' experience of transformative learning? To answer the above questions semi-structured interviews were used to investigate international students' academic and social experiences. Based on the insights provided by Mezirow, Taylor, and previous studies on international students, I argue that international students' intercultural experience is a complex process. Transformation can occur in various ways and social and personal perspectives underpin the transformative learning of the students. Contributing factors include culture shock, educational conventions, the student's motivation, expectations, personality, gender and previous work experience. The results reflect the significance of differences in teaching styles in the UK and China and the impact this can have on the student teaching and learning process when they move to a new university.

Throughout the world, both producers and consumers of food are critically analyzing and enacting changes away from the globalized, industrial paradigm associated with conventional practices in agriculture and food production/distribution/consumption and towards the localization of food networks. Contributing to growing resistance movements aimed at gaining greater food security and sovereignty, local food discourses are strengthened by a combination of political, socio-economic, ecological, and cultural reasoning. This critical ethnography examines how knowledge and meaning is constructed in the context of an alternative food discourse through the personal and shared experiences of six participants in rural Saskatchewan. Further, the study explores the factors that influence participants sense of personal and/or collective transformation. Data were collected over six months using the methods of participant interviews, a focus group, and observation. Data analysis used temporal sequencing of meaning-making factors or ingredients that were categorized to detail how the creation and affective use of knowledge in transformative learning occurred in the context of localizing food networks in rural Saskatchewan.

This research explores transformative learning occurring through the Farmer Field Schools of the Taita Hills, Kenya using a qualitative, case study approach. The findings reveal that cultural roles and premises profoundly impacted learning and that a mixed-group setting could contribute to closing the gap between gender inequalities, leading to a more just and sustainable type of agriculture. / February 2009

Throughout the world, both producers and consumers of food are critically analyzing and enacting changes away from the globalized, industrial paradigm associated with conventional practices in agriculture and food production/distribution/consumption and towards the localization of food networks. Contributing to growing resistance movements aimed at gaining greater food security and sovereignty, local food discourses are strengthened by a combination of political, socio-economic, ecological, and cultural reasoning. This critical ethnography examines how knowledge and meaning is constructed in the context of an alternative food discourse through the personal and shared experiences of six participants in rural Saskatchewan. Further, the study explores the factors that influence participants sense of personal and/or collective transformation. Data were collected over six months using the methods of participant interviews, a focus group, and observation. Data analysis used temporal sequencing of meaning-making factors or ingredients that were categorized to detail how the creation and affective use of knowledge in transformative learning occurred in the context of localizing food networks in rural Saskatchewan.