Self-help groups have emerged as a system of care for groups of people
sharing a common problem or condition. Most of the interest in research came
from professionals in mental health and social services. Educators have
traditionally viewed self-help groups as outside their domain. The focus of this
study is the phenomenon of personal change within self-help groups. This is
viewed as “learning with peers.”
The subject of the study was HOPE Cancer Health Centre, a non-profit
community based self-help organization in Vancouver, B.C. Appropriate to the
study of phenomena in their natural surroundings, data collection methods were
qualitative in nature. Fourteen in-depth interviews were carried out with
members and leaders of the self-help group. Two introductory workshops were
attended for participant observation and several pertinent documents were
reviewed. A full description of HOPE Cancer Health Centre as a self-help group
and as a context for adult learning was developed. To clarify the description of
HOPE, a framework of characteristics of self-help groups was developed. It was
used to organize data collection and analysis. Compilation and analysis of the
findings created a description of HOPE that adds to the understanding of self-help
groups as organizations in a larger system of care provision. It also adds to the
understanding of HOPE as an organization with the purpose to assist cancer
patients who are interested in actively participating in their cancer treatment and
recovery. In order to enhance understanding of adult learning in the context of a selfhelp
group, three perspectives from the literature on adult learning were selected
for their potential to organize and explain the resulting data. Four important
themes emerged from the data on the learning experiences of the members of
HOPE. First, the ideology of HOPE, “self as participant in healing,” is the
framework of learning and within that frame there are four forms of learning, the
forms of transformative learning being the most significant. Second, for the
learners of HOPE, the basis of knowledge is their personal experience; therefore,
processes of experiential learning are important as well as those of perspective
transformation. Third, the affective dimension of the experiential learning process
was found to be integral in the process of learning. The fourth theme is “learning
with peers,” the innate characteristic of self-help groups. All members interviewed
placed high value on their experiences of learning with peers and of learning at
HOPE. Meaningful interpretation of the data resulted from application of
concepts and theoretical propositions from three perspectives on adult learning:
experiential learning, transformative learning and situated learning.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/5098 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Rae, Jean Berkeley |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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