Transformative Learning Theory

1. Transformative Learning Theory

2. In 1978, Jack Mezirow introduced transformative learning theory to help explain how adults change the way they interpret the world.

3. Most of the time, when we learn new information, it fits into the existing patterns or pathways in our brains. It fits with what we already know.

4. If you already play piano, when you learn a new piece, your new learning fits with what you already know about notes, scales, rhythm, and how musical sound is created.

5. If you learn a new instrument, you will transfer some of what you know to the new context. This new instrument may enhance your skill, or offer new ways to create sound, but it generally will not challenge or cause you to question what you previously understood about music.

6. BUT… If you experience something that causes you to question what music is and how it is created, that could be the trigger for a transformative learning experience.

7. If what you learn changes the way you understand music itself, then you have a new story frame about what music is. This is a transformative learning experience.

8. A classic example of transformative learning can be found in the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

9. Many American women (by no means all!) lived with and accepted a cultural set of understandings about their role in the world and how to navigate that role. Sure, they were learning things all the time, but in many cases, what they learned simply enhanced their ability to function. Their learning did not call into question the social structure that determined the role.

10. For some, events occurred that led them to question that very structure. The moment when a new piece of information (or several new pieces of information) did not fit with the old was a moment which offered the possibility of transformative learning.

11. Some women reflected individually and together on their own experiences, rejecting the narrative they had previously embraced about the nature of women and the role they could and should play in the social structure

12. Many constructed a new feminist narrative to frame their own experiences. This was transformative learning. The new narrative became the frame for organizing subsequent learnings and experiences. That is, until something didn’t fit again, which offered the possibility of yet another transformative learning experience.

13. What do adults do when confronted with experience or information that does not “fit” into any of our known story pathways? When the established brain patterns are not adequate?

14. Adults try to make the new information fit, checking to see if existing story pathways can hold the new information. Sometimes they can. And that modifies the story so that similar information makes sense the next time.

15. And sometimes the new experience makes an adult question the story or big understanding they hold about a particular system or structure. They might ask: “Is the story I know inaccurate? incomplete? irrelevant? Do I need a new story to allow me to make sense of this?”

16. Adults have the developmental capacity to question the very brain structures they have developed to store and make sense of information and experiences. They have to ability to experience transformative learning.

17. Adults also have the ability to seektransformative learning experiences, sometimes by seeking an encounter with information that does not fit into their previous story patterns. This is what can happen when we truly listen to the stories of others whose life experiences are different from our own.

18. As we listen to, read, watch on film or otherwise encounter something unfamiliar, we can experience a “dissonance” or disconnect between what we know and understand and the new piece of information.

19. This experience of dissonance is especially powerful if it is connected with a strong emotional response to new information- empathy, grief, joy, etc.

20. In many cases, we dismiss new information that does not fit with what we already know. This is a completely human response. Sometimes, however, we move from the uncomfortable experience of dissonance to embracing a new story pathway in our brains, a narrative that reshapes our understanding of past experience and learnings as well as those we encounter in the future.

22. Before there istransformative learning.. • There is discomfort because something doesn’t fit with a person’s known stories • The new information is connected with deeply felt experiences, emotions, and images • The person is open to new meaning and new stories, rather than rejecting information and experiences that “don’t fit”

23. Transformative Learning is building a new story for new information… …Which can lead to reexamination and modification of old stories …and seeking of other experiences, perspectives, and stories that will lead to further transformative learning.

24. One Can lead to Transformative Learning Experience Another Another another Another another

25. Tools to support transformative learning • Practice reflecting on lived experience and personal stories • Practice deep listening to the experiences of others, which may fall outside of personal experiences and stories • Practice deep listening to the stories from the sources of our faith, especially those which push the boundaries of cultural, religious, ideological and political narratives • Spiritual practices that help to accept and welcome the discomfort that precedes transformative learning