Transformative
Learning Resources
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“Innovations in
Transformative
Learning: Space,
Culture, and the Arts,”
edited by Beth FisherYoshida, Kathy Dee Geller
and Steven A. Schapiro
(Peter Lang International Academic
Publishers, 2009)
“Learning as
Transformation: Critical
Perspectives on a Theory
in Progress,” by Jack
Mezirow and Associates
(Jossey-Bass, 2000)
“Shifting: The Double
Lives of Black Women
in America,” by Charisse
Jones and Kumea
Shorter-Gooden (Harper
Perennial, 2004)
complained of anxiety and
depression, and nearly half the
African American women in this
age range reported that they
were taking prescription drugs
regularly. Meanwhile, recent
age-adjusted data from the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control
shows that African American
women are 2.4 times as likely as
their White counterparts to die
from diabetes.
Transformative
Learning Theory
In the 2000 collection that he
edited, Jack Mezirow describes
transformative learning (TL) as “a
process by which we transform
our taken-for-granted habits of
mind or frames of reference,
to make them more inclusive,
discriminating, open, emotionally
capable of change and reflective
so that they may generate beliefs
and opinions that will prove
more true or justified to guide
action.” In the same volume,
Stephen D. Brookfield connects
the TL concept of critical
reflection to the life experiences
of the co-inquirers from another
perspective, describing critical
reflection as “a process where
individuals engage in some sort
of power analysis and try to
identify assumptions they hold
dear that are actually destroying
their sense of well-being and
serving the interests of others.”
Both of these TL perspective 0