spiraling into transformative learning

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Chapter 1

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0252-6.ch001

In the adult education literature, we tend to sepa-rate different kinds of learning into categories,

with transformative learning falling into a separate

categoryone which seems to be more important

than the others. Mezirow (2000) describes four

types of learning: the acquisition of new knowl-

edge and skills, the elaboration on existing knowl-

edge and skills, the revision of a meaning scheme,

and the revision of a perspective. Only the latter

two, he states, are transformative. This has the

unfortunate tendency to disconnect vocational

education, training, workplace learning, and thelike from mainstream adult education and there-

by to overlook the possibility of transformative

learning occurring in educational forums that we

consider to be more technical.

Let us consider some ordinary examples fromeveryday life. Even though my mother died many

years ago, I still sometimes think of the constraints

in her life from not acquiring the common skill

of driving a car. She immigrated to Canada from

Amsterdam following Word War II as one of

many war brides (those young women who

married the soldiers whom they met during the

war) and she settled with my father in a rural,

isolated area of Western Canada. Going from a

large family in Amsterdam to a rather desolate

area of the prairies was difficult enough, but mymother could not drive a car. The nearest neighbors

were at least two miles away from our farm, and

long walks on dusty roads were not something

that appealed to my mother. She could not go to

town, 25 miles away, nor could she visit anyone

in the community unless they came to her. She

insisted that it was impossible for her to learn to

Patricia Cranton

Penn State University - Harrisburg, USA

Spiraling intoTransformative Learning

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how technical and vocational learning may spiral into transformative learning.

Transformative learning theory is reviewed and the learning tasks of critical theory are used to inte-

grate various approaches to transformative learning. With this as a foundation, the paper explores how

transformative learning can be fostered in adult vocational education.


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Spiraling into Transformative Learning

drive a car. The process frightened her; she didnt

understand or like machinery. And that was that

for the next thirty or so years that she lived. No

one challenged her or tried to provide the support

that might have led her to acquire this skill. My

father worked long hours on the farm. The other

women in the community worked alongside their

husbands on the farms (my mother did not). Is it

not possible, or even likely, that learning to drive

a car, a technical skill, would have spiraled into

transformative learning for her?

I grew up in a time and place where gender

roles were fairly rigidly defined. Although the farm

women helped with the farm work, the men took

care of finances, fixed things, and were responsible

for the machinery and the heavy work. Women

took care of things inside the house, including

canning and preserving food for the winter. I un-

critically absorbed these gender roles. When I first

lived alone, I had no idea of how to do the male

jobs in life. I was frightened and embarrassed

to admit that I did not have the basic skills that

everyone around me took for granted. Opening a

bank account, getting a credit card, using a lawn

mower, hammering a nail into somethingthese

were all challenging experiences. When I began

to acquire these basic technical skills for every-

day life, I came to see myself in a new light and

to feel a profound sense of accomplishment that

went far beyond the actual task.

To go back to an education context, for many

years I taught a course called Methods and Strate-

gies in Adult Education to primarily tradespeople

who were preparing to become teachers of their

trades in a community college. They tended to

be anxious about returning to school, concerned

about their ability to engage in learning, and wor-

ried about appearing to be foolish in front of their

peers. I have told many stories about working with

the people in this program, but in this context, one

particular anecdote comes to mind. The group had

decided that they wanted to learn how to prepare

PowerPoint presentations. We booked a computer

lab, I invited a technical person to attend the ses-

sion to help out, and two of the participants in the

group who already knew how to use PowerPoint

offered to lead the class. Most people were nervous,

but one man (I will call him Jim) was especially

resistant. He would never need or use this skill,

he said. He thought he would skip the session and

do something else. I suggested he come to the lab

for a little while, and if it really appeared to be

irrelevant, he could leave. I did not witness the

moment when things changed for Jim, but at one

point I noticed that he had moved from looking

over someones shoulder to sitting at a computer.

Apparently, he had asked the technical assistant

to show him how to turn on the computer, and

he was following the instructions for creating a

slide. Later that day, when we were back in our

classroom, Jim announced to the group, Now,

Im a real teacher! I can make slides! Again,

although this appears to be a simple technical

skill, it spiraled into a potentially transformative

experience for Jim; this was the first time he

thought of himself as a teacher.

It is my intent in this paper to demonstrate how

technical and vocational learning has the pos-

sibility of spiraling into transformative learning.

First, I provide a brief overview of transforma-

tive learning theory. I discuss the fragmentation

of transformative learning theory. I then go on to

use the learning tasks of critical theory as a frame-

work to integrate the fragments of transformative

learning theory. With this in mind, I return to adult

vocational education and technology to see how

we can engage in the learning tasks of critical

theory and consequently transformative learning.

OVERVIEW OF TRANSFORMATIVE

LEARNING THEORY

Transformative learning is a deep shift in per-

spective during which habits of mind become

more open, more permeable, and better justified

(Cranton, 2006; Mezirow, 2000). According to

Mezirow, the process centers on critical reflection


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and critical self-reflection, but other theorists (for

example, Dirkx, 2001) place imagination, intu-

ition, and emotion at the heart of transformation.

Generally, transformative learning occurs when

a person, group, or larger social unit encounters

a perspective that is at odds with the prevailing

perspective. This may be anything from a per-

sonal traumatic event to a social movement. The

discrepant perspective can be ignored or it can

lead to an examination of previously held beliefs,

values, and assumptions. When the latter is the

case, the potential for transformative learning ex-

ists, though it does not occur until an individual,

group, or social unit changes in noticeable ways.

This definition is deliberately general so as

to incorporate the wide variety of definitions

and perspectives now existing in the literature.

Mezirows (1978) original theory was based on

a study of women who, in returning to college,

found that the experience led them to question and

revise their personal beliefs and values in a fairly

linear ten-step process. By 1991, Mezirow pro-

duced his comprehensive theory of transformative

learning in Transformative Dimensions of Adult

Learning.In this book, he drew on Habermass

(1971) three kinds of human interests and the re-

sulting three kinds of knowledgeinstrumental,

practical (or communicative), and emancipa-

tory. In this view, transformative learning (the

acquisition of emancipatory knowledge) occurs

when people critically reflect on instrumental and

communicative knowledge. At that time, Mezirow

(1991) described three types of meaning perspec-

tivesepistemic (about knowledge and how we

obtain knowledge), sociolinguistic (understanding

ourselves and social world through language), and

psychological (concerned with our perception

of ourselves largely based on childhood experi-

ences). He argued that we uncritically assimilate

perspectives in each of these domains and do not

realize that such perspectives are distorted until

we encounter a dilemma that brings this to our

attention. The process of bringing distortions to

light and revising them was described by Mezirow

as a completely cognitive and rational process.

Among the first critiques of Mezirows work was

just thatthat it was too cognitive.

Since that time, and especially in the last ten

years, many other theorists have entered the scene,

and interpretations of transformative learning

abound. Transformative learning theory is, as

Mezirow (2000) suggests, a theory in progress.

But as is often the case with a theory that is evolv-

ing, things get confusing. We make meaning out

of the world around us by categorizing ideas and

distinguishing this from that. The unfortunate

tendency is that this desire to find clear answers

can lead to fragmentation in our thinking. We want

transformative learning to be either rational or

extrarational, cognitive or affective, individual or

social. Next, I discuss some of the fragmentation

of the theory that has taken place.

FRAGMENTATION OF

TRANSFORMATIVE

LEARNING THEORY

Some theorists, including Mezirow, focus on the

individual, and others are interested in the social

context of transformative learning, social change

as a goal, or the transformation undergone by

groups and organizations. Although this appears

to be a great divide in theoretical positions, there

is no reason that both the individual and the

social perspectives cannot peacefully coexist;

one does not deny the existence of the other, but

rather they share common characteristics and can

inform each other.

Within the focus on individual transformation,

further splinters are immediately visible. As I

have mentioned, Mezirows work is described

as cognitive and rational. Set up in contrast to

this is the extrarational approach, or as labeled

by others (for example, Taylor, 2005), the depth

psychology approach. Extrarational perspectives

substitute imagination, intuition, and emotion for

critical reflection (Dirkx, 2001). Depth psychol-


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ogy theorists (Boyd & Myers, 1988; Dirkx, 2001)

define transformation in relation to the Jungian

concept of individuation, in which individuals

bring the unconscious to consciousness as they

differentiate Self from Other and simultaneously

integrate Self with the collective. My work (for

example, Cranton, 2006) is sometimes listed as

cognitive and rational and other times as depth

psychology.

Also within the individual focus is a develop-

mental perspective. As is the case in developmental

psychology in general, transformative learning

in this framework describes shifts in the way

we make meaningmoving from a simplistic

reliance on authority through to more complex

ways of knowing or higher orders or conscious-

ness (for example, Kegan, 2000). Belenky and

Stanton (2000) fall within this perspective in that

they report on a similar change in epistemology,

but they emphasize connected knowing (through

collaboration and acceptance of others views)

rather than autonomous, independent knowing.

Social change has long been a goal of adult edu-

cation (as can be seen in the historical Antigonish

movement in Canada in the 1920s and the High-

land Folk School in the United States, founded

in 1932). Mezirow (2000) distinguishes between

educational taskshelping people become aware

of oppressive structures and learn how to change

themand political tasks, which challenge eco-

nomic, government, and social structures directly.

However, several transformative learning theorists

see ideology critique as central to transformation.

Brookfield (2000) goes so far as to say that critical

reflection without social action is self-indulgent

and makes no real difference to anything (p.

143). Taylor (2005) and Fisher-Yoshida, Geller,

and Schapiro (2009) call this the social-emanci-

patory approach to transformation and connect it

with Freires (1970) work. Some theorists writing

in this tradition see race and power structures as

pivotal to ideology critique (Johnson-Bailey &

Alfred, 2006), and this has been labeled as a race-

centric approach to transformation. Tisdell (2003)

adds spirituality, symbolism, and narrative to the

social-emancipatory approach; this is sometimes

called the cultural-spiritual approach.

Still in the realm of social structures, but tak-

ing a quite different approach are those writers

who are interested in how groups and organiza-

tions transform. Yorks and Marsick (2000) focus

their research on action learning and collabora-

tive inquiry, strategies with a goal of promoting

organizational transformation. Kasl and Elias

(2000) base their work on the premise that indi-

viduals, groups, and organizations have a group

mind that engages in both critical reflection and

discernment. Transformative learning becomes a

collective expansion of consciousness. Another

example of this view can be found in Triscaris

(2009) dissertation, where she documented the

organizational transformation of a non-profit

organization that followed a deliberate shift in

power structures within the organization.

OSullivans (2003) broad vision of transfor-

mative learning integrates several of the preceding

approaches, spanning individual, relational, group,

institutional, societal, and global perspectives. He

sees transformative learning as a shift of conscious-

ness that dramatically changes our way of being

in the world, including our relationships with

each other and with the natural world. His work

is sometimes called a planetary approach, as he

advocates striving for a planetary community that

embraces diversity; it is also sometimes called an

ecological view of transformation.

THE SEVEN LEARNING TASKS

OF CRITICAL THEORY

Brookfield (2005) set out to illustrate how critical

theory can be used as a perspective to understand

adult education practice. Here, I follow Brook-

fields lead, but I focus solely on transformative

learning theory and use the seven learning tasks

of critical theory as a framework for integrating,

or at least establishing the connections between,


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the profusion of approaches to transformation.

In general, critical theory involves identifying,

challenging, and changing the way in which

dominant ideologies manipulate people into not

seeing oppression or accepting oppression. Critical

theory is based on three core assumptions: that

Western democracies are unequal societies, that

the inequities are reproduced in such a way as to

seem normal and inevitable, and that this state of

affairs can be understood and changed (Brook-

field, 2005, p. viii). Although there are many and

varied understandings of critical theory, there are

common characteristics across theorists: critical

theory is primarily concerned with challenging an

economy based on the exchange of commodities

(including the commodification of our labor and

our abilities); it is concerned with freedom from

oppression; it critically questions the separation of

subject and object (for example, the researcher and

the researched); it strives for a more democratic,

more connected way of being in the world; and

it cannot be verified until a new social system is

realized.

Creating a just society involves a series of

interrelated learning tasks, and it is in this way

that Brookfield (2005) uses critical theory as a

way of focusing on the goals and practices in

adult education. The first of these learning tasks

ischallenging ideologiesthe ideologies embed-

ded in language, social habits, and cultural forms.

Ideology is a broadly accepted set of values,

beliefs, myths, explanations, and justifications

that appears self-evidently true, empirically

accurate, personally relevant, and morally desir-

able to a majority of the populace (p. 41). As

such, ideologies are hard to detect (they appear

to serve the interests of everyone), but they are

what prevents us from realizing our true interests.

In transformative learning theory, the perspective

that has been called social-emancipatory falls in

with the task of challenging ideologies. Ideologies

are more or less congruent with sociolinguistic or

socio-cultural habits of mind.

The second learning task Brookfield extracted

from critical theory is that of contesting hegemony.

Hegemony occurs when people embrace condi-

tions (and see them as normal) that serve those in

power but work against their own best interests.

With the help of the media, for example, we come

to accept corporate takeovers and government

bailouts as normal. Or, people genuinely believe

that the possessing the products and using the

services provided by corporations lead them to a

happy and fulfilled life. Large scale inequities are

not mentioned and seemingly do not exist. Again,

this learning task, in transformative learning theory

would be described as social-emancipatory and

the conditions that are uncritically embraced are

similar to sociolinguistic habits of mind or mean-

ing perspectives.

The third learning task is unmasking power

(Brookfield, 2005), based primarily on Foucaults

ideas about individual interpersonal relationships

(such as between teacher and learner or among

learners) and in broader social structures. Power

is not something we can avoid or give away or

give to another person, as has been advocated in

some adult education literature. Power structures

are deeply embedded in our culture and are often

seen as a given or a natural way in which people

interact. Unmasking power involves recognizing

how power is exercised in our own lives in every-

day actions. At the core of transformative learning

theory is empowerment; revising perspectives in

a meaningful way is empowering, and critical re-

flection is one of the means of unmasking power.

Given the centrality of critical reflection, this

critical theory task is congruent with the cognitive

rational perspective on transformative learning. It

also overlaps with a developmental perspective in

that it involves moving away from a reliance on

authority toward more complex understandings

of human relations.

Overcoming alienationis the fourth learning

task of critical theory. We are alienated when we

are unable to be ourselves, unable to be authentic in

the way in which we live and work. For example,


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a work context that is repetitive, structured, and

bound tightly by policies and procedures that go

against our values is alienating. A relationship

(including a relationship between teacher and

learner) in which we need to hide our beliefs and

assumptions in order to maintain the relationship

is alienating. The adult learning task is to develop

a sense of free agency and to realize how our lives

are shaped by our social contexts. Overcoming

alienation is related to several transformative

learning perspectives. The psychoanalytic (or

depth psychology) perspective, with its focus on

individuation, is about differentiating the Self

from the collective and consciously reintegrating

with the collective. This is also a central process

in the extrarational perspective. Kegans (2000)

developmental perspective on transformative

learning is about moving from the socialized

mind to the self-authoring mind and to the

self-transforming mind, in other words, finding

out and understanding ourselves in increasingly

complex ways. The cultural-spiritual perspective

involves culture, spirituality, and non-rational and

symbolic ways of knowing; it could be described

as a way of overcoming alienation.

Brookfield (2005) lists learning liberationas

the fifth adult learning task. Marcuse (1964), in

One Dimensional Man, argues that people can

escape one-dimensional thought and ideological

domination through imagination and the arts.

One-dimensional thought focuses on improving

current social systems rather than breaking away

from them or replacing them with new ways of

thinking about social issues. To do this, Marcuse

suggests, individuals need to separate themselves

from the collective of humanity so as to be able to

see that collectivity in a detached and new man-

ner. Engagement with art and aesthetics allows

this separation to happen. In the depth psychology

approach to transformative learning, individuation

is a process by which individuals differentiate

themselves from the collective as they grow and

develop. The psycho-developmental perspective

on transformative learning uses different language

but involves a similar progression. And the cul-

tural-spiritual point of view involves imagination

and the arts in transformation.

Reclaiming reasonis the sixth task in a criti-

cal theory approach to adult learning. Habermas

(1987) argues that reason has become instru-

mentalized; that is, we consider reason to be

appropriate for making technical decisions and

working with instrumental knowledge but not, for

example, moral issues, values, and interpersonal

relations. Habermass concept of the lifeworld

encompasses the perspectives, values, and as-

sumptions that inform our actions and reasoning

without our being aware of them. The perspectives

and values are reified; that is, they are accepted

as true and unquestionable. For example, we may

believe that a person who has more gadgets or a

bigger house or a higher income is happier than

a person without those things. Quality of life

indices are based on the possession of dishwashers

and microwaves. Or, we may assume that working

class people want to improve themselves by

moving into a middle class lifestyle. Reclaiming

reason involves applying reason to examining how

our lives have been shaped by the lifeworld. This

task is congruent with Mezirows (2000) cognitive

rational perspective on transformative learning.

Mezirow (1991) drew on Habermass writing in

his first comprehensive description of the theory.

Finally,practicing democracyis the seventh

learning task that Brookfield (2005) lists. Brook-

field argues that the ideal of democracy has become

reified and actually supports capitalist hegemony.

There is enough dissent in the media and politi-

cal discussions that people believe democracy is

working independently of their own lives, and

they do not engage in critical questioning of the

functions of democracy. Brookfield claims that

the word itself, democracy is used in so many

ways and with so many agendas that it has no

real meaning. What we need to do is to practice

democracy through rational discourse, paying at-

tention to ideal speech conditions, increasing our

awareness of the contradictions inherent in the


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ideal of democracy, and pay attention to power

structures related to diversity (for example, race,

class, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation).

The cognitive rational perspective on transfor-

mative learning emphasizes rational discourse,

ideal speech conditions, and many other facets

of practicing democracy (including participatory

planning of curricula, learner self-evaluation, and

the like). The social emancipatory perspective,

with its focus on critical consciousness, examines

the diversity encountered in democracy.

In spite of the emphasis in the United States on

humanism and self-directed learning in the 1960s

and 1970s, adult education has a long history of

social reform (for example, Coady, 1939; Lin-

demann, 1926). Transformative learning theory

has its base in critical theory through Mezirows

drawing on Habermass work. Following his

early research on women returning to college

(Mezirow, 1978), Mezirow (1981) introduced his

critical theory of adult learning using Habermass

concept of democracy as grounded in a theory

of communicative action. Now, we can see how

critical theory provides a framework that em-

braces the proliferation of varying perspectives

on transformative learning theory. What appears

to be a fragmentation of transformative learning

theory into widely disparate splinters actually fits

comfortably together under this umbrella.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

AND TECHNOLOGY: TOWARD

TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

Vocational education and technology education

have long been marginalized in the world of adult

and higher education. Training became sepa-

rated from education generally, with education

enjoying a superior status to training. Though we

speak of vocational education and technology

education, we think of both as the preparation

for specific jobs that are instrumental and techni-

cal in nature. In our social structure, professions

are valued over trades, and a general liberal arts

education is often valued over one that prepares a

person for a job. In part, this is because we think

that acquiring skills is not as important as more

intellectual activities. This is an ideology in West-

ern culture, one that appears to be self-evidently

true, empirically accurate, and desirable. We as-

sume that an unskilled worker would rather be a

skilled worker, that a skilled worker would rather

be a professional, and that a professional would

rather be an intellectual. In order to challenge this

ideology, I turn to an exploration of how vocational

education and technology engage learners in the

tasks of critical theory and consequently spiral

into transformative learning.

Doing a good job and knowing you have

done a good job, taking pride in workmanship,

and building self-confidence through practice is

empowering and, in this way challenges ideol-

ogy. Vocational and technology educators can

deliberately and consciously work toward these

goals in all programs. When a carpenter is a good

carpenter and knows that he or she is, this is one

chip at the marginalization of tradespeople and an

opportunity for individual transformation in the

way the person sees himself or herself.

Ideology critique and contesting hegemony

has roots in the labor movement, union educa-

tion, the workplace, and social movements such

as the Antigonish Movement in Canada and the

Highlander Center in the United States. If educa-

tors in vocational and technical programs exposed

learners to these roots, it would serve to provide a

new perspective on their choice of career; excel-

lent historical video documentaries are available

on these and other social movements.

Engagement in service learning projects and

community development projects would also

contribute to contesting hegemony. For example,

learners could practice their skills by working in

low-income communities to provide car repairs,

develop building projects, do renovations and

repairs, help people access computer technology,

or create organic vegetable gardens. This has the


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potential of changing the way people see their

work, but it also could contribute to transforma-

tive learning in relation to cultural diversity and

economic issues.

Unmasking power involves developing a sense

of agency, coming together in collective action,

learning about power structures in the workplace,

and resisting capitalism. Educators could include

environmental issues in their programs and help

learners engage in environmental projects related

to their vocation (for example, forestry, agriculture,

refrigeration and heating). Social sustainability

projects would be relevant to some programs. This

could be a part of a service learning or community

development project as well. Again, the potential

exists for students to transform their perspective

on themselves, their work, and their social world

Learning about the role of unions and becom-

ing involved in union activities also could serve to

unmask power and bring alternative perspectives

on their work to students. Union representatives

could speak to participants; students could attend

union meetings; students could engage in or follow

union negotiations as a program project.

Any of the projects suggested so far would be

best conducted as a collaborative project. Collab-

orative experiences help to overcome alienation

and move the learning out of the strictly technical

domain. There is camaraderie in apprenticeship

programs and in the working environment of

shops and other practical settings which brings

with it the freedom and joy in building, creating,

and repairing. In many of the trades, the work is

open-ended in terms of time and space. Trades-

people travel to the worksite, work with diverse

clients, work on and solve unique problems, and

make responsible decisions. Building communi-

cation skills into programs or holding workshops

on communication can further enhance the value

of collaborative work and foster transformative

learning.

Arts-based projects are not usually associated

with the trades but can provide a unique experi-

ence and a new perspective on the work. I have

witnessed stunning sculptures made by welding

students, for example, and innovative arts-based

carpentry projects. Learning liberation can come

through the artistry inherent in the work and can

lead students to see their craft through a differ-

ent lens.

Reason, problem solving, diagnosis, autonomy,

and independence are at heart of vocational and

technology education. Reclaiming reason is the

process of bringing reason beyond technical skill

and applying it to all facets of life. Educators can

enhance this learning task by helping students

engage in, for example, problem-based learning,

where groups of students are given a fairly large

problem to solve (one that does not only require

technical skills, but also has communicative and

social elements). The group gathers the resources

and information needed for the project, makes

decisions about how to implement the project,

and calls on the educator when needed. The ser-

vice learning and social sustainability projects I

mention earlier could be treated as problem-based

learning, but any open-ended project that is central

to the discipline would have the potential to lead

to transformative learning.

Educators can practice democracy in their

classrooms by engaging participants in partici-

patory planning and learner self-evaluation. Al-

though the constraints of mandatory curriculum

and meeting industry needs may prevent full

learner involvement, there are always some places

in the program where learners can be a part of the

process of planning and assessing their learning.

Participation in decisions related to the process

of learning rather than the content can be just

as empowering, but educators can usually find

some means of bringing learner choice into the

curriculum as well.

The suggestions I give here are only a few

examples of things that can be done in vocational

and technological education if we see our work

as extending beyond technical skills and having

the potential to spiral into communicative and

emancipatory learning. Learning to drive a car,


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operate a lawn mower, or create a PowerPoint slide

show may be the acquisition of a technical skill

for one person, but could be contesting hegemony

for another person or overcoming alienation for

a third person. Depending on the individual and

his or her background and experiences and the

assumptions and values uncritically absorbed

from that background, any technical skill has

the potential to lead to transformative learning.

As educators, we need to be aware of these pos-

sibilities, recognize the moment when they exist,

and do our best to challenge and support learners

as they move into a different realm of learning.

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This work was previously published in International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology, Volume 1, Issue

1, edited by Victor C. X. Wang, pp. 1-13, copyright 2011 by IGI Publishing (an imprint of IGI Global).

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