In this paper, I explore the ways that educators can nurture transformative learning for adult students by engaging emotions, particularly shame. I discuss how shame mitigates adult student experiences, successes, and failures in higher education, and how a relational pedagogy of vulnerability can support adult learners. This approach not only…

Within the broad, interdisciplinary field of adult education, affective aspects of experience and the roles they play in learning have, thus far, not been properly theorized or researched. This dissertation first explores how John Heron's whole person theory (WPT) conceptualizes feeling as an expansive affective capacity at the root of all human…

John Heron's whole person theory can expand transformative learning theory by elaborating a more nuanced understanding of affect. In contrast to the vague conceptualization of affect's role and the interchangeable treatment of emotion and feeling in most adult learning scholarship, Heron's holistic theory grounds all experience in affective…

Research in disparate fields of education, psychology and neuroscience suggests that emotions play a central role in learning. We critically examine research at the intersection of emotions, adult learning and neuroscience. First, we review studies in the "IJLE" related to emotions and adult learning. In particular, we focus on the…

While spirituality has emerged as a topic of interest in adult education, much of the current scholarship considers spirituality as distinct from religion. This literature review questions those conclusions, including the use of theistic terminology to describe a concept (spirituality) that many posit is non-theistic. Spirituality is also…

A reconceptualization of education for sustainability and global citizenship education (GCE) is proposed, considering evidence from the United Nations decade of education for sustainable development (ESD) and from research with policymakers and adult educators in Wales. In this reframing, global citizenship education is foregrounded, and the model…

This article discusses student leadership developed through an instructional approach to teach basic skills instruction within the context of climate hope, regeneration, and transformational resilience. The purposes of this approach are threefold: to develop student leadership, enhance basic skills instruction, and better prepare students for the…

Shame both stymies and motivates learning; it prevents adults from participating in educational programs yet, with accompanied self-examination, it can be the catalyst for transformation. While fundamental for understanding adult learning, shame is (shamefully) inadequately theorized in the field of adult education: We don't talk enough about…

Mezirow's theory of perspective transformation has proved to be a great asset to the scholarship of adult education and has provided a solid theoretical base for understanding complex learning phenomena. However, in the discussions surrounding Mezirow's work, a certain "stuckness" appears which we think is unproductive. Critiques of…

Language-related Study Abroad (SA) experiences can be catalysts for learner transformation in the areas of cognition, socialization, and/or affect by virtue of the location and experience. An Open Architecture Curriculum Design (OACD) framework can support, promote, and enhance such transformation, as evidenced in eight programs for young adults,…

The purpose of this autoethnographic study is to share the power of writing as a transformative research method (Custer, 2014). This study draws from the life of a nontraditional adult learner doctoral student, who while traveling through Italy alone, embarked on a journey of self-discovery and transformation. Using a narrative voice, the…

In this article, the authors critically examine the way discourse enters into and becomes embedded in transformative learning theory, especially from the extrarational or depth psychology perspective. The authors begin by providing an overview of how transformative learning theory has developed in diverse directions, including the extrarational…

How do we account for the close personal bonds and deeply caring relationships forged by educators with learners in many adult educational encounters? The literature is relatively silent on the emotional and relational basis to adult educator work. This is a serious silence, given the stressful nature of adult education in developing contexts such…

This study elaborates on how a disorienting dilemma, a life-event crisis, may trigger reflection. The study comprised an analysis of interviews with involuntarily childless women, who were in the process of negotiating emotionally chaotic experiences. The implications for Jack Mezirow's theory of transformative learning are explored. Compared with…

This study explored connections between adult learners and their experiences in the context of small boutique wineries operating in the start-up phase of the organizational life cycle. The research objective was to gain insight regarding the pairing of adult learners with the entering of a specialty industry. Fourteen individuals from four…