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…

This article derives from a five-year collaborative engagement in which we intermittently visited Mocha Celis, a community-based high school programme in Buenos Aires. We seek to illustrate how, by centring "travesti"/trans experiences, some of Mocha Celis's practices align with Quinlivan's notion of an 'epidemic of love'. By doing this,…

This essay focuses on epiphanies -- moments when an insight or revelation captures our attention and summons us to become a better version of ourselves. The role of epiphanies in moral transformation, however, raises a potentially troublesome question. Namely, is the cultivation of epiphanies yet another vexed attempt at moral education? Kevin…

This article argues for the thesis that epiphanies are a central means for transformative moral and intellectual growth. Drawing on recent work on this concept in moral education, the article develops a conception of epiphany as a genre of transformative experience with three distinct phenomenological dimensions: a disruption of our everyday…

Making appropriate perspective transformations as we age is necessary to meet the demands of the rapidly changing conditions within our world. Accordingly, there has been a growing interest in the role of mindfulness in enabling transformations. Still, how mindfulness may facilitate perspective transformations is not well understood. The present…

Transformative education exists in a complex, dynamic, and ambiguous state seeking structural definitions and relationships within an interdisciplinary arena often critiqued for its limitations as an individual--rather than social--practice. This type of education encompasses learning processes that may facilitate the development of civic-minded,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a learning transformation framework for analyzing how learning evolves during project-based learning (PBL) process. Here, the authors adopt Lewin's (1951) change theory as an analytical lens to examine the project-based learning curriculum at a University called UNI-X. This is a major contribution…

This article explores both the prerequisites and barriers of perspective transformation in the context of two Eastern European societies as examples of post-totalitarian states. Although personal cognitive development is considered as an outcome of perspective transformation, I will demonstrate that certain manifestations of cognitive development…

My starting point for this paper is a problem in critical thinking pedagogy--the difficult of bringing students to a point where they are able, and motivated, critically to evaluate their own deeply held beliefs. I first interrogate the very idea of a deeply held belief, drawing upon Wittgenstein's idea of a framework belief--a belief that forms…

In this article I explore the role of transpersonal consciousness in Peace Education. Following the framework of transrational peace philosophy, I discuss the dynamics between the spiritual and policitary layers and their relevance in preparing for elicitive teaching, curriculum design, and developing pedagogical approaches. I use my personal…

In contemporary culture, it is natural to think that purchasing and owning the "right" possessions results in happiness. This belief supports our loyalty to consumer society. However, several lines of research demonstrate that high consumption lifestyles and materialistic values are not a trustworthy path to well-being. Instead,…

Aristotelian-inspired accounts of virtue acquisition stress guided practice and habituated action to develop virtue. This emphasis on action can lead to the "paradox of striving". The paradox occurs when we try too hard to act well and thereby spoil our efforts. I identify four forms of striving--forcing, impulsivity, overthinking, and…

The intensification of different types of migration movements during the last decades is an expression of growing interconnections at the global level. The so called "refugee crisis" is the most visible sign of this intensification. It currently challenges societies to rethink the processes of integrating those fleeing from humanitarian…

Scholars and practitioners alike often assume that discomfort is a necessary and productive aspect of the college experience. We used a range of theories grounded in the concept of dissonance to question these assumptions and critically analyze the role of discomfort in collegiate learning and development for today's diverse college student…

This paper examines the role of critical mini-ethnographies as pedagogical tool in teacher education classrooms for transforming educators' narratives about immigrant and refugee communities. The process and the product of assigning critical mini-ethnographies in a graduate, teacher education course designed to help mainstream educators address…