This update to Mezirow's Transformative Learning theory seeks to advance Mälkki's enhancement to the emotional dimension in phase one--the disorienting dilemma--by proposing the need for a complete grief process (as theorized by Kübler-Ross), to support movement from Mälkki's conceptualization of "edge-emotions" to a "comfort…

This article develops the ideas of perfection and education in Spinoza and Maimonides. Both thinkers identify human perfection with intellectual knowledge and a transformation in affect. They accordingly envision education in terms of enhancing cognition and shaping the desire to know. The first steps are a critical evaluation of imagination and…

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 paper explores the value of autoethnography in the context of student teaching and learning. The manuscript situates autoethnography within restorative and critical pedagogies and draws from students' impressions to examine how autoethnography aids in developing self-awareness, empathy, and vulnerability as emotional resiliency. Further…

Mezirow's theory of transformative learning presupposes agency. Agency is the means by which the limitations of an inadequate meaning perspective are transcended. It is the creative activity necessitated by an encounter with a disorienting dilemma. This implies that transformation cannot be achieved "from within" the existent meaning…

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…

The introduction of corporate mode into universities with the widespread of neoliberalism has posed threats to intellectuals' academic creativity and political sensitivity. To respond to the threats, I argue that it is high time we talk about educating hope. Moreover, I contend that Richard Rorty and Gilles Deleuze's theories on hope can be of…

Schools have long played a significant role in teaching students the values of gender respect and equity. These values have been embedded in education policy and practice in contexts such as Australia for decades. In the current #MeToo moment, there has been renewed emphasis on gender transformative teaching in schools. This work, however, is…

For scholars across a wide range of disciplines, the work of building critical inquiry and guiding students to discover and hone the tools necessary to be attentive to the world is not new. Critical scholars have long understood that an engaged pedagogy of emancipation and transformation is not indoctrination but rather an invitation to become…

The central question driving this paper is: How can educators theorize and cultivate hope's radical and transformative dynamism in a way that takes into consideration anti-colonial aims? This paper examines the contribution of pedagogies of "anti-colonial hope" to expand discussions of critical hope and its pedagogical relevance. It is…

How can the use of metaphors promote sustainable resilience in an educational process? How can educators and pastoral workers facilitate transformative learning by promoting strategies for coping with challenges? The paper answers these questions from a religious and psychological perspective by applying a biographical approach. By evaluating the…

This paper examines activist spaces for gender justice within two elite independent schools situated in an affluent part of the USA. Drawing on student interview data gathered as part of a broader study that sought to identify new educative approaches to addressing gendered violence, the paper explores attempts at these schools to engage boys in…

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…

The SEL Innovations series aims to help the field imagine new, more expansive and equitable approaches to social and emotional learning (SEL) and wellness to ensure that all children, adolescents, and adults feel safe, supported, and seen so that they can thrive. This is the second report in a series exploring innovations in SEL. The purpose of…