Being uncomfortable by choice as a means of personal growth has been touted for hundreds of years among scholars, philosophers, religious leaders, modern pop culture icons, and more. Yet, research pertaining to the benefits of being uncomfortable by choice is sparse. This qualitative, grounded theory study addressed the first step of…

The Climate Crisis is an urgent and inescapable reality students are thrust into. Learners must be prepared adequately for their futures, not only for their sakes but also because collective and transformative change is required. Transformative sustainability education provides one pathway to this transformation and focuses on radically altering…

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…

The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to determine if, and to extent, there is a statistically significant difference between pre and posttest critical thinking scores of U.S. Navy Operations Specialist A-school participants in an adaptive technology training environment and those in the traditional learning environment.…

This research addresses the conceptual and methodological challenges of studying transformative learning within the context of international education. A comprehensive framework is employed to identify key dimensions of transformative learning, and a validated instrument (Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory) is used to quantitatively assess…

Statistics on the success of transformational change efforts within and across organizations consistently indicate a high level of failure, something we can little afford in today's complex world. Transformative learning offers potential for improvement through the practice of intentional dialogue. The purpose of this research study was to develop…

Caste-based discrimination persists as a formidable barrier within Indian higher education, compelling Dalit students to employ university spaces not only for learning but as arenas for activism and social change. This dissertation explores the agency of Dalit students as they confront and dismantle systemic inequalities through strategic…

The relevance of physics is an active line of inquiry within the physics education research (PER) community. Many studies have shown that physics instruction typically negatively impacts students' sense of the relevance of physics to their lives. Irrespective of students' beliefs, physics is communicated as being relevant through policy…

Using narrative and poetic inquiry as methods for data collection an analysis, this dissertation documented the stories of four poets and their engagement in Spoken Word practice as well as how they utilized this art form to engage in learning individually and collectively. Each dissertation participant shared stories through conversational…

The problem of practice in this study was to understand the learning processes of faculty in their transition into an unfamiliar international school culture. Because of the unique experiences associated with transition among international school faculty, examining the phenomenon of transition and its associated learning processes which focus on…

In the broad field of education, studies have been done to understand the ways in which adult learning, development, and transformation are fostered in travel contexts. Such studies mainly used the experiential learning and transformational learning theoretical frameworks to look at participants' lived learning experiences from travel. However,…

The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the lived experiences of adult learners at 4 Christian colleges in Indiana who desired to pursue bachelor and associate degrees in accelerated programs. The growing trend of accelerated programming exists to meet the needs of a growing number of adults who believe that earning an academic…

Human beings have spent much time and effort in trying to understand themselves, others, and their world. Mankind uses intellect when trying to understand life but the majority of people continue to encounter frustration, confusion, and a variety of obstacles when dealing with daily challenges and people. Theorists and researchers understand that…

Unknowingly, much of the population of the Western World are thinking machines who live and learn isolated from somatic experiences. They distrust their bodies in the learning process and are stuck living out unquestioned realities of embodied socioculturalism and rationalism which guide decision making, learning and ways of being. Considering a…

This dissertation explores the confluence between transformative learning (TL), education for sustainability (EfS), and Expeditionary Learning (EL). The researcher has studied the experiences of EL graduates from three high schools and asked the question: does participation in an EL high school result in transformative learning? If so, what are…