The concept of narrative was used to examine the process of transformative learning and explore the possibilities for using narrative as a central construct for theorizing transformation and thereby expanding the possibilities for research and practice. The concepts of narrative used in the analysis were as follows: (1) it moves from past to…

Multiple, sometimes competing, purposes for adult arts education are to develop the individual, maintain the dominant culture, or change the culture; develop appreciative audiences or creative practitioners; or liberate creativity or develop technical skills. Art may be the means or a goal in itself; that is, the arts may be used for instrumental…

This report describes the general features of "online learning communities," community organizations that have constructed learning delivery systems that effectively combine elements of the distance learning and traditional models of instruction. It discusses the online learning community framework and explains the four features of these…

Teachers transform lives, and the ripple effect goes on for years. Three pertinent questions are asked in this paper: Where does this power come from? What is its source? and What makes teachers so special? Two aspects of these questions are the multiplicity of identities that coexist within each teacher and the passion inside teachers that…

Purpose: This study explores the effects of an alternative, transformative andragogy (i.e., the art and science of helping others to learn) designed to be responsive to the challenges of preparing educational leaders committed to social justice and equity. Design: Within the context of preparation programs, the three theoretical perspectives of…

In this article, the authors explore the notion of difficulty and the vital role it can play in the learning journey of student teachers, both with respect to their own and their students' educational maturation. Confronting today's popular but flawed American reductionist learning models, the authors explicate the opportunity for deeper learning…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of an alternative, transformative pedagogy that may assist us in responding to the urgent call for changes in the way educational leaders are prepared and developed. Within the contextual loom of preparation programs, the two theoretical perspectives of Transformative Learning Theory and Critical…

School leaders can benefit by considering their faculty as adult learners in transformation while they are learning educational technology. In this article a Journey of Transformation model is presented to assist school leaders in meeting the challenges of the postinformation age. The model is grounded in transformational learning research and…

Can sharing drawings about pedagogical issues develop trust in a mentoring situation? What other themes and feelings emerge when non-traditional forms of mentoring are utilized? During a seven-week student-teaching period, a student art teacher and experienced art teacher drew and wrote in a sketchbook about daily teaching experiences. These…

This article introduces a cosmological perspective of teaching second/foreign languages for promoting ecological interconnectedness and spirituality to counter material and monetary interests that cause environmental destruction and militarism. The arguments are couched in cross- and deep cultural learning and are based on the concept of…

Seeking to strengthen preparation of preservice general educators for the realities of inclusive school settings, two special education teacher educators from different universities used content-based structured reflective log writing as an integral course requirement. Faced with teaching intensive course content within a limited time frame, the…

The author reads five volumes of "College English" with attention to the extent to which authors account for issues of systemic difference in their writing--both in their representations of themselves as authors and in their representations of others--as one means to explore how (indeed whether) we have begun to transcend normativity in our…

Thich Nhat Hanh, a 76-year-old Buddhist monk of the Vietnamese meditation school, exemplifies mindfulness in his daily life and teaches these principles around the world. Preferring to be called "Thay" which means teacher, he has written over 75 books on such subjects as mindfulness in daily living and its relation to social action. His teachings…

Three presentations are provided from Symposium 17, Transformative Learning, of the Academy of Human Resource Development (HRD) 2000 Conference Proceedings. "Leadership Development as Transformative Pedagogy" (Olga V. Kritskaya, John M. Dirkx) examines the nature of transformative instructional environments, focusing specifically on the…

Recent discoveries about brain function explain how best practices in adult learning may lead to adult learners' developmental growth.