Journal of Transformative Education

Marginalized adults have limited access to learning experiences that prioritize reflection and discourse, both considered preconditions in the Mezirow-informed field of transformative learning (TL). Using narrative analysis of a staff focus group and participant interviews over a 1-year learning journey, this study shows how a literacy program in a women’s homeless shelter created conditions that supported TL for two marginalized women of color. Results show how program learning goals were attuned to issues of positionality for women marginalized by race, class, and gender and were consistent with Africentric womanist epistemological and axiological assumptions. Conditions that fostered connectedness among women in troubling contexts and contributed to qualitative change in ways of knowing included purposeful spaces dedicated to reflection, dialogue, and student-centered pedagogy. The findings have important implications for the theoretical grounding of policy and practice in support of marginalized women’s TL.

A colloquium series funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities explored complicity and collaboration during the Holocaust at a community college in New York. Student reactions to this theme were explored to measure their understanding of this atrocity. Twenty-three student participants of this colloquium submitted to in-depth, in-person interviews. A descriptive qualitative process enabled the researcher to identify specific themes that emerged regarding student growth. Student reflections explore the extent to which Holocaust education enables transformational learning at the college level, specifically in this case by exploring bystander behavior. Challenges of Holocaust education may be confronted by developing a focus for students to use as a framework. Results suggest a framework facilitates student growth and enrichment. This study is a reflection on practice regarding exposure to the Holocaust in higher education and its potential to stimulate transformation.

Research has shown that progressive methods taught in teacher education programs have little impact on traditional approaches teacher candidates encounter during their internship semester. To understand how to better address this disconnect with regard to preparing teacher candidates, the study reported here used instrumental case studies to examine two secondary English teacher candidates’ beliefs about teaching literature before, during, and after their student teaching semester. Through theoretical frameworks on learning processes, the researchers discovered discrepancies within the student teachers’ stated beliefs, lesson plans, videos of teaching, and their responses to interview questions. These discrepancies reveal both unexamined assumptions and a state of liminality, reflecting the process of transformation in their learning. The researchers suggest that education programs look at potential implications that are inherent in a state of liminality with regard to pedagogical content knowledge to better prepare teacher candidates for their experience in teacher education programs.