Transformative Learning

History of TL

TL and in particular perspective transformation as a concept were introduced into the field of adult education in 1978 by Mezirow. The idea drew attention to a critical dimension of learning in adulthood that enables us to recognize and reassess the structure of our assumptions and expectations. Influences include Jürgen Habermas' three kinds of knowledge, Paulo Freire's ‘conscientization’, Thomas Kuhn's ‘paradigms', the concept of ‘consciousness raising’ in the women's movement, John Dewey's ‘prior knowledge and previous experience’, Jean Piaget's ‘stages of cognitive development’, Lev Vygotsky on higher mental functions and the work of the psychiatrist Roger Gould.

The origins of TL theory lie in a national study sponsored by the US Department of Education in the late 1970s. It looked at 83 women returning to college in 12 different re-entry programmes. The research results led Mezirow to posit a theory of adult development, which he called perspective transformation. He focused on the changes in role and self-concepts (perspective transformations) that these women experienced as a result of participating in the respective programmes and the process in which they recognized and reframed their culturally induced dependency and role relationships. Mezirow was interested in the ways in which a person's past (psycho-cultural assumptions) constrains or filters perceptions of the self and relationships with others.

Over the following 10 years, education was incorporated as a process in fostering critical self-appraisal—particularly when linked to self-directed learning. Meaning perspectives were defined as a web of cultural and psychological assumptions, and meaning schemes as the rules and expectations that govern our lives. By 1991, TL was well established within adult education literature, with a strong emphasis on critical reflection and critical self-reflection. It was criticized for being too rational and ignoring the role of symbols, intuition and images in learning, while also neglecting issues to do with social action, power and cultural contexts. Mezirow invited and encouraged critiques of his work, hoping that through engagement with the community of educators interested in TL, the theory would continue to evolve. In 2000, Mezirow acknowledged the importance of the affective, emotional and social contexts of TL and introduced some new terminology. He suggested that the frames of reference which we use to make sense of the world around us have two aspects: (1) a habit of mind and (2) a point of view. Habits of mind are the deeply embedded routines or predispositions that we use to interpret experience, usually expressed as a point of view. TL theory and [Page 789]writing have evolved over the past 36 years into a complex and comprehensive theory of how adult learning changes the way people think about themselves and the world. A TL movement has developed in North American adult education, with International Conferences on Transformative Learning held since 1998, and the Journal of Transformative Education was established in 2003. The origins and development of the TL body of knowledge have been critiqued, examined and further developed predominantly within the field of adult education. This has provided a forum for the continued detailed analysis of TL theory—contributing to a multidisciplinary body of literature and community of practice.

...