Charlin
Bailey
Adult
Learners of Language and Literacy (ENGL C0865 2TU)
Professor
Barbra Gleason
May 9, 2014
Social Transformation Through Education
Apart from
inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge
emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless,
impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with
the world, and with each other.
-Paulo Freire
According to the U.S Department of Education National Center for
Education Statistics this fall, 8.7 million
non-traditional students, ages 25 and older, will be joining traditional
college- age students. The number of adult learners has increased between the
year 2000 and 2011. These adult learners are entering the classrooms with diverse
cultural and personal experiences and are changing classroom dynamics. These
changing classroom dynamics can be more easily managed if instructors
incorporate the theory of Transformative Learning. Transformative Learning Theory is the theory
in which an educator facilitates his or her students to have a changed mindset,
environmentally, socially, and psychologically among others. Jack Mezirow
(1978) is the most commonly referenced theorist of transformative learning. He
popularized a psychoanalytical view of transformative learning theory. Mezirow,
however, was not the only theorist working within the transformative field,
Paulo Freire ,in his book Pedagogy of the
Oppressed, was the first to introduce the social-emancipatory view of
transformative learning theory by speaking against oppression of illiterate
students in Brazil.
The theory of transformative learning in its basic form occurs
when a learner is changed through a learning process. In a formal setting, this learning occurs within
the classroom, and in an informal setting, it occurs outside of the classroom. The
learning that occurs allows learners’ beliefs to change, consequently changing
their entire perspective about an issue, topic, or situation. There are three
key concepts of transformative learning: “the nature of life experiences that
is central to adult learning; critical reflection processes; and the connection
between adult development and the transformative process” (Fleming and Garner
24). In order to accomplish transformative
learning, a learner must enter with life experiences and be able to critically
reflect upon the concepts presented. Once critically conscious, the learner
must then apply this new transformed knowledge, either to self or to society.
Fleming and Garner state
that the transformative process, “begins as a result of a situation experienced
by the learner, in which he or she confronts a dilemma that is incongruent with
his or her previous life experiences” (25). The first key concept of transformative learning
is recognizing that life experiences are central to adult learning. This
recognition is what makes the transformative learning “uniquely adult” (Edward
W. Taylor 5). Adults have years of
experience affecting how they view a specific situation, where “learning is
understood as the process of using a prior interpretation to construe a new or
revised interpretation of the meaning of one’s experience in order to guide
future action” (qtd. in Taylor 5). This prior belief results from all the years
an adult has before they enter into a learning environment.
Edward W. Taylor in the Third
Update of Adult Learning Theory views these prior beliefs as Frames of Reference. The Frames of Reference are “structures of
assumptions and expectations that frame an individual’s tacit points of view
and influence their thinking, beliefs, and actions” (Taylor 5). The Frames of
Reference represent the set of beliefs an individual has prior to the learning
experience. The Frames of Reference scaffold the learner’s every action and
thought, whether the learner is conscious of them or not. When these beliefs
are changed, transformative learning occurs. This transformation may occur
gradually or from a sudden life altering experience, which changes the way a
person views the world. These experiences of the learner allow them to have a
transformation.
The next essential
element of transformative learning is Critical Reflection. Critical Reflection is:
a process by which [the learner] attempts
to justify [her] beliefs, either by rationally examining assumptions, often in
response to intuitively becoming aware that something is wrong with the result
of [the] thought, or challenging its validity through discourse with others of
different viewpoints and arriving at the best informed judgment (qtd. in Taylor
6).
During the
process of critical reflection, learners consciously make the effort to analyze
their Frames of References and evaluate why they think in a specific way.
This effort to analyze their frames of reference creates a change
in the learner’s mindset. This change is what Freire refers to as Praxis. Freire
believes that a learner “will not gain this liberation by chance but through
the praxis of their quest for it, through [the learners’] recognition of the
necessity to fight” (Freire 53). It is not enough for people to gain knowledge
of their reality, but they must act upon it as a way to critically reflect thus
transforming allowing action and critical reflection. A learner is able to
achieve the transformation process only through critical consciousness.
Change is an essential part
of transformative learning, and this vital factor can be seen in Mezirow’s psychoanalytical
method of transformative learning. Mezirow’s psychoanalytic view of
transformative learning “is seen as a process of individuation, a lifelong
journey of coming to understand oneself through reflecting on the psychic
structures [such as ones] ego, shadow, persona, collective unconscious” (Taylor
7). This, in turn, allows an individual to create his or her identity. On the
other hand, Freire’s social-emancipatory perspective acknowledges social
oppression within the education system and seeks liberation within society to
accomplish transformative learning.
Paulo Freire’s approach to literacy education reinvented the way
educators approached teaching adult learners. Freire bases his theory on
learners’ cultural and personal experiences and believes that through
educational enlightenment learners need to use their experiences to achieve
active social change. In Pedagogy of the
Oppressed, Freire speaks against oppressions of illiterate students in
Brazil. He refers to the mode in which students are oppressed through education
as the banking concept of education. Freire
discusses this concept as an educational system that instills knowledge unto its
learners, where the learner has no power over what is being learned. Freire
states that “the teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary
opposite; by considering their ignorance as absolute, he justifies his own
existence” (Freire 53). In this way the teacher becomes the dominant figure or
the oppressor within the classroom, and the students become subservient or the
oppressed. The learner becomes alienated within the classroom and accepts the
teacher as being the sole voice within the classroom, hence allowing the
teacher to control the students learning process.
Freire believes that
learners, with their cultural and personal experiences, are the ones who allow
education to occur, not the teacher, and the relationship of teacher and
student should be interchangeable. He believes that individuals develop their
own growth through situations from their personal lives and education. It is
not until the two are connected that an individual can reflect and analyze the
world in which he or she lives. Freire states that, “education must begin with
the solution of the teacher student contradiction by reconciling the poles of
the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students” (53). This
allows learners to become transformers of their worlds. This transformation is
not possible in the banking system, which limited the students’ learning to only
receiving, filing, and storing the deposits or information learned. The
learners become collectors or cataloguers of the things they store, but do not
have the opportunity to use the knowledge learned to change their situations.
In turn, these learners who go through this system are lost and lack
creativity, transformation, and knowledge (53). However, in the
social-emancipatory model, the teacher’s role is no longer merely
the-one-who-teaches, but one who is taught in concert with the students through
dialogue, while the students teach while being taught. Through this
conflagration of roles, both teacher and student are actively and jointly
involved in the transformation of the students.
Freire believes that the only way to be liberated from the banking education system is for a
learner to accept that they are being oppressed. This leads to what he calls a “democratic
proposal of problem posing education” (60). In this method students are given a
problem and then asked to critically reflect on a solution. In this proposal
Freire suggest that learners:
[adopt] instead a concept
of women and men as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent
upon the world. They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and
replace it with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations
with the world. ‘Problem-posing’ education, responding to the essence of
consciousness --intentionality -- rejects communiques and embodies
communication. It epitomizes the special characteristic of consciousness: being
conscious of, not only as intent on objects but as turned in upon itself in a
Jasperian split" --consciousness as consciousness of consciousness. (Freire
60 – 61)
He believes
by rejecting the banking system and accepting the problem posing education, it
is only then that a learner can try to find ways that can help in their
liberation. However, it is not until they accept that this oppression exists
that they can be transformed and liberate themselves by locating the cause of
their oppression.
Through the problem posing
system, learners start to have control of the directions of their learning and
unveil their reality, allowing them to “no longer be docile listeners [, but]
are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher. The teacher
presents the material to the students for their consideration and re-considers
her earlier considerations as the students expresses their own [opinions]”
(62). In this new system, the learner is able to achieve what Freire calls
education as the practice of freedom rather that the practice of domination (Freire
62). Learners are now able to have a genuine reaction in the learning process
and think critically as it applies to their society and the oppressions
surrounding it. They are now able to use
their personal and cultural experiences and apply it to what they learn,
allowing them to become more “fully human” (64). This however cannot be
achieved instantaneously or by chance, but through the praxis of their quest.
Freire believes that it is through
the learners’ recognition of their need to fight against the oppression for
freedom that “will actually constitute an act of love opposing the lovelessness
which lies at the heart of the oppressors’ violence, lovelessness even when
clothed in false generosity “(Freire 40).
Learners will not overcome the problems without locating the cause of
their oppression and then understanding it. Through this understanding learners
are now able to engage in critical reflection. They can now reflect on what
they learned and apply it to their situation; this allows the learner to take
action through the praxis in education. This action is what illustrates the
transformation and brings change. In every stage the learner is to question to
find answers that allow them to eradicate their oppression.
Freire’s social-emancipatory teaching method produces
transformative change in students by invoking consciousness in the oppressed, more specifically conscious change amongst the people in
Brazil that were unknowingly oppressed, through their inability to read and
write. For this reason Freire’s approach to literacy exemplifies transformative
theory. Paulo Freire’s social-emancipatory theory has a significant impact on
the learners and allows them to become consciously aware of their oppression;
reflect critically on their situation; and then take action, as a means to
bring about change. His methods allowed the learners to have a personal
reflection and then foster change within themselves and their society.
Transformative learning theory allows students to
become enlightened through their interpretation of their environment, and Freire
accomplished this by exposing the notion of emancipatory education. He worked
with illiterate people from Brazil, who were from a poor community, and helped
them to realize the oppression of the education system, the “banking method . .
. which emphasizes passive listening and acceptance of . . . [keeping] students’
disenfranchised” (p.45). His goal was to
allow the learners to constantly reflect and act on the transformation of their
world “so it can become more equitable place to live” (Taylor 8). He wanted
people to be viewed as ‘Subjects’ and not ‘objectives’. Freire’s goal was to
have a “social transformation by demythicizing reality, where the oppressed
develop a critical consciousness” (8). According to the article “An Update on
Transformative Learning” by Lisa Baumgartner, “transformative learning theory
has expanded our understanding of adult learning by explicating the
meaning-making process” (Baumgartner 22).
In a transformative classroom, students possess established sets of values and assumptions, based
on their experiences they are molded and create a sense of understanding of the
world and self. These students “feel challenged to engage in critical thinking
in order to reexamine his or her values through a reflective process” (Fleming
and Garner 25). The role of teacher and learner becomes interchangeable, where
the teacher learns from the learner and the learner learns from the teacher,
creating a feedback loop of transformative learning of both parties.
Transformative learning uses a problem- based approach where both learner and
teacher collaborate together. This theory creates educators who are more
involved in the learning and understanding process of adult learning, at the
same time, allowing learners to think critically, and not become influenced by
the teacher.
Works Cited
Baumgartner, Lisa M. "An Update
on Transformational Learning." The New Update on
Adult Learning Theory.
Ed. Sharan B. Merriam. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2001.
15-24. Print. New Directions
for Adult and Continuing Education #89.
Fleming,
Cheryl Torok, and Gamer, J. Bradley. Brief Guide for Teaching Adult Learners.
Marion, Indiana:
Triangle, 2009. Print.
Freire,
Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 20th Anniversary Edition. Trans. Myra Bergman
Ramos. New York: The Continuum
International Publishing Group, 2003. Print.
Taylor, Edward. "Transformative
Learning." Third Update on Adult Learning Theory. Ed.
Merriam, Sharan B. Hoboken NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2008,
5-15. Print. New Directions
for Adult and Continuing Education #119.
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