Community-based transformative learning
Dorothy Ettling, University of the Incarnate Word, USA
Paper presented at SCUTREA, 31st Annual Conference, 3-5 July 2001, University of East London
THERE is a history of adult learning opportunities for women offered through grassroots groups in neighborhoods, churches, political activist groups, and volunteer organizations that may never have been documented as life-long learning. Today those occasions are less frequent in countries like the United States. The average American in recent decades spends far less time with friends, neighbors, and civic organizations (Putnam, 2000). This reflects a diminution of many traditional, informal life-long learning situations. Yet simultaneously, persons are living longer, staying healthier, and persistently searching for meaning in their lives. Also at the same time, advances in technology and communication have made it increasingly easier for us to inform and be informed of the possibilities for new knowledge, skills and opportunities for learning across boundaries of geography and socio-economic status. All this provides stimuli for many universities to reach out into new arenas and provide a host of educational programs in community settings. We began our educational program as a collaborative effort among practitioners, women in the community and adult educators.
We have previously (Ettling & Hayes, 1997) described our first year's work in a three-year study of personal empowerment through transformative education with women in a community-based setting, a structured transitional housing program. The women portrayed were in transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency and were seeking to become agents of change in their own lives. We were attempting to document the course of transformative change. At that time, we explained our Learning to Learn (LTL) process as one of reflection-action-reflection in which the women were taught the skill of critical reflection on experience in an educational intervention. Our initial findings testified that the participants in the study benefited from the intervention and many grew in self-awareness and self-determination. Since then we have broadened our involvement in community-based settings to include groups of women survivors of domestic violence, social service agency staff, and neighborhood groups of women who are seeking greater personal and collective empowerment. We have identified our educational goal as facilitating socially responsive learning communities. We have also documented more aspects of our study, and in particular, the educational approach it has spawned as we worked with women in these various contexts (Ettling & Gozawa, 2000; Ettling & Thurston, 2001; Ettling, 2001). Our approach now emphasizes a number of capacities that we believe are significant to transformative learning. We continue, however, to regard the capacity of uncovering assumptions as basic to transformative change. Most importantly, we have come to recognize that the key element of transformative learning in any community-based education program is relational.
It is the notion of building community, regardless of the setting. Thus, the foundation of our model is helping to build the learning community. This paper presents a detailed description of how we now understand and facilitate the LTL methodology in such a setting.
Our specific process is fashioned upon Mezirow's (1991, p. 168; 2000, p. 22) insightful design for transforming meaning perspectives or habits of mind, the heart of transformative learning. We describe our process in detail because we believe, like Mezirow, that the capacity to uncover one's assumptions is basic to transformative change.
LTL is introduced in numerous ways within our educational programs and forms a kind of foundational competency in our work. The changes and additions we have made to Mezirow's original schema arose through the years as we interwove insights from women's development (Gilligan, 1993; Miller, 1986; Goldberger, Tarule,Clinchy, & Belenky, 1996; Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver &Surrey, 1991) and feminist pedagogy (Hayes & Flannery, 2000; Lather, 1991; Taylor & Marienau, 1995), and reflected upon the critiques of his design (Brookfield, 2000; Cranton, 1994; Taylor 1998, 2000; Tennant & Pogson, 1997). In describing our methodology, we attempt to document some of those insights. Although the LTL methodology is presented here as sequential steps in a process, we do not recognize transformative change as a linear process. It is quite the contrary. We have instead described the transformative learning process as difficult to track and cannot be captured in systematic steps (Ettling, 2001).We believe wisdom emerges from various sources and in its own time in the body-mind-spirit field. External observation might document two steps forward and three steps backward in both insight and the ability to act on insight. Yet the process is occurring.
Other studies concur on this perspective (Coffman,1989; Dewane, 1993; Pope, 1996) that the nature of transformative change is more like an incremental and cumulative journey rather than an immediate insight. While we honor the cyclical nature of transformative change, we also are committed to educational processes that facilitate that change. Therefore, we offer an outline of a methodology we use to further the capacity of uncovering one's underlying assumptions.
Learning to learn methodology:
setting the space
It is, first of all, of utmost importance to create a relational context, a space where it is safe to do one's transformative work. This is never the result of a single discussion or exercise. It necessitates time and a growth in trust. LTL is not introduced until the learning group has had some time to grow together. However, we find that relational space can be facilitated in several ways. Group discussions are helpful on the following topics: the meaning of power and powerlessness; the experience of feeling 'safe' in a group; and the individual and group behaviors that tend to encourage or discourage open discussion. Practices we have found useful to complement the intellectual discussion are simple rituals and creative expressive arts. They introduce non-verbal expression and multiple ways of knowing to the educational process. Ultimately, the desired goal is the recognition that the responsibility for crafting a space for learning is, indeed, with the total group, not only the facilitator. The importance placed on relational space is consistent with the principles of women's growth and development. Women's writings (Anzaldua, 1990; Collins, 1990; Goldberger, Tarule, Clinchy, & Belenky, 1996; Hayes & Flannery, 2000; hooks,1994) attest to the centrality of relationship in women's lives regardless of race, ethnicity or socio-economic status. This literature increasingly reflects that relational context greatly influences the process of women transforming not only cognitively, but also emotionally, spiritually and physically.
Sharing a story
When it appears to be an appropriate opportunity to introduce the capacity for uncovering assumptions, we introduce the LTL process. All the group members are invited to share a significant experience in which they felt disempowered or 'unable to take charge of their own life.' Hearing stories from others often frees the silenced woman, and having someone listen intently to one's own story can 'hear one into speech' (Morton, 1985, p. 55).Stories engender compassion, laughter and sometimes tears. They remind us that we share common human experiences.
Storytelling can help us find our voice. Heilbrun (1988, p.46) affirms this need, 'As long as women are isolated from one another, not allowed to offer other women the most personal accounts of their lives, they will not be part of any narrative of their own.' Hayes (2000, p. 92) speaks of a woman 'giving voice,' as the process of naming previously unarticulated parts of oneself. All of these authors stress the gradual, non-linear evolution of claiming oneself. Stories can offer a path of entry into this process. For the women we have worked with, reflection on situations in their daily life within a context of support and challenge is key in beginning to transform their perspectives. This is a validation of their experience as women. 'The search for dailiness of women's lives is a method that allows us to the take the patterns women create and the meanings women invent and learn from them ... we begin to lay out a different way of seeing reality' (Apthekar, 1989, p. 53). When there has been ample time in the group to appreciate the story context, a volunteer is solicited to work aloud with her own story.
We find that if the environment has been set for mutual engagement and non-judgmental support, there is no hesitancy for someone to volunteer.
Describing the experience
The storyteller is helped to name the feelings, thoughts, actions, intuitions and body sensations that surrounded the experience. Many participants find it initially difficult to distinguish these various aspects; but learning to discriminate can relieve the overwhelming sense of powerlessness so frequent in a disempowering event in our lives. Our methodology draws attention to the emotional, intuitional, and behavioral aspects of an experience, along with the rational (Boyd & Myers, 1988).Critical reflection has frequently been interpreted solely as a rational act. We choose to redefine it as reflection on all the aspects that make up a human experience. We especially emphasize the bodily sensations since many women have been conditioned to ignore or repress this significant fount of information. It is important to elicit all these complex dimensions, since each can be a source of new revelation and lead to greater self-awareness. Although initially, the facilitator sparks this internal search with the storyteller, the group is encouraged to help the storyteller with suggestions of what may have been part of the experience. Here the members learn the important skill of offering possibilities without projecting onto or defining the experience of another.
Naming assumptions
When the storyteller believes she has covered the experience is sufficient detail, she is invited to think about the underlying assumptions of her experience. Assumptions are deeper held beliefs that often are not readily conscious. Yet they direct our internal ruminations and external behavior.
Finding and acknowledging long-held assumptions frequently enables a woman to see herself differently. She understands more clearly dilemmas she may experience because of conflicting beliefs. Other members of the group are invited to support and identify with the storyteller by recalling similarities in their own lives. Assumptions that are identified are sometimes about oneself, sometimes about other important persons in one's life. They also can be about situations, events, or groups of people. Through this exercise, group members discover that they have numerous beliefs that hold great power in their lives and yet have seldom been reflected upon.
Uncovering their roots
The storyteller is then invited to speculate how the beliefs she has identified may have been seeded within her consciousness. Looking back on her life, what might have initiated or fostered this belief. This step is significant in the process, because the facilitators can help the woman clarify her personal life experience, and also share pertinent content about human development, social systems, and transformative change.
Transformative learning theory has been criticized for its decontexualized view of adult learning (Clark and Wilson, 1991). The context must reflect both personal and social frameworks. Seeing oneself within a larger system, uncovering societal patterns and norms, recognizing oppressive structures can trigger the realization that one's beliefs are born out of both personal and social reality. This can be revelatory and liberating. It allows the woman to have a greater sense of self-determination with regard to both the personal and social worlds, to see that both are open to intervention. Tisdell (2000,p. 171) affirms this, 'As learners examine how social systems of privilege and oppression have affected their own identity, including their beliefs and values, their understanding and thus their identity begins to change. They also increase their capacity for agency-the capacity to have more control over their lives.' A key element is examining the roots of assumptions is acknowledging one's cultural heritage. Many of the patterns and norms one has been socialized into through culture remain embedded below awareness. Reflection in a nonjudgmental setting is necessary to unearth them. We hope to facilitate that kind of environment in our learning groups.
We recognize that even though our groups have reflected a diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds, we have yet to plumb the nuances that this key difference signifies in transformative change. We have identified this aspect for future research and have begun to provide some initial documentation (Ettling &Guillian, 1999).
Embodying the experience
We have found it very meaningful to encourage the women to embody the experience they are describing in the LTL process. This is an addition that we observe minimal reference to in transformative learning theory. By embodiment of the experience, we mean using art, gesture, drama, and other non-verbal means to express how all that is being remembered and unearthed is known in one's body.
Journaling and poetry can also be helpful. Inviting multiple ways of knowing an experience sometimes produces an 'Aha' that discussion alone cannot impart. Other group members can be helpful but we find it useful to discourage analysis.
Instead everyone is invited to 'take in' any manifestation and be informed by it. The facilitator has to be sensitive and alert to offer possibilities for expression without being intrusive. Increasing personal awareness can be naturally therapeutic. Therefore it is important to stress the educational nature of the process and safeguard the adult learner's responsibility for directing any disclosure and revelation surrounding her experience. The learning community proves to be a meaningful support in this step through compassionate presence.
Exercising choice
Once the assumptions and beliefs are acknowledged and understood at a more embodied level, the storyteller is invited to review them to see if there are any she wished to confirm or to challenge. She may find the courage to reaffirm a belief and see how clearly it links to important values in her life, furthering her sense of agency and empowerment.
She may also choose to challenge one that she has reason to believe no longer reflects her reality, serves her well or reflects a value she no longer chooses to hold and is a barrier to her personal empowerment. This could be an assumption she has held about herself, about someone else she has a relationship with or could be about a situation or event outside herself, in the broader context of her life.
Rethinking beliefs
With the help of the group, the storyteller works with the assumption that she chooses to change. She sees how it could be stated differently, how it could reflect what she would now choose to believe about herself, someone else, or a particular situation. Here is an opportunity for an expansion of self and world view. Mezirow (2000 p. 14) notes that it is in dialogue with others that we better understand the meaning of an experience. Fostering that dialogue within the learning community in an atmosphere of free participation and non-judgmental support is the role of the facilitator of the process.
Claiming agency
The storyteller then identifies new feelings, thoughts and actions that could now flow from the new or restated assumption. Usually, it is important to work with the new actions and behaviors, for example, through role-playing or skill building. This provides another opportunity for the entire group to learn something new. Intuitional knowing can play an important role here. Trusting one's instincts and relying on images can open up a space for 'seeing oneself anew.' Here we are encouraging knowledge other than the logical thinking based on past experiences.
Understanding consequences
Finally, the storyteller with the group discusses possible consequences of any changed behaviors in her life. This offers both support and realism to the meaning of change in one's life. It also brings the cycle of reflection to a close for the moment. Integration and transformative change necessitate action on a new insight and assumption, but the process has begun. Generally speaking, when a woman completes this process, something important has occurred within her. Repeatedly the storyteller reports a sense of liberation and personal empowerment. While our presentation of the methodology may appear overly structured and orderly, emphasis is always given to an organic approach to learning. Sometimes the process spills over into another session and sometimes it is let to rest along the way. Like any aspect of transformative change, it cannot be forced or pre-determined.
Where does it lead?
In our studies, we are attempting to document further the various movements of what we view as the cyclical process of transformative change. Since the bulk of our work has been with women, we have focused on interpretations colored by a feminist lens. We recognize the bias this presents when speaking, generally, about transformative learning. We have tried to incorporate a cross-cultural perspective in our research and gratefully, our research team has consistently reflected both racial and ethnic diversity.