Time for Change

Time for Change: Troubling conceptions of time in transformative learning Pablo Dalby University of East Anglia

Aims and Structure 1) Briefly introduce my PhD research through a relevant, personal short story 2) Highlight, using an example from fieldwork, one of the main methodological challenges I encountered and my response 3) Trouble the consensus that transformative learning is defined in temporal terms, and by irreversible change

‘Cerro Rico’ (Rich Mountain)

University of East Anglia

UEA • International Development • Development Education

• Transformative Teaching and Learning

Studying Transformative Learning • Studying transformative learning gave me conceptual tools • Tools helped me reflect on my own transformative learning experiences • Started PhD about transformative learning

What is Transformative Learning (TL)? • Various forms of TL - contested, competing definitions and theories – doubts about its existence (Newman, 2012) • Consensus that it involves profound, irreversible change in learners’ ‘ways of being’ in the world (Cranton et al, 2012; Taylor, 2007) • Many questions arose about my past learning experiences (e.g. the plaster, the mine), and methodological questions about how I would do my PhD research

Some Tricky Methodological Questions for Researching TL • What does ‘profound’ change in ‘ways of being’ mean? Who decides? • If everything is constantly changing, what does irreversible, lasting change mean? How can it be ‘grasped’ by research methodology? Does it need to be ‘measured’? • At what point can transformative learning be deemed irreversible? On one’s death-bed? • If time is an important ‘category’ for researching TL, what about space? (as Dr. Abukari talked about earlier)

Common Methodologies in TL Research • Selects people who say they have been transformed by an experience • Focuses on learning outcomes (not process) at some point in time • Uses interview and questionnaire/survey methods

Research Context: Beyond Borders (BB) • An organisation in the USA operating ‘transformative’ ‘learning adventures’ throughout the Global South • 3 month-long gap-year semester programme in Bolivia - costs $13,000 • Three instructors guiding groups of 12 students aged 18-22 (from the USA)

BB’s Transformative Educational Ethos • Aims to provide a space for a ‘holistic learning experience’ that ‘goes beyond western ways of being’ (Beyond Borders, 2013) • Freirean: ‘students should return home inspired and motivated to criticize the world and change it…’ (ibid, paraphrased from Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed) • Students do a range of activities (e.g. ‘homestays’, volunteering) • ‘Shock’ tactics

My Conceptual Guide: From Pedagogy of the Oppressed to Pedagogy for the Privileged

(Curry-Stevens, 2007)

My Methodology • Exploring what happens in a purportedly ‘transformative’ pedagogical space – focusing on power, time and space • Critical ethnographic case study (filling the gaps in the ‘process’ space between) to reveal insights in relation to theory • Used participant observation (often video-recorded), interviews, discussion, document gathering

The Rich Mountain Mine Tour • A challenging environment in many ways – students complained of Jorge’s (our tour guide) homophobia • One student, Doreen, had a particularly difficult time - angry about sexist treatment in the mine, a male-dominated space • Appeared to be affected deeply by harsh conditions, and learning of the recent death of Jorge’s friend, a miner • Doreen was visibly shaken, and much quieter than usual in the mine – other students seem less affected

Bringing things to the Surface • Instructor and students reflect on mine tour back at the hostel – Jorge not present (I interviewed him later) • Heated arguments about Doreen’s experience, Jorge, and gender power relations – men seem naïve - Doreen shouts at Brett “you have no idea what it is like being a woman”

• An example of pedagogical segregation? A spatial logic shaping the educational environment

Post-Mine: Final Days of the Programme • Doreen enacting different ways of being in different spaces (body-language, clothing, speech, demeanour) • Doreen writes about Enrique (the dead miner) with reference to the Andean cyclical conceptions of time she has learned about in Bolivia, wondering “if he will be reborn as a miner?” • On final day of programme, Doreen talks about the mine in our interview as “life changing […] one of the most memorable experiences of my life” and says she feels transformed

More Tricky Methodological Questions • What can I say about these data? About TL? • What about when Doreen and the students go home?

• How can the importance of time and space be accounted for in understanding change? • How can different forms of power be researched?

My Methodological Response • Realised the importance of spatialized lens and value of participant observation and ability to see people in different spaces • Participant observation limited to 3 month programme (did pre- and post-programme interviews but could not observe students) • Particularly value of video-recorded data – allows me to see new things each time, acknowledging my changes in research process

Critiques of TL Theory, Practice, and Research • Has ignored power, and focused on personal not social change (Cranton et al, 2012) • Has focused on the ‘rational’ mind at expense of extra-rational body (O’Sullivan, 2002) • Insensitivity to socio-cultural context • Western-centric

Preoccupation with Permanence • Time has dominated as the conceptual category that defines the theory, practice, and researching of TL • Linear conception of time • Importance of space (and cultural context) still overlooked • Remnants of western-centrism

References Aveni, Anthony F. (2015) The Measure and Meaning of Time in Mesoamerica and the Andes. Washington, D.C: Harvard University Press. Curry-Stevens, A. (2007) “New Forms of Transformative Education Pedagogy for the Privileged.” Journal of Transformative Education 5, 33–58. Cranton, Patricia and Taylor, Edward W., and. (2012) The Handbook of Transformative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice. John Wiley & Sons. Freire, Paulo. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Herder and Herder. Newman, Michael. (2012) “Calling Transformative Learning Into Question Some Mutinous Thoughts.” Adult Education Quarterly 62, no. 1: 36–55. O’Sullivan, Edmund V., Amish Morrell, and Mary Ann O’Connor. (2002) Expanding the Boundaries of Transformative Learning: Essays on Theory and Praxis. Lst Ed. Palgrave Macmillan. Taylor, Edward W. (2007) “An Update of Transformative Learning Theory: A Critical Review of the Empirical Research (1999–2005).” International Journal of Lifelong Education 26, no. 2.

Your Questions

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Post-Programme: Back at Home • Doreen still speaking about mine experience as transformative during some interviews • Other students don’t mention mine experience • Methodological limitation - limited to what Doreen says - I couldn’t observe other ways of being - but is that a problem? • Do I need participant observation data from before and after the programme?