Saturday, August 13, 2011

Of the Search of the Meaning of Social Justice and Transformative learning

This is going to be the biggest hunt for an answer this coming year for me. I have a writing in social justice class, an introduction to social justice class, and an introduction to sociology class. This should be good!

I, of course, am very excited! I am especially looking forward to learning something new. Generally, I believe that school does not "teach" you things, rather it is designed to enforce redundant, and minimally different,  memorization. In essence, teaching should be about opening new avenues of thought, and expounding the experiences that we are familiar with through means of open discussion. Discussion, because diversified class settings can complicate what would qualify as a new experience, idea, opinion, knowledge, etc.

What is a possible way to reach an answer, or a method to reflect the composition of opinions, experiences, and knowledge within a diverse class setting? That may well be transformative learning. I learned about the term from a colleague of mine this summer. I find it interesting and inspiring.

I believe transformative learning really creates a vision of change in learning and teaching. It allows educators to develop ways of analyzing the opinions students have, and challenging and enlightening them through a well thought out curriculum. The term is not relatively well known, especially in English courses. To apply the term into practice would be absolutely ground-breaking because it is non-traditional. There is nothing wrong with trying something that is new and promising. Doing so would morph the modern, sometimes narrow, mindset and attitudes towards English courses in post-secondary institutions.     

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