Book Review: Learning as Transformation

Patricia Cranton, author of Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning: A Guide for Educators of Adults (Second Edition), is a must read for Christian educators. We often talk about the need for persons to be transformed in the likeness of Christ, but we aren’t clear about what this transformation looks like and how we as educators can educate towards transformation. This book presents excellent groundwork for this discussion.

Cranton says, “Throughout their lifetime, people make meaning out of their experiences. They build a way of seeing the world, a way of interpreting what happens to them, and accompanying values, beliefs, and assumptions that determine their behavior. Much of this framework is uncritically absorbed from family, community, and culture. People do not stop to question everything that happens to them or everything they see and hear–they generally believe their friends, accept media interpretations of events, and follow the principles that have guided them so far. People have a set of expectations about the world that are based on formative childhood experiences, and those expectations continue to act as a filter for understanding life.

When something unexpected happens, when persons encounter something that does not fit in with his or her expectations of how things should be, based on past experience, the choices are to reject the unexpected or to question the expectation. When people critically examine their habitual expectations, revise them, and act of the revised point of view, transformative learning occurs.” (Chapter 2, p. 19)

This helps explain why critical reflection is so vital to the process of educating in faith. It also suggest a reason why early childhood education is so important. How do you think educators should educate towards transformation?