As I was reading Brookfield’s model of transformative learning in Learning and Adulthood (p 146), it struck me that there are similarities to this model and other transformative learning models and the 5 stages of grief, as defined by Elizabeth Kubler Ross. While hopefully the transformative process is one of gain and enrichment, any time a person under goes a major shifting in perspective, they do lose part of their former self.All transformative learning tends to begin with an event of some sort that the individual is having difficulty handling. Likely there is some element of denial as the individual tries to process the experience. Anger is Ross’s second stage. I’m not sure where that fits in to all transformational learning models, but I could see that be an aspect of some social emancipatory philosophy as the learned becomes more aware of the forces that work against them.
(From ‘Sus-Que’s’ new blog, Adult Learning Explored 505.)
It seems, upon checking back, the author may be attending more to studies than the new blog. The blogosphere has lots of blogs with individuals and groups blogging about their courses of study. These narratives can be fascinating.
I would suppose often the thoughtful tangent neither makes it into class discussion or into the formal coursework. Here the author’s relating of Kubler-Ross to Brookfield seems to seek to match a very particularized affectual phase with Brookfield’s more general scheme. This can be resolved by noting the phase of resistance (ie. critical tension,) in Brookfield’s model does have an affectual component. It may be expressed by anger should the subject heartily resist being moved off the dime of their disposition, (etc.)
