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NON-TRADITIONAL LEARNING

Ch. 8: Embodied, Spiritual, and Narrative LearningCh. 10: Critical Theory, Postmodern, and Feminist Jeonghwan (Philip) Choi

2011

Ph.D. candidate, Human Resource Education,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

HRE 590: ADULT EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

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NON-TRADITIONAL LEARNING?Learning is define as a mental process that takes place in the mind (the Brain) especially in Western heritage. But the role of “body” and “spirit” are considered in adult learning recently.

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In modern Western philosophy, learning is believed as mental process occurs in one’s brain. But feminists, multicultural theorists, and adult educators aware the role of the body and the spirit in adult learning education.

*Source: Merriam & Cafarella (2007)

What?Who? Theme?

Descartes (17 C)

• “I [that is, my mind, by which I am what I am] is entirely and truly distinct from my body”Separation of the

Mind and Body

Descartes (1637)

• “Body, figure, extension, motion, and place are merely fictions of my mind”Body is a faction of

mind.

Cartesians & Enlightenment Philosophers (18 C)

• Knowledge could be obtained through “reason” alone; other sources of knowledge such as faith, tradition, and authority, were rejected.

Focus on “Reason”

Early 20 C

• Learning equates with mental processes, with knowing through thinking or cognition. Learning is ‘mental

process’

Feminist, Multicultural Theorist, Adult educators (Late 20 C)

• Aware the role of the body and the spirit in adult learning theory. Alternatives

OLD THOUGHTS ON LEARNING

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Reclaiming the body in learning contributes to a broader theory of learning. Many theorists view the body as a source of knowledge. This recognition leads to ‘critical social theory (Crowdes, 2000); Educational equity (Matthews (1998), and meaning and sense-making theories.

*Source: Merriam & Cafarella (2007)

What?Who? Theme?

Beckett & Morris (2001, p. 36)

• The focus of learning and education is “a change in a mental state, from one of ignorance, to one of knowledge in Western education.” [Abstract knowledge >> Material learning]

Privileging “Abstract Knowledge & Learning”

than Concrete & Material learning.

H. Benson (2004)

• NO. The “New Science of Body” (Newsweek, Sept. 27, 2004) article states that “Because the relationship between emotion and health is turning out to be more interesting, and more important, than most of us could have imagined” (Herbert Benson et al, 2004).

Rejection of the Body?

Merriam et al. (2007)

• Embodied or somatic learning is Non-cognitive learning in experience. (i.e. a function of gendered subjectivity, white gown for scientists, calligraphy, dancing).

Reclaiming the Body in Learning

Amann (2003), Dirkx (2001)

• Embodied learning has a strong emotional or feeling dimension. “There is no such thing as a behavior or thought, which is not impacted in some way by emotion (Mulvihill, 2003, p. 322).

Affective Learning

Brockman (2001)

• Knowing through the body is more fundamental than what we know through culture.

Somatic epistemology for

education

EMBODIED OR SOMATIC LEARNING

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Spirituality is related with ‘meaning-making’ in learning. To foster spirituality in adult learning, space, dialogue, mentoring relationship, story-telling, and authentic self are required.

*Source: Merriam & Cafarella (2007)

What?Who? Theme?

Merriam (2007)

• “I felt a sense of peace and of being “present” that I had not experienced before; the fact that I had just turned sixty seemed not to matter and my angst about it evaporated.” (e.g. Flow or life force)

Spiritual learning Experience (Korean Meditation Retreat)

Tisdell (2003, p. 29)

• “Spirituality is more personal belief and experience of a divine spirit or higher purpose, about how we construct meaning, and what we individually and communally experience and attend to and honor as the sacred in our lives.”

Defining Spirituality

• Spirituality and religion are not the same. • It is about an awareness and honoring of wholeness and

interconnectedness of all thing. • It is fundamentally about meaning-making• It is always present in the learning environment. • It constitutes moving toward greater authenticity or to a more authentic self. • It is about how people construct knowledge through largely unconscious and

symbolic processes. • Spiritual experience most often happen by surprise.

Assumptions of spirituality

Lemkow (2005), Capra (2003)

• Spirit is derived from a Latin word meaning ‘breath’ or ‘win’ – like respiration or inspiration. Thus, spirit is an ‘invisible force or a source that moves everything from within”

Spirit = Psyche = Ruah = Anima = Atman = Breath

Feminist, Multicultural Theorist, Adult educators (Late 20 C)

• Necessary conditions for spiritual development: safe, supportive, open “sacred” space; dialogue (mentoring); Visualization; story-telling.

Fostering Spirituality in Adult Learning?

SPIRITUALITY AND LEARNING

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Narrative learning is the use of stories in the construction of meaning. Using

narrative as storying the curriculum, story-telling, autobiography, journal writing, adult educators facilitate learners development and transformation.

*Source: Merriam & Cafarella (2007)

What?Who? Theme?

Jonassen & Hernadez-Serrano (2002, p. 66)

• Narrative is “the oldest and most natural form of sense making”, and they have a place in adult learning because stories enable us to make meaning of our lives.

Narratives are stories.

• Meaning than discrete facts• Coherence than logic• Sequence than category• Understanding than predictability and control” (p. 419).

Narrative Knowing

Rossiter & Clark (2007)

• Cultural: Socio-cultural milieu, Taken-for-granted assumptions. • Familial• Individual• Organizational• Knowledge could be obtained through “reason” alone; other

sources of knowledge such as faith, tradition, and authority, were rejected.

Surrounding Narratives

Clark (2005), Baumgartner (1999), Dominice (2000)

• Storying of the curriculum• Story telling• Autobiography, Blogging• (Reflective) Journal writing

Methods

Rossiter & clark (2007), Brooks & Clark (2001)

• Meaning-making through narrative for adult development• Resolving ‘disoriented dilemma’ through narrative. Narratives

of transformative learning are compelling because of their affective, somatic, and spiritual dimensions.

Connecting to Adult Development &

Transformational Learning

NARRATIVE LEARNING

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CRITICAL THEORY, POSTMODERN, AND FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES

Adult Learning is influenced by psychology, with its focus on individual learners, their growth and development, and their learning in and out of formal setting. But learning cannot be separated from ‘social contexts’ which oppress individual learners. Questioning and critiquing taken-for-granted worldviews, structures, and institutions of society are the first steps in changing oppressive and nonemancipatory practices.

PROVOKING TRUTH OR COMFORTABLE MYTH?

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There are five common themes in questioning and critiquing contemporary adult education: Race, Class, Gender, Power & Oppression, and Knowledge and Truth.

*Source: Merriam & Cafarella (2007)

What?Who? Theme?

Ianinska, Wright & Rocco (2003, p. 176)

• People other than White European Americans are marginalized in the U.S. society. As globalization and enhancing economic mobility, race discrimination becomes world wide phenomena.

• Critical race theory (CRT) challenge and transform relationship among race, racism, power, privilege, and oppression.

Race

Youngman (1996)• Class-based analysis emphasizes class struggle, alienation, and

revolutionary activity. • The central issue of adult education is how to conceptualize

interconnections between imperialism, class, gender, and race-ethnicity.

Class

Tisdell (2005, p. 254) • “Women are not born but they are made” - Simone de Beauvoir

• Gender is a outcome of socialization and structural oppression.

Gender

Nesbit (1998, p. 174)

• “Radical educators regard the world and its constituent societies as full of contradictions and marked by imbalances of power and privilege”

• Poverty, illiteracy, inadequacy are results of larger social issues.

Power and Oppression

Merriam & Cafarella (2007)

• In power relations perspective, there are three major orientation: critical theory, postmodernism, and feminist pedagogy.

Knowledge and Truth

COMMON THEMES

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In modern Western philosophy, learning is believed as mental process occurs in one’s brain. But feminists, multicultural theorists, and adult educators aware the role of the body and the spirit in adult learning education.

*Source: Merriam & Cafarella (2007)

What?Who? Theme?

Welton (1993), Brookfield (2001, 2002, 2005)

• Critical theory contributes to the field of adult education with...‣ present a framework for understanding of knowledge

(technical, practical, and emancipatory knowledge)‣ identify process of formulating learning communities‣ exhibit relationship between life-world and system.

Critical Theory & Adult Learning

• Challenging ideology; Contesting hegemony; Unmasking power; Overcoming alienation; Learning liberation; Reclaiming reason; Practicing democracy.

Seven Learning Tasks in Critical

Theory

Bagnall (1995), Rosenau (1992), Kilgore (2004)

• Transition from “scientific, industrial, and social program, institutions, actions, and artifacts for the universal foundations of truth, morality, and aesthetics” to “fragmentation, disintegration, malaise, meaninglessness, nondogmatic, tentative, and nonideological”.

Postmodernism and Adult Learning

• Deconstructing teacher-student relationship. • Fragmented ‘Self’: Aesthetic, spiritual, affective, and

experiential aspects of the “self” become as important as the rational.

• Critiques to postmodernism: Pessimistic, extreme relativism, lack of a moral center.

Postmodern Pedagogy

Lee & Johnson-Bailey (2004).

• Feminist pedagogy grounds on “liberal, radical, psychoanalytic, Black, Marxist, and postmodern feminist theories. the role of the body and the spirit in adult learning theory. categorizes

• Feminist pedagogy has most directly addressed the practice of adult education in particular the teaching-learning transaction in the classroom.

Feminist pedagogy and Adult Learning

KNOWLEDGE & TRUTH

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DISCUSSION

What can HRD researchers do if the application of these nontraditional learning approaches are not accepted in the field of HRD? What can HRD researchers do if the application of these nontraditional learning approaches are not accepted in the field of HRD?

Question: Are these nontraditional theories applicable to adult education research & practices? In what ways?

Can embodied (somatic) learning, spirituality, and narrative learning come along with current learning practices in legitimated organizations such as schools and workplaces? How to evaluate them?

Critical theory, postmodern theory, and feminist theory are criticized for their ambiguous technical jargons, references, and phrasing; pessimism, extreme relativism, lack of moral center; and dualism.

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QUESTIONS?

Jeonghwan (Philip) Choi, MBA, ME Ph.D. Candidate, Human Resource Education,

University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignHomepage: Integral Leadership Center (http://leadershipcenter.tistory.com)

E-mail: jchoi52@illinois.edu

If you have any questions, please contact the author.

END OF DOCUMENT