Watersheds: Transformative learning experiences in the lives of people committed to the welfare of the planet and of future generations

grantor: University of TorontoSome people view the planet, as well as its present and future inhabitants, as a precious, interdependent system, and demonstrate this awareness in their activities and relationships. Some of those people come to this realization gradually over a lifetime. Others point to one or several significant and time-bounded experiences as the source of their commitment. It is this latter group, and their transformative learning experiences, that are the focus of this study. Using a qualitative research methodology, interviews were conducted with fourteen men and women, largely Ontario-based, ranging in age from 20+ to 80+. A screening questionnaire was used to select people who care passionately about the welfare of the planet and of future generations, demonstrate this commitment in their daily lives, and attribute it to me or more transformative learning experiences. Four phases of the transformative learning experience suggested by the literature were used as a preliminary framework around which to analyse the data: (1) leaving the familiar and entering a state of disequilibrium, (2) responding to the disequilibrium and making meaning, (3) building commitment and responsibility, and (4) integrating through acting anew. A metaphor from nature--a watershed--was presented and developed as a way of describing transformative learning experiences, through five subthemes: (1) the climate and lay of the land, (2) setting a direction, (3) gaining momentum, (4) reaching mainstream, and (5) renewal. Following the analogy, a vibrant fluid, real, and enormously powerful constant--water--served as a metaphor for feelings. Perhaps the clearest learning from the study was the degree to which emotions, and strong ones, accompany transformation. Still, the study suggests that there is a complex web of factors, including early influences and previous experience, that converge to foster and support a transformative learning experience, and contribute to a person's readiness to learn from it. It is evident that transformative change is a fundamental sea-change encompassing the whole person. The establishment of a personal, passionate, moral imperative goes much deeper than mere intellectual rationalization. The commitment of participants emerged from experiences accompanied by deep emotion, and may indeed extend into the realm of the spirit.Ed.D