Challenges facing the higher education sector globally include questions over what counts as knowledge and what are valid forms of both its reproduction and production. This paper addresses the question of how what counts as valid knowledge is challenged and how it changes over time. It does this via an analysis of examples of social…

Although it has been given qualified approval by a number of philosophers of education, the so-called "therapeutic turn" in education has been the subject of criticism by several commentators on post-compulsory and adult learning over the last few years. A key feature of this alleged development in recent educational policy is said to be the…

This article explores how participation in a community of learning supported transformation on a personal and professional level in a Master's programme at a South African university. It draws on the concept of transformational learning in the professional preparation of educational psychologists, and how such learning plays out in the development…

This dissertation was an in-depth investigation of successful online teaching in the context of higher education. It is presented in nontraditional dissertation format as approved by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Iowa State University. This dissertation includes three publishable journal articles that would represent Chapter 2, 3…

The purpose of this research is to study the learning experiences of participants in the Student Interracial Ministry (SIM) of Union Theological Seminary in New York. SIM provided the seminarians with an intense learning environment in which they crossed borders including race, gender, class, and culture. For many of these participants, this…

Each preservice or inservice teacher who faces the prospect of student diversity in clinical experiences or practice settings does so with an individual set of assumptions about cultures and languages that differ from his or her own. Mezirow (1991) maintained that reflections on such assumptions and presuppositions about oneself and others can…

In this article we portray our personal journeys in a cross-cultural context resulting in professional growth. Data are presented in the form of constructed dialogues, and are reflected upon using the theories of transformative learning and intercultural competency. The role of lesson study as a vehicle for our journeys is examined. Reflection on…

Given increasing numbers of young culturally and/or linguistically diverse (CLD) children across the United States, it is crucial to prepare early childhood teachers to create high-quality environments that facilitate the development of all children. The Early Childhood Ecology Scale-Revised (ECES-R) has been developed as a reflective tool to help…

One of the primary aims of pastoral leadership education is to offer reflective processes that enable learners to surface, critique, and construct different epistemological conceptions of reality leading to more effective pastoral practice. In many pastoral leadership education programs, this type of intentional reflection usually takes place in a…

The literature concerning formal and informal mentoring relationships commonly focuses on mentors giving and mentees receiving certain benefits. This paper gives voice to mentees' reflections on their participation in a formal mentoring program. It extends the literature by identifying and examining the notion of gift in mentoring. Through…

Many inmates arrive in prison with weak educational backgrounds and social skills as well as psychological problems and drug and alcohol addiction. The focus of this phenomenological study was to identify roles of prison educators in helping inmate students overcome their challenges through transformative experiences that motivate the students to…

Current literature suggests the institution of higher education is exploring its identity and role in society, much like the emerging adults who enroll in their programs as traditional aged undergraduates. Literature also reveals that society is asking undergraduate institutions to meet the diverse needs of its students and prepare them for…

Understanding how to prepare transformative learning sessions and courses and design an environment for prospective online learners is a critical, as it facilitates the transfer of information, knowledge and learning from theoretical forms to real life experiences. This book provides an understanding and comprehension of aesthetics and its…

This article describes an initiative to evaluate the impact of educational psychologists' (EPs') casework. Previous studies have often focussed on evaluating processes or reducing outcomes to measurable units. The authors argue that qualitative research methods can be used to illuminate EP effectiveness. They describe a real world and…

One-to-one interviewing is one of the most powerful ways of exploring young children's thinking. While there are a few studies which report the use of this pedagogic strategy by preservice teachers, more are needed. This paper describes an early childhood mathematics education assignment which preservice teachers in a teacher-education college in…