Showing papers on "Transformative learning published in 1987"

The Scandinavian model : welfare states and welfare research

Abstract: Adopting a comparative perspective, this book traces the social, political, economic and cultural conditions under which environmental movements have emerged, and assesses the transformative capacities of these movements.

Teachers as Political Actors: From Reproductive Theory to the Crisis of Schooling

Abstract: Critical theories of education, in focusing on the social reproductive function of school systems, often fail to emphasize the potential of teachers as agents of educational and social change. Dennis Carlson criticizes this tendency as he reviews and analyzes the treatment of teachers in influential forms of critical theory. In laying the basis for a view of teachers as an important force for transformative change in the schools, the author also reviews the historical development of teachers' professional and trade-union movements, locating them in a general analysis of U.S. work culture. He argues that since teachers are victims of the current system of public education, their collective interests as workers are more compatible with transformative than with merely reformist change.

The nature of ‘schools’in the sociology of knowledge: The case of the ‘Chicago School’

Abstract: The nature of ‘schools' as a metascientific construct is reviewed. Tiryakian's (1979a) increasingly popular construction of a school of sociology is examined and the case of ‘The Chicago School’ is considered in detail. The efficacy of a ‘schools’ approach to understanding the nature of the growth and development of scientific knowledge is called into question. It is suggested that schools, as used in the literature, tend to be convenient groupings of practitioners rather than metascientific categories and that they fail to adequately engage knowledge transformative processes.

A Skeptical View of Educational Reform

Abstract: When the assumptions of the educa tional reform movement are examined, they reveal a conservative view of teach ing and schools. Romanish argues that reform must view education in its broadest cultural context and avoid nar row aims. True reform must emerge out of a new educational ethic, one that em powers teachers as transformative intel lectuals.

Planning and Design as Theological and Religious Activities

Abstract: Planning and design, especially in urban planning and architecture, are technical and transformative activities. Models drawn from the natural and social sciences are used to articulate the technical aspects, and those drawn from politics are used to articulate the transformative. Religion and theology provide a set of useful models, regularly employed by practicing planners and designers, for both kinds of activities.Decisionmaking may be viewed as conversion; environmental planning is often about the creation of sacred places of Nature; and social planning may aim to transform the society leading it to a promised land. Designs are presented as provisions of order and gracefulness, their evaluation a matter of judgment, and their inauguration a process of creation. Plans are treated as authoritative documents subject to interpretation, and error in making and implementing plans is treated as a matter of the failure of a sinful human nature.The models are described in this paper and it is shown how they i...

How I Demystified Academe and Got a Ph.D.

Abstract: Graduate education is more than simply taking courses, taking comprehensive exams, and writing theses and dissertations. It is also a process of personal intellectual growth that results in a redefinition of identity. This transformation of self is tantamount to a demystification process such that students must debunk the “Ph.D. mystique” to identify with sociologists and become members of the sociological community. Faculty can aid this process by sharing their own transformative experiences, but the structured inequality of the faculty-student relationship is a harrier against such personal disclosures. Yet transcending those structural barriers may be necessary to enhance the quality of graduate education in sociology.

Paradox and Orthodox: A Cotherapy Approach

Abstract: This article presents a theoretical rationale, therapeutic methodology, and case study which illustrate a strategic approach to cotherapy. In this approach, the cotherapists adopt dialectical positions along a change/no change continuum of a systemic symptom or presenting problem. This positional alignment enables a cotherapy team to regulate their support and provocation of the homeostatic and transformative forces within the system. Since the therapeutic interventions address both the possibilities of acceptance and rejection, disqualification of both positions is minimized. Instead, the family members are compelled to redefine themselves along the change/no-change continuum. This therapeutic intrusion into the dialectical positions of the system frequently induces the family members to function in a less predictable fashion, thus increasing the chance of a more creative solution to the systemic impasse.