User:Akshara.bharat/Paradigm Shift to Transformative Learning

Transformative learning is the expansion of consciousness through the transformation of basic worldview and specific capacities of the self; transformative learning is facilitated through consciously directed processes such as appreciatively accessing and receiving the symbolic contents of the unconscious and critically analyzing underlying premises. The theory of transformative learning emerged as a concept in 1978, through the work of Jack Mezirow. Since then many theories and research have been formulated. This theory brings about a transformation in what is possible in people's lives. It gives them an awareness of the basic structures in which they know, think, and act in the world. From that awareness came a fundamental shift that leaves them fully in accord with their own possibilities and those of others. This shift is not a one-time event, but an ongoing access to a previously untapped dimension of effectiveness and creativity. Transformative theory is a practical methodology for producing breakthroughs—achievements that are extraordinary, outside the limits of what’s already predictable, attainable, or known. This training enables people to think and act beyond existing views and limits—in their personal and professional lives, relationships, and wider communities of interest. The philosophical, ethical, social, and methodological issues in adult education are raised by transformative theory and possible ways to resolve these issues. Transformative Learning, unlike any other work oriented learning operates on various levels of organizational reality. It makes the individual undergoing this training competent enough to handle levels where conceptual issues dominate and values are important and organizational purpose has to be addressed. Individual consciousness, capability of mind and heart to handle stress, and ultimately levels of individual will. This learning not only emphasizes what people do and how they do it, but also the interior condition of the individuals involved.

Cognitive Behavioral theory is one of the ways adopted in early 1980s to implement transformative learning. It is a psychotherapeutic approach that addresses dysfunctional emotions, maladaptive behaviors and cognitive processes and contents through a number of goal-oriented, explicit systematic procedures. One of the characteristics of cognitive behavioral therapy includes the use of psychiatry, but in India there is an extremely limited use of psycho-social methods of treatment. In 1973, when Varma and Ghosh did a survey on the practice of psychotherapy among Fellows of Indian Psychiatric Society, only 17% of them reported to be using any psychological method of treatment. Today we have a much larger number of psychiatrists in this country, but the percentage of those using psychological methods of treatment is unlikely to be much greater. This limited use of psychological method in clinical practice (even in academic centers) is reflected in the publications in this area. It is found that among the papers published in Indian Journal of Psychiatry (IJP) only about 2% deal with psycho-social methods of treatment, in comparison to 16% in the British Journal of Psychiatry. Most psychiatrists in India will admit that the psychological methods involved in cognitive behaviour therapy are useful or even essential in some psychiatric disorders. Often such patients are referred to psychologists or social workers who are interested in psycho-social methods of treatment. But the main concern is that, the classical cognitive behaviour therapy has not been accepted by a large portion of Indian working population. We have focused upon the modern, sophisticated and easily accessible approach to transformative learning in this article. In India though this approach has always been a passive part of every organizational curriculum but was never extensively followed. There was no exclusively well-defined set of training programmes/workshops to promote the concept of transformative learning, until in 1981 Shri Shri Ravishankar brought the concept of youth empowerment (Art of Living) into the gambit. But most of the people misinterpret it as some kind of God Man’s spiritual theory. But later on it was widely followed by people from all over the world. It proved to be a breakthrough in the field of transformative learning. Later in 1991 an organization called Landmark came into existence in San Francisco. It offers programs in personality development. The company claims that more than 2.2 million people have taken Landmark's programs since its founding in 1991, and that it hosts courses in more than 20 countries including India. We are not trying to review the state of cognitive behaviour therapy in India; instead we are trying to find out a more efficacious method to help the working people tackle various day-to-day mental and behavioural problems arising due to workload. Also we have discussed what transformative learning is and its impact on people who have undergone the same and people who haven’t.

The organizations implementing transformative learning on their participants bring about the process of "perspective transformation" with three dimensions: psychological (changes in understanding of the self), convictional (revision of belief systems), and behavioural (changes in lifestyle) in them. Perspective transformation leading to transformative learning occurs infrequently. Mezirow believes that it usually results from a disorienting dilemma, which is triggered by a life crisis or major life transition, although it may also result from an accumulation of transformations in meaning schemes over a period of time. An important part of transformative learning is for individuals to change their frames of reference by critically reflecting on their assumptions and beliefs and consciously making and implementing plans that bring about new ways of defining their worlds. This process is fundamentally rational and analytical.

Transformative Learning methods are essential for students in an institute, because these young individuals will form the future of some organizations. So transformative learning helps them in advance to enhance their critical reflective approach towards life. Critical reflection has been elevated to the major objective of adult education in the work of Mezirow (1990). Perspective transformation is the process of becoming critically aware of how and why our presuppositions have come to constrain the way we perceive, understand, and feel about our world; of reformulating these assumptions to permit a more inclusive, discriminating, permeable and integrative perspective; and of making decisions or otherwise acting on these new understandings. In other words, the real significance of adult learning appears when learners begin to re-evaluate their lives and to re-make them. Hence this learning becomes a mandatory part of their academic curriculum. Transformative Learning offers several stress-elimination and self-development programmes to employees working in various organizations .These programmes have helped them to overcome depression and stress. It involves experiencing a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings, and actions. It is a shift of consciousness that dramatically and irreversibly alters their way of being in the world and obviously their respective organizations. Such a shift involves their understanding of themselves and their self-locations; their relationships with their colleagues and with the natural world; their understanding of relations of power in interlocking structures of class, race and gender; body awareness’s, visions of alternative approaches to living; and sense of possibilities for social justice and peace and personal joy. In order to foster transformative learning, the educator’s role is to assist learners in becoming aware and critical of assumptions. This includes their own assumptions that lead to their interpretations, beliefs, habits of mind or points of view as well as the assumptions of others. These training/workshops help employs in recognizing frames of reference. By doing so, they encourage practice in redefining problems from different perspectives. The goal is to create a community of learners who are "united in a shared experience of trying to make meaning of their life experience.