More On Transformational Experiences

 In what ways have you seen transformative learning integrated within your learning community, classes or courses? What has been the inspiration for these moments and the results? How can you relate these moments back to our readings?

I found Dirkx's (2012) discussion of "consciousness" to be interesting as well. In my thoughts regarding transformative learning experiences, the idea of expanding our "consciousness" hasn't been something that I considered. 

One of my classmates wrote a passage that discusses the Greek belief that education "is to bring out that which is within. It refers to the process by which education helps realize, in relation to the other world, the inner qualities or make-up fo the person" (p 402)  but it's in the conclusion where Dirkx (2012) writes "these self-formative processes are continuous and ongoing in our lives, and as we struggle to understand various aspects of ourselves and our world, we deepen and broaden our consciousness and sense of meaning" (p. 404). 

This is the key passage for me that links what is going on in a transformative learning moment/experience and the learner's "consciousness" development. This could be naive, but for me, as I wrote below, transformative learning experiences follow the model laid out by Mezirow and are in my history, usually more accelerated than typical learning experiences. 

The development of the learner's "consciousness" is on par with any other learning experience, but it is done via the established framework, and happens more quickly. I would argue that a development of the learners "consciousness" happens in more traditional learning experiences just over a longer time frame and that it happens more quickly and abruptly in a transformative learning moment. 

Reference:

Dirkx, J. M. (2012). Self-Formation and Transformative Learning: A Response to "Calling Transformative Learning Into Question: Some Mutinous Thoughts," by Michael Newman. Adult Education Quarterly, 62(4), 399-405.

Second Sackett

Well, as I said earlier, I'm invovled in a lot of "series" books. Clancy, Griffen, etc etc. I'm also involved in Louis L'amour and his series on the Sacketts.

I've read a lot of Louis L'amour books in my life. I started reading them back when I was a tween and every now and then another will pop up. But I've never read the Sackett Series. 

It reminds me a lot of Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, just a lot more fun to read. A bit pedantic, sure, but for the most part fun. The first line, for the series on first lines, is typical for L'amour.

Second Sackett

Well, as I said earlier, I'm invovled in a lot of "series" books. Clancy, Griffen, etc etc. I'm also involved in Louis L'amour and his series on the Sacketts.

I've read a lot of Louis L'amour books in my life. I started reading them back when I was a tween and every now and then another will pop up. But I've never read the Sackett Series. 

Reluctant Hero Strikes Again, This Time at a Turkey Dash

I enjoy posting about my races. When I started this posting activity I hoped it would provide me the opportunity to see growth and change over time. What's funny is that my "wall of fame" where I pin up all of my race number placards and hang my medals, . . . THAT is where I see the progress. 

Why? I guess because whenever I pin up a new race number placard I look at the time that I like to write on each of them. This time I got to write, 10K - 53:20 - 8:33/mi. 

This is a full two minutes faster than my 10K from earlier this year. I've seen steady improvement with each 10K that I do. Which is funny. Why? Well, I went for a two mile run the day before to loosen up for the run. I barely hit 10:00/mi pace. Sure it was just a jog, but it worried me about the race. I shouldn't have been worried. I killed it at the Turkey Dash (why not Turkey Trot?). I guess that says a lot for mass hysteria. 

Finally, on my jog the day before I saw a car accident. Well, it happened behind me. About 100 meters behind me a red car (I'm guessing) tried to take an illegal right turn and got slammed by a van in the next lane. Air bags deployed, cars were thrown askew. On the other side of the street I heard the slam and looked back. I considered running over to offer help, but eventually saw everyone moving and seeming okay, so I didn't. I should have. On my return leg of the jog I saw that the fire dept and ambulance had had to show up. I should have realized that even I, just running over to see if everyone is okay, would have been worthwhile. 

So, on the Turkey Dash run when I saw two little gals, volunteers, teens, standing in the road saying "look out for the body" and I saw a dead raccoon in the middle of the road, where hundred of runners were running, it took me very little time to jog back, and pick it up and move if for the ladies. Poor guy. I took him down the gulley to the little woods and laid him down there with as much dignity as I could. I think all of the teens around me thought I was insane. 

This is something I do often. Whenever I see dead critters on my runs I stop, take off my hat (to use it as a glove) and I move them to a safe area off of the road. I remember this started (naturally) with live turtles in danger, a kitten or two lost on the road, and a dead cat I saw while running with the lifers. I remember performing this "ceremony" for several squirrels, possums, couple raccoons, birds, etc etc. 

I thought that it had killed my time, but really . . . it didn't. It occurred at mile 3. Mile 3 was and 8:21 my mile 4 was 8:36, so not that bad and quite worth it to not be the reluctant hero that I commonly am. 

Reading Across the Line

I got a chance to review Crossing the Line by Joy Slaughter as a part of a “book reviewing” and “author’s support” group that I’m in. I liked it from the start. It’s fun and moves at a nice-ish clip and the plot and writing aren’t terrible  . . . In fact that pretty good. 

Adam are a myriad reasons I like it, but perhaps the one reason I like it most is that I could have easily gone this route with my career. 

Jiffy Lube Refineries

Question 2: Having read Strange Faces in the Academy, Experiences of Racialized and Indigenous Faculty in Canadian Universities, in what ways are microaggressions, hidden everyday racism, expressed, if they are, in your organization or learning community? And what systems are in place that viewed from a different perspective might be considered “routinized expectations?”

When I read Mohamed and Beagan (2018) about microaggressions against a particular set of people (in this case Indigenous faculty in academia) I thought specifically about the learning community my organization supports. We are a non-profit that supports the energy industry. 

Specifically, we train contractors who may go into refineries and chemical plants to clean and update the processes. Think about taking your car to the Jiffy Lube. There are usually three of four guys who work on your car. A team leader who tells you about the status of your car and what they want to do, a fella in the service well who unscrews the oil plug and drains the oil from your car, and replaces the oil filter, someone who checks under the hood and ensures that there is enough wiper fluid, and other fluids, changes the cabin filter or checks the belt, and another who fills the engine with oil. All of this is routine maintenance. Then there are the times you want new tires, or need to make a repair. You go to other contractors for that. Those are the people we train for the energy industry. Even refineries need routine maintenance and other repairs. Someone has to do that work. And it's constant. 

Every day we see at least 150 new employees just at our facility. These are new people coming into the industry. There are 27 other councils performing the same training we do in the nation. So we are just a small subset of the overall population. We are constantly needing to find new workers. And yet, there is a flood of willing workers that we have a very hard time integrating into the work we need done. Because of the safety demands of our industry, and because of the need to understand English fluently to read Safety Data Sheets or understand work processes and procedures, there has always been a bit of an unwritten rule that if a worker can't pass training in English, then they won't be safe in the field. So their standard was that all training must be done in English to ensure that only "safe" workers make it into the field. For a long while, I was a recruiter and trainer and it was very frustrating that we couldn't recruit more non-native English speakers. We suggested many improvements or changes, but the system is unwieldy and tough to change, especially when it comes to safety.

Thinking about the Mohamed and Beagan (2018) article made me consider the constant microaggressions the non-native English-speaking workers in our industry must silently endure. The good news is that there are several large organizations that are starting to turn that tide and address the need for training non-native English speakers in a manner that helps them become the type of workers the industry needs. But for too long the standard was English or no thanks. This led to workers cheating to get jobs, guessing to pass tests, or struggling much longer than they might otherwise need to to get jobs to support their families. The challenge too was that everyone in the industry knew it was a problem, but no one worked consistently to change it or be an agent for change in this regard. Most, if not the very large majority of the executives at the chemical plants we support are white, male, well-educated, and native English-speaking. Their challenge in this regard isn't understanding the safety requirements, but maintaining safety records and return on investment. For years I think their view of the world, speak and understand English or don't work, dominated. Now, perhaps because of DEI, or perhaps because they see the need for a change, this is slowly beginning to change to help address these workers. 

References

Mohamed, T., & Beagan, B. L. (2019). ‘Strange faces’ in the academy: experiences of racialized and Indigenous faculty in Canadian universities. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 22(3), 338–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2018.1511532

Even More on Transformational Learning

 From your perspectives from work and school and based on our readings what are the main aims of transformative learning moments? Are these moments always worthwhile?

When reading my classmates Anna's post I was thinking about the transformative learning moments I've experienced have all had one critical component . . . the disorienting dilemma. 

The first of ten phases of transformative learning that Mezirow observed, according to Clark, Merriman, and Sandlin (2011) is a disorienting dilemma followed by a self-examination with feelings of fear, anger, guilt, and shame. 

I wrote about the fatality a few weeks ago and discussed the transformation that the organization went through. Reading your post though, I'd love to know if anyone can tell me of the negative transformative learning moments that they've experienced. I can't think of any that weren't ultimately positive. Sure, there were rocky starts and rocky travels throughout, but ultimately the experiences were all positive. When you think of negative results from these moments, what have you experienced?

Our industry has several "golden rules" meaning that they are so hazardous that if you break these rules you are thrown off the site and usually lose your job. The problem is, let's take something like working at heights without the proper safety harness and safety equipment. This is something that could get a worker fired. 

HOWEVER, when my organization went through an investigation of a near miss, an accident that could have happened but didn't, we found that the team leader and the entire crew had not followed many of the proper procedures and violated several golden rules. As a training director, I felt incredibly responsible. These guys obviously hadn't been trained well. What was great was that our investigation focused on "fact finding" not "fault finding" so we were just trying to figure out what happened and retrain, not looking to let anyone go for a violation. 

After finding out all of their violations, and after retraining and telling that team all that could have gone wrong, I would bet they are all advocates of the proper way of doing the job. They would now become some of the best people to help enforce the standard and train the next team to do it. I can just imagine one of them saying to a new guy "you don't want to do it like that . . . if you do you'll have to be on a call with corporate with the training guy and it's no fun at all. You need to do it right." 

To put it more simply, I think this idea of not allowing people to make and learn from mistakes is a problem. There's no advocacy, no learning from mistakes, and those can be some of the best features of learning. 

Reference

Clark, M. C., Merriam, S. B., Sandlin, J. A. (2011). The relationship between adult learning and development; Challenging normative assumptions. In Hoare, C. (Ed.), The oxford handbook of reciprocal adult development and learning (pp. 17 - 38).

AITA (Am I the Asshole)

I love the AITA string in Reddit (see HERE). I could read these all day and never get tired. It's amazing to me that there are people like those that are described here. 

I read one today, and it's very similar to aspects of my own family and the problems that we are forced to deal with. This might be a bit worse, but not by much!

Context: For every holiday, My mother would ask the women in the family (my sisters, sister in-law, my wife, my female cousins) to send "samples" of the desserts they plan to bring to the celebration for testing and to see if these desserts could make it to the "food menu". My wife has been complaining about my mother deliberately rejecting every dessert sample she sent. So many times my mother has told her that she's being honest and keeping the guests best interest at heart. Yet my wife still thought that my mother is deliberately excluding her since 2 of her dessert samples were rejected before.

For this year's Christmas my mother is doing the same thing but this time, she told every woman who are participating to make a "cookie sample" and send it to her for testing. My wife took it as a challenge and to be honest she worked really hard to make a good sample and sent it to my mother days ago and the results just came in yesterday.

I came home from work and found my wife upset. I asked what's wrong and she told me that my mother rejected the sample she sent and decided to exclude her baking from the food list/menu for christmas this year. I didn't know what to say but she then told me she was backing out of the invitation to attend christmas with my family. I was stunned when I heard her make this statement. I tried to talk to her but she said "it was done" I called her unreasonable to decide to bail on the whole family over some cookie sample...that's just freaking crazy and quite unreasonable. We had a full on argument about it and she stated that my mother caused this but I told her that my mother is pretty serious and careful about the food she offers to the guests since we are going to have relatives coming from all sides of country. She told me to stop mentioing it.

Later I heard her cry despite telling her that her baking is amazing and people have preferences that's all.

So, if I was going to answer this question . . . YES, this guy is an asshole. His mom is an asshole, but he hasn't fallen far from the asshole tree. The mom is an asshole because she's a bitch about her parties. Who does taste tests of food that people bring to a party? Fuck you, Mom. I would probably ambush my sample and make her sick on purpose if she did this to me. 

But this guy is a complete asshole because he's not sticking up for his wife. If I was this dude, I'd tell me, wife, to make whatever she wishes, and then I would take it to the party and force my mom to put it on the buffet. That's the only way he isn't the asshole in this story. 

It's good to hear that others have crazy people to deal with in their families. Soon I suspect I'll be posting my own on this string. 

 

AITA (Am I the Asshole)

I love the AITA string in Reddit (see HERE). I could read these all day and never get tired. It's amazing to me that there are people like those that are described here. 

I read one today, and it's very similar to aspects of my own family and the problems that we are forced to deal with. This might be a bit worse, but not by much!

Context: For every holiday, My mother would ask the women in the family (my sisters, sister in-law, my wife, my female cousins) to send "samples" of the desserts they plan to bring to the celebration for testing and to see if these desserts could make it to the "food menu". My wife has been complaining about my mother deliberately rejecting every dessert sample she sent. So many times my mother has told her that she's being honest and keeping the guests best interest at heart. Yet my wife still thought that my mother is deliberately excluding her since 2 of her dessert samples were rejected before.

Skinner and Behaviorism

  The question this week regards B. F. Skinner and behaviorism. Do you agree with Skinner’s premise of “Behavior Is Determined by Its Consequences”? Please explain your reasoning.  

In regards to the premise "behavior is determined by its consequences" I think my answer would be, yes, I do agree with it but I agree with the passages from the Elias and Merriman (2005) text that provides a bit more nuance to that premise, more. 

Those passages that I most enjoyed stated "human behavior is the result of a person's prior conditioning and is determined by external forces in the environment over which a person has little or no control" (p. 83) and "the key to controlling behavior is being able to identify the most effective reinforcers, the amount they should e employed, and the timing of their use" (p. 89). 

These two passages seem to provide more depth and understanding to the premise of this question, but ultimately also reinforce that premise. The first passage, although talking about external factors, conditioning, and the environment, also focuses on prior conditioning. I wrote about how I liked Dewey's and Kolb's learning cycles in previous posts because of the ability to build on prior knowledge. This first passage alludes to that as well in terms of behaviorism. How prior conditioning, or prior knowledge attainment and stimulus-response can help build further understanding or conditioning. 

The second passage discusses finding the most effective reinforcement, the amount, and the timing to ensure that they are employed properly. Just having a reinforcement mechanism or a consequence isn't enough to ensure behavior is understood and repeated, it's necessary to fine-tune that consequence so that the behavior is reinforced the way that the trainer wants. 

Reference

Elias, J. L., & Merriam, S. B. (2005). Philosophical foundations of adult education. Malabar, FL.