Jack Mezirow
Transformative Learning Theory
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Wife named Edee
Son who is a
captain of a charter
sport-fishing boat in
Seward, Alaska
Family
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Education
Received Bachelor’s
(1945) and
Master’s(1946)
degrees fro U. of
Minnesota in social
sciences and
education
Ed.D from U. of
California in adult
education
Life Work
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Earlier professional life as an adult educator
Focused on fostering social action through
community development
Taught in adult literacy programs in US and
abroad
Served as a consultant in many Third World
countries
Trained professionals in community development
Devoted to developing Transformative
Learning Theory
 Self-proclaimed Social Action Educator

Life Work
Transformative learning develops
autonomous thinking, and is the process
of effecting change in a frame of
reference
 Works to transform individual lives by
challenging previously held perspectives
and limitations
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What is Transformative Learning
Theory?
Transformative education/learning
developed in early 1970’s
 Discovered Paulo Freire’s writings
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◦ Says, “the critical dimension missing from my
work was my lack of awareness of centrality of
conscientization”
What is conscientization?
Development
Paulo Friere defines it as: “the process by
which adults achieve a deepening
awareness of both the socio-cultural
reality which shapes their lives
and their capacity to transform that reality
through action upon it”
His wife, Edee, went back to college
 He noticed his wife’s transformative
experience
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Development
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Economic liberty of women
Socio-Cultural Context: Early
1970’s
Worked to transform lives by challenging
previously held perspectives and
limitations
 Outlined what transformative learning was
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◦ Paulo Freire
◦ Booker T. Washington
Key Contributions
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Learner’s need to know
Readiness to Learn
Prior Experience: Adults have acquired a
coherent body of experience associations,
concepts, values, feelings, conditional
responses- frames of reference that
define their life world. Frames of reference
are the structures of assumptions through
which we understand our experiences.
They set our “line of action”
Course Material
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Although Dr. Jack Mezirow was not a
believer, this theory is EXTREMELY
applicable to Christianity
Jesus?