Transformative Pedagogy
Concepts
Definitions(Cope & Kalantzis)
• Such a transformative pedagogy is, we would argue, based both on
a realistic view of contemporary society (how does schooling offer
cultural and material access to its institutions of power?) and on an
emancipatory view of possible paths to improvement in our human
futures (how can we make a better, more equal, less humanly and
environmentally damaging world?). Or, insofar as these two goals
might at times be at odds, a transformative pedagogy could be used
to support either view.
• Then, it is up to the learner to make of the pedagogy what they will,
be that a sensible conservatism (sensible for being realistic about
the contemporary forces of technology, globalization and cultural
change) or an emancipatory view which wants to make a future that
is different to the present by addressing its crises of poverty,
environment, cultural difference and existential meaning.
Assumptions in Schooling
• Product-based and result-oriented society
• Learning = intelligence measured by tests
• Experts would be able to decide what to teach,
how to teach, and how to evaluate
• All human beings are as much alike > same
lessons assigned for all
• The pupil’s mind is empty and wait to be filled
• In a complete bureaucratic settings, it is easy for
students to receive an education(and to be
disengaged.)
3 Types of Education(McGregor,2008)
• Transmissional
 Teacher is the expert and has power
 Curriculum focuses on subject matter
 No space for students’ daily life and context
 The information is organized in sequenced topics and
units, teacher delivers and students have to master
them.
 The intended outcome is to pass the test by
memorizing and mastering the transmitted information.
3 Types of Education(McGregor,2008)
• Transactional
 Closer to collaborative approach
 The power is more likely to be shared between
students and teacher.
 Curriculum focuses on problems and solutions by
both teachers and students
 Jointly construct meaning that informs learners’
personal growth
 Learning is gauged by observing each students’
growth and thinking process, inquiry process, and
students’ predisposition to lifelong learning.
3 Types of Education(McGregor,2008)
• Transformative
 Place the student at the center of learning
 Help learners find their own inner voice and power,
therefore they feel empowered to effect social change,
bring about justice, peace, freedom, and other
components of human condition.
 Teachers have to respect and have compassions for
co-learners.
 All ways of knowing are interconnected and enriched
by each other.
 The desired outcome is to change- to transfer
learning into social action outside the classroom.
(Sockman & Sharma
, 2008)
Characteristics
• Transfer/Transmission to Transform
 From learning for information ("what we know") to
learning for transformation ("how we know“).
• Transformative learning often requires a
“structural shift” in the way thoughts, feelings,
and actions are conceptualized. This shift is at
once conscious, dramatic and lasting; and it
holds an opportunity to change the way we are
in the world(O’Sullivan, 2004).
• Self-reflectivity / Self-recreation
Good words
• William Ayers(1993)
 ……a creative work, (in which teachers) must figure
out how to create a space where students are
expected to use their minds well to derive knowledge
from information, to invest though with courage, to
connect consciousness to conduct, and so on. (p.7)
• bell hooks(1994)
 ……against and beyond boundaries. It is that
movement that makes education the practice of
freedom(p.12).
• Edmund V. O’Sullivan(2002)
 Transformative learning involves experiencing a
deep, structural shift in the basic premise of thought,
feeling, and actions. It is a shift of consciousness
that dramatically and permanently alters our way of
being in the world. Such a a shift involves our
understanding of ourselves and our self-locations;
our relationships with other humans and with the
natural world; our understanding of relations of
power in interlocking structures of class, race, and
gender; our body-awareness; our visions of
alternative approaches to living; and our sense of
the possibilities for social justice and peace and
personal joy.
4 Dimensions(Bill & Kalantzis, 2008)
• Experiencing, Conceptualising, Analysing, and
Applying
• Experiencing
 ‘Experiencing the Known’ involves or reflecting on
our own experiences, interests, perspectives, familiar
forms of expression and ways of representing the
world in one’s own understanding.
 ‘Experiencing the New’ entails observing or reading
the unfamiliar, immersion in new situations and texts,
reading new texts or collecting new data.
4 Dimensions(Bill & Kalantzis, 2008)
• Conceptualising
 ‘Conceptualising by Naming’ involves or drawing
distinctions of similarity and difference, categorising
and naming.
 ‘Conceptualising with Theory’ means making
generalisations and putting the key terms together
into interpretative frameworks.
4 Dimensions(Bill & Kalantzis, 2008)
• Analysing
 ‘Analysing Functionally’ includes processes of
reasoning, drawing inferential and deductive
conclusions, establishing functional relations such as
between cause and effect and analysing logical and
textual connections.
 ‘Analysing Critically’ involves evaluation of your
own and other people’s perspectives, interests and
motives.
4 Dimensions(Bill & Kalantzis, 2008)
• Applying
 ‘Applying Appropriately’ entails the application of
knowledge and understandings to the complex
diversity of real world situations and testing their
validity.
 ‘Applying Creatively’ involves making an
intervention in the world which is truly innovative and
creative and which brings to bear the learner’s
interests, experiences and aspirations.
Thinking UL
• Ubiquitous computing has become part of home,
community, and daily lives. This technology has
the potential to inspire us to transform the way
we live, the way we teach, and the way we learn.
• It is a radical transformation in educational
practice, especially who learns from whom,
where, under what circumstances, and for what
and whose purpose.
Thinking UL
• “We need to do more than this, hence the notion
of a transformed and transformative pedagogy in
the environment of ubiquitous learning”(Cope &
Kalantzis, 2008)
• ……not to start from the side of the sender (or
the teacher), but from the side of the receiver
(the student). In general terms, the question then
becomes how a child or learner can get access
to the meanings that are available in a
culture(Biesta & Miedema, 2002, p.180)
Thinking UL
• UL enabling educators to transform their instructional
practices from a teacher-centric model to a teacher as
facilitator model where inquiry based learning
through ubiquitous access to technical resources is the
capstone of the classroom.
Thinking UL
• Internet is a relatively egalitarian environment for
teaching approaches that critically examine
social patterns of power and dominance.
• Students may feel a greater willingness to
disclose their beliefs and experiences online.
• Sharing and sense of community are also vital
for transformative pedagogy.
• Internet has transformative potential for
democracy
Implications
• Transformative Pedagogy + Ubiquitous Learning?
• Meyers (2008) has some suggestions based on
his online teaching experiences.
• Creating a safe environment
 Increasing trust, climate of acceptance, positive peer
interactions, and remaining openness.
 Forums allow students to express themselves
thoughtfully without interruption, which is particularly
significant for those who are at greater risk for
marginalization in class due to their gender, race,
social class, or even personality style
Implications
• Encouraging students to think about their
experiences, beliefs, and biases
 Internet courses allow reflective dialogue to develop
slowly over the span of several days, which can
clarify differences in perspective.
• Using teaching strategies that promote student
engagement and participation
 Use internet adaptations and extension, ex. blogs
allow students to publish instantaneously on the
Internet and provide the opportunity for others to
respond.
Implications
• posing real-world problems that address societal
inequalities
• helping students implement action-oriented
solutions.
 Internet resources can uniquely facilitate advocacy by
helping students obtain necessary information,
promoting communication, and enabling coordination
with others who have similar concerns.
 Ex: writing editorials or columns in local newspapers,
or e-mail to legislators, producing YouTube
videos……
Video as Resources
• Ideas: Cultural Criticism &
Transformation(bell hooks)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQUuHFKP-9s
• Practice: Digital Bridge Academy
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpYyZOvrB8A
• A Talk : Transformative Technology(Dr.
Yong Zhao)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGwtBc3vsj8
References
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Ayers, W.(1993). To teach: The journey of a teacher. New York: Teachers
College Press.
Biesta, G. J. J., & Miedema, S.(2002). Instruction or pedagogy? The need
for a transformative conception of education. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 18, 173-181.
Cope, Bill and Mary Kalantzis, ‘Multiliteracies: New Literacies, New
Learning’, forthcoming in Pedagogies: An International Journal.
Gardner, M., & Kelly, U. (Eds.) (2008). Narrating transformative learning in
education. New York: Macmillan.
hooks, b.(1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of
freedom. New York: Routledge.
Meyers, S. A.(2008) Using transformative pedagogy when teaching online.
College Teaching, 56, 219-224.
O’Sullivan, E. V., Morrell, A., & O’Connor, M. A.(2002). Expanding the
boundaries of transformative learning. New York: Palgrave.