Cyberethics teaching, learning environments, epistemic communities

Transformative Learning for Sustainable Education

by Jody Joanna Boehnert

Delivered at the Design Research Society's Special Interest Group on Experiential Knowledge conference (EKSIG 2011) - “SkinDeep - experiential knowledge and multi sensory communication”. June 2011. Farnham, UK. A slideshow of the presentation can be found at http://www.eco-labs.org/

Designers and educators have a unique role to play in the creation of sustainable futures due to our ability to help... more Designers and educators have a unique role to play in the creation of sustainable futures due to our ability to help people envision new realities, develop new cognitive skills for dealing with complexity and create the social capacity to act on the basis of new knowledge. This paper will describe the theory and practice of transformative learning. Transformative learning aims to build the agency to put new knowledge into practice. Beyond the mere dissemination of information, transformative learning engages participants in dialogical and experiential learning processes with the aim of creating deep learning. Due to the fact that problems with regards to sustainability are both complex and deeply entrenched into our culture, these transformative learning processes are essential for the pedagogy associated with sustainability and ecological literacy. This paper introduces transformative learning and offers a short case study of a ‘Teach-in’ for ecological literacy in design education.