Transformative Learning: Addressing vulnerability by challenging what you think you know!

Description

Talk about my research into Transformative Learning and how this might impact on disaster resilience and climate change adaptation. Disaster adaptation and resilience require learning that is flexible and able to adapt to complex disaster risks. However there is a value action gap between intentions and behaviour, which need to be addressed. Transformative Learning (TL) has the potential to address this through instigating changes in behaviour that are maintained over time by challenging automatic responses and learning to take a more critically reflective approach to solving ‘wicked problems’, including disasters. Discussion of how a visual framework model was developed to address understanding of what TL is and what it means to undertake it will be outlined. Furthermore, its use as an analytical tool for understanding processes and outcomes from Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) training among the general public in Santa Barbara, California as part of PhD fieldwork will be undertaken. Finally, the talk will give examples in order to explore the following questions to trigger further discussion while encouraging the audience to engage with the models that will be shown: 1. How might TL be utilised as a learning tool for challenging prior cognition towards disaster risk? 2. How does TL open up paths for exploring wider issues around vulnerability? (To include individual, group, community, organisational and governmental) 3. What is the role played by social learning in unpacking critical reflection that might lead to desired conscientisation? Disaster adaptation and resilience require learning that is flexible and able to adapt to complex disaster risks. However there is a value action gap between intentions and behaviour, which need to be addressed. Transformative Learning (TL) has the potential to address this through instigating changes in behaviour that are maintained over time by challenging automatic responses and learning to take a more critically reflective approach to solving ‘wicked problems’, including disasters. Discussion of how a visual framework model was developed to address understanding of what TL is and what it means to undertake it will be outlined. Furthermore, its use as an analytical tool for understanding processes and outcomes from Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) training among the general public in Santa Barbara, California as part of PhD fieldwork will be undertaken. Finally, the talk will give examples in order to explore the following questions to trigger further discussion while encouraging the audience to engage with the models that will be shown: 1. How might TL be utilised as a learning tool for challenging prior cognition towards disaster risk? 2. How does TL open up paths for exploring wider issues around vulnerability? (To include individual, group, community, organisational and governmental) 3. What is the role played by social learning in unpacking critical reflection that might lead to desired conscientisation?

Period	17 Jan 2017
Held at	University of Oxford, United Kingdom