Books
Civic Education and Transformation: Possibilities for Individual, Community, and Societal Change
Hoggan-Kloubert, T., Mabrey, P., & Hoggan, C. (Eds.) (in press; August 2023). Michigan State University Press.
Civic education has been used to inspire and promote social change, facilitate transitions in times of crisis, help people of different ages adapt to uncertainty, and encourage a sense of agency and self-empowerment among individuals and communities – in short to offer adequate questions and possible answers to societal challenges. While there are different approaches to civic education, each shares the core idea that civic education is fundamental for a democracy to flourish in stable as well as in challenging times. In a democratic society people are considered to be agents and co-shapers of their living environments, fulfilling different roles and learning about themselves and the society. Education (in a very broad sense) offers space for reflection on and practice of different skills needed in our societies. Civic education is based on the existence of an ever-changing pluralistic society with multiple identities and commitments. This book examines approaches, paradigms, and issues that help us to act in culturally, ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse societies; communicate across differences; shape and co-shape the worlds in which we are living; and develop ourselves as complex human beings.
Adult Learning in a Migration Society
Migration is an old, perhaps perpetual, phenomenon. Currently, it is an urgent challenge involving huge numbers of people who leave their home in search of a better life. Differences in language, customs, and norms are often joined by specific manifestations of xenophobia born of particular differences between host countries and their current influx of migrants. In a pronounced way, then, migration reveals important societal questions—of solidarity, of identity, of transition and transformation, of human rights and obligations.
The explorations in this collection highlight individual stories of migrants, showcase innovative research methods, and explore concepts and theories that might be usefully applied toward learning needs in a migration society. Including insights from scholars across 14 different countries, this book offers an international perspective on the role of adult education in addressing migration. Such international comparisons hold great potential for seeing new possibilities in any single country, whether in Europe, North America, or across the world.
Transformational Learning in Community Colleges: Charting a course for academic and personal success
Transformative learning is a theory of adult education that focuses on the profound changes-or transformations-that can occur in the lives of adults. It is not as concerned with incremental advances in learners’ knowledge as it is with their mental frameworks for making meaning from life experiences.
Chad D. Hoggan and Bill Browning articulate the transformative changes that many community college students experience—or need to experience—in order to successfully navigate post-secondary education and launch professional careers. The authors provide a window into the student experience of transformation by drawing on research, theory, and the voices of students. They offer practical guidance on how a renewed focus on student transformational learning can complement the skills curriculum, accelerate current community college reforms, and help lead to higher student success rates in college and careers.
The book offers recommendations, classroom practices, and action points that can be integrated systemwide across departments and programs, and tapped by faculty, administrators, staff, and leadership eager to champion student success. These institutional changes, the authors contend, will render the community college a more robust, nimble entity, one capable of supporting students at each critical stage of their academic and emotional development.
At a time when community colleges are being called to account for the measurable success of their students—in college and in the workforce—this book is a call to change how they approach their work so that they can fulfill their mission to promote social and economic equity for all of their students.
Creative Expression in Transformative Learning: Tools and techniques for educators of adults
Transformative learning is a theory of adult education that focuses on the profound changes-or transformations-that can occur in the lives of adults. It is not as concerned with incremental advances in learners’ knowledge as it is with their mental frameworks for making meaning from life experiences. This book explores the role of creative expression in this transformational process. It provides a practical and accessible approach to using creative expression with adult learners. The book provides various tools, methods and creative modalities that have been used to promote transformative learning, and discusses how adult educators themselves are transformative learners.