One of the key themes that has emerged in research on transformative learning is the role of culture, gender, and positionality in shaping and influencing the process of perspective transformation. Transformative learning involves a shift in one’s perspective and worldview resulting from critical self-reflection and questioning assumptions (Hoggan & Kloubert, 2020). Transformative learning centers on explaining the process of radically revising entrenched assumptions, beliefs, and worldviews through phases of critical reflection and rational discourse. However, far from a universal process, one’s cultural programming, gender socialization, and social status or marginality within power structures profoundly impact meaning-making patterns, knowledge construction, capacity for agency, and readiness for change (Jurkova & Guo, 2018). For women learners and those from minority cultural communities in particular, lived experience is mediated by systemic inequities and discourses that differentially expose them to catalysts that spark critical questioning of normative assumptions alongside barriers that can hinder the resulting disorienting dilemma from catalyzing perspective change. Research has shown that cultural background, gender socialization, and social position or status can significantly impact if, when, and how transformative learning occurs.
Synthesis of Publications
Culture
Transformative learning involves critically reflecting on our assumptions and beliefs to develop more open, inclusive, and emotionally capable perspectives. Research shows that culture, gender, and social position profoundly shape assumptions and thus are integral factors in the potential for transformative learning. Research demonstrates deep interconnections between culture and processes of transformative learning. As Taylor (2009) asserts, the process of meaning-making operates within sociocultural worlds that significantly influence the beliefs of what knowledge is, who we are as individuals, how we interact with others, and how we construct authority. Cultural dimensions of cognition make learners perceive experiences and problems in a particular manner. Hence, open-mindedness to critique the normality of existing beliefs and imagine alternative ways of interpreting the world leans very much on cultural stances. How the culture affects the privileged and marginalized in the perception of social dynamics is one of the aspects of the hierarchy (Mezirow, 2018). Whether critical reflection leads to reinforcement or undermines, the dominant paradigms are determined by cultural models of reasoning influenced by power relations. Educators must affirm the cultural determination of perception and the consequent need for reflections attentive to the diversity of ways of knowing developed or inherited from the intersectional cultural groups that define race, gender, class, and other identities and social statuses. The sociocultural mediation of cognition is paramount in creating new views and avoiding stereotyping and reproduction of existing exclusionary assumptions. In essence, through culture, accounting is the backbone of transformative learning.
Studies show that culture is a critical factor in transformational learning. Knowledge construction is a social-cultural process that strongly influences the beliefs about ‘the nature of knowledge, identities, relationships, and authority’ (Taylor 2009). The cultural elements of cognition help define how learners perceive experiences and problems. Hence, challenging accepted norms and thinking of alternative concepts about the world are most dependent on cultural backgrounds. Culture influences how hierarchies of privilege and marginalization manifest in perceptions of social dynamics. Whether critical reflection ultimately reinforces or challenges dominant paradigms is contingent on cultural patterns of reasoning shaped by power relations (Mezirow, 2018). Educators must recognize the artistic nature of perception and foster reflection attentive to diversity in ways of knowing emerging from learners’ embeddedness in intersecting cultural groups defined by race, gender, class, and other identity and social status markers. Understanding the sociocultural mediation of cognition is crucial for constructing new perspectives and preventing the reproduction of exclusionary assumptions. In essence, accounting for culture is fundamental to the transformative learning process.
Gender
Research demonstrates essential links between gender and transformative learning processes and outcomes. A key finding is that women and men often exhibit differing patterns in perspective transformation. Mezirow (2018) found women’s cultural orientation toward interpersonal relationships and connection facilitates transformative learning by enabling recognition of problematic assumptions about self and others. By contrast, men showed a more significant tendency to reinforce assumptions supporting individualism. Research shows that men struggle more in critically analyzing gendered power dynamics without regressing into defensive stances. Studies show that women’s cognitive development is more holistic and contextual, whereas men’s is more positional (Chasserio & Bacha, 2023). The critical reflection means that the women-centered relational focus is more successful in rethinking the normalized paradigms because it considers diverse viewpoints. Although a person can be defined by a particular set of traits of a dominant gender culture, men and women can also be categorized this way. Therefore, educators should endeavor to make learning environments gender-sensitive where men and women as groups can rethink their assumptions collectively instead of the individual ones with power inequalities rooted in sociocultural structures.
Gender acts as a primary determinant of transformative learning paths and outcomes. Studies show that women and men approach self, social relationships, and society differently through uncovering and revising their assumptions. Women’s cultural development, which often carries a relational focus, may help them recognize multiple perspectives and problematic paradigms underlying inequalities. In contrast, men tend to uphold the stereotyped behaviors corresponding to individuation and positionalism, which impede their ability to examine gendered power structures without resorting to a defensive stance (Mezirow, 2018). These divergent tendencies in gender often have significant consequences for people’s readiness to engage in the risky task of challenging established beliefs and hegemonic ideas. Transformative learning is based on the relational perspective to reveal exclusion and empower the imagination of other realities (Chasserio & Bacha, 2023). However, gender-biased sociocultural norms that oppress and constrain both men and women continue to generate and maintain the conforming gender-based perspectives that are a barrier to system-level transformation. Educators, therefore, need to make gender-friendly environments where all learners can analyze questions with an open mind and not presuppositions of patriarchal privilege and oppression. Therefore, gender plays a fundamental role in placing who to stand for a perspective change and the creation of a learning environment where the transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming voices are equally included in the social critique and transformation process.
Positionality
Research suggests that one’s social position within the sociocultural strata of privilege and oppression influences how one is ready for and prepares for transformative learning. According to Dill and Zambrana (2020), the process of critical reflection is shaped by power relations rooted in identities like race, gender, class, and other axes of advantage and marginalization. Preferred cultural affiliations reinforce beliefs of difference that underlie social inequality. Therefore, whether inquiring into beliefs will strengthen or will be a challenge to existing paradigms of exclusion very much hinges on the social locations of learners. Scholars believe that it is usually from personal experiences of marginalization that the readiness to accept alternative viewpoints and reevaluate the assumptions sustaining oppression arises. Research emphasizes that positionality determines how successful learning is when one is after social justice (Johnson-Bailey, 2012). Educators should, therefore, develop learning contexts that are attentive to heterogeneity in social experience and the lived experiences of different social groups. Engendering critique across heterogeneous standpoints reflected in intersecting hierarchies allows the examination of systemic inequity necessary for the perspective shifts that are the basis of empathy development and social transformation from the margin to the center.
Research reveals the centrality of social location and positionality as the factors of transformational learning. Taylor contends that whether or not critical reflection of assumptions strengthens or undermines dominant exclusionary paradigms is mostly dependent on the positions from which learners interpret their experiences and environments (Johnson-Bailey, 2012). For groups that have experienced oppression, readiness to imagine new realities is born most naturally. At the same time, those who enjoy cultural dominance become defensive when asked to face their role of reproducing inequality. Hence, positionalities within the intersecting identity-based hierarchies determine whether such openness and approaches to examining the normalized beliefs that hold up subordination exist. Eventually, the effort to trigger the perspective change will require extracting useful information from the oppressed so marginalized groups can guide the conversation, leading to reconsidering the assumptions. As for the privileged students, their role is to explore alternative standpoints that will help them identify the unseen blind spots that prevent them from recognizing the problematic paradigms. Transformative and socially just learning should be taught in inclusive, diverse environments that embrace the multiple points of view defined by race, gender, class, and other markers of cultural value and access to resources. This allows re-examining biases that justify exclusionary systems and reinterpreting the core ideas that lead to inclusion. Translating viewpoint adjustments into the concrete transformation of conditions stemming from inequalities is contingent on positionality.
Summary of Literature
A central theme of the literature on transformative learning is that understanding identity, culture, and power dynamics is an indispensable part of questioning one’s assumptions and developing alternative views. Critical reflection is no longer viewed as an overly rational individual process but rather is researched as a profoundly contextualized process of meaning-making, shaped by sociocultural contexts, thinking patterns that are culturally determined, and locations in intersecting hierarchies of privilege and oppression (Johnson-Bailey, 2012). Lived experiences of marginalization are crucial in questioning normalized beliefs because they involve gaining awareness of exclusionary paradigms, whereas dominant groups mostly show defensiveness. Therefore, the imperative of perspective shifts is to mine the insights across diversity and create conditions for inquiry that would lead to systemic transformation, not cosmetic changes. The result, therefore, either supports or questions the current paradigms of inequality and is highly dependent on the cultural mediation of learning and the influence of structural inequality on knowledge construction. The core implications clearly emphasize the need to fundamentally reframe transformative learning as a process that is racial, gender, and other diversity-providing, which also requires the critique of systems that value particular voices and perspectives over others. In essence, for the perspective shifts to become the catalyst of social transformations, we must rethink social realities that have been looked down on or ignored.
Gaps in Literature
The research has clarified that culture, gender, and positionality significantly imprint assumptions and readiness for transformational learning. Still, there is also a gap in the research. The empirical study of the intersections among the three variables while implications for creating inclusive conditions for critical inquiry is little explored. Many studies focus on individual experience in contrast with the heterogeneity that allows for systemic inequity examination. Moreover, insufficient investigation takes apart the dissimilarities within cultural groups or communities of disadvantaged groups in refashioning. The research on how teachers can nurture perspective shifts without forcing assimilation to dominant cultural paradigms is still in process. In addition, greater exploration of frictions arising in multicultural transformative learning settings and methods would promote a constructive dialogue embracing conflict and solidarity. A deeper exploration of these intricate dimensions will foster the build-up of expertise and knowledge about the practices and pedagogies that promote an emancipatory, justice-oriented outlook that leads to social action.
Evaluation of Publications
The publications used in this literature review are scholarly and credible to make intellectual affirmations. The publications are peer-reviewed academic journals and articles with reasonable, scientifically tested information. The visibility of approved educational publishers and editing rules mark the high editorial standards in preparing the publications. The authors of the publications are associated with renowned universities and other reputable research institutions, making them reliable sources for evaluating this topic. These patterns reflect a rigorous development process in which the formulations are tested through evaluation by experts from the disciplinary fields concerned with the relevant theoretical terrain. Moreover, researchers state their paradigmatic orientations, which affect their shaping, framing, and perceived limitations. The literature still lacks the power to become stronger with more outstanding empirical studies and methodological pluralism. The critical reflexivity and transparency of possible biases add to the credibility from a qualitative point of view. Overall, publications acquire legitimacy by going through multiple checkpoints for scholarly rigor and examining the issue through humility as it relates to the complexity of measuring something as socially subjective as Transformative Learning.
The culture, gender, and positionality literature helps us to deepen our understanding of the issues related to the intersections of identity, sociocultural context, and unequal power dynamics, which makes the transformative learning theory and practice richer. Probing the associations between marginalized perspectives and the readiness to challenge assumptions brings the necessity of inclusive critical inquiry and multivocal dialogue to produce perspective shifts. The research results on the gendered patterns, in contrast, show the necessity to create conditions that would allow all learners to look at their beliefs relating to them rather than thinking only about themselves. Literature underlines that dominant cultural forces coerce homogeneity through underlying assumptions that maintain the inequality between groups. Placing subjective processes such as sense-making and consciousness-raising as the basis for change makes us recognize that system change is essential. Although future research may improve its practical uses, the present studies largely rebuild the most important learning processes that support structural transformation and social justice outcomes. By centralizing the mediating role of social location, culture, and power/oppression, the scholarship produces critical insight calling for revision of theoretical foundations, learning design, knowledge validation procedures, and leadership paradigms as the basis for mainstream educational approaches and change efforts.
References
Chasserio, S., & Bacha, E. (2023). Women-only training programs as tools for professional development: analysis and outcomes of a transformative learning process. European Journal of Training and Development. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EJTD-12-2021-0210/full/html
Dill, B. T., & Zambrana, R. E. (2020). Critical thinking about inequality: An emerging lens. In Feminist Theory Reader (pp. 108-116). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003001201-14/critical-thinking-inequality-bonnie-thornton-dill-ruth-enid-zambrana
Hoggan, C., & Kloubert, T. (2020). Transformative learning in theory and practice. Adult Education Quarterly, 70(3), 295-307. https://www.academia.edu/download/97353191/074171362091851020230116-1-75ekkx.pdf
Johnson-Bailey, J. (2012). Positionality and transformative learning. The handbook of transformative learning, 260-273. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AAcStCwxPm4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA260&dq=positionality+in+transformative+learning&ots=lyRTg7sCjV&sig=cCrf2x6GPHBKsa9QEBHpZhd1UHw
Jurkova, S., & Guo, S. (2018). Connecting transculturalism with transformative learning: Toward a new horizon of adult education. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 64(2), 173-187. https://cdm.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ajer/article/view/56383/pdf
Mezirow, J. (2018). Transformative learning theory. In Contemporary theories of learning (pp. 114-128). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315147277-8/transformative-learning-theory-jack-mezirow
Taylor, E. W. (2009). Fostering transformative learning. Transformative learning in practice: Insights from community, workplace, and higher education, 3-17. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jrhqDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=transformative+Theory+by+taylor+EW&ots=j43Rxy6aYm&sig=j4QWaWJica9L5e3cy7vckg2NROc
Taylor, E. W., & Cranton, P. (2012). A content analysis of transformative learning theory. https://newprairiepress.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3095&context=aerc
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