I presented this at the Conference for Social Justice and Equity (Richard Stockton College, New Jersey) in 2011.

1. Enacting Transformative
Education
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
Central Connecticut State University
Annual Meeting of the Conference for Equity and Social Justice
March 26, 2011 - Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
lovekua@ccsu.edu

2. Thinking
Convergent Thinking -
All paths lead to a single destination. This is rooted in a
belief that there is only one “Truth.”
Traditional Liberal/Progressive
scaf
Truth Thought fold
New
Truth
scaffol
d Thought
Thought Thought

3. Thinking
Divergent Thinking -
Explore many paths in authentic settings with questions
that have no predetermined answer.
Transformative
New New
Thought Thought Relationship
Critical Communities
Info Questioning
New New
Thought Thought Relationship

4. Divergent Thinking &
Transformative Learning
Divergent thinking
contextualized in
community provides
students to not only
learn “basic” skills, but
also opportunities for
democratic discourse,
participation and
contributions to the
world in which they
live.

5. What is
Transformative Learning?
Learning is a process
of changing one’s
relationships with
her/his community,
which consist of
interconnections with
nature and society.

6. What is
Transformative Learning?
Assumptions:
• Information is diverse, culturally
grounded, and a representation of
a value system (knowledge/power
relationship).
• Learners are constantly
investigating their own locations
(positionalities) in relationship to
culture, ideology, power
structures, technology, and nature.
• Learners are constantly
investigating processes in
community (via the content areas)
that perpetuate hegemonic
relationships

7. Transformative Education
❖ An umbrella term that includes various pedagogies (i.e.
critical, feminist, ecojustice, queer, aesthetic, indigenous,
etc.)
❖ Fully transformative education exists at the intersection of
human rights, sustainability, and imagination

8. Transformative Pedagogies
❖ Critical pedagogy ❖ Red Pedagogy
❖ Feminist pedagogy ❖ Peace education
❖ Queer pedagogy ❖ Holistic education
❖ Ecojustice pedagogy ❖ Aesthetic education
❖ Indigenous education ❖ Place-based education

9. Power & Education
Power-Over Power
Power-With
Domination Nature Ecological
over nature, sustainability,
social injustice, human-nature
docile & connection,
oppressed Education social justice,
student students
engaged in
creating social
Community and ecological
justice

10. TEACHER-AS-MEDIATOR
Main target is not a predetermined answer
Students are not facilitated or scaffolded to the
“right” answer
Students are not discovering what the teacher
already knows and calls “truth”

11. TEACHER-AS-MEDIATOR
Main target:
Divergent thinking in a context of community of diverse voices
Students critically question information in curriculum using
various lenses of analysis
Examples: critical social theory, critical race theory, feminism,
ecojustice, queer theory, indigenous theory)
Students investigate authentic and/or unresolved issues,
knowledges, histories, and practices in community (local through
global)
Teacher mediates so that students can do authentic research based
in communities

12. “Thick Description”
Superficial
Mainstream
Message These two might
set up a binary
Null
Message
These two
Relationships generally show a
complexity not
Tensions binary “packaged”
Deep info

13. Community Involvement
Stage 1
Researching the Community
❖ Interviews ❖ Ethnography
(family, friends, members of (cultural thick description)
organizations, leaders, veterans, artists,
scientists, lawyers) ❖ Participatory Research (reporting on
their experiences)
❖ Observations
(the mall, school, sporting event, ❖ Demographic Research (census, state
school dance, playground, on the dept websites)
internet via social network sites,
environment) ❖ Literature Research
(local newspapers, internet)
❖ Case Study
(focus on one person, group, location, ❖ Field Trips as sites for all of these
ecology)

14. Community Involvement
Stage 2
Action in the Community
❖ Art Exhibits ❖ Theatre of the Oppressed
(Art show, public art, instillations, (Forum theater, rainbow of desire,
eco-art, murals, street art, “guerrilla image theater, legislative theater)
art”)
❖ Reports & Publications
❖ Poetry Slams (Writing to local newspaper, having
a journalist present, BOE meetings,
❖ Critical Performances community groups, WWW)
(Plays, musicals, choir pieces that
rework and recontextualize texts or ❖ Documentary Film
existing pieces) (Local issues, local attitudes, local
projects, film festival)
❖ Video Game
(Social or Eco-themed) ❖ Habitat for Humanity House

15. Mary M. Hooker Environmental
Studies Magnet School
❖ PK - 8, 400+ students (currently), 600+ students (max)
❖ Students from Hartford, East Hartford and surrounding suburbs
❖ Theme-based, interdisciplinary learning experiences
❖ $1.2 million Magnet School Assistance Program federal grant (3
years)
❖ Currently redesigning curriculum, professional development,
supporting teachers directly in classroom
❖ Critical literacy and ecojustice primarily

16. Mary M. Hooker Environmental
Studies Magnet School
❖ Overall approach taken to-date:
❖ Applied for grant (administrators and professors)
❖ Started with a core theoretical lens: ecojustice (professors)
❖ Reexamined themes through ecojustice theory & presented to
administrators (professors)
❖ Presented new themes and core theoretical tenets to
administrators (professors)
❖ Teachers provide feedback of their experiences, frustrations, and
desires in faculty meetings with administrators

17. Mary M. Hooker Environmental
Studies Magnet School
❖ Professors:
Kurt Love (co-director), J. Joss French (co-director),
Helen Abadiano (literacy)

18. Aloha & Haole

19. Aloha & Haole
Aloha
“Together, we breathe the sacred breath”
A consciousness that we are inescapably interwoven with
each other and the earth.
What we do to each other and the earth, we do to ourselves.

20. Aloha & Haole
Haole
“One who is without sacred breath”
A consciousness that does not include an awareness that we are
inescapably interwoven with each other and the earth.
A consciousness only of self and an ignorance of one’s energetic and
spiritual impact. Often comes with little or no understanding of
spirituality or the purpose of one’s soul (soul loss).

21. Mary M. Hooker Environmental
Studies Magnet School
❖ Major goals (April 2011 - Oct 2013):
❖ Meet teachers individually to understand their vision (April 2011)
❖ Integrate teachers’ visions with ecojustice and critical literacy:
workshops and professional development (April 2011 - Oct 2013)
❖ Redesign curricula from all subject areas to fit themes and
theoretical framework (April - Sep 2011)
❖ Make strong community-based partnerships to support
authentic learning experiences for each subject area and grade
level (April 2011 - Oct 2013)