Research On Transformative Learning In Adults' Spiritual World

As edified by the research ideal from my doctoral supervisor that "return to the exciting adults' real life world, and experience the splendid adults' spiritual homestead", I mainly focus on the area of "adults' spiritual homestead" this time. As a result, I choose "adults' spiritual world" as one of the research topic and context of this paper. Besides, I also choose the theory of transformative learning of Jack Mezirow to be the other topic, which has been very popular in international adult educational research field. With which, I try to put them into a new research practice with qualitative research approach.In the process of using qualitative research approach, I use interview method as the main weapon, and have interviewed 14 adults in Shanghai China within 8 months. At last, I choose 5 interviewees, and take their life stories as the formal cases. Based on which, I deeply detect, analyse and interpret the phenomena of transformative learning, which are related to the spiritual world, with the view of Andragogy, as well as multiple-disciplinary theories.This paper is consisted of three sections with then chapters."Section One:Foundation"Chapter 1:Introduction. First of all, I explain the reasons of why I choose "spiritual world" and "transformative learning" as the paper's theme. Then, related to which I critically collect research productions around domestic and overseas. Then, I define their very meanings in the context of this paper as follows:·Generally speaking, all the adult always has their own ways to see the world around, and takes them as a seires of basic assumptions and anticipatons, which are described as the concept of meaning perspectives of Mezirow. To be brief, the transformative learning could be defined as the transformation of such assumptions and anticipations (or meaning perspectives). ·As for the concept of spiritual world, in order to find its properiate local meaning in this paper, I particularly clarified and defined it from three key conpcepts of this paper, including qualitative research approach, life story and transformative learning.Chapter 2:Research Approach. I introduce the concrete practicing process of qualitative research approach, including the process and results of interview, the way to present life stories, the frame and trains of thought of how to interpret and analyse the life stories with other multi-methods, etc."Section Two:Stories and case Analysis"In this section, I spend 5 chapters (from Chapter 3 to Chapter 7) to deep describe the life stories of 5 cases separately, for example, BAI Jia-lu (female, 29 years old), LI Zhi-wei (male,31 years old), ZHOU Li-yin (Female,37 years old), CHEN Jian-hua (male,56 years old), XU Guo-ping (male,69 years old). Based on which, I detect, analyse and interpret their case phenomena of transformative learning which are related to their spiritual world with multi-disciplinary theories separately.In these 5 cases, the former 4 mainly present how they themselves to carry out their own transformative learning process as an individual. Correspondly, the story of XU Guo-ping shows how he causes the transformative learning of society or community around him."Section Three:Exploration"Chapter8:The Synthesis and Comparation of Transformative Learning Base on Case Analyse. In this Chapter, I synthesize and campare the phenomena of transformative learning with several dimensions which has been presented from all the 5 life stories. Firstly, I take meaning perspectives as the main subject, to sum up their different styles and qualities, and their particular forms of transformative learning. Based on which, I campare and summarize some kinds of relations among them. Secondly, I take the process of transformative learning as main subject, and do the same thing to discuss its different forms and individualized affect factors.Chapter 9:The Re-representation of Relations between Spiritual World and Transformative Learning. Taking all the former research as basic, I systematically collect the relations between these two concepts from a static dimension and a dynamic dimension in a much deeper way.Chapter 10: The Epilogue with Questions. In the ways of asking questions, I take some critical judgements and reflections to the exist theory of transformative learning. At last, in order to learn and think something valuable, I try to discuss some important questions of this paper.