| This critical instrumental case study examines what happens when my working/middle-class students and I engage in transformative learning approaches to culture in a high school introductory foreign language class.;Specifically, through analysis of scaffolded class discussions; student projects, written work, pre- and post-discussion responses; field notes; and interviews with focal students, this study seeks to answer (1) How students construct notions of cosmological citizenship, spirituality, ecological awareness/interconnectedness, and value-creation through class activities; (2) How students perceive the connection of (a) to Japanese; (3) How students characterize the connection of (a) and (b) with their own lives and identities; and (4) How transformative learning affects the quality of students' second language acquisition.;Findings reveal that through topic-centered dialogue---social construction---students developed transformative learning notions regarding the above questions both in the first and target language. |
