The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between participation in adult religious education and coping resources used by African-American women and to determine if there was a relationship between stressful life events, certain demographic variables, and the use of coping resources. A total of 126 women from Protestant churches in southeast Mississippi were surveyed using the Religious Participation Assessment (RPA), the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS), the Coping Resources Inventory (CRI), and the Ways of Religious Coping Scale (WORCS). Five women participated in a follow-up interview. Pearson correlation analyses indicated positive linear relationships between RPA and CRI and RPA and WORCS; coping scores increased in proportion to level of participation in religious activities. Multiple regression analyses exploring the relationship between the experience of stressful life events, the use of coping resources, and demographic variables revealed only one statistically significant finding: stressful events decreased as age increased. Results from qualitative data collected from interviews revealed that church involvement, reading the Bible, and prayer all played a major role in transforming and sustaining these women’s lives following a disorienting dilemma. In conclusion, the results from this study suggest that participation in adult religious education is a significant coping strategy for African-American women.

"Provocative and illuminating, this book is a must read for adult educators seeking to understand and facilitate transformational learning. It showcases a stellar group of authors who not only engage each other and the reader in constructive discourse, but who also model the heart of the transformational learning process." --Sharan B. Merriam, Department of Adult Education, University of Georgia This volume continues the landmark work begun by Jack Mezirow over twenty years ago--revealing the impact of transformative learning on the theory and practice of adult education. Top scholars and practitioners review the core principles of transformation theory, analyze the process of transformative learning, describe different types of learning and learners, suggest key conditions for socially responsible learning, explore group and organizational learning, and present revelations from the latest research. They also share real-world examples drawn from their own experiences and assess the evolution of transformative learning in practice and philosophy. Learning as Transformation presents an intimate portrait of a powerful learning concept and invites educators, researchers, and scholars to consider the implications of transformative learning in their own professional work.

"Stories of Transformative Learning is intended to encourage people to explore the potential for transformative learning in their lives, practices, and communities. This book illustrates the transformative learning process through ten stories of individuals from both inside and outside of the classroom. Adult educators and adult learners will find the book to be personally insightful and professionally useful. There have been many accounts of transformative learning experiences, but it is not often that we have the opportunity to hear first-hand personal stories of transformative learning. Here, ten stories are told directly by the people who experienced them, with additional commentary from the authors. These stories are intended to resonate with readers and to inspire people to create the conditions where transformative learning can occur in their lives and professional practice. Storytelling is one way in which both educators and learners can understand the process of transformative learning. Telling stories, reading others’ stories, and contemplating our own stories all help us to become aware of alternative perspectives, a process that is at the heart of critical reflection and critical self-reflection, which is, in turn, central to transformative learning. We hope to increase readers’ sense of agency and more self-directed, self-fulfilling lives. By demonstrating how others have examined and reconsidered otherwise hidden assumptions that constrained the quality and potential of their lives, we show readers how they may do the same."

It takes courage to engage in the kind of deep, transformational learning that so many people need in their lives, and this book is designed to help find and nurture that courage in learners, including those that are engaged in facilitating the courageous learning of others. Inspired by Parker Palmer’s classic book, The Courage to Teach, the authors have carefully examined the learning side of the teaching and learning relationship, and this book shares the resulting wealth of knowledge and experience with readers.This book is informed by Palmer’s observation that the conversations in teaching can be organized around four questions: what, how, why and who. In this book, the authors center learning instead of teaching as they ask: What is the content of learning? How do we learn? Why is it necessary, what motivates us? And, who is the self that learns?The authors have engaged in conversation with adult learners across the lifespan, representing different ages, social/economic levels, and approaches to learning. Drawing on these discussions, their own experiences, and the scholarly literature, they weave a tapestry with threads of learning and teaching, story, and analysis that serve as warp and weft. The authors pay tribute to the learner’s journey in the fullness of the process and name the distinct forms of courage that learning takes. In the concluding chapter, the authors explore the implications for educational practice, and offer guidance for any educator wishing to bring a Courage to Learn conversation to their community.

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The Handbook of Transformative Learning The leading resource for the field, this handbook provides a comprehensive and critical review of more than three decades of theory development, research, and practice in transformative learning. The starting place for understanding and fostering transformative learning, as well as diving deeper, the volume distinguishes transformative learning from other forms of learning, explores future perspectives, and is designed for scholars, students, and practitioners. PRAISE FOR THE HANDBOOK OF TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING "This book will be of inestimable value to students and scholars of learning irrespective of whether or not their emphasis is on transformative learning. It should find its way to the reference bookshelves of every academic library focusing on education, teaching, learning, or the care professions." —PETER JARVIS, professor of continuing education, University of Surrey "Can there be a coherent theory of transformative learning? Perhaps. This handbook goes a long way to answering this question by offering a kaleidoscope of perspectives, including non-Western, that consider the meaning and practice of transformative learning." —SHAUNA BUTTERWICK, associate professor, University of British Columbia "This handbook will be valuable and accessible to both scholars and practitioners who are new to the study of adult education and transformative learning and to more seasoned scholars who seek a sophisticated analysis of the state of transformative learning thirty years after Mezirow first shared his version of a then-fledgling theory of adult learning." —JOVITA ROSS-GORDON, professor and program coordinator, MA in Adult Education, Texas State University