Humanities Professors on the Margins

Abstract

This article recounts the experiences of professors who taught entry level university humanities courses to adult learners on the margins of society and what their stories can tell the readers about a potentially transformative teaching and learning space. Based on interviews with 13 instructors in 3 programs, the study reveals that while the techniques of facilitative dialogue and gentle coaching are important in shifting learners from disengagement to engagement in the possibility of learning, it is the underlying stance of instructors' mature authenticity and their desire to create and sustain trusting relationships with their students that is pivotal in cultivating the possibility of transformation for marginalized students within this program.

Integrating Care and Critical Reflection in Women's Leadership Development Programs

“…Practitioners working for transformative learning are called on to be knowledgeable, student-centered, organized, prepared, and structured in their learning activities, while establishing supportive learning environments (Apte, 2009;Brookfield & Preskill, 2005;Vella, 2008). It is important that they are authentic and immediate with students to foster respectful relationships that safely support challenging dialogue and praxis (Brookfield & Preskill, 2005;Cranton, 2006;Cranton & Wright, 2008;Groen & Hyland-Russell, 2010;Vella, 2008;Walton, 2010).…”