Slow-Looking at Transformative Learning Through the Lens of Enactivism

Jack Mezirow’s (1978, 1991, and 2008) transformative learning (TL) theory was developed with transforming society in mind. However, that intent has been overshadowed by a dominant focus on individual transformation and a rational cognitive approach to critically assessing assumptions as the path to transformation. We (the authors) wonder what happens to the societal side of TL theory when we put it in dialog with enactivism. Reading TL theory in this way illuminates the interdependent intention that self and society are inextricably linked. This conceptual article proposes that TL theory is best understood as an ongoing process of transforming ways of knowing, doing, and being through dynamic intra-actions, ontological entanglements, and appreciation of we-ness. Slow-looking at the implicit intra-actions that TL theory is grounded on will contribute to decolonizing the dominant dualistic view of seeing self and society as separate, making the potential for transformation of self and society more visible.