Along with the rapidly changing social and economic context accompanied by COVID-19, concerns have been raised for the less-educated, low-wage workers who disproportionately experienced disadvantages in accessing workplace learning or training opportunities essential for job placement or career development. In response to the challenges of…

This article focuses on adult working learners who attend postsecondary institutions in Canada and the United States. We identify how these institutions deliver curriculum and instruction in the form of career-technical education (CTE) and vocational education offering occupational credentials. In British Columbia and the U.S., most vocational…

Ageism in today's workplace can have a range of detrimental emotional, psychological, and economic effects on older job seekers. This article highlights types of ageism in the workplace and the most common age-related stereotypes in the hiring process and on the job. We explore how ageism negatively affects the emotional and psychological,…

This article aims to examine how to improve the support for working learners in their learning and education based on the findings of the issue's articles. For this, I focus on describing what can be learned from the articles' findings and, based on that information, discuss directions and practices necessary to support adult working learners. I…

The article synthesizes literature relating to the recent development of the theory of transformative learning (TL) and societal changes using three exemplary fields of study: (1) Civic education and democratic transformations, (2) TL for sustainability and ecology, and (3) TL in the context of migration (and especially for refugees). This article…

This article provides an overview of the literature on transformative learning over the previous 45 years, describes its current condition as a relatively mature collection of theories, and calls for greater clarity, new iterations of theory, and productive and substantive steps forward. It then provides an overview of the contributions in this…

This chapter describes transformative learning as a catch-all term to describe many disparate phenomena related to learning processes involved in human transformation. It argues for the distinction between individual theories used to understand these phenomena and the metatheoretical work of analyzing across theories. This article then reviews…

Using a bibliographic approach that employs a systematic literature review, this paper analyzes the state of the field for assessing transformative learning (TL). Assessing TL has always been challenging. Using the field of international education (IE) as a case study, this article leverages findings from the assessment of TL in IE to illustrate…

Change always catalyzes organizational members to challenge, reframe, and revisit the assumptions that preside over the work they do. But how do recent changes affect individual and collective organizational transformations? More fundamentally, how can we think about learning and transformation in an organizational environment in perpetual…

This article describes four emerging theoretical approaches in transformative learning (TL). Elaborations of existing theories, descriptions of new theories, and analyses of TL processes are reviewed. Implications for understanding key TL concepts of experience, reflection, dialogue, disorientation, self, agency, autonomy, and time are discussed…

This update to Mezirow's Transformative Learning theory seeks to advance Mälkki's enhancement to the emotional dimension in phase one--the disorienting dilemma--by proposing the need for a complete grief process (as theorized by Kübler-Ross), to support movement from Mälkki's conceptualization of "edge-emotions" to a "comfort…

This chapter explores the interconnection of transformative learning, spirituality, and creativity, and how the discussion of these connections has unfolded since the new millennium.

This article focuses on imagination and the role it can play in bringing about transformation. Through telling stories of feminist activism and teaching, we consider how imagination can extend our understanding of transformative learning. We examine how creative expression and various art forms have enabled imagination and consider the conditions…

This article critically reviews literature dealing with transformative learning and social justice. Based on a review of literature from major journals and conference proceedings concerned with transformative learning it offers an assessment of the significance of social justice research in the wider field. It describes how social justice is…

This article explores the impact of the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and White rage on critical consciousness-raising. It argues for a reimagining of our democracy as a practice for collective liberation. This article then outlines a framework for social justice that moves beyond liberalism to self-interrogation, centering historically minoritized…