The Transformative Processes in Learning and Education Network-TPLE
The aim of the network is to create time and space for enhancing international dialogue and research on transformative processes in learning and education. Our conferences take place every other year at the end of the summer term. We place great emphasis on encouraging a diverse range of participants (students and experienced academics and professionals, and those working in a range of settings), and to using diverse formats such as presentations, workshops and experiential sessions. Participants come from all over the world. Time and space are given for dialogue and more informal encounters too.
History of the network
While transformative learning theory is probably the most recognized theory of adult learning currently, and has been so for a long time, it has not had much impact in European countries. This changed from 2011, when the 9th conference of the predominantly North American transformative learning network was the first to be hosted in Europe – in Athens (Alhadeff-Jones & Kokkos, 2011). This change of location created access for many European adult educators to engage in exchanges around the nature and meaning of transformative learning. The conference’s great success created a buzz in a transcontinental conversation. The following conference, hosted in San Francisco (USA), however, only attracted a small number of European participants. This group of people talked together, however, and the question arose as to how the buzz could be brought back to life. Questions also arose on how research and dialogue around transformative learning could be brought to Europe, and how an exchange between European scholars could be supported. This was the starting point for the ongoing movement around transformative learning and concepts of transformation. Before the conference in San Francisco ended, the idea of starting something institutionalized in Europe was born. We soon decided that ESREA was an appropriate vehicle for our ideas and made an application to form a network. We had a launch meeting of the new network at the Freiburg conference on “Transformative learning meets Bildung” in 2013. This conference brought together scholars from all over Europe, North America and Africa in order to establish a discourse between continental theories of Bildung and transformative learning theory (Laros, Fuhr & Taylor, 2017). This conference created further buzz around transformative learning in Europe, in theory and practice. In the same summer, a transatlantic symposium around “Re-framing Transformative Learning: A North American/ European Dialogue” was held at the triennial conference of ESREA in Berlin, which resulted in a special issue of the Journal of Transformative Education (Formenti & Dirkx, 2014). Furthermore, our network on “Interrogating Transformative Processes in Learning and Education” was firmly established within the ESREA family. Previous conferences organized by the network include: Athens (2014): “What’s the point of transformative learning”; Athens (2016): “The role, nature and difficulties of dialogue in transformative learning”; Milano (2018): “Contemporary dilemmas and learning for transformation”. In 2019, the network was renamed “Transformative Processes in Learning and Education”. The network is animated by four conveners: Michel Alhadeff-Jones (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA & Institut Sunkhronos, Switzerland); Alexis Kokkos (Hellenic Open University, Greece); Anna Laros (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland); and Linden West (Canterbury Christ Church University, United Kingdom).
About ESREA
The European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (www.esrea.org) promotes and disseminates theoretical and empirical research on the education of adults and adult learning in Europe through research networks, conferences and publications. It was established in 1991 as a scientific society which provides a Europewide forum for all researchers engaged in adult education and learning. It has individual and institutional members from all over Europe, and beyond. It comprises 12 Research Networks that hold regular seminars for the exchange and scientifically open debate on research; it also organizes a Triennial Conference of all networks, and promotes a Scientific Journal (RELA – Journal of Research on the Education and Learning of Adults), and a book series with Sense.