Faculty Publications
Making Meaning Of Experience: Navigating The Transformation From Graduate Student To Tenure-Track Professor
Document Type
Article
Keywords
critical reflection, transformative education, transformative learning
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Journal of Transformative Education
Volume
13
Issue
2
First Page
110
Last Page
126
Abstract
This article is about three adult authors who are making meaning of their experiences as early career, tenure-track professors. All former secondary English language arts instructors who are responsible for preparing future secondary English teachers, the authors use Mezirow’s transformative learning theory lens to examine their trajectories from doctoral students to early career professors, focusing on how they navigate the alignment—or lack thereof—between their expectations and their realities, with attention to disorientation and guilt, culminating in critical examination. They have learned to create new spaces for themselves and to redefine their roles according to new knowledge, highlighting the importance of developing a mentoring framework that can help make others’ progress through these phases less difficult. The authors offer suggestions for how to use transformative learning theory to create conditions in which they and their mentees can experience a professional lifetime of satisfaction.
Department
Department of Languages and Literatures
Original Publication Date
1-1-2015
DOI of published version
10.1177/1541344614562216
Recommended Citation
Coke, Pamela K.; Benson, Sheila; and Hayes, Monie, "Making Meaning Of Experience: Navigating The Transformation From Graduate Student To Tenure-Track Professor" (2015). Faculty Publications. 1329.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/facpub/1329