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Transformative Learning

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As humans, we use stories to recognize our experiences, craft our sense of self and realize our place in the world (Kroth & Cranton, 2014, p. 35). When we share our personal narratives with others we are doing more than simply recounting an event, we are creating and expressing our identities. According to Kroth and Cranton (2014), narratives are “small steps to transformative learning” (p. 29), because when we hear narratives we are drawn into unfamiliar experiences and realize different perspectives that present challenges to our own. Stories expose discrepancies between what is already known and what is newly discovered, creating a dilemma and prompting the process of transformative learning. Transformative learning can also occur when we share our personal narratives as it leaves our stories open to the re-interpretation of other’s, who through different perspective lenses can see our stories and provide alternative explanations and this can cause us to reflect and assess our stories, and our sense of self. (Kroth & Cranton, …show more content…

35). Fiction has the power to give the reader a window into the worldviews by which it’s characters live. One of my favorite novels, The Brothers Karamazov, illustrates the futility of a world without God and it has stamped moral truths deeply into my soul. A lesson on its chapter “the Grand Inquisitor” and the famous quote “If there is no God, everything is permissible” (Dostoevsky, 2008, p. 248) along with a study of the contrasting worldviews and characters of the three brothers, Ivan, Dimitri and Alyosha, would encourage the student to reflect on morality through three alternative

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