Adult Education: The Role of Language in Trans Formative Learning and Spiritual Traditions

8/4/2019 Adult Education: The Role of Language in Trans Formative Learning and Spiritual Traditions

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Contemporary Issues in Adult Education Assignment Dianne Allen 1

The Role of Language in Transformative Learning and Spiritual Traditions

The Role of Language in Transformative Learning and SpiritualTraditions

The Role of Language in Transformative Learning and Spiritual Traditions............................ 1

Overview:............................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction:........................................................................................................................... 2

The Role of Language in Transformative Learning - Mezirow's concept ............................. 3

The Role of Language in a Constructivist View of Knowledge Formation........................... 5

The Role of Language in a Spiritual Tradition ...................................................................... 6

Bringing These Three Strands Together - Implications for Learning and Education............ 7

A Personal Application .......................................................................................................... 8

Tower of Babel Genesis 11:1-9 - What principles this narrative conveys to me............. 8

A Personal Conclusion:........................................................................................................10

Bibliography......................................................................................................................... 11

ENDNOTES......................................................................................................................... 11

Dianne Allen, 2002


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Overview:

This paper explores the concept of 'transformative learning' as understood in contemporary

education and spiritual traditions. It takes the view that the change that is aspired to in adultlearning, adulthood, and the change aspired to in living the spiritual life, as understood in the

Christian tradition involving conversion (salvation, redemption and sanctification), can be

considered to be the same thing. That what appears to separate these views is a matter of

language and the perception (at least in me) that different words are dealing with different

things. Taking a constructivist stance, which has its origins in the discipline of hermeneutics,

the process involved in interpreting sacred texts, allows us to understand the role of language,

dialogue, and dialectic, in developing shared knowledge. With this understanding in place,

an educator's approach to building knowledge in a corporate setting, and assisting all

participants of an organisation to evaluate current corporate outcomes in the light of expressed

corporate values can be considered to be an important, though difficult, task. With an

enhanced understanding of these difficulties, their sources, and some alternative strategies todeal with them, such an educator can recommit themselves to this important task.

Introduction:

One of the issues that the conference on Contemporary Issues in Australian Education raised

for me concerned the role of language, in education, in life, in transformation, in spiritual

traditions. And for the question of in what way is the role language an issue, in these four

areas, there were a number of different strands: What is the role of language in adult learning,

in transformative learning in particular?; To what extent does the choice of language impact

on our capacity to talk about the spiritual in a way that is (1) accessible, (2) does not raise

estranging, excluding barriers, especially in the current societal silencing of a Christian

witness?; What is meant by 'spiritual' to distinguish it from other categories? I find, as I look

at first one, and then, another of these questions, and subordinate questions that develop from

them, that the task of exploring the implications becomes steadily larger, and more than can

be reasonably dealt with in the constraints of a typical, journal-size discussion. At this point I

have a choice - to focus on only a couple of areas, to focus and go more deeply into one, or to

stay at a more 'superficial' (or general) level and continue to address the complex that is the

whole. Of these two routes, the reductive, analytical route appears to me to be the one over

which I have most capacity to demonstrate a clear and contained line of discussion, one of the

criteria of academic writing. This might explain why research, with its systematic inquiry,

for the purpose of developing a reasonable base for understanding of a phenomenon and/orfor the purpose of discerning reasonable actions to take, and with its public presentation of

findings for open scrutiny by peers, more often than not follows a reductive, analytical path.

Before I cut off the inquiry from the variety of strands possible, to focus on one alone, I

would like to try and indicate what sorts of arguments, and reasons, I am attending to, that

might suggest a capacity for synthesis, compared to reductive analysis. In thinking about the

role of language in life, in education, in transformation and in spiritual traditions, there are at

least three different sources of such concepts: my reading, my experience, and the current

construction I have developed from those sources.

From the documented, textual sources, I am focusing on three main items. The elements of asynthesis, comes from: firstly, Jack Mezirow's conception of transformative learning;


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secondly, the role of language and dialogue in a constructivist view of human inquiry into

aspects of humanness; and thirdly, the nature and content of the 'sacred text' of at least one

spiritual tradition - the Bible in Christian life and witness.

The Role of Language in Transformative Learning - Mezirow's concept

One of Jack Mezirow's meaning perspectives, which represents a locus for change, and

change which might be transformative, is the sociolinguistic perspective (Mezirow 1991).

What does he mean by 'sociolinguistic perspective'?

In his endeavour to explore and explicate what is going on in adult learning, and particularly

in that learning which proves to have a transformative dimension, Mezirow enunciates a

number of interactive components. He then goes on to provide a useful clarification of the

distinction between formative learning and transformative learning.

In his theorising (model-building) work on adult education, he seeks to identify four levels ofchange in learning. Firstly, he identifies four different categories of learning: (1) perception,

prereflective learning (p.15); (2) comprehension learning through language (p.19) ; (3)

meaning schemes specific beliefs, attitudes and emotional reactions articulated by an

interpretation (p.35, see also p. 44 a meaning scheme is the particular knowledge, beliefs,

value judgments, and feelings that become articulated in an interpretation'); and (4) meaning

perspectives generalized sets of habitual expectation (p.34).

Within Mezirows category of meaning perspectives, he identifies three different types (1)

epistemic perspectives our assumptions about knowledge and knowing (p.43); (2)

sociolinguistic perspectives assumptions developed by the nature of our language, or native

tongue, and the social and cultural norms inculcated as a part of our socialisation (p.43); and

(3) psychological perspectives assumptions developed from our experience of events in the

world and their impact on our sense of safety or threat to our personal being and persisting

(p.43).

Then, working with Habermas analysis, Mezirow identifies three kinds of intentional

learning: (1) instrumental (p.72); (2) communicative (p.75); (3) emancipatory (p.87).

Mezirow also indicates that reflectivity, the process by which an adult engages in learning by

and from their experience, involves examining assumptions and premises, of either the

instrumental or the communicative domain (p.97).

Mezirow then indicates that adult learning may assume any of the following four forms: (1)

learning through existing meaning schemes; (2) learning new meaning schemes; (3) learning

through the transformation of meaning schemes, and (4) learning through the transformation

of meaning perspectives. (p.98)

For Mezirow, as I understand him, transformative learning, the learning that is distinctively

available to an adult, is learning that changes what has been established. There is learning

that is formative - forming a construct of understanding in an individual. There is learning

that is transformative - allowing for the reconstruction of the understanding of the individual

in some fundamental way. That reconstruction can lead to not only a whole new way ofperceiving life and the world we live in, but also to changes in the responses made to what is


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going on in that world, what is often called lifestyle. For some, this change is both dramatic

and pervasive, providing both a point of closure to 'the old' and a point of departure into the

'new'. For others, there appears to be a less dramatic sense of discontinuity, and the task of

reforming attitudes and responses becomes a life-time's work as well as a new lifestyle

approach.

What is language's role in any such transformation? Firstly, it is with language that we learn

to 'understand' our world. This is what Mezirow calls 'comprehension'. When I was

teaching science, in my early professional life, one of my reflective evaluations of my

responsibility and purpose in that task was that it involved developing the learner's

vocabulary: what is a carbohydrate, a protein, a fat, a vitamin. These components were the

stuff of food, of what was required for good nutrition, for health. As well as the words, there

was knowledge, from chemical analysis techniques, of which components were found in

which foods. There was knowledge, from other studies - historic records, public health

surveys, that deficiencies, particularly of certain vitamins or trace elements, lead to

preventable diseases like scurvy (the bane of the sailor on long sea voyages) and beri-beri.

From this we could move to an understanding of a sound, balanced diet required for mosteffective living.

But such knowledge is not always sufficient to counter the impact of advertising, of fashion,

of perceptions of cultural mores. So now, in western affluent cultures, despite compulsory

science education which involved tested knowledge of the stuff of foods and good nutrition,

we are finding community-wide, public-health issues of difficulties with obesity, lifestyle

diabetes, compulsive eating disorders, to name but three examples.

Indeed, Mezirow indicates that sociolinguistic perspectives (like an understanding of the ideal

body type for a woman, or a perception of the good life based on immediate sensual

gratification, and the role of chocolate as the epitome of such luxury) established by multiple

propaganda machines, operating sometimes on mutually contradictory bases, can be both a

physical risk and a developmental risk where the distortion generated by them is one of the

barriers to a full adulthood. Mezirow defines development in adulthood as 'movement

towards ... a meaning perspective [which] is more inclusive, discriminating, integrative and

permeable (open) than less developed ones' (p.193). He indicates that the path to such a

point in development is via perspective transformation [which] is a social process: others

precipitate the disorienting dilemma, provide us with alternative perspectives, provide support

for change, participate in validating changed perspectives through rational discourse, and

require new relationships to be worked out in the context of a new perspective. (p.194)

One such example of a linguistic device which Mezirow gives, is that of naming individuals,

working for a living, as 'labour', a more generalised, abstract term. This linguistic step can

change perceptions. Labour, because it is now a resource, something that is only for the

development of profit, of capital, like fuel, like other material entities, can apparently be

handled on a different value scale than the usual moral obligations that underpin good social

relationships. The personhood, of the individuals so named, with their human developmental

capacities, is devalued and diminished. It is then only a short step to expendibility, to the

fullest possible utilisation, which is exploitation and the social dis-eases of chronic

underemployment of the individuals limited to a casual engagement in any work contract

and/or overwork with stress and physical, mental or emotional breakdown. And in Australia,

at this time, we have the apparent paradox of both of these dis-eases, in operation and at thesame time.


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The Role of Language in a Constructivist View of Knowledge Formation

Mezirow's position on the transformative dimension of adult learning is clearly placed within

a constructivist view of knowledge formation (p.4 and ff). Within such a view of knowledge

formation, the role of language and dialogue is significant. Guba and Lincoln are recognised

as having undertaken a definitive (and contested - eg Heron (Heron and Reason 1997))enunciation of the constructivist view to knowledge formation in comparison with what they

call the conventional view of 'positivism' (Guba and Lincoln 1985; Guba and Lincoln 1989;

Guba and Lincoln 1994; Lincoln and Guba 2000).

In Fourth Generation Evaluation, they indicate that the constructivist view is based on an

ontology (the study of the nature of being) that asserts 'that there exist multiple, socially

constructed realities ungoverned by natural laws, causal or otherwise'; that 'these

constructions are devised by individuals as they attempt to make sense of their experiences';

that these experiences are interactive in nature; that 'phenomena are defined depending on the

kind and amount of prior knowledge and the level of sophistication that the constructor brings

to the task'; that 'constructions can be an usually are shared, ranging all the way from

constructions about subatomic particles to those about cultural mores' (Guba and Lincoln

1989), (p.86). This ontology leads to an epistemology (the study of how we know what we

know) that asserts that 'it is impossible to separate the inquirer from the inquired into'; it is the

interaction of the inquirer and the inquired into that creates the data that will emerge from the

inquiry. Consequently, the subjectivity of humans cannot be set aside. Nor are the values,

held by the inquirer and the inquired into, dismissed and ignored. They are part of the stuff

of the data of inquiry that must be attended to, to generate an 'informed and sophisticated

construction on which there is consensus among individuals most competent to form such a

construction' - the constructivist's understanding of the problematic nature of 'truth' (p.86, 88).

Similarly, the constructivist ontology and epistemology, give rise to a constructivistmethodology (the study of how we find out about things). Here it is asserted that 'inquiry

must be carried out in a way that will expose the constructions of the variety of concerned

parties, open each to critique in the terms of other constructions, and provide the opportunity

for revised or entirely new constructions to emerge - a hermeneutic methodology' (p.89).

Such a process is dependent on language, including defining terms; on dialogue which

includes the dialectic to clarify meaning until commonly assented understandings are

obtained, and where the revision of constructions, as a possibility amongst all parties to the

investigation, is a pre-requisite to progressing to an authentic consensus. It is at these points

that aspects of Piaget's move from the concrete to the abstract, and Vygotsky's concept of a

zone of proximal development, come into play (srmehall? n.d.). And it is the use oflanguage, and dialogue, in a social context, that are the chief mechanisms of such a change,

such 'learning'. An example of the move from the concrete to the abstract, from 'I work', to

'people working', to 'labour', can also be the stuff of a sociolinguistic distortion. The role of a

teacher, or adult, in working with another to help them move from one understanding to

another level of sophistication in understanding, will often involve the non-conscious

inculcation of associated and assumed values. These unconsciously absorbed values and

their assumptions are then the stuff of a sociolinguistic (and perhaps also an epistemic and

psychologic) meaning perspective which may need to be addressed in any endeavour to

engage in transformative learning.

The application of this constructivist view, in Guba and Lincoln's case, is into the field ofevaluation. Here, people are engaged in reviewing the results of human activity, and


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considering how else they might operate to achieve stated objectives, to enact and embody

values in conjoint activity. It is here, in evaluation, that inquiry into human issues, with their

ethical and political dimensions, becomes more attenuated, especially if the process of inquiry

does not adequately cover all the dimensions of the human activity. In Guba and Lincoln's

recommended process for their nominated 'fourth generation' evaluation, it is this

constructivist methodology which also delivers on the necessity to be responsive to all theparties to any decision to change that might depend on the findings of that inquiry.

The Role of Language in a Spiritual Tradition

As noted above, the constructivist view has its roots in the interpretive disciplines, one of

which is hermeneutics, 'the term to denote the process of evolving successively more

sophisticated interpretations of historical or sacred writings' (Guba and Lincoln 1989), (p.90).

From a spiritual tradition, with its founding assumptions, the study of sacred texts is to

interpret their meaning, to interpret the communications of a deity with humanity, to cross adivide, similar to that between two different language communities. Indeed, the English term

'translation', describing this process of enabling one language speaker to speak and share in

another language community, has this 'movement' across a divide, or barrier, in mind.

(Macquarie Dictionary: translate 1. To turn (something written or spoken) from one language

into another 3. To bear, carry, or remove from one place to another (1997)).

In the Christian tradition, one of the hermeneutic tasks is to deal with a text formulated in an

historic and social context, and to discern the principles by which a believer in this day and

age might endeavour to live, to reflect, contemporaneously, those principles (Stott 1992).

I find it intriguing to note that language, words, the word, speaking, is something of a theme

throughout the Bible. In Genesis (1:3,6,9,11,14,20,22,24,26) we see that 'God said' was the

activity of creation. That while God named night and day, sky, land and sea, man named the

animals, Genesis 1:5,8,10; Genesis 2;19-20. In Genesis 11 comes the story of the Tower of

Babel about language: common language and conjoint endeavour, and the origin of multiple

languages. In forming a covenant relationship with a people, we see, Exodus 20:1, that 'God

spoke all these words' - and what follows are what is called the 10 Commandments. God's

relationships with people, like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets, are in terms of God

taking the initiative and speaking. Sometimes such speech was mediated through a human

form (Genesis 18:1-2, 32:24-30), sometimes dreams (Genesis 28:12-15; 37:5-7,9), sometimes

voices with other manifestations (Exodus 3:2-4:17), sometimes other sorts of visions (1Samuel 3; Isaiah 1, Isaiah 6:1-13; Jeremiah 14-19, Ezekiel 1:1, Daniel 7-12, etc). Personal

relationship with God, from the human initiative, is described in terms of prayer, and words

making explicit those yearnings (1 Samuel 1:10-14 and 2:1-10; Daniel 6:10-11 & 9:4-19).

The words with which a prophet is claiming to speak for God need to be fulfilled before they

are permitted to be binding for the believer (Deuteronomy 18:14-22). Then, in John 1, comes

the 'Word became flesh' (John 1:1-18) where the claim is made that Jesus is God, incarnate.

In the gospel records comes the statement that Jesus' teaching was recognised as the teaching

of one with authority, not like the scribes, the teachers of the law (Matthew 7:29). It is

sufficient for his word to do healing (Luke 7:1-10), to calm the storm (Matthew 8:23-27), to

call the dead to life (John 11:38-44).


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Bringing These Three Strands Together - Implications for Learning andEducation

On one hand, the reverse historical route will link these items together. The hermeneutic

discipline and traditions of knowledge formation and/or interpretation of text, can be seen to

develop into a constructivist view of knowledge and knowledge formation. Mezirow, inworking at his insight of 'transformative learning' for some of the learning experience of

women returning to adult studies, turns to the constructivist view to build his understanding of

what is going on here. Such a constructivist view assists an educator think about what is

trying to be achieved in an educative program, and how they might more effectively

accomplish that. So, understanding the role of language in knowledge formation is an

important step for an educator. Similarly, understanding the role of dialogue and dialectic in

working with mental constructions, and building knowledge in a group, is an important frame

of reference for an adult educator, especially when working in a corporate context, with

corporate culture structures, and issues related to change in such understandings and

structures.

On another hand, the notion of life, and change through life, especially of a lifestyle change

associated with a shift in meaning perspective, which may be leveraged through challenging

assumptions in a sociolinguistic perspective, may be linked, in externalities at least, to either

an educational program and experience, called 'transformative learning', or a spiritual

experience, called 'conversion'. And one could take the view that, since in externalities the

results are the same, the phenomenon, in its essence, is the same. As I understand it, this is

the point at which 'faith' operates. Faith chooses to privilege one explanation over the other,

and faith is exercised in either, and both, choices.

Given that the role of language, and dialogue, and dialectic, are important aspects of aneducator's tool box, I found Nelson's seminar paper 'Spiritual Traditions of Transformation'

(2002) to be an interesting and compelling overview of the elements of spiritual traditions that

relate to transformation. In that paper he noted: the experiential base of the spiritual; the

notions of prophets, and priests, and congregation, with their different roles; the notions of the

way, the journey, and the role of guides; and the notion of transformation, and the dimension

of grace in that. He noted the emphasis, in spiritual traditions, on learning as a significant

part of transformation, and the role of reflection in such a learning process. His input,

together with John McIntyre's presentation of elements of Buddhist spiritual tradition, showed

also how these features cross a number of different spiritual traditions. This highlighted for

me, the question of the common ground of experience and meaning making, and then the

issue of the separation of traditions into distinctive fields by the use of language: differentterms are used, which seem to convey different phenomena. Again, I am tempted to diverge

the exploration to look at: To what extent does the choice of language impact on our capacity

to talk about the spiritual in a way that is (1) accessible, (2) does not raise estranging,

excluding barriers, especially in the current societal silencing of a Christian witness?; What is

meant by 'spiritual' to distinguish it from other categories? Instead, I need choose to focus,

and I do so, on: what does the material to date have, by way of personal application for my

practice as en educator, here and now?


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A Personal Application

I have recently become involved as a non-Executive Director with a small consulting

company that is in the process of transforming its structure from a principal operator into a

collaborative enterprise. This company is marketing itself as providing various services toorganisations grappling with systemic change as a response to organisational, social and

environmental issues. To achieve this, it is seeking to facilitate the development of

participative and collaborative processes in learning, in planning and in forming action

structures within organisations, and is endeavouring to accomplish this by a consciously

constructivist concept of knowledge development. Again, for me the question arises: what

do I understand to be the constructivist concept of knowledge development? And, given that

understanding: how do I see it contributing to this aspect of corporate life?

As noted earlier, the thrust of Guba & Lincoln's application of a constructivist view of

evaluation lies in the argument that where the effectiveness of a corporate process, or

situation, is under review, then all sources of available information need to be tapped. Whenthe review is with a view to taking action, to change, to become more effective, then the range

of values held by the participants needs to be acknowledged. Further, all the available

information and the various values held by the parties to the activity need to be both evaluated

and mobilised in order to craft a preferred route of action that many/most will be willing to

follow through on. Part of the process of getting concerted action at the end of the inquiry

will be determined by what has been accomplished in the process of the construction of

shared knowledge and agreed conclusions that inform the intentional actions that are to

follow. That process of construction of shared knowledge is accomplished in the activity of

joint inquiry and it is premised on the principle of a constructivist view of knowledge

formation.

While this is a cogent argument for me, and one that is relatable to my experience, it also vies

with a construct that I have that is informed by the Bible - the story of the Tower of Babel.

Tower of Babel Genesis 11:1-9 - What principles this narrative conveys to me

11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved

eastward, a{ a Or from the east; or in the east} they found a plain in Shinar b{ b That is,

Babylonia} and settled there.

3 They said to each other, Come, lets make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They used brick

instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, witha tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be

scattered over the face of the whole earth.

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The

LORD said, If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then

nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their

language so they will not understand each other.8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

9 That is why it was called Babel c{ c That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the Hebrew for

confused.}because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the

LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.


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The context:

The story of the Tower of Babel is placed in the biblical chronology after Noah and the flood

(Genesis 6-10), and before the call of Abraham and the setting apart of Abraham and his

family as the covenant people (Genesis 12-17-25) and the forefather of a faith community

(Galatians 3:6). In the terms of biblical theology - how the Bible unfolds the revelation of thecharacter of God and his creation, the nature of man in that creation, and Gods persistence in

seeking to redeem a people who will live in a way that reflects his character (as made in his

image) - it is the last significant event of the cosmology, thebig picture, of creation and

human kind and society, before the focusing on the individuali. It gives an explanation for

multiple languages from a common stock. It is an illustration of a holy and just God

exercising mercy in dealing with that which challenges and destroys what was the good in his

creative work. Earlier, a flood was used to destroy all but Noah and his family and the

animals gathered into the ark, to deal with the escalation of the impact of sin (missing the

mark) and transgression (overstepping the boundaries). Now, confusion of language is used

to limit the capacity for conjoint activity which expresses human pride in the face of a more

reality-based, humble, relationship with God.

The implications:

A premise on which I operate, when using the bible to inform my approach to life, is that the

bible has, in it, the revelation of God, of Himself, and of His nature and ways. Without such

a revelation, such self-disclosure, I cannot hope to know God. As with another person,

without accurate knowledge of God's nature I cannot effectively relate to God. As such a

revelation, it states it provides sufficient information to know how to live a life of purpose,

fullness, and blessing (Deuteronomy 30:11-16). There are other things to be known about

God (Deuteronomy 29:29), but the revealed material is sufficient for living the good life.Some would term this as salvation right knowledge of God, for a right relationship with

God humble obedience.

Apart from the premise of its source being from God, I consider the wisdom of the bible to be

supported by what I consider to be a significant warrant. It is that many people, down

through the ages, give a witness to having tested the truth of its claims in their lives and to

have found it a source of wisdom, of advice, for the living of the good life. Indeed, there are

challenges and invitations to test it in that way (Psalm 34:8; Malachi 3:10; Romans 12:2).

People have found that, in its narratives of personal lives and key points and transitions in

those lives, in its laws and precepts, its poetry and prophecy, there are principles that can be

tapped, by reading, by meditation, by prayerful consideration of its content, and looking fordirections for living

ii.

It deals with the whole life: a person's relationship with God; and with other people, at an

individual, family and community, even national, level (Romans 12:1-13:14). It deals with a

person's relationship with the created order - biosphere and material universe (Romans 8:18-

27); and with the spiritual realm of principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:10-18). As a

written document it is available for continued and continual consultation. When it is attended

to, perhaps even memorised, as encouraged in Deuteronomy 6:6-9, and revisited, its

perceptive frame provides an antidote to loss of its particular kind of focus, its lens on life and

wisdom.


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When the bible is attended to with an eye for principle, and an active capacity to re-interpret

these principles to the kind of practice which is relevant to current social conditions, and used

as the base of a community of practice, it has been a source of renewal. That renewal has

included moving individuals, families, communities, even nations, to living relationships that

are freer of gross oppression than relationships not so examined. An example of this is seen

in England and the de-institutionalising of slavery and the exploitation of child labour(Wilberforce, 1759-1833 Shaftesbury, 1801-1885 respectively).

So, the story of the Tower of Babel has a wisdom lesson for those with ears to hear. To me

it says that one of the consequences of disobedience of God is a difficulty with

communication and conjoint activity. A corollary of that is: that part of the process of

salvation, redemption, and sanctification, is to reverse this trend. People who are looking for

the kingdom of God, and endeavouring to live in the kingdom of God, will be working on

obedient living that includes working on clear and respectful communication to develop

relationships toward and with God, toward and with neighbour, and toward and with

Christian peers (for example: Ephesians 5:1-6:20).

Further, the Tower of Babel explains much of the frustration of effort in a corporate activity,

and, together with the rest of biblical theology about new birth into a new life, holds out the

potential of transformation. The basis of such transformation, to reverse the present

frustration, is in a life lived in willing obedience to God. The relationship with God needs to

be fixed firstiii

.

A Personal Conclusion:

On one level, I am drawn to the teaching of the Tower of Babel and have a pessimistic view

of the potential to use the constructivist concept of knowledge formation to make a great deal

of progress in corporate life. On the other hand, knowing this about the nature of language,

and frustrations that arise because of it, I can also move my understanding from an idealistic

position to a more realistic position. Instead of just experiencing frustration, I can engage, or

not, with the kind of work that needs to be done to build a common understanding. Knowing

what that work involves and what the hazards are in it, will allow me to persevere in the task,

if the goal is significant enough. If the goal is God-honouring, then there is some hope of

attaining it. That is the construct of my faith at this stage. And it also gives me a tool to

evaluate a goal, the purpose to which I direct my effort, from those destined to frustration to

those more life-giving.

Further, in corporate life, in my currently developing role as a possible facilitator of

'participative and collaborative processes: in learning, in planning and in forming action

structures within organisations', and 'endeavouring to accomplish this by a consciously

constructivist concept of knowledge development', this understanding of the foundations and

principles of such an approach, is essential. Again, it will help to keep me on task when the

going gets tough. I can explain to participants why it is a priority, and how it does and

doesn't work. Such an understanding, when shared, has the potential to inform the

constructed understanding of other participants, and to help them consider their choices and

the reasons for their decisions in making a choice about persisting or not.


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Documents

Adult Education: The Role of Language in Trans Formative Learning and Spiritual Traditions