A question that underlies the book is not whether but HOW we influence our students - a question about a relationship. "Where are our students going and who are we for them in their journey? Reading through chapter one and two, Daloz has quite a few descriptors in reference to this role.
They include: growth, enrichment, developing identity, source, emotional engagement, passion, mutual respect, reciprocity, transformative learning.
How do you see a connection to life stage/developmental theories?
Lynne,
ReplyDeleteI am also reading Mentor and in chapter 3, Dr. Daloz goes deeper into the developmental theories. The one I like is Livinson's developmental theory. You talk about life stages and developmental theories, he takes you right through all the stages.
As we grow, entering in and out of different stages, our maturity grows, and we establish our identity. All throughout our lives we are learning in different ways. Transformative learning is just that, it's intended to transform the student in some way. Be it through a learn task, or knowledge. This learning doesn't stop.
Jacob,
ReplyDeleteI was very entrenched in chapter 3 - his real life stories of the interactions with the various individuals, and his parallels with the various human development theories had quite a bit of depth. In my undergrad studies, practice in social work and in this program you learn these theories, but for some reason, this chpater really resonated with me in context of each of the student's life positions and experiences. I guess what really struck a cord was how it really is a delicate balance between what we do and say and what we don't - those invisible boundaries.