Shifting the Ground of the Familiar: Using Autobiography and Intercultural Learning in a Time of Transition

Authors

  • Carolyn Jongeward York University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v13i1.1987

Abstract

While conducting adult education research in India, the author confronted the challenges of being in transition within an unfamiliar physical and cultural environment. This autobiographical account examines learning from the perspectives of emotional response to entering a new context, struggle with a lack of fit between self and environment, value of finding supportive relationships, and emergence of familiarity and new knowledge. An analysis of conditions and capacities integral to the process of being in this transition includes discussion of the concepts of complexity, self-organization, and the edge of chaos. The analysis explores the meaning of familiar and unfamiliar ground, and examines an experiential learning process that transforms boundaries into thresholds of possibility. Factors that emerge include the nature of risk taking, reflection, and relationship that enables creative resilience—a capacity to recover from disturbance through making the strange familiar. Attitudes and perspectives learned while being in transition can link personal and community values to those associated with ecological sustainability— for example, the significance of limits and transpersonal ethics. The conclusion is that the psychological and cultural dimensions of adult learning for sustainability can strengthen adult education theory and practice. In turn, adult education can play an important role in the global transition to sustainability.

Résumé

À l'occasion d'une recherche en Inde, l'auteure se trouva en transition dans un environnement physique et culturel inconnu. Cet article autobiographique explore la notion d'apprentissage en lien avec les émotions ressenties dans un contexte nouveau, la difficulté d'arrimer identité et environnement, l'importance des relations d'entraide, et l'émergence de l'ordinaire et de nouveaux savoirs. L'analyse des conditions et capacités liées à la transition fait ressortir les notions de complexité, d'auto-organisation, et de naissance du chaos. On explore en outre les notions de connu et d'inconnu, le processus d'apprentissage expérienciel pouvant transformer les frontières en possibilités. Parmi les facteurs identifiés, notons la nature du risque, la réflexion, et la relation qui conduit à l'endurance créative—soit la capacité de se remettre d'un bouleversement enfaisant de l'inconnu un intime. Les attitudes et les perspectives acquises en transition relient valeurs personnelles et communautaires à celles associées à la pérennité écologique, par exemple le sens de la limite et de l'éthique transpersonnelle. En conclusion, les dimensions psychologique et culturelle de l'apprentissage adulte pour la pérennité viennent renforcer la théorie et la pratique andragogiques. Inversement, l'éducation des adultes peut jouer un rôle important dans la transition globale vers la pérennité.

Downloads

Published

1999-05-01

How to Cite

Jongeward, C. (1999). Shifting the Ground of the Familiar: Using Autobiography and Intercultural Learning in a Time of Transition. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 13(1), 21–40. https://doi.org/10.56105/cjsae.v13i1.1987

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (1999)

Section

Articles

License

Authors of manuscripts accepted for publication will be required to assign copyright to the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education/L’Association canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation des adultes (CJSAE). CJSAE requests that, as the creator(s)/author(s) of the manuscript your are submitting assign certain rights to the manuscript to the CJSAE in exchange for undertaking to publish the article in print and electronic form and, in general, to pursue its dissemination throughout the world. The rights the CJSAE requests are:

  1. The right to publish the article in print and electronic form or in any other form it may choose that is in keeping with its role as a scholarly journal with the goal of disseminating the work as widely as possible;
  2. The right to be the sole publisher of the article for a period of 12 months;
  3. The right to make the article available to the public within a period of not more than 24 months, as determined by relevant journal staff of the CJSAE;
  4. The right to grant republication rights to itself or others in print, electronic, or any other form, with any revenues accrued to be shared equally between the author(s) and the journal;
  5. The right to administer permission to use portions of the article as requested by others, seeking recompense when the CJSAE sees it as warrented;
  6. The right to seek or take advantage of opportunities to have the article included in a database aimed at increasing awareness of it;
  7. As the author(s), the CJSAE wishes you to retain the right to republish the article, with acknowledgement of the CJSAE as the original publisher, in whole or in part, in any other pbulication of your own, including any anthology that you might edit with up to three others;
  8. As the author(s), the CJSAE withes you to retain the right to place the article on your personal Web page or that of your university or institution. The CJSAE askes that you include this notice: A fully edited, peer-reviewed version of this article was first published by the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, <Year>, <Volume>, <Issue>, <Page Numbers>.

BY AGREEING TO THE FOREGOING, YOU CONFIRM THAT THE MANUSCRIPT YOU ARE SUBMITTING HAS NOT BEEN PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE IN WHOLE OR IN PART, AND THAT NO AGREEMENT TO PUBLISH IS OUTSTANDING.

SHOULD THE ARTICLE CONTAIN MATERIAL WHICH REQUIRES WRITTEN PERMISSION FOR INCLUSION, YOU AGREE THAT IT IS YOUR OBLIGATION IN LAW TO IDENTIFY SUCH MATERIAL TO THE EDITOR OF THE CJSAE AND TO OBTAIN SUCH PERMISSION. THE CJSAE WILL NOT PAY ANY PERMISSION FEES. SHOULD THE CJSAE BE OF THE OPINION THAT SUCH PERMISSION IS NECESSARY, IT WILL REQUIRE YOU TO PURSUE SHUCH PERMISSSION PRIOR TO PUBLICATION.

AS AUTHOR(S), YOU WARRANT THAT THE ARTICLE BEING SUBMITTED IS ORIGINAL TO YOU.

Provided the foregoing terms are satisfactory, and that you are in agreement with them, please indicate your acceptance by checking the appropriate box and proceed with your submission.

This copyright agreement was extracted with permission from the "Best practices guide to scholarly journal publishing" (2007), produced by the Canadian Association of Learned Journals (CALJ).