Transformational Learning in Community Colleges: Charting a Course for Academic and Personal Success

Abstract

Access-oriented colleges across the United States are in the throes of significant institutional change. Spurred by the widely read Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success (Bailey et al., 2015), these changes include guided pathways initiatives and the reenvisioning of developmental math and English, which seek to drastically increase generally lamentable retention and completion rates by implement-ing institution-wide changes to curricula and learner experience. In the same vein, Transformational Learning (TL) promises to position community college practitioners to address the needs of students experiencing difficulties associated with TL. Using Mezirow’s (1991) concept of TL as a theoretical framework, the authors seek to give higher education professionals tools to address the social and emotional needs of historically underserved students via holistic supports.