School as a site of transformative adult learning: parents’ experiences of Polish democratic schools

ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore transformative learning processes of parents involved in informal, parent-established democratic schools, which are novel educational initiatives in Poland. The author argues that the distinctive educational ideology and the practice of such schools expose parents to new understandings of education, the child and the parent, which prompts their transformative learning. Drawing on the conceptual framework of transformative learning and practice-based learning theories, the author analyses interviews with parents to identify the trajectory of parental learning, the scope of their transformation and the factors that enhance or hinder it. Primarily concerning the respondents’ personal identities and part-identities as parents, the transformation entails changes in their value systems, definitions of a good life, perceptions of the child and parenting practices. While its potential to instigate broader social change currently appears limited, parental transformative learning exemplifies significant emancipatory biographical praxis.