Abstract:
Transformative learning is a major theory of adult
education that can help us consider ways in which the study of
intercultural communication is particularly suited to stimulating
personal change. Intercultural communication studies offer
continuous opportunities for students to learn new ways of
making meaning, both subjective and objective, and transforming
what Mezirow (1991) terms their meaning perspectives. The
holistic pedagogical approach to intercultural education
described here emphasizes reflection and self-reflexivity and
bodymindfulness in order to promote integrative development of
students as whole people, not just to focus on their intellectural
growth. It is intended to help them to cultivate both their rational
and extrarational capabilities and to exercise appropriate self-
care during the process of writing their theses. If they can learn to
welcome confusion as a transitory state between prior convictions
and new meaning perspectives, they are more likely to experience
transformative learning and new ways of being. As the reflective
passages written by students in final papers suggest, they have
responded to this holistic educational opportunity with enhanced
self-awareness, new skills, and the recognition that they need to
make the intention to continue learning throughout their lives.