Institutionalizing Transformative Learning: The Trees, then the Forest, then the Realization

Abstract

Finding a sense of authentic self as an institution, a true sense of mission, and the means to live that mission were the central focus of a strategic planning process addressed by the University of Central Oklahoma about fifteen years ago. As the institution grew within a metropolitan-serving mission, the goal to transform students from adolescents to adults and find new potential in their lives led to an exciting journey that is still vibrant and relevant today. The theoretical base provided within transformative learning has helped students, staff, and faculty align efforts. This case study provides replicable processes and specifics that may help others find a clearer path for fulfilling their mission. The study describes how the University of Central Oklahoma's (UCO's) transformative learning focus coalesced and became the point of distinction for a UCO education, helping to ensure that all activity supported our mission-helping students learn. The compelling, lived sense of mission developed from the initial strategic planning process has helped to strengthen the learner-centered culture of the campus while providing a structure that facilitates implementation and assessment.

Impact of Authentic Leadership on Transformative Learning of Higher Education Institution (HEI) Employees, Interceded by the Moral Values of Employees.

“…On the other hand, AL has a signi􀅫icant and positive impact on TL (Cunliffe & King, 2018). So, this 􀅫inding is strongly supportive of hypothesis 1.…”

“…Moral value has a positive and signi􀅫icant relationship with TL; it means those persons have high MV that signi􀅫icantly cause TL. Intended for demographic characteristics, gender has a positive association with all variables, meaning males and females are not problematic for AL, MV, and TL, respectively (Cunliffe & King, 2018). Furthermore, age has negatively associated with MV, TL, and gender.…”

Immersion: Not Just for Students Anymore

“…These connections prompted interdisciplinary collaborations among faculty and staff and encouraged participants' future engagement in programmatic development and research opportunities. Cross-campus collaborations support the institutionalization of the university's mission (Cunliff & King, 2018).…”

“…Participants called for a systematic, coordinated approach to community-based global learning to allow the university to meet its strategic goal of providing an immersion experience for all students. Cunliff and King (2018) suggested a need for administrative leadership and support for transformative learning practices, such as immersion experiences, and recommended synchronization among administrative departments, aligning policies and procedures to the offering of such opportunities.…”

Preliminary impact of DegreePlus: An institutional program to provide transferable skill development through extracurricular activities

“…The program was developed as a Quality Enhancement Plan for the 2017 reaffirmation of accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Much of the development of the program was inspired by the Student Transformative Learning Record (STLR) at the University of Central Oklahoma (Cunliff & King, 2018;University of Central Oklahoma, 2018). STLR aims to instill six central tenets in their students, some of which are global and cultural competencies; leadership; and service learning and civic engagement.…”