Weakness, Belonging, and the Intercordia Experience: The Logic and Limits of Dissonance as a Transformative Learning Tool

Abstract

Educational theorist Richard Kiely highlights the central importance of "high intensity dissonance" in successful international service-learning. This essay applies Kiely's model of dissonance and transformative learning to Intercordia, an international service-learning program offered at the University of St. Michael's College and the University of Toronto, in partnership with the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Intercordia Canada. By placing its students in situations of significant vulnerability and weakness, the Intercordia program attempts to problematize familiar assumptions about the otherness of oppressed persons and thereby to encourage an authentic sense of belonging across boundaries of difference. The results, as reported by participants in the program, are quite profound. At the same time, the program design invites critical questions about how, and to what extent, such transformative experiences of dissonance should be scripted for students as an expected and desired result of their international service.

The Role of Rationality in Transformative Education

“…One idea that is challenging dominant conceptions of reflection is that of embodied learning (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986; Jordi, 2011; Lawrence, 2012; Locklin, 2010; Merriam & Grace, 2011; Taylor & Cranton, 2012). For example, Jordi (2011) challenges the notion that reflection is solely cerebral, emphasizing the importance of embodiment.…”

“…Indeed, many participants in service learning report emotions preceding transformational experiences. For example, a student who forms meaningful relationships with children abroad describes a preference for a “development of the heart” model which emphasizes relationships over other economic development when conducting service (Locklin, 2010, p. 9). Reflecting upon her relationships with children in another country transforms her view on how people can help one another across cultures and borders.…”

Educating for Global Citizenship: A Theoretical Account and Quantitative Analysis

“…The chameleon complex suggests that students develop markedly different, transformative global understanding after the GSL experience and that, upon return to their families and communities, these students are challenged to negotiate these strong value and identity shifts. Their newfound positions and assumptions about the world often contrast markedly with the values and identities that everyone in their established communities expects of them (Kiely, 2002), a finding buttressed by Tonkin and Quiroga (2004) and, more recently, Locklin (2010).…”

Exploring the Unknown

“…Environment–person interaction theory provides a foundation for transformative learning (Mezirow, 1990, 1997) in which the disequilibrium or disorienting dilemmas that occur during an individual’s life sometimes serve as an important trigger for significant growth (Brock, 2010; Hussey, 2009; Locklin, 2010; Mezirow, 2009). Paige, Cohen, Kappler, Chi, and Lassegard (2006) identified 10 factors that made an intercultural experience more or less intense for participants.…”