Students from the Transformative Learning Class of 2007–08
Shawanda Stockfelt
"The object I chose is a picture of Anansi the mythical West African spider that is now native to my country Jamaica. Based on the process of assimilation and accommodation I was able to dissect its personal significance in relations to my ancestral identity.... The culmination of my journey was an essay establishing a connection between the West African and the Jamaican concept of Anansi: Deity or hustler? Evolution of cultural identity through adaptation."
Read Shawanda's reflections on her journey. (pdf, 20 pages, 171Kb)
Read Shawanda's essay. (pdf, 13 pages, 63Kb)
Angeliki Papageorgiou
"I decided to choose my cat Sissy because she was my birthday present from my parents when I was 12 years old and therefore I have a really strong connection to her.... I began with having in my mind the love that I have for Sissy and my willingness to make a learning journey around her... The end product an essay: Animals and consciousness."
Read Angeliki's reflections on her journey. (pdf, 9 pages, 29Kb)
Read Angeliki's essay. (pdf, 8 pages, 25Kb)
Georgios Konstantinides
"My learning journey begins with the observation of Bristol's Cathedral and afterwards, adopts a more profound examination of the concept of the Church where, finally, multi-dimension thinking becomes apparent. To be more specific, the main idea of this assignment is to investigate the extent in which theological beliefs and religious practice have conformed to post-modern tendencies: The Christian tradition: fossilised or re-emerging?"
Read Georgios' essay. (pdf, 22 pages, 66Kb)
Jane Canning
"I chose to start the project from the statue found in Plaza Indio Mara in the suburbs of Maracaibo, Venezuela. Making this choice was not difficult, although the statue was not something that "fascinated" me, but it did draw me to it and I felt a strong connection.... Originally, I thought the product, a written assignment, was going to be about material wealth and that is part of it, but what emerged was a piece about the importance of sharing knowledge across countries and culture: Does migration result in economic drain or knowledge growth? A case study of an ex-pat employee in the oil industry."
Read Jane's reflections on her journey. (pdf, 11 pages, 31Kb)
Read Jane's essay. (pdf, 10 pages, 24Kb)
Student A
"The Yoruba ethnic group of Nigeria are located in the south-west of the country. Prior to the era of kings and princes, the Yorubas' way of life was governed by their deities and sky gods such as Obatala (god of creation), Orunmila (god of wisdom) Oduduwa (the author of existence), Sango (god of thunder), Ogun (god of iron) Osun (goddess of fertility) and so on.
Subsequently, Yoruba kings became human reincarnations of these deities and were so called and worshipped. For this project, I shall firstly dwell on the Osun Grove, the place of worship of the Osun goddess before the reflective and analytical account as a social construct or religious deity: Osun-Osogobo - Social construct or religious deity?"
Read Student A's essay. (pdf, 18 pages, 150Kb)
Odile Secka
"My choice was my mother Marian, who died about 2 years ago. The first four steps in this learning methodology led me through an incredible emotional journey as her first born and a significant part of her life... This journey has also led me to ask questions as to who she was and what made her to become such a woman: persistent, hard working, devoted and enduring in the face of suffering, a source of inspiration." The result of this leaning journey is Odile's final paper: Gender imbalance and women's struggle in the Gambia."
Read Odile's reflections on her journey. (pdf, 10 pages, 220Kb)
Read Odile's essay. (pdf, 8 pages, 110Kb)
Laura Allen
"My piece of writing is a thought process; a reflection of theories; a theory in itself; a journey. Having undertaken the Eight Step Personalised Learning project, we were expected to come up with a concept: something which makes explicit both the processes and outcomes of the inquiry/project were undertaking. This piece will attempt to communicate what I have learnt in my journey and, most importantly, how I have learnt: An investigation into how Heron and Reason's (1997) Participatory Inquiry Paradigm helped me understand my experience in Bristol."
Read Laura's essay. (pdf, 6 pages, 90Kb)
Jonathan Davis
This paper plots a journey of self-discovery, taking as its starting point an object of personal significance, Alfred the Morgan Plus 8 sports car. In an eight-step process Jonathan moves from experience to product - in this case an essay - linking the aura of a "golden age of motoring", inspired by the Morgan sports car, with a debate around the ability of society to deal with extreme change when attracted backwards towards thoughts of "better times".
Read Jonathan's essay. (pdf, 19 pages, 1.5Mb)
