Self-transformation through life events

Reflection, as a process of learning, encompasses four interconnected stages. It commonly commences with an event that exposes a disparity between the assumptions and perspectives that previously provided satisfactory explanations of the world and the actual occurrences in real life. This occurrence is referred to by Mezirow (1990, 2000) and other transformative learning theorists as a disorienting dilemma. Disorienting dilemmas often elicit a sense of distress or upheaval, such as the dissolution of marriage after adhering to societal norms of successful relationships or losing a job despite diligently following the appropriate codes of conduct. Typically, the initial response to such a dilemma involves self-blame for presumed failures or mistakes, rather than recognizing the broader structural factors linked to the situation. Because of this event, the adult becomes aware of assumptions accepted unquestioningly up to that stage in life and realizes that these assumptions need to be scrutinized for accuracy and validity.

But before they can be assessed or challenged, assumptions must be identified clearly. This represents the initial distinct undertaking of reflection. Assumptions are the understandings we hold about how the world works, or ought to work, that are embedded in language and represented in action. Separating an assumption from the language it is expressed is, at one level, impossible. As Habermas (1987) suggests in his lifeworld analysis, we often only sense when the assumption lurks at the fringe of consciousness because a crisis sets it in sharper relief than usual. When a new response is called for a situation, we have not experienced, we often become aware of the assumptions that have framed our conduct up to that point and their limitations.
Next page: Reflections
Previous page: Changing the Frame of Reference