Transformative Practice and the Problem of Self-Thematization

Abstract

An understanding of transformative learning is inseparable from close analysis of selfhood and subjectivity in late modern cultural circumstances. While traditional approaches to transformative practice have led to valuable insights, they continue to embody modes of reflexive analysis that may limit rather than expand opportunities for personal change. Recent phenomenological investigations into varieties of self-awareness oppose many of the objectifying tendencies apparent in contemporary interpretations of the self, and cast further light on the meaning of subjective freedom and transformative learning.