Abstract
This paper describes a project Learning Language, Learning the Land, created to enhance park accessibility and social belonging for immigrant newcomers by combining language learning and environmental literacy in a city park and provincial park setting. This paper reports on the dialectics of transformative learning for parks staff as they discovered the inappropriateness of didactic methods and how effective adult learning emerges from rapport, educational responsiveness and ethnocultural knowledge. Second, through informal learning, staff became allies in these traditionally white, middle class spaces, helping build a sense of place and social belonging.
Keywords
transformative learning, newcomers and environmental education, informal learning
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Lange, E.,
Vogels, P.,
&
Jamal, Z.
(2011).
A Transformative Dance through “Language Mountains” and “Blind Spots”: Park Educators Learn Responsiveness to Immigrant Newcomers.
Adult Education Research Conference.
https://newprairiepress.org/aerc/2011/papers/58
A Transformative Dance through “Language Mountains” and “Blind Spots”: Park Educators Learn Responsiveness to Immigrant Newcomers
This paper describes a project Learning Language, Learning the Land, created to enhance park accessibility and social belonging for immigrant newcomers by combining language learning and environmental literacy in a city park and provincial park setting. This paper reports on the dialectics of transformative learning for parks staff as they discovered the inappropriateness of didactic methods and how effective adult learning emerges from rapport, educational responsiveness and ethnocultural knowledge. Second, through informal learning, staff became allies in these traditionally white, middle class spaces, helping build a sense of place and social belonging.
