









































Ndemanu, M. T., & Coronel-Molina, S. M.  
Global Journal of Transformative Education (2022) Vol 3   
DOI  10.14434/gjte.v3i1.34349

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Ndemanu & Coronel-Molina. 2022. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons 
Attribution NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), 
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction without revision in any non-commercial medium, provided you 
give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

Transformative Education: From Theory to Practice 

Michael T. Ndemanu1 and Serafín Coronel-Molina2 

     Editors-in-Chief, Global Journal of Transformative Education

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

According to the Transformative Learning Theory 
developed by Jack Mezirow (1991), connecting theory 
with practice is vital because transformative learning 
occurs during the connection process. A theory can be 
defined as a set of assumptions or hypotheses about 
a reality. In other words, it is a mental map represent-
ing the world (Granick, 2005; Knapper, 2000). Mean-
while practice can be defined as something that one 
does. Theory can inform practice because it provides a 
rationale for a decision or action to be taken. It is often 
modified based on the outcome of practice. Theory, 
therefore, should inform practice and vice versa. It is 
within this theory to practice framework that articles 
for this issue were framed.

For this volume, out of several manuscripts submit-
ted, three were found to meet the standards and rigors 
of transformative education ideals as enunciated on our 
website, www.gite.education and were closely aligned 
with the current theme. The articles focus on diverse 
topics ranging from creative storytelling as a transfor-
mative education strategy, transformative syllabus de-
velopment approaches to translanguaging in the K-12 
classroom.  The contributions are relevant to scholars, 
educators, practitioners, educational policymakers, 
graduate students, and grassroots organizations inter-
ested in transformative education across the globe. The 
first article, titled The Little Red Hen and a Corona Giant: 
Creative Story-telling as a transformative Strategy in an 
Early Childhood Classroom, is authored by Zhulamanova 
& Raisor. These authors find storytelling to be instru-
mental not just in communication, but also as a way for 
kindergarteners to display a great depth of comprehen-
sion. The study details the use of a creative storytelling 
strategy implemented in an early childhood classroom 
which was interrupted by the COVID-19

pandemic. The end result is a two-phase study which 
concluded with pre-kindergarten aged children using 
storytelling to discuss and display their perceptions of 
Coronavirus in an academic setting. In the article on 
translanguaging, Gentry, the author, shares the findings 
of a research on translanguaging, translating, and inter-
preting in K-12 classrooms. 

The second article is Literary Review of Translan-
guaging, Translating, and Interpreting in Education, by 
Gentry. The author defines translanguaging as the act 
of using the two languages strategically to maximize 
communication during the learning process. It is used 
as an interactive tool among those who are not yet 
proficient in the dominant language. Translanguaging 
is fast becoming a universal practice in K-12 school 
districts with high immigrant population in spite of the 
perennially lingering English-only policies. The need 
for translated documents and the importance of hiring 
interpreters to sustain translanguaging practice is em-
phasized in this article. 

In the third article, Transformative syllabus design: 
Maximizing learning outcomes in higher education, 
Ndemanu discusses the contours of developing a 21st 
century course syllabus that empowers students in 
the learning process to become critical thinkers, prob-
lem-solvers, innovators, and collaborators. The author 
draws from transformative learning theory to provide 
detailed information on the characteristics of a sylla-
bus, its universal components, interpreting course code, 
uses of a syllabus, accessibility, and backward design. 
He also draws from Bloom’s taxonomy to offer a prag-
matic guide to syllabus creation with concrete examples 
on how instructors can employ a backward design ap-
proach for syllabus development to effectively create a 
syllabus of a course they have never taught before. The 
author concludes by reiterating that the overarching 
emphasis of teaching with a syllabus is to promote



Ndemanu & Coronel-Molina - Vol 3 Intro: Theory to Practice Page 2 

higher-order thinking and deeper learning in higher ed-
ucation because a syllabus that promotes such practices 
and knowledge transfer maximizes learning outcomes. 

This issue encompasses two book reviews of recent 
high-impact texts on transformative education. The 
first text is: Caralyn Zehnder, Cynthia Alby, Karynne 
Kleine, Julia Metzker. (2021). Learning that Matters: A 
Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Educa-
tion. In this text reviewed by Zhaoyi Zhang, the authors 
argue that in today’s 21st century, the traditional way 
of teaching has mostly given way to transformative 
education in which teachers should not only impart 
knowledge, but also facilitate the acquisition of skills 
by students (David, 2016). Educators in transformative 
education play the role of helping students to under-
stand and acknowledge “the dynamics between their 
inner and outer worlds” (Boyd & Myers, 1988, p.261). 
This book provides guidance to teachers in the higher 
education system to help them design courses that can 
create meaningful learning experiences for students 
and actively engage them in social issues. 

The second book is: Osei-Kofi, N., Boovy, B., & Fur-
man, K. (Eds.). (2022). Transformative approaches to 
social justice education: Equity and access in the college 
classroom. It was reviewed by Michelle A. Medved. The 
book documents the Difference, Power, and Discrimina-
tion program at Oregon State University which has been 
enlightening undergraduate students on social justice 
education for 30 years. Born out of student advocacy 
and the faculty that supports them, the program is an 
established collection of diversity education courses 
and faculty training seminars. The program has sur-
vived budget cuts, critics, and other challenges through-
out its 30 years. Transformative Approaches to Social 
Justice Education describes the methods of the program 
pragmatically and unflinchingly so readers of the book 
can apply them to their classrooms.

Acknowledgments
The Global Journal of Transformative Education 

(GJTE) is a singular publication venue since its main 
objective is to share educational research and re-
search-based practices on transformative education 
from local and global perspectives. Despite the great 
amount of time and effort we have invested in the con-
ceptualization, development, implementation, produc-
tion, and publication of this third volume, we could not 
have done all this by ourselves. The publication of this 
volume is the result of the hard work and dedication of 
many people. First of all, our profound gratitude goes

to the Global Institute for Transformative Education 
(GITE) and its founding members for their sustained 
sponsorship to make this volume happen. We are deep-
ly thankful to Tom J. McConnell, who provided us with 
invaluable assistance in his role as Managing Editor, 
taking care of the daily operations of GJTE. We are also 
grateful to our colleagues who serve on the Editorial 
Board, as well as to institutions, friends, colleagues, and 
social media networks from around the world for their 
help in publicizing the GJTE website and Facebook page 
widely. We would also like to thank all the contributors 
to this second volume for choosing GJTE to publish 
their work. Many thanks to IUScholarWorks for host-
ing GJTE’s website. Without the generous assistance 
and contribution of all these great people and institu-
tions, GJTE would never have become a reality.  We are 
equally grateful to our colleagues worldwide who spent 
significant number of hours reviewing the papers. We 
thank them for their time and diligence in the review 
process. We also owe an immense debt of gratitude to 
Fred Bay for his continuous generous donations to GITE 
for transformative education conferences, which have 
been the springboard of GJTE. 

References
Bell, D. V.J. (2016). Twenty-first Century Education: 

Transformative Education for Sustainability and Re-
sponsible Citizenship. Journal of Teacher Education 
for Sustainability, 18(1), 48-56.

Robert D. Boyd & J. Gordon Myers. (1988). Transfor-
mativeeducation. International Journal of Lifelong 
Education, 7(4), 261-284. 

Granick, J. (2005). A Deeper Look at Theory and Practice. 
International Association of Sufism.

Knapper, C. K. (2000). Lifelong Learning in Higher Edu-
cation (3rd ed.). London: Kagan Page. 

Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative Dimensions of Adult 
Learning. Jossey-Bass.

Authors1 Michael T. Ndemanu (mtndemanu@bsu.edu) is an 
Associate Professor of Education in the Department of 
Educational Studies at Ball State University, Muncie, 
Indiana, USA.
2 Serafín M. Coronel-Molina (scoronel@indiana.edu) is an 
Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and 
Instruction at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 
USA.

Authors

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2022) Vol 3

https://ias.org/departments/sufipsychology/spf-articles/a-deeper-look-at-theory-and-practice/

