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Abstract

John Heron’s whole person theory can expand transformative learning theory by elaborating a more nuanced understanding of affect. In contrast to the vague conceptualization of affect’s role and the interchangeable treatment of emotion and feeling in most adult learning scholarship, Heron’s holistic theory grounds all experience in affective knowing and asserts significant differences between feeling and emotion. These distinctions challenge transformative learning theory by revealing critical subjectivity, emerging from affective, embodied experience, as prerequisite to critical reflection and presenting unitive discourse, over rational discourse, as a more viable, generative path to transformations of being. Throughout, I consider how the urgent need to develop deeper understanding around participatory feeling, in particular, relates to complex global issues like the ongoing struggle against racism and for environmental and human rights.

Keywords

holistic learning experiential knowing affect critical subjectivity unitive discourse transformation of being cooperative inquiry collaborative inquiry participative perception extended epistemology

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Participatory Feeling: Re-Visioning Transformative Learning Theory Through Heron’s Whole Person Perspective

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