Doctoral Dissertations

James K. Horn

Date of Award

12-1995

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

Karl Jost

Committee Members

Kermit Blank, Amos Hatch, Howard Pollio

Abstract

The present research project was initiated to explore and understand the experiences of teachers who participated in the residential, interdisciplinary learning communities of the Stokely Institutes for Liberal Arts Education. What began for many Stokely Fellows as an intimidating prospect became for some a transformative learning experience that brought participants closer to themselves and their own potential, to others in their diverse groups, and to the larger world. How those initial feelings of anxiety and intimidation were transformed into challenge, accomplishment, and confidence is the subject of this study. Some who came to the Stokely Institute came with a sense of adventure; others came with a sense of uncertainty that often became one of intimidation. No one was unimpressed by the breadth of seminar topics or the volume of readings. Whatever the initial degree of uncertainty, that uncertainty was transformed to personal challenge and commitment through collegiality, collaborative interactions, and supportive conditions. Meeting the rigorous intellectual and emotional challenges required a commitment to a degree of open, collaborative exchange. Openness required a sense of well-being, minimal distractions, and the capacity to interact within an integrative framework. Those who experienced the transformation to openness attained levels of interactions necessary for further transitions to occur. What is clear, too, is that the degree of openness was related to the extent that participants viewed themselves as being treated as valued professionals within a safe. diversion-free environment in which they were provided the latitude to explore personal meanings related to novel concepts and ideas. The intensity of the workload sharpened the challenge and encouraged collaboration among participants. The resulting interactions formed the basis for the learning communities that emerged. The diverse perspectives that were voiced within this community of learners that included both participants and faculty provided potential sources for new insight, understanding, and meaning. To balance the rigorous demands of the readings, seminars often took exploratory turns in directions unforeseen, and loosely-specified response papers provided a path to reflection through which personal meaning coalesced. Confidence grew with acknowledged accomplishment that fed forward into renewed immersion within the collegial atmosphere of integrative diversity. The degree of empathy and love that defined group closeness was enhanced by continuing interactions that were both intellectual and social, thus encouraging more personal, shared reflection. For some, parting became difficult. Enlargement of self was attained through a previously-unrecognized connectedness with others within the world, and the meanings that emerged for participants were garnered by their own interpretative acts that elaborated the intention of being Stokely Fellows. This dissertation, from its theoretical perspective to the development of its methodology, is grounded in constructivist thought that bridges numerous disciplines. It has its roots in the interdisciplinary human studies of Vico and extends to the natural philosophy that emerges from a study of the new sciences of complexity. Although these elements are separated by hundreds of years and thousands of discoveries and innovations, they are linked by a shared concern for understanding the self-organized transformations of living beings in the process of bringing forth worlds. This study, then, does not deviate from that attempt, rather, it focuses those efforts upon the changes within members of a self-organizing community of learners known as the Stokely Institute.

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