What a huge relief we felt, for after several months of trying to figure out our best possible scenario for leveraging what we do best, we attracted a university who also is post traditional, and who understands the meaning of a holistic approach to learning- and where we are seen as a reciprocal collaborative partner. Both organizations agree there is much to learn from each other as we traverse the changes needed for 21st century online learning space.

The former GIFTLearning program has now morphed into the Transformative Learning Community Concentration under the Social Science component within the Antioch IMA program. Through the affiliation agreement we were able to bring our faculty along with a transfer process for our learners. There is a plan for our graduates to apply for the Ed.D program and possibly receive credit for their Masters degree toward their terminal degree.

Laurel Tien, previously Academic Dean for GIFTLearning, is now the Concentration Director for Transformative Learning Community under the Antioch Social Sciences IMA (Individualized Master’s Program). It has been her role to hold space for the transition for the learners as they transferred over to Antioch University. With the IMA Chair and Faculty, she co-designed the Bridge Course for the 23 Learners, oriented both TLF and AU to the synchrony of the two programs, and negotiated a smooth path for the collaboration. She is in the process of completing her PhD at CIIS in Transformative Studies, where she is researching Transformative Education for an Emerging Future: Containers for Generative Collective Wisdom. In Western contexts, education as a consumer commodity (termed third-person learning) tends to be the norm, focusing on objective pieces of external, static information needing to be absorbed by the learner. All TLC programs acknowledge three perspectives of relationship: objectivity (third person observations removed from self), subjectivity (first-person meditation and contemplation), intersubjectivity (for example, second-person dialogue). Starting with third person (where most of us are coming from) we move into first-person (self-authored) and second-person (generative collective wisdom). In this way, all TLC offerings integrate first-, second-, and third-person knowing, drawing from an inquiry-based process of wonder, explore, design, apply, within the collective.

Laurel is also the Director for non-degree programs under the Transformative Learning Foundation (TLF), supporting ongoing Professional Development and Executive Leadership offerings in the practice of TLCs, offered by our community members (Faculty, Learners, Alumni, Board and Advisory Committee). We are especially excited to be able to share offerings from our Faculty and Learners who have created their own schools. During this process our organization has continued to embody our aspiration to be a leading facilitator in wisdom for learning – awakening potential for the evolution of consciousness. This is the true essence of a vision statement-one that is bigger than life and yet one so compelling that every action we take is fulfilling the destiny of our guiding purpose. Observing our own movement into the uncertainty, we were very sensitive to HOW we were approaching the new weather patterns and WHO we were becoming central to WHAT we would be needing to put in place.

We continuously feel compelled to respond to the current scenarios impacting the domain of education. We believe that learning can be transformative. Many learning environments do not embody that quality, especially when there is an overriding emphasis placed on testing or the pressure to prove that one is good enough to move forward based on a set of artificial standards, moving along on an industrial conveyor belt, known as the traditional model of education. And this framework is so instilled as” IT’S JUST THE WAY IT IS,”especially when challenging the status quo, and even more so when some existing system(s) of the accreditation process is not yet in the realm of post-traditional learning.

Through our years of research and practice we have held true to being the change we want to see, perhaps even being seen as a disrupter. No matter what, our faculty and leaders have aligned with a different view, not only post traditional, but more resonant with an ecological model, emanating from nature herself. Nature is our best teacher, and the more we sensed this the more present we allowed our next steps to ground us. Patiently, we let go of one form, and began exploring options along the way. We trusted something would emerge for our next stage. And now we are witnessing the benefit of trusting this natural process.