The pedagogy of discomfort: Transformational experiential learning

(First published October 2021)

Abstract

Education is intended to be a transformative experience for the student. In the practice of transformative pedagogy, instructors provide students with the time and space to explore their own sets of beliefs, values and standards and how they incorporate those beliefs into their work, subconsciously and consciously. At times, transformative pedagogy can be uncomfortable. However, the value of discomfort in the pedagogical process of a design course is the ability to acknowledge a knowledge gap between one’s social experiences and the experiences of other social identities. This paper focuses on the value of transformative pedagogy in working through discomfort when learning about limit situations, developing a foundation for transformative pedagogy in a course setting, the importance of critical thinking in transformative pedagogy and how transformative pedagogy is presented with a focus on ethics, disability and responsible design. By embedding ethics, critical consciousness and strategic thinking, the process translates into a transformative practice of design and innovation. Students learn new emerging ways of affecting change with a multiplicity of ideas when educators engage in transformative pedagogy. It is also to ascertain what kind of learning enables people to create solutions for communities involved in a continuously ongoing process of defining sustainable development.