ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the experience of students that were enrolled in the MA program in Holistic and Integrative Education at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), an approach that has worked with 11 cohorts over a period of more than 15 years, recognized by its students and the professional community as an exemplar program in transformative education (e.g., identifi ed as one of three exemplar transformative programs in higher education in Duerr, Zajonc & Dana, 2003). Students take six courses over a two-year period as a cohort, which typically consists of a diverse group of 15 to 25 students of varying professional backgrounds, ages and experience. This chapter discusses the distinctive features of our geographical, political, and professional context, and then our pedagogy, including a discussion of our framework and the transformative components of the program, especially our focuses on the students’ vision of education, nourishing their inner lives, and building a supportive learning community. The discussion of pedagogy will be clarifi ed with quotes from students from three sources: fi nal documentation papers by the students in the tenth cohort, comments from the eleventh cohort’s summative evaluation, and a group documentation of the transformative components of the eighth cohort’s experience. The following topics are integrated into the discussion: (1) our focus on the students’ process of transformation and nourishing their inner life, (2) stages that students went through in completing the program, (3) obstacles in the process, and (4) eff ects of the process on their teaching.
