| Description |
The purpose of this research study is to understand the experiences of participants who attended the Inclusion Summit in 2009 and the impact those experiences had on them (the Inclusion Summit is a five-day prejudice-reduction workshop that utilizes a transformative learning model). The research subjects were purposefully selected from the approximately fifty delegates who participated in the adult retreat. The study was of a qualitative nature, one that partially drew on phenomenological research methods. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted, recorded and transcribed and the data was then coded (first level and pattern coding used) and analyzed. As a result of this study, I found: that the subjects understood their experiences in relationship to the people around them, that personal narratives played an important role (as both a teaching mechanism and a tool of self-empowerment), and that the subjects, whether or not they had a good experience, all identified moments of personal transformation. These results provide justification for the program itself and lend themselves to a specific workshop structure, or design-one that is based on group dialogue, personal storytelling, and transformative learning theory. |
