Research as transformative learning for meaning-centred professional development

How can higher education prepare prospective leaders of emerging nations to develop counter narratives that resist the non-too-subtle cultural and economic imperatives of globalization in which higher education is deeply implicated? This chapter considers how research professors can counter the hegemony of the encroaching Western modern worldview by harnessing new research paradigms to engage their postgraduate students – mature-aged professional educators – in meaning-centered professional development aimed at personal and cultural emancipation. Metaphorically speaking, I call this research as transformative learning,and it has characteristics that resonate with theories of experiential learning, dialogical learning and inquiry learning presented in other chapters in this book.