The Semantics of Transformation: Conceptual Work for Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research based on Paulo Freire’s Approach to Literacy

Transformative co-educational processes through multi-stakeholder collaboration require methods by means of which differences between participating actors can contribute to building common grounds. Transformative Learning Tours is a method that promotes movement in time and space, creating common grounds through the constant dialogue between collective reflection and practice, or praxis. This method of exchange of experiences is based on a peasant-to-peasant approach and the concept of movement as a means to strengthen human (and non-human) connections, by balancing the senses in the learning process. Inspired by the agroecological caravans in Brazil,  the tours integrate art, music, and envisioning as important elements of action research. During this process, peasants and other community members become knowledge experts, opening spaces for more horizontal dialogues. Participants critically read the past and collectively dream about a future. This article describes the Transformative Learning Tours method and how it in corporates Freirean principles. We reflect upon the scope and limitations of this method in the specific context of the Forest Stewards Network in Xalapa, Mexico. We share the method’s different stages, principles and conditions, as well as the type of facilitation and context that have enhanced this process, while positioning movement as an epistemic approach.

This contribution gives insights into methodological procedures and epistemological results from a transdisciplinary research process with the peasants’ organisation OCEZ-CNPA Chiapas in South Mexico. Its methodology was based on Paulo Freire’s Popular Education (PE) and its related methodologies, Systematisation of Experiences (SoE) and Participatory Action Research (PAR). The central endeavour of the research was the collective reflection on peasants’ agroecological learning experiences and, through a feedback loop, on the same praxis. The reflective practice consisted of action, research and training and thus, generated actionable, epistemological and methodological knowledge. these three interconnected dimensions of knowledge nourished the pedagogical and political praxis of the peasants’ organisation, as well as the practice and theory of transdisciplinary and participatory research in the context of agroecology.

Thee article presents Generative Picturing as a methodological framework for transformative research. Generative Picturing integrates different elements of qualitative methodology with the visual medium of photography in a recursive and participatory process. Exemplifying the application of Generative Picturing in the context of the author’s research with a class of fourth grade lower secondary school students in Vienna, the article offers a practical frame and identifies lessons to be learned.