Mentoring for Transformative Learning The Importance of Relationship in Creating Learning Communities of Care

So often when we speak of transformative learning, we focus on what takes places within the individual. As educators, we try to understand how it occurs and what we can do to help it occur, taking more of a stance of doing rather than one of being. In creating the conditions for transformation, we cannot forget the importance of our relationship with students. This article considers transformative learning as a relational process and explores the nature of the student-teacher relationship as a place within which transformation is made possible. Understanding it as such calls us to participate with students in creating communities of care in our learning environments, which hold relationships in a way in which we can both challenge and support one another in negotiating meaning, expanding horizons, and taking shared responsibility for co-creating a better world.