Title: Transformative Learning and Moral Injury: Developmental Strategies in Higher Education for Healing, Transition, and Growth
1Transformative Learning and Moral Injury
Developmental Strategies in Higher Education for
Healing, Transition, and Growth
References for the key concepts are included in
the notes section.
Barton D. Buechner, PhD Professor, Military
Psychology MA Program
2- Key Points
- (1) Veterans are oriented by culture and training
to value and embody Warrior Strengths - (2) The APA definition of PTSD has changed
public perception and therapies have not - (3) Moral Injury is experienced as a different
phenomenon than PTSD but appears similar - (4) Transformational Learning Theory is a
specific form of adult education that helps make
meaning - (5) This is facilitated by a mentoring community
as a process of personal development or
Posttraumatic Growth
3Communication and Education in Veterans
Transitions
Better than any other kind of experience,
schooling can restore the veteran to the
communicative system of society - (Waller,
1944)
Source Presentation by G. Vaillant, at Fielding
Summer Session, July 2013
4Developmental Mentoring
READJUSTMENT Better than any other kind of
experience, schooling can restore the veteran to
the communicative system of society (Waller,
1944)
HEALTH AND GROWTH From the Harvard Grant
Longitudinal study Education was the single
best predictor of overall future health
(Vaillant, 2012)
Source G. Vaillant (2014)
5A Cultural Disconnect
6Philosophical underpinnings The educational
line of thought is Transformational Learning
the psychological line of thought is Constructive
Developmentalism which attends to the natural
evolution of the forms of our meaning-constructing
. And the Communication line of thought is
Cosmopolitan Communication
- Robert Kegan
7- Androgogy vs. Pedagogy
- (Malcolm Knowles)
- Mentor-led
- Cohort-driven
- Collegial and individual
- Diversity and Social Justice
- PROGRAMS Clinical Psychology, Human and
Organizational Development, Media Psychology,
Educational Leadership
8Invisible wounds of war.
9PTSD, Moral Injury, or Both? Sou
rce David Wood http//projects.huffingtonpost.co
m/moral-injury
BOTH Anger Depression Anxiety Insomnia
Nightmares Self-medication with alcohol or
drugs
PTSD Startle reflex Memory loss Fear
Flashbacks
Moral Injury Sorrow Grief Regret Shame
Alienation
10WHAT is the phenomenon?
- The Lifeworld (Schutz)
- The lived experience of human beings and
other living creatures as formed into more or
less coherent grounds for their existence. This
consists of the whole system of interactions with
others and objects in an environment that is
fused with meaning and language (for human
actors) and that sustains the life of all
creatures from birth through death. It is the
fundamental ground of all experience for human
beings. - - Bentz and Shapiro (1998)
11Transformative Learning Concepts
- Disorienting Dilemmas
- Reframing of Narratives
- Interpersonal relations (with Mentors)
- Individual and social implications and meanings
- Communicative learning
- Values of freedom, equality, tolerance, social
justice, civic responsibility, and education
- Jack Mezirow
12- Posttraumatic GROWTH
- What Does not Destroy me Makes Me Stronger
- - F. Nietsche (1888) Twilight of the Idols
- ENABLING FACTORS
- Social Support
- Deliberative Cognitive Processing (Mental
Discipline) - Positive meaning-making (vision and hope for
future) - OPPOSITE
- Social Isolation
- Perceived Burdonsomeness
- Loss of power, Identity and self efficacy
- SOURCES Kanako Taku, Oakland University Jeffrey
Bird, SVSU
13Similar to outcomes of Transformative Learning
- Posttraumatic Growth
- Relating to Others
- New Possibilities
- Personal Strength
- Spiritual Change
- Appreciation of Life
- Tedeschi and Calhoun
(1995)
14An Interpersonal Theory of Suicide
Source Jeffrey Bird, GVSU
15Moral Injury
The Marine Corps is like a machine. People are
like spark plugs, and the plug has one purpose.
Nobody cares about it anymore when you take it
out of the machine. People who were my friends
now do not care, because I am not able to be a
part of that. Marines are all about being the
first to fight, but now I cant. Its like
after all of this, I am once more not one of the
cool kids People ask how you are, and how you
are is that you are dying.not physically, but
mentally. - Rocky
16Identity formation and re-individuation
When youve met one veteran, Youve met one
veteran - Mike Carrell, Ohio State University
17HOW is a Worldview Constructed?
- Consider communication as a primary social
force - How we make and remake our social worlds
- Looking at communication, and what gets made?
- - relationships, selves, groups, cultures,
etc. - When communicating, we engage simultaneously in
- COORDINATION (of joint actions)
- COHERENCE (sense-making, intentions,
interpretations) - MYSTERY as an important reminder (that we could
have DONE otherwise TOLD ourselves different
stories) - COSMOPOLITAN COMMUNICATION offers a way to
communication between cultures while respecting
difference
18MORAL INJURY is not the same as Moral Judgment
- Moral Code
- A Theory by which a group understands its
experience and makes judgments about proper and
improper actions - A set of concepts and system of rules
- A tradition of truth and propriety
- The basis of common sense
- (Pearce and Littlejohn, 1997)
- Re-examine all you have been told...
- Dismiss what insults your Soul
- - Walt Whitman
19The Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) Theory
How can we structure our Institutions so they
support the evolution of consciousness? - W.
Barnett Pearce (2007)
20Transformation and Social Construction
- Understanding that we live in multiple social
worlds - Can draw resources from several social worlds in
constructing new ones - Able to make conscious choices about what forms
of life we wish to enact in given situations.
W. Barnett Pearce
21- ...Engage the Whole Human Critter
- Brain, Mind,
- Society, Culture, and
- Dynamics of
- Mental Health .
- Jonathan Shay, MD, PhD (at ISTSS)
- Achilles in Vietnam (1994)
- Odysseus in America (2002)
Domains of Human Experience
22Cosmopolitan Communication In Four Quadrants
All Quadrants, All Lines (AQAL) model from
Integral theory (Wilber, 2006) and Cosmopolitan
Communication model from CMM theory (Pearce,
1989)
Source Arthur Jensen, Ph.D. presentation at
SIETAR Berlin, Sept. 2012
23Constructing a Culture
- Coordinated System of the
- Inspector General
- Teach and Train
- Inspect
- Fact-finding
- Assist (Social Justice)
- Emergent Properties
- Self-confidence
- Loyalty to each other
- Acountability
- Leadership by example
Sharing the Moral Code
24Contextual Mentoring
- Coordinated effort, led by someone who gets
veterans experience, and cares (empathic) at the
personal level - Builds bridges between military social and future
worlds. - Brokers loose-tie connections to others
- Integrates elements of Family values (primary
socialization), Peer support, Formation, Mental
Health, and role models - Orchestrates existing lifeworld resources and
aspects of advising, counseling, coaching,
tutoring, social support - with intention - Individual attention to help veteran find their
own path or quest
Re-builds moral codes through Mentor Communication
25Towards Deliberately Developmental Communities
- Organizations can develop everyone every day.
- They can turn student and employee struggles into
growth opportunities to create a new kind of
competitive advantage. - A new way of working that can be transformational
for organizations and all of their people. - Research and practice about understanding how
such cultures work and making more of them
possible.
Robert Kegan, Lisa Lahey, Andy Fleming, and
Claire Lee
- Shift in focus from performance to growth and
capacity-building - New ways to measure personal growth outcomes in
Higher education?
26Development and our Organizations
Super Integral - witness self, being-centric
view, (emergent) Integral - holistic, autonomous,
worldcentric, Cosmopolitan 4 of US pop,
evolved 50 years ago Pluralistic - sensitive
self, individualistic, idealistic, 10 of US pop,
100 years ago Rational - scientists, data-driven
decision-making, logic, reason, 25 of pop, 300
years ago Mythical - hierarchical religions,
conformist, good/bad, ethnocentric, 40 of US
pop, 5000 years ago Egocentric - 'me'/'I want it
now', evolved 10,000 years ago, 20 of US
pop. Magic - tribes, clans, gangs, superstitious,
safety/survival, 10 of US pop. Archaic - Basic
survival, lt1 of US population
Loevingers (Integral) Stages of Development
27Warrior Quests
- The Universal Mono-Myth
- Hero Leaves home
- Departs on a quest
- Defeats a strong adversary
- Returns by a perilous journey
- Brings back a boon
- or gift to humanity
28Warrior Quests
- The American Mono-Myth
- A peaceful town is
- threatened by great evil
- The local authorities
- are powerless to stop it
- A mysterious hero comes
- and saves the town
- The hero cannot stay,
- and leaves alone
29System Mentoring
if you change one persons viewpoint, save one
life, its kind of worth it in the end. You
can't change the big things in life if you dont
tackle the little things thats how they got big
in the first place. - TJ
30Culture Mentoring
I think of this as the hub. They go to class
and learn they get to have their own opinion
about things that they are allowed to say out
loud and then they come back here and recharge.
Then they go to another class where they learn to
speak in public, in front of other people and
then they come back here where its safe. (The
Student Veterans Lounge is) the midpoint between
collectivism and individualism. - Pat
31Mind Mentoring
(CMM and ACT therapy are) very much based around
constructing meaning for oneself, figuring out
what your values are, and then constructing a
life that very much adheres and moves forward
with those values Im more comfortable with the
spirituality that resonates with me, and it is
starting to integrate my experience. That is
particularly interesting to me, combined with the
spiritual focus I have had which is a
self-directed, personal gnosis - AJ
32Brain Mentoring
I have never had a bad experience with a
psychiatrist or anything, but it seems like they
just ask one question after another after
another, and then saying things like, well, it
sounds like you keep mentioning this, or it
sounds like this is whats really bothering you.
But it seems like they are too passive. Being
passive limits your effectiveness, especially
when you are having a conversation with someone,
especially about something they are struggling
with. - TJ
33How do you fix a worldview?
PTSD isnt a disease, its a worldview. War,
disaster response, police work, these things
force a person to live in the spaces where trauma
happens, to spend most of their time there, until
that world becomes yours, seeps through your skin
and runs in your blood. Diseases are discrete
things. But how do you treat a change in
perspective? - AJ (Blog post)
34Transformative Learning and Moral Injury
Developmental Strategies in Higher Education for
Healing, Transition, and Growth
Barton D. Buechner, PhD Professor, Military
Psychology MA Program
35CMM Storytelling Model
- As humans, we all have stories and tell stories
- Our relationships and social worlds are built in
communication - This Model helps parse out the different levels
and types of stories that co-exist
stories told
untold stories
unknown stories
storytelling
unheard stories
untellable stories
stories lived
Maps out what you know, and still need to know
36CMM Daisy Model
- Used to analyze groupings of mentors over
different lifeworld contexts and their level of
influence at various times.
37CMM Serpentine Model
- Helps to reveal how reality is costructed or
meaning is made in episodes of communication - Constituted in at least three turns, or
conversational triplets
38CMM Strange Loops
- Catch 22 situations are common experiences for
veterans. The Strange Loop model helps reveal
the contextual factors underlying them
39CMM Hierarchy Model
- Helps to reveal the logical forces that lead us
to act into situations in our lifeworlds in
different ways, depending upon frame of reference
or context
40Psychoeducation and Therapy (OTMM) Behavior
Individual
Formation and Development (OTOM) Developmental
Somatics
PTSD
Mystery
Phenomenological Lived Experience
Cognition and Neuroscience
Plasticity
MIND
BRAIN
Observable Behavior
Affect and Emotion
Interior
Exterior
Coordination
Coherence
Adult Learning
Social Justice
SYSTEM
CULTURE
Social World Resources
Engagement and quests
MORAL INJURY
Bridging
Family Influence
Veterans Service Office Organizational Support
(MTOM) - Advocacy
Student Veteran Organizations (MTMM) - Peer
Mentoring
Collective