Emotions and Meaning in Transformative Learning: Theory U as a Liminal Experience

Abstract

This paper examines the protective role of edge emotions in the process of transformative learning through the case study of the Theory U process. It explores the importance of learning strategies that foster emotional awareness and help learners cross the edge of their known meaning-making system into a liminal space of openness to unknown possibilities and discovery of new meaning. Self-reflective, contemplative, dialogue-based, and embodied pedagogies practiced in a safe community lead to emotional transformation. Relying on autoethnographic accounts and interviews with participants in the Theory U foundations program, we show how new meaning emerges through reflexive engagement with the edge emotions of fear, frustration, and sadness.