Practicing Embodied Listening for Transformation: The Transformative Listening Protocol

Abstract

In this article, we explore the process of creating spaces for the practice and inquiry of transformative listening through the development of the Transformative Listening Protocol (TLP). Our premise is that embodied listening opens doors to transformations via a process to improve listening and safe spaces where people may engage with each other in storytelling and story listening. The organization of our paper flows from research design to relevance for transformative learning theory. We begin with a description of the practice led research design for the project (Candy, 2006), we follow that with the historical development of the TLP including sections on both the theoretical and methodological background. After this section we describe the practice-ing of transformative listening with three applications of listening in practice we documented. In the final paragraphs we explore the limitations and conclusions of the research design and of TLP. We conclude the paper with the relevance of practicing transformative listening for the evolution of transformative learning theory.