Proceedings of the 8th World Conference on Future of Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Transformative Learning and Soft Skills: Advancing Emancipatory Education for Health Professionals
Natascia Bobbo, Chiara Bottaro
ABSTRACT:
Although the discussion on the nature of soft skills has been going on for more than fifty years, even today soft skills seem to suffer from theoretical dispersion (Marin-Zapata et al., 2022; Ricchiardi & Emanuel, 2018; Heckman & Kautz, 2012). Based on this evidence, this contribute aims to explore a possible link between the soft skills construct and transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1991), in order to understand how this link might be useful for strengthening an emancipatory approach to health professional education (Denzin & Lincoln, 2017). One of the few certainties about soft skills is that they relate to intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies, such as self-reflective thinking, critical thinking and emotional awareness, which appear to be useful for professional development in health care (Author, 2022). Mezirow’s transformative learning theory (1991) suggests that people should not avoid cognitive or emotional dissonance but should face it in order to understand the limitations of the self and the complexity of the world, becoming ready for new challenges. This seems to be the central contribution of Mezirow’s theory to the soft skills approach: soft skills are worthless if they are used only to follow the rule and not to challenge it. Mezirow’s perspective makes us think that experts, trainers and teachers can contribute to the emancipation of students by stimulating them to develop some soft skills in a transformative perspective, making them able to face the complex challenges of life and work in a constantly evolving society (La Marca & Gulbay, 2018; Bortolotti & Moro, 2018).
keywords: critical pedagogy, emancipation, professional development, reflective practice, self- awareness