Transformative College Literacy of Literate Black Women Peer Counselors

A common perspective of learning is gaining knowledge through material that is taught by others through lessons. From an educational perspective, students learn through class material but limit their learning only by gaining an understanding of the material just for a class. In college, this type of perspective is prevalent. Many students take classes, gain knowledge from the class and are not liberated by this knowledge. They gain understanding just to pass the class and move on to higher classes. Their understanding is limited and so is their knowledge because it is not applicable to themselves and their overall learning. In this chapter, Robin Wisniewski gives a personal account of her own journey through her learning experiences in college. Wisniewski describes her journey as a transformative one because she experienced transformative learning. This learning is defined as gaining knowledge, gaining understanding through different strategies then gaining liberation in thoughts. Liberation in thought subsequently gives one a better sense of the knowledge learned by learning about oneself at the same time. Peer Counselors are conveyed as open-minded students who are willing to help their peers in ways educationally and mentally. These ways mostly include transformative learning. They guide their peers in learning more about their identities, their pasts, and orienting toward their futures through gaining knowledge. These peer counselors give a familial interaction by making their peers feel positive about their learning through support and encouragement. They give them a sense of belonging and encourage them to learn a lot about themselves. There are two individuals who were peer counselors named Lauryn and Vania mentioned in this chapter. These two students were empowered by the construction of knowledge and transformative learning. Their beliefs about literacy were changed from seeing literacy as learning content to a belief that literacy is the integration of this content and strategies. For example, Lauryn described her thoughts on literacy as not only helping her peers to master the subjects within the university but use different strategies within the subjects. This use of strategies further gives the student his/her own individuality. Wisniewski’s expressions and liberating thoughts on transformative learning led to her beliefs of development of personal identities within a peer counselor relationship through literacy. This liberation of thoughts also leads to the idea of using literacy and knowledge to have a better sense of oneself and one’s purpose