Behind the Resume

Abstract

This article provides an account of how presentational, or expressive, ways of knowing has been used in career planning classes in a community college located in large urban area. Career planning, and resume preparation, is often framed as a very instrumental process. However, as the inquiry described in this article demonstrates, developing a resume can be an opportunity for engaging in self-reflective practices. Using image drawing, poetry, metaphor, and similes challenged many students’ self-perceptions, brought into conscious awareness how their meaning schemes shaped their actions, and deepened their self-awareness.

Keywords

presentational knowing holistic learning transformative pedagogy image drawing resume writing

Introduction

A number of studies have demonstrated a connection between the self-esteem of college students and their academic and career success (e.g., Judge 2009; Kammeyer-Mueller, Judge & Piccolo 2008; Legum & Hoare 2004). This connection is complex. One’s sense of self-worth, confidence, and self-respect is shaped by his or her experiences, which in turn shapes future experiences through the ways it preconsciously finds expression in how actions are taken or not taken in various contexts. When these contexts are academically or career related, the result can be either positive or self-limiting.

One can argue that this complexity is intensifying for college students in general, given today’s environment of rapid technological changes, globalization, generational shifts, and economic uncertainty (McLoughlin, Wang, & Beasley, 2008). Community college students from marginalized populations attending large community college settings in urbanized settings are no exception. Indeed, this population must navigate many challenges that regularly shape and reinforce their sense of self (Hoffman, Knight, & Wallach, 2007; Zell 2010). There is a need for pedagogical practices that bring tacit, preconscious self-images into the learning environment, so students can be reflective on how they are in relationship with their academic work and career choices.

This article provides an account of how presentational, or expressive, ways of knowing has been used in career planning classes in a community college located in a large urban area as a way of meeting this need. Presentational knowing is the name given by Heron (1992) to a way of knowing that is imaginal, manifested in “movement, sound, colour, shape, line” (p. 165). “We gain access to presentational knowing when we engage in expressive activities such as music, dance, mime, visual or dramatic arts, story and metaphor” (Kasl & Yorks, 2012, p. 504). Presentational knowing is an epistemological bridge, helping to transform tacit knowing and experience into an enhanced self-awareness through making the subjective objective and open to reflection. By self-awareness, we mean clearer perception of one’s strengths, limitations, thoughts, beliefs, motivations, and emotions along with how one’s taken-for-granted experiences have embedded these perceptions into one’s way of being. This enhanced self-awareness provides a foundation for new behavior. “Expressive” is another term for “presentational” (Yorks & Kasl, 2006).

Career planning is often framed as a very instrumental task-oriented process. A resume is not only a piece of paper; there are many stories that are embedded behind the paper. A student’s choice of what is to be shown and not shown on the paper also has stories in it. If the students do not see and build an empathic relationship between themselves and their stories that are behind their resume, they lose a significant opportunity to learn more about themselves and the job search process becomes mechanical. Learning about one’s self is foremost in the career process and foundational for engaging in lifelong learning. This article seeks to demonstrate the value of engaging in a holistic pedagogical approach to this type of class that is potentially transformative of meaning schemes as well as instrumental in focus, particularly with students who come from more marginalized segments of society. This change is reflected in a changed way of being in the world on the part of these adult students with an enhanced knowing of themselves altering their actions, choices, and how they engage the career planning process. The experience reported here has implications for a wide range of continuing education curriculums.

Career planning classes cover a wide range of topics such as self-assessment, career exploration, and practical job search skills. Typically, the curriculum includes identifying needs, interests, values, and skills; researching occupational and organizational alternatives; job search techniques and resources for employment; resume and cover letter preparation as well as job interviewing and follow-up. The initial phase of the class discussed in this article involves personal self-assessment using various tools such as self-directed search and the strong interest inventory. However, the assessment tools have their own limitations (Healy & Chope, 2006; Holden, Wood, & Tomashewski 2001). While external assessment tools can measure students’ personal values and personality type, a deeper sense of self-awareness can come from within. External assessment tools provide a cognitive and analytically discriminating framework that is “object” separated from the subjective self. Of necessity, they offer a convergent generalizable set of constructs that are extracted from what is a rich, multifaceted subjectivity that underlies measures and indexes reported by the tool. While useful, this precision encompassing of what will be referred to below as the propositional form of knowledge leaves out the complexity of the diversity of the experiences that comprise the subjective self. In addition, it limits the engagement of the learner to intellectual discourse and cuts them off from their full self. We argue below that truly leveraging the learning from external assessment tools requires a holistic awareness of what is behind the profile produced.

Applying presentational learning in the classroom can be a form of transformative education, albeit at the individual, rather than at the societal level. Transformative learning is a robust topic comprised of diverse streams of scholarly and practical discourse (e.g., Mezirow, 2000b; Taylor & Cranton, 2012). For purposes of framing the learning observed in the first author, Michelle’s, class, we refer to the seminal ideas of Mezirow and his distinction between meaning perspectives and meaning schemes. Meaning perspectives are habits of mind consisting of a set of broad, generalized, orienting assumptions that filter one’s interpretation of their experiences and find expression in a variety of meaning schemes. Meaning schemes are points of view comprised of specific beliefs, attitudes, and emotional reactions that comprise person’s meaning perspectives. While examples of transformative learning are often described as a significant shift in a meaning perspective, it can also be a function of cumulative shifts over time in one’s meaning schemes. Citing Cohen (1997), Mezirow gives as an example, how an educator can help adult students with negative experiences in school to feel more secure as learners. “Over time a series of these transformations in point of view about oneself as a learner . . . may cumulatively lead to a transformation in self-concept” (Mezirow, 2000a, p. 21). We also see such learning as involving a wholistic change in how a person both affectively experiences and conceptually frames his or her experience (Yorks & Kasl, 2006).

This article grows out of Michelle’s initial interest in exploring how expressive ways of knowing can deepen students’ self-awareness throughout the career planning class. This interest led her to engage in an inquiry with the second author into how presentational knowing could be used in her class. The particular question that focused her inquiry was, “In what ways could the use of presentational knowing enhance students’ self-awareness of their experience in relation to their career opportunities?” The resume came to be a focal point of the ensuing inquiry. Michelle expresses her query in her first person account below. The article is itself a story of Michelle’s inquiry into her pedagogical practice that presents her reasoning and actions. Consistent with other writing on expressive ways of knowing (e.g., Davis-Manigaulte, Yorks, & Kasl, 2005; Kasl & Yorks, 2012; Yorks & Kasl, 2002), first-person writing is epistemologically consistent with presentational knowing.

A First-Person Account of the Question “Behind” Our Inquiry

Resume writing is a required component of the career planning class because of the central role it plays in one’s job search. Yet, what does a resume really mean? A question that I have always asked is “What’s behind the resume?” Does a resume simply help students get an interview and find a job? Or, can it be a tool for engaging in self-reflective practices regarding one’s meaning schemes enhancing both one’s self-awareness and career planning process.

In resume writing, I found that students often feel they are not good enough to be selected for an interview from the first draft of their resume because it was poorly written. After they learned the resume format and how to select good action verbs that would impress the employer, the final draft of the resume was much more professional. However, the students’ response to their well-written resume typically was “It’s not me.” This experience led to my desire to help students make their resume come alive by bringing a deeper connection between them and their resumes. The resume can be “professionally” created just for the purposes of landing a job interview. However, the student has no “felt” connection with it. An assumption underlying this inquiry is that resolving this dilemma requires developing self-awareness that challenges the way they had come to identify themselves. As argued by Warin, Maddock, Pell, and Hargreaves (2006), “Identity is a sense making device, which provides the illusion of consistency, that is repetition of characteristics over time, and performs a vital function in governing our choices and decision making” (p. 235). Reflecting on the tacit assumptions my students held about their identity, and raising awareness of what they truly wanted, is, I believe, fundamental to creating a resume that captures who they are and who they wish to be.

A strong desire to help my students to fully appreciate where they came from, who they are as a human being, and their vision of who they want to become led me to search for a holistic way of teaching resume writing. Helping students to build their job search skills for future employment is essential. However, helping students to know who they really are as a human being and to appreciate every aspect of their life experiences is something I firmly believe is vital to a job/career search success. A resume can also be a focus for deeper learning if we not only pay attention to the content but also the meaning that underlies the content.

Presentational Knowing and Holistic Learning: A Theoretical Framework for Personhood

We begin with a review of the theoretical foundation on which our inquiry is based. Next, we provide a description of the career planning class with examples of the application of presentational knowing. As noted above, the primary theoretical lens that has guided our inquiry has been John Heron’s (1992, 1995; Heron & Reason, 1997) research into feeling and personhood. Heron’s work is itself part of a diverse lineage of research and theoretical inquiry into human experience (Reason, 1988; Reason & Rowan, 1981).

Heron presents a theory of personhood that provides a framework of a holistic relationship to one’s self and world across multiple ways of knowing based on a phenomenological empiricism (Yorks & Kasl, 2002). His theory is quite complex and a complete discussion of it is beyond the scope of this article. Our focus here is on presentational knowing as a way of manifesting the kind of learning and insight that brings into awareness a student’s taken-for-granted meaning-making frames for reflection on how he or she has been in relationship with their learning from their courses; in this case, facilitating a shift in their self-image and demarcating a new possible career path. We will limit our discussion to the core elements of the theory that relate directly to how Michelle has been applying presentational knowing in the class.

In Heron’s theory of personhood, presentational knowing is one of the four ways of knowing: experiential knowing, propositional knowing, and practical knowing are the other three (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Ways of knowing in Heron’s extended epistemology.

Experiential knowing is obtained through face-to-face encounters with persons, places, and events. It is tacit, prelinguistic knowledge of acquaintance, shaped in part through somatic and affective connection with one’s context. As previously described, presentational knowing is evident in our intuitive grasp of the significance of imaginal patterns expressed in graphic, moving, poetic, music, expressive art forms, and story. In the words of Heron and Reason (2008), “Presentational knowing is made manifest in images which articulate experiential knowing, shaping what is inchoate into a communicable form, and which are expressed non-discursively through the visual arts, music, dance and movement, and discursively in poetry, drama and the continuously creative capacity” (pp. 370–371) for telling stories. Images give external form to our feelings and preconscious responses to external events. As such images can be a potentially powerful tool for reflection on how one’s experiences have become embedded in their person and are shaping their actions. Propositional knowing about is expressed in intellectual statements, both verbal and numerical, and confirming to the laws of logic. Practical knowing is knowing how to do something exercising a skill or competency.

These distinct ways of knowing relate to each other in an “up hierarchy” (Figure 1); each draws from those beneath it with experiential knowing as defined above being foundational and practical incorporating the other three. One’s overall sense of knowing is a function of the coherence among the four ways of knowing (Heron, 1992; Heron & Reason, 1997). Presentational, or expressive, ways of knowing is pivotal for both establishing coherence and for expanding one’s capacity for informed and insightful action (Kasl & Yorks, 2012; Yorks & Kasl, 2006). Engaging in this kind of knowing gives expression to one’s inner tacit experience, so one might learn from it and change. Presentational knowing is a pathway to self-awareness and allows one to stay open to multiple interpretations of his or her experience and protects one from premature conceptualization that constrains and restricts meaning.

Expressive ways of knowing have been applied in a range of professional development and educational settings (see e.g., Davis-Manigaulte et al., 2005; Dirkx, 2008; Hanley, 2007; Lawrence, 2012; Stuckey, 2009; Taylor, 2006). However, career planning classes, and similar courses, almost exclusively take an instrumental approach when teaching topics like creating one’s resume. While the professional counseling literature reveals a few authors who have considered the resume as a counseling tool to address personal issues that may interfere with the job search or career development process (Peterson, 1986; Toporek & Flamer, 2009), the developmental dimensions of holistic learning tend to be ignored by educators in resume teaching. Missing from instructing resume writing is encouraging students to pay attention to their own inner feelings during the resume development process and their positive (or negative) relationship with the job search process. We turn now to a discussion of a career planning course design that focuses on the deeper meaning behind the resume through the use of expressive ways of knowing.

A Holistic Pedagogy for Resume Development

The career-planning course takes place over a period of 15 weeks, meeting once a week for 2 hr, with developing the resume a key aspect of the course. There were 38 students enrolled in the class, which was comprised of business, accounting, and liberal arts majors. This article is not a formal case study but an inquiry into practice, so we did not create a specific demographic profile (although Institutional Review Board approval was obtained). The class was highly diverse with a mixture of Asian, Hispanic, Afro-American, and White. Many had immigrated to the United States and virtually all were the first generation to enroll in college. Ages ranged from 18 to the late 30s. In a college wide survey conducted in 2010, 48% of the students at the school had family incomes of below $20,000. The course is comprised of four phases. In the first phase, students are exposed to the concept of career planning: exploring their passions and interests, assessing their skills, and initially framing their educational, career, and life goals. The purpose of this self-awareness journey is to help students to start inquiring into “Who am I?” during their career-planning journey. In the second phase, students learn employment research skills and develop their portfolio that includes preparing cover letters and their resumes for their targeted companies. During the third phase, students develop skills related to networking, job interviewing, salary negotiating, and after-interview follow-up. The fourth phase covers workplace survival skills. The topics of organizational culture, business ethics, motivation, and learning and performance management are introduced as well. Developing the resume writing process described below is transitionally linked to the first phase of the 15-week curriculum and is foundational for the third.

The pedagogical process for resume writing can itself be thought of as being comprising three phases: (1) an exploratory phase that focuses the student on reflecting on images that emerge for them while addressing the question of what is behind their resume; (2) a developmental phase of constructing their resume while repeatedly returning to the images that emerged during the exploratory phase; and (3) a reflection phase on the insights that emerge through the reframing of many of these images drawn from insights that emerged from the prior two phases.

The Exploratory Phase: What is Behind the Resume?

The focus of the resume teaching process presented here is to help students ascertain what is behind their individual resumes with the question, “What is behind the resume?” asked frequently of students throughout the class. Answering this question begins with bringing into awareness their experiential knowing and subconscious meaning schemes.

Exploring one’s image of the resume

Conceptual understanding develops through the mind and thought processes. One’s connection with what is learned stems from the “heart,” the affective and spiritual aspect of the self that shapes one’s interpretation of conceptual experience and subsequent actions (or inactions). As noted by Dirkx (2007), learning takes place through the soul, involving “a focus on the interface where the socio-emotional and the intellectual world meet, where the inner and outer worlds converge” (p. 85). Believing that learning should be a combination of the heart and mind, Michelle’s challenge in the career planning class is tapping into students’ feelings as to what they learn in class. “Many of our most guarded beliefs about ourselves and our world—that we are smart or dumb, good or bad, winners or losers—are inferred from repetitive affective experience outside of awareness” (Mezirow, 2000a, p. 16)—beliefs that have been unintentionally assimilated and sculpt our way of being in the world (Yorks & Kasl, 2002). Using images to activate the Pandora’s box that includes hidden emotions and feelings is helpful in addressing this challenge. Each image represents a piece of a life story. The use of “image” helps students comprehend their views on what the resume is, its function in the job search, and, at a deeper level, how their emotions and feelings shape their actions.

An early task given to the students is to “draw the image that comes to mind when you think of the resume.” At the onset of the course, 85% of the class viewed the resume as a piece of paper (see Figure 2). Their images were geared to its physical appearance rather than its function and meaning. Of course, the more important question that was not considered in most of the images was the life stories imbedded within the resume, which comprise their current status in life. A small group of students associated the word “resume” with “office building,” “money,” and a “house.” Such images reveal how students visualize the benefits obtainable through their resumes: a well-paying job, working in a glamorous office building, and the ability to purchase a house, information that can be used as a starting point for understanding students’ goals.

Figure 2.

A student’s image of the resume.

Drawing images that provide a pathway for self-awareness

“Drawing” is a language of the artist and the viewer that keeps evolving. A drawing can also raise the question of how thinking and feeling relate to each other. Drawing can be a means of permitting students to explore something of which they are not fully aware that may influence their feelings and actions. Inviting students to examine their drawings, to see what is behind them, followed by reflective writing and sharing such with other students can stimulate insightful discussions in the classroom.

The majority of the drawings reflect what the resume actually looks like, some with a star symbol, or many dollar signs adjacent to the document. A few drawings include a person standing in front of an office building on Wall Street, a woman at an office computer desk with piles of documents, and a couple holding hands in front of a large house with three dogs and two cars. During small group sharing time, students spoke of their initial understanding of the resume, through their anticipated benefits from the actual process in the future. Students reflected upon their depiction of their respective mental images as translated into drawings. Their images were repeatedly difficult to depict in sketches because they assumed that they were not artists. Adding their own words to sketches of their mental imagery helped them to express their respective views more completely. It was vital to focus on the connection with their feelings, not drawing skills.

Development Phase

The purpose of the resume is to obtain an interview opportunity. During the resume development stage, students must learn to identify the resume components, various resume writing formats, and how these components help the students succeed in obtaining interviews. These involve the content of the resume, a student’s history and qualifications, and its appearance in terms of format. A prospective employer can discern immediately whether a candidate has taken the requisite time to work on his resume.

What’s behind the resume components?

Students’ resumes must grab the reader’s attention; it is imperative to ensure that students acquire essential resume writing skills. Further, it is important for students to evaluate their own understanding of their resumes during the preparation. However, have we ever guided students toward awareness of their own feelings, and what stimulates such feelings as to their respective resumes? Can the educator delve beyond the content and design and reveal what is behind each piece of information given in the resume? Each molecule of information carries a story, whether happy or sad. It appears current when brought to the fore, although it actually occurred sometime in the individual’s past. Michelle’s quest is to ascertain awareness as to whether a resume depicts the picture of “who I was” or “who I am.”

When we know how students personally assess their resumes, we become able to teach from a different perspective, focusing on the resume development process instead of merely the end document. This process, we argue, should be a holistic, meaningful journey for students to experience. A suggested contemplation for a student is “Am I my resume?”

Thread image and drawing into every section of resume

After students have completed their first version of the resume, a series of questions about images of each piece of information on the resume, and associated feelings, were asked, followed by drawing, reflective writing, and group sharing. The following is an example of the process: For contact information, Michelle asked students the question, “What image comes to you when you see the address on your resume?” and give them 2 to 3 min to draw the image. There was soft music in the background during this activity. The music was intended to relax the students physically and mentally. It afforded them freedom and comfort in this activity. After drawing, the students took 2 to 3 min to write the meaning behind the image (e.g., see Figure 3). Then, the students would take 2 to 3 min to share their own drawings and reflective writing with others in their small group. The students repeated similar image drawing, reflective writing, and small group sharing during the resume sections of education and work experience.

Figure 3.

Example of a student’s image and reflective comment on his address.

The purpose of such activity is to permit students to determine their relationship within each section of their resume in a deeper sense. Such reflection affords them a different dimension of learning about themselves from their resume. This in turn shapes their decisions about career goals. For example, one student’s image of her current job was a girl with a computer trapped in a cell and crying for “HELP.” The student wrote “I was bored with my job (,) but I stay(ed) because of money. I felt passionless and trapped. I know I need to leave there (,) and that is why I am going to college for my education in the evenings” (see Figure 4).

Figure 4.

A student’s image of her current job.

Reflection Phase

As the resume is being completed with a focus on how the students will present themselves in the interview, both resume and the process become sustenance for critical reflection for deeper self-awareness. This involves application of poetry and metaphor or simile. In addition, students engage in a reflective writing exercise.

Use of poetry

Poetry provides a way of expressing deep thoughts and strong feelings, with rich and beautiful language (Leggo, 2005). Poetic expression is very personal and stemming from the depths of the human spirit (Kidd & Tusale, 2004). The use of such expression helps students find their poetic self and listen to that inner voice. Michelle borrowed the “diamante poem” format (diamante being the Spanish/Italian term for diamond) and transformed the verse into specific word types, such as verbs, adjectives, and nouns, which are expressed in a diamond shape. She asked the students to compose their first diamante poem, following this format: choosing the verbs, adjectives, and nouns that “represent” themselves:

First Name

Verb, Verb, Verb

Adjective, Adjective, Adjective

Noun, Noun, Noun

Last Name

For example, one student who was the first one in her family to attend college wrote (name is a pseudonym):

Olenka

Learn, work, excel

Hardworking, intelligent, driven

Team player, friend, professional

Platova

Those words truly represent me and should become my life motto. More importantly, I know why those words represent me as a person because I see the images behind each word.

Use of metaphor or simile

Michelle introduced the concepts of metaphor and simile and invited students to use either form of comparison—metaphor or simile—to describe their respective resumes. The following exercise was presented to students during the final phase: “My resume is (like) ——————because——————.”

Some examples of the metaphors and similes written by the students are

A metaphor for my resume is a ‘key’ because I feel that the resume unlocks who I am.

My resume is like a shoe because the shoe has to fit properly in order for you to walk without injury: I now have a better understanding as to what job suits me. A resume is like DNA of a cell: it indicates what my immune system controls—as to my strengths, and what it cannot—as my weaknesses.

Reflective writing

At the end of the resume writing phase of the course, the students reflected upon their experiences of learning through their emotions and feelings throughout the resume development process. They wrote reflections on what had transpired and what they had experienced. A class discussion concluded the resume writing process. Their holistic learning moved forward into the interviewing phase that followed in which the experience of presentational knowing was continued (see Figure 5).

Figure 5.

Image of the job interview from the next phase of the course.

The following are examples taken from their reflective writing, illustrating some of the students’ meaning making and learning from their expressive engagement with the resume writing process. In reflecting on their experience in the exploratory phase of “what’s behind the resume?” two students reflected:

I drew a picture of footsteps to represent my interpretation of the resume. The footsteps range(d) from larger to smaller . . . meaning one has no particular directions for a career path when I first enter into the working environment. I take any job available… the footsteps are smaller… means my ability to enter the job field I desire.

Second student:

The picture that best represent(s) a resume for me is a sunflower being covered by a cloud of darkness. The flower itself is vibrant, colorful, and attractive; just as I would be in life. However, the lack of self confidence and shyness make it difficult for the sunflower to shine through, just as my lack of self-confidence and shyness make it difficult for others to see my true qualities.

Figure 6 provides the image of the resume drawn by the same student who drew Figure 2 during the reflective phase of the process, seeing herself in the resume.

Figure 6.

The resume is like a mirror. I see me!

Students’ Feedback on Presentational Knowing

At first, students experienced difficulty with the image drawing activity. The inquiries of “Who are you?” and “What’s behind . . . ?” are vital questions that require deeper reflection. In addition, feeling is not a familiar topic for students to discuss in the classroom setting. A student wrote, “I was . . . asked how I feel about myself and my resume. It was hard to come out with an image based on my feelings. I even do not know how to express my feelings. I just don’t have any image in my mind.” Initially, two thirds of the students thought it was a drawing activity only and they complained about their lack of drawing ability. It takes time and effort to get the concept of presentational knowing across to students. The most difficult part is to bring the “feeling component” into classroom teaching, at least in this setting. Students are accustomed to be asked by professors about their conceptual understanding but not how they feel about what they have learned. In the beginning, the students expressed their confusion and awkwardness during image drawing activities. As the class progressed and students experienced more exercises, more students gradually were able to express themselves from a feeling-based approach. However, 20% of the students indicated that the presentational knowing approach of teaching had no impact on them. We are not claiming that all students had the experiences highlighted here.

As part of our inquiry, Michelle maintained a journal of her experiences including observation of the class and comments from the students. Throughout the course, students wrote reflective comments. The following is drawn from both their verbal and written comments. Two stories illustrate and contextualize the complexity of the journey of the students who experienced what amounts to an epistemological change in terms of how they were in relationship to their careers. The stories are drawn from Michelle’s notes and are written in the first person (again, names are pseudonyms).

Lee’s story

Lee was an accounting student whose family immigrated to the United States from China. Initially, language and cultural barriers made him feel uncomfortable about asking for support and guidance. However, within a couple of years of learning English, Lee’s language skills had improved. Lee’s parents wanted him to succeed, as all parents. They asked Lee to become a certified public accountant because it would bring him a good fortune and social status. However, Lee struggled in class and had poor academic performance. One Monday morning, Lee rushed to my office and could barely catch his breath. The worry and fear were shown on his face. He kept asking, “Professor, what should I do? What should I do? What I see is all black and I don’t see my future.” Lee’s response was from one of the resume assignments, “What image do you see about the major listed on your resume?” Lee said, “All I see is black and I don’t see anything but all black. I feel I am trapped because I cannot see any light.” After talking to Lee, he had an opportunity to reflect on the black image and know the reasons why he chose that major and why his academic performance was so poor. Lee said, “I don’t want to disappoint my parents because they brought my sister and me here for a better education. I study hard but still cannot do well. I don’t like my major but I cannot disappoint my parents. So, I struggle.” Later, he wrote:

I felt horrible when I did the homework about what image comes to me when I think about my major. The image depressed me because I felt I was in a dark room and had no way out. I recognized my feelings toward my major were rooted (in) negativity. I never enjoy taking my major courses. I struggle with my academic performance. My parents told me to spend more time in studying and I did, but still maintain only a C average. Now I know I had done my best, but it is not the major I want to pursue. I want to choose another major when I transfer to a four-year college because I want to have a future.

For Lee, the moment of understanding his struggle was invaluable in his journey of career planning. Lee continued his studies and earned an associate degree with the major in which he had less interest. Lee chose a different major after he transferred to a 4-year college. Now, Lee is a salesperson and enjoys his work.

Rolando’s story

Rolando was a business management student and also the first one to attend college in his family. He received no guidance from family for his college studies. I had a conversation with Rolando about his learning experience during the mid-semester. His initial experience about presentational ways of knowing was odd and confused. He did not know why his feelings mattered and how the image drawing exercises could support his career planning. However, during the resume writing process, the more frequently Rolando asked himself about what is behind his home address, college he is attending, major study, and grade point average on his resume, the more he could see clearly about his family history, how and why his parents work so hard to support his education, why he chose the college and his major, and his academic performance. With this understanding, Rolando was able to start planning, setting short- and long-term goals. Rolando said, “The question of what’s behind each component of my resume makes me see things with a clear view and have a deeper understanding. I know I need to be more involved in student activities and look for a tutoring job in school instead of hanging around and wasting time.” In the seventh week of the semester, Rolando applied for a student government representative position and he traveled to Washington, DC for a student conference. Because of his performance at the conference, Rolando was able to get his professor’s recommendation for a tutoring job in school. At the end of the semester, he was a representative from the student government and worked as a business tutor. Rolando said that the first thing in his mind during image drawing activities in class was the question of “why?” The reflective writing about what’s behind the images helped him to make sense of his question of “why the images?” This self-awareness changed how he presented himself.

Three Themes That Consistently Emerged in Student’s Stories About Presentational Knowing

Although each student’s experience is unique, four themes embedded in the two stories above are equally common across the majority of the class. Although each is distinct, and some appear to a greater or lesser extent in different student’s experiences, in practice, they are interconnected. The first theme is how images help produce a resume with which the students have a felt connection. This in turn generates more confidence because the resume is no longer an abstract statement of words. For example, one student wrote:

As I was drawing I realized that I could add more items… I realized that there is more to a resume than what you can only see. There is a story behind every component… I am quite confident now because I thought deeply about the different components of the resume.

Another student wrote,

When professor asked us to draw an image about our address, I never had imagined a different perspective way to look at every piece of information on my resume. To me, address is address but the image exercise made me see why and how I live here… Drawing an image and writing about it helped me obtain a better understanding of what each component of my resume means, and how it describes me.

The second theme is new insight that informs their career direction in a way that feels intuitively right. This is captured in what a student wrote, “I was uncomfortable with the drawing exercises during the first few classes, due to my inability to draw, my lack of imagination, and my lack of artistic… but in the end, it help(ed) me to ascertain my appropriate career.”

The third theme is enhanced self-awareness and understanding the value of self-reflection for personal learning and development. For example, drawing from the comments from two of the students, “The drawing and the drawing description lets me understand my thinking step by step. I have more self-knowledge which lets me fearlessly face myself… permits me to study my life more deeply.” “Career planning is a required class, but to my surprise, it gave me more knowledge and tools (as) to my future job search than I expected… Image drawing became my favorite activity and it is an incredibly powerful learning tool… helping me with a deeper self-understanding.”

For a few students, this self-awareness raised the realization that despite the enhanced self-awareness, how little they really understood about themselves. One student noted, “Through the image drawing and reflective writing, I was able to define who I am in several ways; but I am skeptical of who I truly am and what my life’s purpose is.” Another wrote, “… I understand the necessity to understand the self first in order to make intelligent decisions… Who am I? A question that has brought up many questions within myself.”

Discussion

The experience of Michelle’s inquiry demonstrates how the use of image drawing as a way of bringing into reflective conscious awareness can take place even in classes traditionally defined as being highly instrumental and practical. Through subsequent use of other forms of presentational knowing such as poetry, metaphor, similes, followed by reflective writing and discussions, students challenged their self-perceptions, deepening their self-awareness. Images generated in the career planning class brought into conscious awareness how their meaning schemes shaped their actions, making their subjective self-perceptions objective and accessible for self-reflection.

The change in many of the students was both affective and cognitive. Words are often constraining as well as being illustrative. What is missing from the quotes above is the feeling that accompanied them, the sense of empathic connection to the experience.

Those students who experienced all four of the themes described above, particularly a strong sense of Themes 3 and 4, experienced a transformed meaning scheme about themselves and their reactions to the job search process. The experience of becoming aware of how the images they carry in their meaning schemes impact their actions may or may not result in more sustained critical reflection.

The transformation of their meaning scheme is bounded by the time frame of the course. Students cannot be told the value of engaging in the process, they have to experience it. Initially students see the activities as homework assignments but do not take it seriously and take time to reflect. Time must be invested in class with the professor modeling the practices and making connections with the instrumental goals of the course.

A final note is that the need for faculty support both inside and outside the classroom is a critical dimension of structuring this kind of transformative education. An inquiry of “who am I?” can be intimidating, and even scary to college students, thus Michelle scheduled two one-on-one meetings (each meeting up to an hour long) with each of the students to privately talk about their experience of using image drawing as a way to express themselves throughout the semester. In these meetings, she went over their drawings and talked about their reflective writing. She was trying to understand their life experience. After these personal discussions, students were less anxious about the inquiry questions asked in class because they knew the purpose of the activity.

Our Concluding Reflection

Exercises in image drawing and writing during the resume development phase enabled the students to develop a sense of awareness. As the French poet Paul Valery (2007) said, “To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees. Can we as educators add an affective element to our students learning? Do we understand what relationship students have to the subject they are being taught? Can we address students’ poor performance without comprehending how they feel and how those feelings impact their learning and performance?”

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

Cohen

L. R.

(1997). I’ain’t so smart and you ain’t so dumb: Personal reassessment in transformative learning. In Cranton

(Ed.), Transformative learning in action (pp. 61–68). New directions for adult & continuing education (p. 74). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Manigaulte

Yorks

Kasl

(2005). Presentational knowing and transformative learning. In Taylor

E. W.

(Ed.), Fostering transformative learning in the classroom: Challenges and innovations. New directions for adult and continuing education (pp. 27–35). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Dirkx

(2007). Nurturing soul in adult learning. In Cranton

(Ed.), Transformative learning in action (pp. 79–88). New directions for adult & continuing education (p. 74). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Dirkx

(2008). Care of the self: Mythopoetic dimensions of professional preparation and development. In Willis

(Ed.), Pedagogies of the imagination (pp. 65–82). New York, NY: Springer Press.

Hanley

M. S.

(2007). Old school crossings: Hip hop in teacher education and beyond. New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education, 115, 35–44.

Healy

C. C.

Chope

(2006). Implications of the articles for interpreting interest inventories: Consequential validity and meaning making. Measurement & Evaluation in Counseling & Development, 38, 247–252.

Heron

(1992). Feeling and personhood: Psychology in another key. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Heron

Reason

(1997). A participatory inquiry paradigm. Qualitative Inquiry, 3, 274–294.

Heron

Reason

(2008). Extending epistemology within a co-operative inquiry. In Reason

Bradbury

(Eds.), The Sage handbook of action research: Participative inquiry and practice (2nd ed., pp. 366–380). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

10.

Hoffman

A. J.

Knight

L. M.

Wallach

(2007). Gardening activities, education, and self-esteem. Urban Education, 42, 403–411.

11.

Holden

R. R.

Wood

L. L.

Tomashewski

(2001). Do response time limitations counteract the effect of faking on personality inventory validity? Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 81, 160–169.

12.

Judge

T. A.

(2009). Core self-evaluations and work success. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 58–62.

13.

Kammeyer-Mueller

J. D.

Judge

T. A.

Piccolo

R. F.

(2008) Self-esteem and extrinsic career success: Test of a dynamic model. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 57, 204–224.

14.

Kasl

Yorks

(2012). Learning to be what we know: The pivotal role of presentational knowing in transformative learning. In Taylor

E. W.

Cranton

(Eds.), The handbook of transformative learning: Theory, research, and practice (pp, 503–519). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

15.

Kidd

L. I.

Tusale

K. R.

(2004). The use of poetry to know the lived experience of student nurses in mental health. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 25, 403–414.

16.

Lawrence

R. L.

(2012). Transformative learning through artistic expression: Getting out of our heads. In Taylor

E. W.

Cranton

(Eds.), The handbook of transformative learning: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 471–485). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

17.

Leggo

(2005). The heart of pedagogy: On poetic knowing and living. Teachers and Teaching, 11, 439–455.

18.

Legum

Hoare

C. H.

(2004). Impact of a career intervention on at-risk middle school students' career maturity levels, academic achievement, and self-esteem. Professional School Counseling, 8, 148–155.

19.

McLoughlin

Wang

Beasley

(2008). Transforming the college through technology: A change of culture. Innovative Higher Education, 33, 99–109.

20.

Mezirow

(2000a). Learning to think like an adult. In Mezirow

(Ed.), Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (pp. 3–33). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

21.

Mezirow

(Ed.) (2000b). Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

22.

Peterson

D. W.

(1986). The resume as a counseling tool. Journal of Counseling & Development, 64, 410.

23.

Reason

(1988). Human inquiry in action: Developments in new paradigm research. London, England: Sage.

24.

Reason

Rowan

(1981). Human inquiry: A sourcebook of new paradigm research. New York, NY: Wiley.

25.

Stuckey

(2009). Creative expression as a way of knowing in diabetes adult health education: An action research study. Adult Education Quarterly, 60, 46–64.

26.

Taylor

E. W.

(Ed.) (2006). Teaching for change: Fostering transformative learning in the classroom. New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education (p. 109). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

27.

Taylor

E. W.

Cranton

(Eds.) (2012). The handbook of transformative learning: Theory, research, and practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

28.

Toporek

R. L.

Flamer

(2009) The resume’s secret identity: A tool for narrative exploration in multicultural career counseling. Journal of Employment Counseling, 46, 4–16.

29.

Valery

(2007). Retrieved June 16 from Star Quote website, http://www.quotesstar.com/people/occupations/authors/paul-valery-quotes.html

30.

Warin

Maddock

Pell

Hargreaves

(2006). Resolving identity dissonance through reflective and reflexive practice in teaching. Reflexive Practice, 7, 233–245.

31.

Yorks

Kasl

(2002) Toward a theory and practice for whole-person learning: Reconceptualizing experience and the role of affect. Adult Education Quarterly, 52, 176–192.

32.

Yorks

Kasl

(2006). I know more than I can say: A taxonomy for utilizing expressive ways of knowing to foster transformative learning. Journal of Transformative Education, 4, 1–22.

33.

Zell

(2010). Achieving a college education: The psychological experiences of Latina/o community college students. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 9, 167–186.