The Journey to Understanding Privilege: A Meta-Narrative Approach.

Challenging incidents associated with privilege and oppression occur daily. Within the fields of adult education and higher education, researchers and practitioners have examined and critiqued the exploration and understanding of privilege (e.g., White privilege). Studies have explored how adult educators, who acknowledged their own White privilege and the norms of whiteness, are working to change systems of privilege and oppression. This work furthers the current literature. The authors employ a meta-narrative approach analyzing narratives from faculty and professionals in the helping fields. The meta-narrative designation of a ‘‘collective story,’’ utilizing professional voices is a unique contribution in addressing privilege. The narrative tradition offers participant stories to systematically explore the interaction of dominant and nondominant privilege statuses. The findings relate to transformational learning and verify the need to consistently employ self-reflection and discourse toward examining and refining one’s understanding of and interactions with privilege and oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]