Encouraging Transformative and Creative Learning in Adult Literacy Education through Artistic Literacies

Artistic Literacies (AL) can be a catalyst to creative, imaginative, and potentially, transformative learning (Blackburn Miller, 2020). Artistic literacy texts include storytelling, creative writing, popular theatre, music, dance, poetry, fiction, or memoir, and visual art. Creative possibilities for diverse adult literacy learners can open when artistic literacies are integrated across the disciplines. This paper will highlight the way that transformative learning theory can enrich our understanding of artistic literacies and adult learning processes. Connections to transcultural literacies, affective (emotional and social) literacies, and environmental literacies within the context of adult literacy education will be explored. Visual art is used to highlight key dimensions of transformative learning and multimodal literacies. In multimodal learning, written-linguistic modes of expression interact with oral, visual, audio, gestural, tactile and spatial patterns of meaning (Kalantzis and Cope, 2012). For example, visual literacies can encourage the exploration, analysis, interpretation, and expression of artistic forms that include painting, sculpture, collage, photography, graffiti art, mobile art installations, protest art, and film. Transformative learning and multimodal learning disrupt singular conceptions of literacy to enable multiple entry points (e.g., aesthetic, narrational, experiential, intrapersonal, etc.) for creative learning and multimodal literacy development.