Abstract
The research aimed to explore the process of transformative learning of animal protectors. In recent years, animal protection awareness has significant development in Taiwan, and the animal protector plays an important role. In the past, most of researches concerned about animal protection law, or animal protection education. However, rarely researches explore how animal protectors learn in the animal protected action. In this research I interview 9 animal protectors who devote themselves to animal protection. To explore how experiences interact with learning, I interview animal protectors by semi-structured interview, and analysis it in narrative inquiry. Transformative Leaning is main theory in this research, which provides me perspective to analyze how animal protectors learn in the experiences, and what factors or crucial point promote their perspective transforming. In results, positive and negative experiences of interacting with animals in the childhood, which will influences individuals join to animal protection or not when they grow up. In the beginning, animal protectors’ meaning schema expands and transforms. They learn knowledge and develop ability of problem solving in the action. In the middle stage, animal protectors confront 5 critical dilemmas. If animal protectors proceed in premise reflection, and communicate with others, it will promote individuals’ perspective transforming, or individuals will continue mired in difficulties. The animal protector who completed perspective transforming start to plan new action and new goal for testing themselves, and they finally accomplish transformative learning process. According to result of the research, I summarize two suggestions for future research directions. First, most of animal protectors are female, which phenomenon is worth to research. Second, internal learning mechanism of animal protection community or organization is worth to research, too. Then, we can deeply understand the animal protectors’ characteristic and learning connotation in Taiwan.