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Coming to Appreciate Diversity: Ontological Change Through Student–Student Relationships

This article, developed from a phenomenological case study of a graduate seminar, presents the development of student–student relationships over the course of a semester and the ways in which they were part of a transformative learning (TL) experience. Often neglected in studies of adult learners, such relationships are revealed to be of critical importance to fostering TL —not to diminish teacher–student relationships but to augment them. Participant diversity included gender, age, race, religion, and field of study. Findings include the student experiences of being “all together” in a collegial and supportive classroom environment and how their relationships developed over time. Superficial comparisons between students, as the course progressed, gave way to intimate explorations of content and changes in disposition. Interpretation of the findings is guided by existential phenomenology and TL theory. Implications for instructors include adapting a phenomenological approach to teaching that brings students together through emotional engagement.