佛教人物=Buddhist; 修行方法=修行法門=Practice; 道場生活=寺院生活=Monasticism=Monastic Life=Community Life
摘要
This study was the first formal study in Taiwan to explore learning by Buddhist professionals in their practice. The purpose was to understand how these professionals have learned in different ways and what factors have affected their learning in the process. Since there were little existing data available to provide a base for this research, the research was basically explorative. The study applied a constructivistic approach to investigate professionals' learning by focusing on the perspectives of these practicing monastics on their own learning experiences. In total, 27 participants contributed to this study, most of whom were graduates from different preservice monastic institutes who had been full-time practitioners for more than 5 years. In-depth and semistructured long interviews were used in data collection, which allowed the participants more flexibility and enough time to give detailed descriptions of their learning experiences.
Findings from the research showed that working monastics pursued multiple learning resources, used both formal and informal learning, chose learning resources contextually, and often were self-directed. They used the learning from these resources primarily for direct application to their work and for internal change. Four applications were found: adopting, referring, appropriating, and developing repertoires and working models. The learning resources identified in this study provided psychological and technical support and motivated new learning for these professionals. The participants also identified external and internal factors that have affected their learning to some extent. External factors included organizational culture and social dimensions, while internal factors fell into three major categories of responsibility/mission, individual value systems, and personality/characteristics, The findings provided a new understanding about learning by Buddhist professionals, who used a wider variety of resources than their previous generations and for different purposes when facing today's new challenges. The research also showed that Buddhist professionals' learning was affected critically by both internal and external factors as their work intertwined with other aspects of monastic life.
