Biography
Dr. Elizabeth Tisdell, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education, is the former head of Health and Professional Studies within the School of Behavioral Sciences and Education, and taught at Penn State Harrisburg in the Lifelong Learning and Adult Education graduate programs. She received her Ed.D. in Adult Education from the University of Georgia, and holds an M.A. in Religion and Religious Education from Fordham University, and a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Maine. She was the Chair of the Commission of Professors of Adult Education through the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education from 2012-2014, the Co-Editor of the Adult Education Quarterly, from 2006-2011, and serves on numerous editorial boards of scholarly journals.
Research
Dr. Tisdell's research interests and publications have spanned the areas of qualitative and mixed methods research, spirituality and culture in adult learning and in the health and education professions, in medical education and in transformative pilgrimage learning. She has also done research over the years in critical media literacy and financial literacy among adult learners, and feminist and social justice issues in higher and adult education. More recently she has been focusing on the role of meditation and embodied learning and its implications for health and well-being of communities of adult learners. Her most recent research with colleagues is “The Effects of Heart Rhythm Meditation on Vagal Tone and Well Being: A Mixed Methods Research Study.”
Research Interests
- Qualitative research
- Spirituality and Culture in Adult and Higher Education
- Health and education professions
- Medical education
- Critical media literacy and financial literacy among adult learners
- Feminist and social justice issues in higher and adult education
Publications
(See the Curriculum Vitae for the full list of publications.)
Selected Books
Tisdell, E., Gupta, K, & Archuleta, K. (Eds) (2019). Meditation and mindfulness in adult education. New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education, no 161. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Merriam, S., & Tisdell E. (2016). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (4th edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sprow Forte, K., Taylor, E., & Tisdell, E. (2014). Financial literacy education and adult education. New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education, no 141. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Tisdell, E., & Swartz, A. (Eds) (2011). Adult education and the pursuit of wisdom. New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education, no 131. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Tisdell, E., & Thompson, P. (Eds.) (2007), Popular culture, entertainment media, and adult education. New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education. no 115. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Tisdell, E. (2003). Exploring spirituality and culture in adult and higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Selected Recent Refereed Articles
Vipler, B., Green, M., McCall-Hosenfeld, J., Haidet, P., Tisdell, E. (0nline first, published May 13, 2022). A graphic transformation: A qualitative study of transformative learning in medical trainees during COVID 19 using comics as data presentation. Teaching and Learning in Medicine.
Whalen, G., & Tisdell, E. (2023). Black and blue butterflies: The Transformative journey of mothers who lost a child to suicide. Journal of Transformative Education, 21 (2), 207-224. (First published April 2022 in online first)
Tisdell, E., Whalen, G. Johnson, M. (2022). The supervision of autoethnographic dissertation studies: Transformative stories of the supervisor and the supervised revealed. Adult Learning, 33 (2). 51-60
Cooper, A., & Tisdell, E. (2020). Embodied aspects of learning to be a surgeon. Medical Teacher, 42 (5), 515-522. . DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2019.1708289
Tisdell, E. (2020). Re-searching spirituality and culture: Transformative pilgrimage learning and living answers into big questions. Journal for the Study of Spirituality, 10 (1), 1-11.
Zorrilla, A., & Tisdell, E. (2016). Art as critical public pedagogy: A qualitative study of Luis Camnitzer and his conceptual art. Adult Education Quarterly. 66, 273-291.
Tisdell, E., Redmon Wright, R., Taylor, E., (2016). Adult education faculty and programs in North America: Faculty background, work, and satisfaction. Adult Education Quarterly. 66 (1), 76-95.
Tobin, J., & Tisdell, E. (2015). “I know down to my ribs”: A narrative research study on the embodied adult learning of creative writers. Adult Education Quarterly. 65 (3), 215-231
Tisdell, E., Taylor, E., & Sprow Forte, K. (2013). Community based financial literacy education in a cultural context: A study of teacher beliefs and pedagogical practice. Adult Education Quarterly. 63 (4), 338-356.
Tisdell, E. (2010). The role of spirituality in Irish adult education in culturally responsive teaching. The Adult Learner 2010: The Irish Journal of Adult and Community Education 91-104.
Gusic, M., Milner, R., Tisdell, E., Taylor, E., Quillen, D., T & Thorndyke, L. (2010). The essential value of projects in faculty development. Academic Medicine, 85 (9), 1484-1491.
Stuckey, H., & Tisdell, E. (2010). The role of creative expression in diabetes: An exploration and into the meaning making process. Qualitative Health Research, 20, 42-56.
Recent Refereed Book Chapters
Tisdell, E. (2023). The braid of transformative learning, spirituality, and creativity: The impetus to create as well as critique. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2023, 37-50.
Tisdell, E., & Swartz, A. (2022). Transformative pilgrimage learning and the Big Questions in the COVID 19 era—Love, death, and legacy: Implications for lifelong learning and nursing education. In A. Nicholaides, S. Eschenbacher, P. Buergelt, Y. Gilpin-Jackson, and M Misawa (Eds), The Palgrave handbook of learning for transformation (pp. 199-217). Palgrave MacMillan.
Tisdell, E. (2020). The pulpit and the pew: Transformative teaching and learning and making sense of spiritual and religious experience: A Covid-19 view. In C.A. Lemke (ed), Public Sphere and Religion. Entangled Relations in History, Education and Society (pp. 205-230. Olms-Wiedmann,
Tisdell, E., & Riley, T. (2019) The landscape of mindfulness and meditation in adult education: A partial prescription (and critique) for lifelong learning and well-being. In E. Tisdell, K. Gupta, and K. Archuleta (Eds.), Meditation and mindfulness in Adult Education (pp. 9-20). New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No 161 (pp. 9-20). Wiley.
Doyle, J., Tisdell, E., & Palmer, C. (2019). Bonsai as meditation for adult learning. In E. Tisdell, K. Gupta, and K. Archuleta (Eds.), Meditation and mindfulness in Adult Education (pp. 103-112). New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No 161. Wiley.
Tisdell, E., & Palmer, C. (2018). Adult development in health professions education in a changing health care context: The need for self-care. In B. Daley & R. Cervero (Eds). Adult Education: Foundations for Health Professions Education Programs. (pp. 17-26), New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Tisdell, E. (2017). Transformative pilgrimage learning and spirituality on the Camino de Santiago. In A. Laros, T. Fuhr, & E. Taylor (Eds), Transformative learning meets Bildung (pp. 341-352). The Netherlands: Sense Publishing.
Tisdell, E., Wojnar, M., & Sinz, E. (2016). Developing continuing professional education in the health and medical professions through collaboration. In M. Coady, Contexts, practices, and challenges: Critical insights for continuing professional education (pp. 69-79). New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, no. 151. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Johnson-Bailey, J., & Tisdell, E. (2014). Women, gender politics, and adult education in the contemporary world: Leaning in to “progress”. In S.& G. Bersch (eds). No small lives: Handbook of North American early women adult educators (pp. 263-272). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishers.
Education
B.A.; M.A.; Ed.D. (Georgia)