This thesis seeks to highlight the transformative dimension of learning through analysis of the student experience of International Service-Learning (ISL). ISL is a pedagogical approach that seeks to blend student learning with community engagement overseas and the development of a more just society. It presents a useful strategy for Universities as they respond to reforms in Higher Education and seek to enhance both the student learning experience and graduate employability. However, ISL remains under-theorised. This study investigates the transformative nature of ISL as experienced by students at Liverpool Hope University (LHU), a British University with a rich tradition of ISL. Through interpreting student descriptions of their experience of ISL it seeks to analyse features of the transformative learning process in this context and understand the potential for transformative learning outcomes from ISL. A holistic conceptualisation of transformative learning is proposed that looks beyond an epistemological process that involves shifts in worldview and habits of mind to an ontological process that accounts for changes to the student's ways of being in the world. This study is conceptually. driven and empirically grounded. A framework emerges to think about the development of the authentic self as an ongoing process of becoming oneself, becoming persons-in-relation and becoming other-wise. Groups of conditions, processes and resultant dispositions are identified as being particularly useful for interpreting the experience of ISL for 27 students across a range of international locations. This thesis argues that transformative learning in this context is a form of engagement that has a distinctly moral dimension. Although ISL has the potential to be ethical in character, evidence is presented of a number of factors that tend to militate against this. The implications of this thesis for educators and researchers are elicited at the levels of practice, institutional ethos and partnership.

This thesis examines the Skills Strategy for England under New Labour as a contested project to govern workplace high(er) skill aspiration and behaviour. It analyses differentiated state strategies to promote and (re)produce responsible skills ambitions; the engagement of employer and employee representatives with these strategies to stretch and reshape, and resist and restate the project; and the implications for skills provision. The research involved interpretive analysis of policy documents, and in-depth interviews with policy-making elites; strategic representatives of business and worker/learner interests; and skills providers. To support my empirical focus this thesis is located within theories of the changing form and function of the state. Adopting a ‘cultural political economy’ approach, and drawing on critical governance studies, to illuminate the interplay between meaning production and practice, I challenge the conclusion that mechanisms for skills creation in England are premised on a misunderstanding of the skills motivations of employers and employees. Instead I expose state work through policy to produce and export a skills logic; constituting and positioning governable subjects in relation to their internalisation of these logics; and the role of differentiated policies to manoeuvre subjects towards preferential skills behaviours. The findings highlight that what is presented as a coherent ‘partnership’ approach to producing enhanced skills can be better understood as three distinctive state strategies, (demand-led; leading demand; circumventing lack of demand) , which are aimed at differently imagined and constructed workplaces, (enlightened; inert; or deviant), depending on their demonstrable degree of responsible skills ambition. I therefore term this project ‘state-steered voluntarism’. However, I also expose the limitations and limits of this project. Attempts to present policy coherence lacquers over latent tensions and contradictions between the different skills strategies, creating policy ‘opacities’ which serve as spaces for the strategic voices of employer/employee representation to talk back; disorganising the practices and processes of skills delivery.

L’ONG Surfrider Foundation Europe (SFE) s’interroge sur son modèle d’organisation, le rôle et la place de l’action bénévole après une très forte phase de professionnalisation. Autour de la question de la construction du sens pour les individus et les organisations, nous regarderons comment les processus de professionnalisation sont susceptibles de transformer le projet associatif. Ces transformations et ce changement de nature peuvent être source de sens ou de perte de sens pour les bénévoles. L’étude de ce cas unique nous permettra de proposer un modèle de pilotage qui tient compte de la spécificité et de la complexité des organisations associatives. Ces situations hybridées de travail, entre contributions de travail salarié, inscrites sous le registre de l’échange marchand, et contributions de travail bénévole, inscrites sous le registre du don, sont particulièrement riches d’enseignements pour d’autres « situations de gestion » (Girin, 1990). / The NGO Surfrider Foundation Europe questions its organisational model and more specifically the role and the place of volunteer action after a strong phase of professionalisation within the organisation. Regarding the question of the « sensemaking » both for the individuals and for the organisations, we will study how the processes of professionalisation are likely to transform the project of the association. These transformations and this change of constitution could either be a source of meaning or a loss of meaning for the volunteers. The study of this unique case will allow us to offer a steering model that will take into account the specifics and complexity of the associative organisations. These hybridized work situations, benefitting from paid employment input (registered as trade exchange) and from volunteer work input (registered as donation) are particularly instructive for other management situations (Girin, 1990).

L'avènement des nouvelles technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC) a ouvert des horizons nouveaux, mais pose également un certain nombre de défis aux sociétés humaines. Vaste plateforme de communication et d’expression, Internet a un impact sur les comportements sociaux des personnes et des communautés. Avec l’introduction du World Wide Web, de nouvelles formes de bénévolat/volontariat ont vu le jour. L'objectif de cette thèse est d’analyser ces nouvelles formes d’entraide regroupées sous le terme ‘cybervolontariat’. Le but est de construire un cade de référence grâce auquel le lecteur sera mieux en mesure de comprendre le rôle et l’influence de ce phénomène social tant sur la vie en ligne et hors ligne. Pour comprendre un phénomène nouveau, il faut observer, identifier, distinguer, définir, analyser et quantifier. Ce travail s’appuie sur un éventail d'exemples afin de distinguer le cybervolontariat d’autres formes de cyberactivité. / The advent of new information and communication technologies (ICT) has opened new horizons, but introduces also a certain number of challenges for human societies. A vast platform of communication and expression, the Internet has an impact on the social behavior of individuals and communities. With the introduction of the World Wide Web, new forms of volunteering have emerged.The objective of this research is to understand and present these new forms of mutual assistance which are brought together under the term ‘cybervolunteering’. This research is based on a range of examples in order to distinguish ‘cybervolunteering’ from other forms of cyber-activity. In order to understand a new phenomenon, it is necessary to observe, identify, distinguish, define, analyze and quantify. The purpose of this research is to build a framework through which the reader will be better able to understand the influence of this phenomenon on lives both online and offline.

This social constructionist study originated from the researcher’s exposure to the counselling volunteers environment. The study aimed to document the voices of three people, constructed as counselling volunteers. The three semi-structured interviews are with individuals who constructed themselves, or accepted the constructions of their role, as volunteers. The “case study approach” was chosen as the most suitable method to gather the information. “Thematic content analysis” was the method of analysis. The case studies of participants were reconstructed in terms of themes. Recurring themes in these case studies were expounded and linked within the literature. This study allowed valuable and rich information about the volunteerism to emerge. Amongst the themes that emerged, the need to help, being a good counsellor and resilience were identified as particularly important areas for future research. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

La recherche porte sur la reconnaissance de l’éthos professionnel de coordinateurs associatifs placés en situation d'accompagnement de bénévoles. Elle mobilise un cadre théorique qui articule les travaux sur la professionnalité émergente (Jorro, 2011) et l'éthos professionnel (Jorro, 2009 ; 2010) avec la théorie des communautés de pratique (Wenger, 2005). La méthodologie de recherche repose sur des entretiens d'explicitation (Vermersch, 1994) et de décryptage du sens (Faingold, 1998) pour accéder aux valeurs agies qui spécifient l’engagement dans une pratique culturelle (Billett, 2008). Les résultats révèlent l'émergence d'une communauté d'apprentissage salarié/bénévoles qui accompagne la construction de l’éthos professionnel des coordinateurs tout en interrogeant la formalisation de sa reconnaissance (Belair, 2009). Ces résultats de recherche ouvrent des pistes de réflexion susceptibles de contribuer au développement professionnel des acteurs associatifs. / The research focuses on professional ethos recognition of associative coordinators placed in a position of volunteers’ accompaniment. It mobilizes a theoretical framework that articulates work on emergent professionalism (Jorro, 2011) and professional ethos (Jorro, 2009; 2010) with communities of practice theory (Wenger, 2005). The research methodology is based on elicitation interviews (Vermersch 1994) and ‘decryption of meaning interviews’ (Faingold, 1998) to access to ‘acted out values’ ​​that specify commitment in a cultural practice (Billett, 2008). The results reveal an emergent employee/volunteers learning community accompanying professional ethos construction while questioning the formalization of its recognition (Belair, 2009). These research results provide lines of thought that can contribute to the professional development of associative actors.