This thesis examines the potential of experiential education as a 'best practice' pedagogy for pre-service teacher education in environmental education. The study involves forty pre-service teachers working collaboratively with the researcher in 1998 to test the assumptions of two previous groups of beginning teachers (1996 and 1997) who indicated in their course evaluations that experiential education may provide an effective teaching and learning approach for environmental education. This study combines two approaches to participative inquiry: action inquiry and cooperative inquiry. Both research approaches promote reflection-in-action and involve groups of individuals working collaboratively together as reflective practitioners. The data sources included reflective journals, a researcher diary, pre and post course questionnaires, individual interviews and group interviews. The environmental education course is a single case study and reflects the experience of three groups of students. The first group completed a 20 hour course in experiential education before starting the environmental education course, the second group completed both courses concurrently, while the third group only completed the environmental education course. The purpose of the literature review in experiential education and environmental education in teacher education is to provide a rationale for using a transformative teaching and learning approach in pre-service teacher education for environmental education. Contemporary best practice pedagogical approaches for environmental education are supported by many of the core principles of experiential education highlighting compatibility between theory and practice. The findings show that a transformative teaching and learning approach in environmental education was achieved by combining four key characteristics of experiential education in a holistic process. The four characteristics included reflection, connection to personal experience, emotionally engaged learning and student-centred teaching and learning. The impact of combining these four characteristics resulted in higher interest, motivation and enthusiasm for achieving the social action outcomes of environmental education. Thus, the pre-service teachers confirmed a synergy emerged between the outcomes of environmental education and the pedagogical process of experiential education. The experiential approach allowed the pre-service teachers to engage in the role of the critical reflective practitioner. Consequently, the pre-service teachers were able to identify the potential and possibilities for implementing experiential education strategies in environmental education and also recognise and challenge the barriers that confine and constrain its use in teacher education and formal schooling. As a consequence the pre-service teachers identified that working in collaborative groups of reflective practitioners was essential to continue developing effective facilitation skills and also to help them challenge traditional practice that limited their professional development. They also identified significant changes to the pre-service environmental education course to ensure a higher quality experience for subsequent groups of beginning teachers. The study highlights the need for more research into how well beginning teacher implementing environmental education function as reflective practitioners in their first few years in teaching and are able to challenge the barriers that limit transformative pedagogical approaches in schools.

O objetivo principal desta pesquisa orientou-se pela intenção de dar visibilidade à produção brasileira em Educação de pesquisas tipo pesquisa-ação / investigação-ação, focalizando, sobretudo, a pesquisa-ação colaborativa. Essas concepções de pesquisa estimulam a aproximação entre professores e pesquisadores, por meio da colaboração em processos investigativos desenvolvidos com, para e pelos professores sobre as práticas escolares. Na maioria dos casos, tais pesquisas foram desenvolvidas nas escolas. Este estudo foi desenvolvido em quatro estágios: O primeiro é constituído por um estudo bibliográfico que objetivou indicar os teóricos que influíram nessa modalidade de pesquisa em seu enraizamento no Brasil. Para isso, tomamos alguns autores: Saul, Freire, Thiollent, Barbier, Costa, André, Nóvoa, Geraldi, Fiorentini, Pereira, Stenhouse, Elliott, Carr, Kemmis e Zeichner. Num segundo momento, fizemos um mapeamento das dissertações e teses tipo pesquisa-ação / investigação-ação produzidas nos Programas de Pós-Graduação em Educação do Brasil no período entre 1966-2002, apresentando-os em categorias e subcategorias investigadas. O terceiro é constituído por um estudo documental qualitativo sobre uma amostra de pesquisas-ação, designadas por pesquisas-ação colaborativas. Procuramos dar visibilidade aos processos empreendidos em tais pesquisas: Como se organizaram? Como os processos foram conduzidos? Que estratégias foram utilizadas pelos pesquisadores para estimular o professor a refletir e a investigar suas práticas? Como aconteceu o processo de mudança? No que os professores mudaram? Que problemas enfrentaram? Que procedimentos de análise e coleta de dados utilizaram? Na quarta sessão, traçamos nossas considerações finais. Nela procuramos relacionar as práticas empreendidas nas teses e dissertações estudadas (categorias empíricas: focos das pesquisas; espaço de concretização das pesquisas; organização processual das pesquisas; repercussão do processo; problemas enfrentados; e recursos metodológicos utilizados) e as teorias sobre pesquisa-ação. / The main object of this research aimed for giving visibility to the Brazilian production in action-research / action-inquiry, focusing overall on collaborative action-research. These research\'s conceptions stimulates the approach among teachers and researchers, by collaborating on investigative proceedings developed with, for e by teachers on school practices. In most cases, those researches were developed in schools. This study was developed in four sections: The first one is formed by a bibliographic study that aimed to indicate the theoreticians that have influenced this modality of research in Brazil. In order to achieve that some authors were taken: Saul, Freire, Thiollent, Barbier, Costa, André, Nóvoa, Geraldi, Fiorentini, Pereira, Stenhouse, Elliott, Carr, Kemmis and Zeichner. On the second part we have mapped dissertations and thesis on this kind of action-research, produced in Post Graduation Programs of Education in Brazil, between 1966-2002, presenting them in categories and subcategories investigated. The third one is formed by a qualitative documental study about a sample of actionresearches, designed by collaborative action-researches. It aimed to give visibility to process undertaken in those researches. How did they get organized? How the process were lead? Which strategies were used by the researches to stimulate teachers to reflect and investigate their practices? How happened the changing process? How have the teachers changed? What kind of problems they faced? Which proceedings of analysis and collecting of data did they use? On the fourth section, supported by the first and third parts, we related the practices undertaken in thesis and dissertations studied (empirical categories: researches\'s focus; space of materialization of the researches; procedural organization of the researches; repercussion of the process; problems faced and; methodological resources used) and the theories about action-research.

O objetivo principal desta pesquisa orientou-se pela intenção de dar visibilidade à produção brasileira em Educação de pesquisas tipo pesquisa-ação / investigação-ação, focalizando, sobretudo, a pesquisa-ação colaborativa. Essas concepções de pesquisa estimulam a aproximação entre professores e pesquisadores, por meio da colaboração em processos investigativos desenvolvidos com, para e pelos professores sobre as práticas escolares. Na maioria dos casos, tais pesquisas foram desenvolvidas nas escolas. Este estudo foi desenvolvido em quatro estágios: O primeiro é constituído por um estudo bibliográfico que objetivou indicar os teóricos que influíram nessa modalidade de pesquisa em seu enraizamento no Brasil. Para isso, tomamos alguns autores: Saul, Freire, Thiollent, Barbier, Costa, André, Nóvoa, Geraldi, Fiorentini, Pereira, Stenhouse, Elliott, Carr, Kemmis e Zeichner. Num segundo momento, fizemos um mapeamento das dissertações e teses tipo pesquisa-ação / investigação-ação produzidas nos Programas de Pós-Graduação em Educação do Brasil no período entre 1966-2002, apresentando-os em categorias e subcategorias investigadas. O terceiro é constituído por um estudo documental qualitativo sobre uma amostra de pesquisas-ação, designadas por pesquisas-ação colaborativas. Procuramos dar visibilidade aos processos empreendidos em tais pesquisas: Como se organizaram? Como os processos foram conduzidos? Que estratégias foram utilizadas pelos pesquisadores para estimular o professor a refletir e a investigar suas práticas? Como aconteceu o processo de mudança? No que os professores mudaram? Que problemas enfrentaram? Que procedimentos de análise e coleta de dados utilizaram? Na quarta sessão, traçamos nossas considerações finais. Nela procuramos relacionar as práticas empreendidas nas teses e dissertações estudadas (categorias empíricas: focos das pesquisas; espaço de concretização das pesquisas; organização processual das pesquisas; repercussão do processo; problemas enfrentados; e recursos metodológicos utilizados) e as teorias sobre pesquisa-ação. / The main object of this research aimed for giving visibility to the Brazilian production in action-research / action-inquiry, focusing overall on collaborative action-research. These research\'s conceptions stimulates the approach among teachers and researchers, by collaborating on investigative proceedings developed with, for e by teachers on school practices. In most cases, those researches were developed in schools. This study was developed in four sections: The first one is formed by a bibliographic study that aimed to indicate the theoreticians that have influenced this modality of research in Brazil. In order to achieve that some authors were taken: Saul, Freire, Thiollent, Barbier, Costa, André, Nóvoa, Geraldi, Fiorentini, Pereira, Stenhouse, Elliott, Carr, Kemmis and Zeichner. On the second part we have mapped dissertations and thesis on this kind of action-research, produced in Post Graduation Programs of Education in Brazil, between 1966-2002, presenting them in categories and subcategories investigated. The third one is formed by a qualitative documental study about a sample of actionresearches, designed by collaborative action-researches. It aimed to give visibility to process undertaken in those researches. How did they get organized? How the process were lead? Which strategies were used by the researches to stimulate teachers to reflect and investigate their practices? How happened the changing process? How have the teachers changed? What kind of problems they faced? Which proceedings of analysis and collecting of data did they use? On the fourth section, supported by the first and third parts, we related the practices undertaken in thesis and dissertations studied (empirical categories: researches\'s focus; space of materialization of the researches; procedural organization of the researches; repercussion of the process; problems faced and; methodological resources used) and the theories about action-research.

Facilitating forgiveness: an NLP approach to forgiving is an attempt at uncovering features of the blocks that prevent people to forgive. These blocks to forgiveness can be detected in the real life situations of the six individuals who told me their stories. The inner thoughts, feelings and the subsequent behaviour that prevented them from forgiving others is clearly uncovered in their stories. The facilitation process highlights the features that created the blocks in the past thus preventing forgiveness to occur. The blocks with their accompanying features reveal what needs to be clarified or changed in order to eventually enable the hurt individuals to forgive those who have hurt them. The application of discourse analysis to the stories of hurt highlights the links between the real life stories of the individuals within their contexts with regard to unforgiveness to the research findings of the existing body of knowledge, thereby creating a complexly interwoven comprehensive understanding of the individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in conjunction with their developmental phases within their socio-cultural contexts. Neuro-linguistic-programming (NLP) is the instrument with which forgiving is facilitated in the six individuals who expressed their conscious desire to forgive, because they were unable to do so on their own. Their emotions had the habit of keeping them in a place in which they were forced to relive the hurtful event as if it were happening in the present. Arresting the process of reliving negative emotions requires a new way of being in this world. The assumption that this can be learnt is based on the results from a previous study, in which forgiveness was uncovered by means of the grounded theory approach as a cognitive process (Von Krosigk, 2000). The results from the previous research in conjunction with the results and insights from this research study are presented in the form of a grounded theory model of forgiveness. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

The focus of this study has been to connect the idea of developing schools as learning organisations with the notion of developing learning leaders and building school capacity for our knowledge economy. Therefore, this action-inquiry self-study has examined the issues of curriculum reform in the context of more general organisational reform. It has explored the notion of schools being recultured or reconstructed to work as learning organisations in a climate that focuses on the improved social and academic learning outcomes of their students. This self-study represents two significant chapters in my professional life and captures approximately four years of professional snapshots. It has allowed me to examine my practice of partnering, conversing, arranging and developing shared vision across two schools. This study recognized these as powerful reculturing mechanisms and affirmed that conversations about learning, shared beliefs mission and vision, enabling leadership that reflects parallel learning relationships and enabling organisational arrangements are critical for sustainable reform. Consequently the exploration of the relationship between teacher learning, teacher leadership and a professional learning culture has been the main focus for this research. Analytical processes for this study first explored the relationship between teacher learning, teacher leadership and a professional learning culture through an examination of current curriculum reforms. This is followed by a layered analysis of the two narratives based on my leadership in two different school settings. A rigorous mapping and scanning process then assisted the analysis of these narratives. This process was supported by a number of specific conceptual frameworks that underpin the school reculturing process and reflect key qualities of schools that work as learning organisations. Six significant snapshots emerged from the analysis of the two narratives. The deeper analysis of these snapshots, which have been referred to as close-ups, formed a number of my first tentative propositions. These layers of investigation were also supported by the responses of several key snapshot participants and reader respondents, before the final propositions were made. These responses recognised that an organisation that works together, learns together; and that there is strength and powerful learning when leadership can assist practitioners to work as a learning community. These qualities were found to be directly related to this study's proposed reconstructed model for developing schools as learning organisations. The reconstructed model recognised a number of other less visible elements that can be seen in a school working as a learning organisation. These elements relate directly to enabling/capacity building leadership and the associated relationship skills of leaders. They were found to be necessary elements for effective collaboration and for creating spaces for conversation, reflection, spontaneity and risk-taking. This study also recognised that any deconstruction and reconstruction of a school as a learning organisation is first a reconstruction of core beliefs and values. These beliefs and values are reflected in a school's culture and are inclusive of the visible and less visible elements. The constant examination of one's assumptions, ideas, values and beliefs has been considered to be essential to the analysis process, as well as to the process of reform and achieving organisational change. The study revealed, therefore, that enabling/capacity-building leadership is a key to the process of reculturing a school as a learning organisation. The data from respondents also indicates that this notion of leadership as being enabling/capacity building has also been a primary focus for answering the second of the key research questions: 'How does a process of deconstruction and reconstruction take place?' The additional points of difference/interest that emerged from the various respondents suggest that the process of deconstruction and reconstruction of a school as a learning organisation would be assisted by realising that energy and passion are needed for enabling/capacity building leadership. This form of leadership requires moving from being top-down and become more parallel with renewed learning relationships. This study affirmed that this focus on establishing parallel learning relationships assists in the development of parallel learning leadership and parallel learning partnerships. Enabling/capacity building leaders working in parallel with their teachers can also play an important role in developing/supporting flexible and imaginative school organisation. In this way enabling/capacity building leaders can work as learning leaders and brokers to assist the development of other learning partnerships/alliances. This community building strategy can consequently develop opportunities for teachers to work and learn collaboratively as learning leaders. Enabling/capacity building leadership is correctly placed as the key to considering how the deconstruction and reconstruction process takes place. Further, the reconstruction process taking place reflect a culture of dynamic inquiry. This is made possible when enabling/capacity building leaders share and commit to similar notions of schools working as learning organisations and teachers are assisted/brokered to work collaboratively for professional alliances and professional growth. Consequently this study proposes that teachers cope better with the ever-increasing demands of curriculum reforms if: * schools can work as learning organisations * schools allow teachers to work as learning leaders * administrative leaders support/enable and model risk-taking, spontaneous and collaborative practices * there are shared beliefs, mission and vision; organisational arrangements/support; conversations for learning; shared approaches to pedagogy, and parallel relationships * enabling/capacity-building leadership for learning alliances allows for a professional culture of dynamic inquiry that can evolve with a renewed focus on conversations for learning. The findings of this study have theoretical, methodological and practical significance. In the first instance it presents as theoretical significance, the reconstruction of a theoretical framework for schools working as learning organisations. The methodological significance is reflected in this study's emphasis on theorising through layers. The methodological contribution acknowledges a legitimate and rigorous form of practitioner research, revealing self-study methodology at a level that is more then mere self-indulgence. In presenting its final contribution, the thesis acknowledges the practical contribution of the study by emphasising the process involved in creating a culture of dynamic inquiry. The transformative nature of this action- inquiry self-study is therefore confirmed in this study. The layered analysis reflects a process of making sense of the messiness of practitioner research, and consequently provides a true sense of this established form of practical theorising in the teaching profession. These characteristics should be seen not as limitations, but rather as authentic strengths.

Facilitating forgiveness: an NLP approach to forgiving is an attempt at uncovering features of the blocks that prevent people to forgive. These blocks to forgiveness can be detected in the real life situations of the six individuals who told me their stories. The inner thoughts, feelings and the subsequent behaviour that prevented them from forgiving others is clearly uncovered in their stories. The facilitation process highlights the features that created the blocks in the past thus preventing forgiveness to occur. The blocks with their accompanying features reveal what needs to be clarified or changed in order to eventually enable the hurt individuals to forgive those who have hurt them. The application of discourse analysis to the stories of hurt highlights the links between the real life stories of the individuals within their contexts with regard to unforgiveness to the research findings of the existing body of knowledge, thereby creating a complexly interwoven comprehensive understanding of the individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in conjunction with their developmental phases within their socio-cultural contexts. Neuro-linguistic-programming (NLP) is the instrument with which forgiving is facilitated in the six individuals who expressed their conscious desire to forgive, because they were unable to do so on their own. Their emotions had the habit of keeping them in a place in which they were forced to relive the hurtful event as if it were happening in the present. Arresting the process of reliving negative emotions requires a new way of being in this world. The assumption that this can be learnt is based on the results from a previous study, in which forgiveness was uncovered by means of the grounded theory approach as a cognitive process (Von Krosigk, 2000). The results from the previous research in conjunction with the results and insights from this research study are presented in the form of a grounded theory model of forgiveness. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)