As calls for institutions of higher education to educate globally competent citizens have intensified over the last two decades, the field of international service learning (ISL) has responded resoundingly. ISL programs have been implemented at many institutions and there have been countless studies that demonstrate the great power for student learning and growth inherent in this exciting educational tool. In more recent years, experts have moved away from studying the student experience and have, instead, questioned the power relationships inherent in service learning programs abroad; related studies have made use of newer critical theories and community development philosophies, which have advanced the field tremendously. However, to date, the re-entry period has still been largely overlooked, and there has been a noticeable lack of studies that apply student development theories to the ISL experience. This study explores how a diverse group of students from a large, public, four-year institution on the West Coast experience transformational learning during an ISL program in Thailand and how they make sense of their experience upon their return to the U.S. and in the months afterwards. By utilizing a case study design and implementing qualitative methods, this study provides significant evidence that well-designed ISL programs can trigger transformational learning in a variety of ways and that the re-entry period is a significant time of learning and growth for students. Further, the findings importantly show that by creating strategic opportunities for students to learn and connect with others on the program, both during and after the ISL experience, students are better able to navigate the changes in themselves after returning home. Finally, the experiences of the students indicate that the processes associated with transformational learning continue well on after the in-country experience, highlighting the significant need to provide support and guidance for students during this time. / Educational Leadership

This study examines transformative learning in the context of an annual First Nations journey in traditional cedar dugout canoes tracing ancestral trading routes between Western Washington and British Columbia. Transformative learning is a shift or change in perspective of self, life, and the world. The goal was: to illuminate the role of Indigenous cultures in facilitating transformative learning for Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners; to contribute to the development of transformative learning theory; to provide research that contributes convergent solutions to global issues and the development of interdisciplinary methodology, integrating Western and Indigenous worldviews; and to construct an integrated transformative program for participants to ensure that the results benefit them. To achieve these goals, an Integrated Voice Approach (IVA) was applied, piecing together different techniques, tools, methods, representations and interpretations to construct a multi-faceted reality. The IVA is constructed through the use of five “voices” strengthened by building on each other: Indigenous Voice, Grounded Theory Voice, Auto-ethnographic Voice, Ethno-ecological Voice, and Integrative Voice, harmonizing the previous four voices. Demonstrated here are an integration of interviews, researcher field notes, participation, observations and photographs, revealing that transformative learning in this context is dependent on the cultural landscape, cultural memory and somatic and embodied knowing, enacted in a repeating cycle of paddling, circling, dancing, singing, storytelling and drumming. The components of this learning process are measured through mental, emotional, spiritual and physical indicators and draw on traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom. The study develops guiding principles to provide a foundation for future curriculum development for transformative learning. / Graduate

This study is an analysis of a three-phase study with twelve professional scientists and non-scientists (Phase One), one-hundred and twenty-three science and non-science university students (Phase Two) and thirty secondary school girls (Phase Three), to illustrate their ‘science lives’. I have used identity theories and transformational learning theory (TLT) to illustrate transformation or movement of learners towards, or away from, science. The understanding of these models and theories have led me to design a theoretical model of science identity (Sci-ID) that represents the global forces (GF) experienced by learners, the social agencies and agents (SA) that embody those forces, the transformational learning (TL) experiences (events, triggers and interventions) that shape personal meaning, and the inclinations and individual internal agency (IIA) that impact upon individuals’ subject and career choices. I have adopted semi-structured ‘narrative’ styled interviews, a descriptive questionnaire and science ‘intervention evaluation’ approaches from the three cohorts. The data generated has been analysed in several ways, including the use of synoptic analysis to construct individual stories about the participants, in third-person voice, from their responses. These stories and the broader, aggregated, thematic, outcomes have been used to examine the Sci-ID model. These outcomes stress three main themes related to the study (or not) of science, that include (i) progressive transformational learning and smooth transformation, (ii) progressive transformational learning and wavering transformation and (iii) reconstructive transformational learning and wavering transformation. These themes indicates that people in life accept and reject certain TL experiences that either ‘go with their IIA’ or ‘go against it’. The majority find their way, choose and select TL experiences exhibiting small or medium movement towards or away from science. However, very few people exhibit large movement accompanied by regressive TL experiences. This study also reveals the existence of two very broad kinds of people (i) people who demonstrate stable pro-science or anti science and (ii) ‘fluid’ people who populate the centre-ground between pro-science and anti-science people. The fluid group caught my attention because their IIA shows greater ambivalence and the impact of GF, SA, incorporating events, triggers and interventions appear to have more impact than on those with a more stable science identity. Therefore, through six science education-based interventions I was able to work with – and influence - more ‘fluid’ kinds of secondary school girls. I used a number of mini-transformative experiences that led them to gain appreciation of science-based education and possible future science careers.

Human society faces many environmental and social threats as a result of systemic unsustainable behaviour and values. The root cause of these problems is our collective lack of awareness and inability to understand the connection between our actions and their consequences. Therefore there is a need to develop an increased perception of interconnectivity to prevent these unintended consequences. This study explores how a learning experience could be designed to develop an interconnected worldview in support of Strategic Sustainable Development. Research examines the concepts and capacities associated with developing an interconnected worldview, and pedagogical approaches for transformational adult learning. Finally, a guiding process is proposed for designing a learning experience in this context.

This case study addresses gaps in the global learning, transformational learning, and professional development literature. Research is lacking on the questions of if and how university faculty members view global learning curricula as transformational learning as a result of professional development and how this transformational learning applies to their teaching of global learning curricula. This study’s purpose is to explore whether university faculty members who have attended global learning professional development workshops perceive global learning as transformational learning and if they do, how they see global learning as transformational, and how this transformational learning informs their teaching. Research questions were answered by using a survey and interview guide developed by the researcher. All faculty members at FIU who have attended a global learning professional development workshop were invited to take the survey to identify faculty members who have had a transformational learning experience related to global learning. Thematic analysis of the survey and interview questions helped describe how faculty members perceived global learning as transformational learning and how faculty members applied this transformational learning to their teaching of global learning curricula. The study found that many university faculty members who have attended a global learning professional development workshop report a resulting transformational learning experience. These university faculty members perceive global learning as individual and collective opportunities and challenges. They apply this transformation to their teaching of global learning curricula through conceptual and individual instructional changes that facilitate and inform systematic awareness and systematic change. This study is significant because how a global learning curricula is viewed by a faculty member affects how it manifests in the curricula, how it is taught, and what students glean from it. How FIU explores this topic could be adopted by other institutions. This study also builds on the work of Dr. Jack Mezirow in transformational learning.

Partie d’une question faisant écho à celle de La Boétie sur la Servitude volontaire, dont la reproduction semble fondée sur l’éducation, cette recherche étudie les interactions parents-enfants et leur « éducation réciproque » (Baker) au sein de familles engagées à plein temps auprès de leurs enfants dans une démarche spécifique, hors institutions.Ces parents ont en commun une pratique inspirée de l’enseignement d’I. Tsuda, l’aikido, et le katsugen undo (mouvement régénérateur), qu’ils transfèrent au domaine éducatif, où l’enfant est perçu également comme un maître, pour ce qui concerne l’écoute des sens et le dialogue qu’il suscite, ce dialogue sensible ou « dialogue du silence ». Dans cette relation avec l’enfant, le corps,et tout le domaine du sensible sont centraux.A travers leurs expériences, il s’est agi de voir en quoi la prise en charge d’un enfant peut être un moment de rupture autoformatrice pour le parent devenu « expert profane », en quoi ce souci de l’autre est ou non producteur d’un « souci de soi », en quoi l’enfant, révélateur pour l’adulte de son enfance, agit comme un analyseur de ses conduites et peut devenir par sa « négatricité » (Ardoino),porteur d’instituant. Qu’est-ce qui, par cet « apprentissage transformateur » (Mezirow), voit la maïeutique, dans cet accompagnement, jouer sur les deux pôles, en mettant en valeur le spontané,l’intuition et l’autoformation chez l’enfant, formes éducatrices (plus qu’éducatives) qui se voient restaurées chez le parent. Avec le développement chez l’enfant de sa capacité à s’autodéterminer dans une relative liberté. / This research originates from a question in relation to La Béotie's work on voluntary servitude.As the perpetuation of voluntary servitude seems to stem from education, we shall examine parentchildinteraction and the « reciprocal educational effects » (Baker) it produces within those familieswhich are fully involved with and committed to a de-institutionalized, home education approachwith their children.The parents in these families have in common a practice inspired by the teachings of I. Tsuda,aikido, and katsugen undo (regenerative movement), which they apply to the educative field,whereby the child is seen also as a master as regards perceiving with all senses (which incites dialogue: « sensitive dialogue » or a « silent dialogue »). In this creation with the child, the body as wellas the whole field of perception are central.Through the experience of these families, this research proposes to examine how child education,as revealing of childhood to the parent, can bring in the latter a "self-educational"breakthrough –the parent being both a profane and an expert. It proposes to examine what parenthoodinvolves as a process for the parent, how caring for another person entails caring for oneself,how the child acts as an analyst of adult behaviour and, through his/her « negatricity » (Ardoino),how the child can bring about a change. It also proposes to examine the process through whichthis « transforming learning experience » (Merizow), where maieutics acts on both ends (child-parent)and where emphasis – as regards the child - is given to spontaneity, intuition and self-education,restores a form of self-education for the parent. How this, for the child, fosters an individualcapacity for self-determination in a context of relative freedom.

This study explores what happens as the ideals of a learnership, envisioned in the South African legislation, become real practice in a workplace within the financial services industry. Learnerships are at the centre stage for illuminating the processes of acquiring a vocational qualification, which combines education with work readiness. The constructivist philosophy to this research and its qualitative paradigm resonates well with the postmodernist thinking that knowledge has different purposes strongly linked to performance, demanding education that is value adding. It is through this postmodern lens that the broad theoretical framework for study is located. It encompasses theories of learning and workplace learning, such as Wenger’s (1998) perspectives on communities of practice and Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning circle. Mezirow’s (1981) transformative learning theory adds the dimension of dialogue. The method of illuminative evaluation is used to examine one event in order to explore its contextual insights. Qualitative inquiry has a fundamental people orientation and, for this reason, observation adds depth to the information gathering possibilities of interviews and document analysis. This report is enriched by narratives of people’s perspectives on events. This illuminative evaluation brought out rich and varied insights into the acquisition of knowledge, skills and work identity (values and attitudes), with some surprising and unexpected insights on success and failures. The workplace’s control of the learning process, while impacting extremely positively on the quality of the theoretical learning (which is interesting as education is not its core purpose), compromised in some respects the success of the end product of the learnership, the work readiness and employment possibilities of learners.

This dissertation presents an intervention-based study that aimed to enable teachers to improve teaching and learning in one school in Ramallah, Palestine. The non-positional approach to teacher leadership was adopted as a means to mobilise all teachers in the drive towards bottom-up, participatory school change processes that increase teacher self-efficacy and collaboration, build professional capacity and social capital, and promote sustainability. The Teachers Leading the Way programme provided a contextually tailored strategy, and set of instruments and tools that through reflective exercises and dialogic activities aimed to support teachers to innovate practice, and impact organisational structures and professional culture. This is significant in the Palestine setting for facilitating the building of locally based and sourced knowledge to inform an authentic Palestinian vision and agenda for policy-making and education reconstruction, with implications for countries of the Middle East and North Africa region. In the process, a grassroots change movement is intended to shift historical and continued reliance on foreign intervention and international assistance, and lay the foundation for democratisation and social transformation. The intervention was investigated using a critical action-based, participatory methodology that emphasised context and researcher reflexivity in one school and amongst a cohort of 12 participants. Data were collected using a range of research-designed and programme-based methods and instruments, analysed deductively and inductively, and narrated critically to maintain coherence, and convey experiential and temporal dimensions. The study outcomes indicate that teachers in Palestine are capable of leading school improvement, and impacting school structures and professional culture for system-wide change, when the proper support is provided. Non-positional teacher leadership is the vehicle and can be developed through Teachers Leading the Way. At the individual level, this is enabled through a transformation in teachers’ perspective towards a self-empowered, agential mindset that leads to action on ways to improve practice. The transition process underscores the role of effective facilitation as an enabling condition for developing non-positional teacher leadership in Palestine and similar settings.

The global challenges of our time are unprecedented and urgent action is needed. Transformational learning and leadership development are key leverage points for supporting society’s transition towards sustainability. Many even claim that learning on an individual, organisational and societal scale is required for society’s successful transitioning towards sustainability. However, in this relatively new field, practitioners, scholars and educators grapple with what best promotes transformational learning and with how to best design and operate learning experiences that truly build capacity for leadership for sustainability. The aim of this work was to establish an improved understanding of this and to find recommendations for practitioners and educators with ambitions to create systems change for sustainability by building the capacity of people to be sustainability leaders. As an educator and facilitator of sustainability work for over a decade, working at the crossroads of local government and community change, lecturing on leadership for sustainability in Australia and currently being embedded within the faculty of the Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) program in Sweden, I have rested this thesis firmly within an action-oriented transformations research paradigm in which the only way to understand a system is through a comprehensive collaborative attempt to change it. One case of action research explored an organisational change for sustainability program that spanned over five years in a local government in Perth, Western Australia and the learning and policy interventions that supported this change. Participant observation with field notes, interviews, surveys and document analysis were particular methods used in this case. Two further cases focused on the MSLS program and its practices and specific components that support such leadership development and transformational learning. Feedback surveys from students and an open question survey to alumni were key methods used in these cases. The findings suggest that community and relationships are essential for supporting and growing sustainability leadership capacity; that hope and agency are irreplaceable components for leading sustainability change; that self-reflection and dialogue are skills that will help sustainability leaders navigate complex and uncertain futures and that these can be learned. Findings also indicate that creating a shared language for sustainability work helps bridge disciplinary divides and practitioner silos, and that skills of dialogue are required to capitalise on participation. Also, the integration of the components of community, place, content, pedagogy and disorientation with hope and agency can help support transformation in sustainability leadership education and provide synergistic reinforcement of the sustainability transformation required. This thesis provides added evidence that learning can be a key leverage point for sustainability transformations in an organisation and suggests how such learning can be most effectively achieved through a conscious design of learning environments, including the use and integration of the mentioned components to improve sustainability leadership for impact in society.

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