Many people have focussed on the physical or technical aspects of what needs to change in order for us to achieve a sustainable society. These approaches have been vital in addressing major challenges facing our world. This study adds that in order for us to move towards a sustainable society it is fundamental to address the root cause of our unsustainable ways. The focus is at the level of the individual and how they can shift to a new way of thinking, a new paradigm of sustainability as the core driver to reaching a sustainable society. An understanding of the old paradigm and new paradigm is defined, and from literature review and expert feedback, four qualities are proposed that individuals need to develop in order to operate within a new paradigm of sustainability. The study explores and presents some of the most effective ways to develop these qualities within individuals and as a result of this research the authors propose a tool – a guidebook with the intention to help inspire and empower individuals to effect change in their own lives and organizations, live more whole, meaningful and authentic lives and, in this way, move society towards sustainability.

This research examines the practice of process consultancy in Sweden with a particular emphasis on working in disturbing and uncomfortable situations. The managerial discourses that consultants are working in are dominated by an abstract language with a relentless eye towards imaginative futures in the form of visions, missions, strategies, and goals (Stacey 2011, Mowles 2014). Based on linear casuality thinking that comes from the natural sciences, the assumption is of predictability and control. Therefore, disturbing, uncomfortable, or conflicting situations arising in practice are generally overlooked, avoided, or suppressed as they - per definition - are neither predictable nor controllable. Although process consultancy in many respects gradually has changed from delivery/expertise of ready made concepts into more of conversational facilitation, speaking partnerships, inquiry and coaching, disturbing and uncomfortable moments are still generally being avoided or overlooked. This research is a narrative-based inquiry that has served as a basis for engagement in literature, reflections, reflexive inquiries, and conversations with fellow researchers, members of faculty, and other practitioners. Out of this iterative and intese process, the arguments have emerged and developed. In describing a multitude of uncomfortable and disturbing situations from my practice, and while paying close attention to them in local context, a view of these situations as problematic and avoidable has moved into a wider and deeper understanding regarding what might be taking place among us. Interpreting directives, policies, and strategies - what to do and how to do it - in order to find the most functional ways forward is imperative in organisations. Hence, corrigibility and definite inquiries into worlds of practice and relations are necessities. As ideologies and intentions among people differ, problems and disturbances are inevitably encountered in processes of particularising (making concrete in specific contexts) generalised plans and strategies, which, in turn, creates different and new generalisations (Stacey 2011, p. 358). Utilising process consultancy in order to 'deal' with the above situation may, however, paradoxically enhance anxiety and disturbancies even more. In drawing attention to disturbances as central, 'normal', and generative (normforming), I have come to think of the actual process in process consultancy as having felt dissolving qualities. As 'states' of body/mind are temporary, shifting, and changing when we are being influenced and influence others and ourselves (constrain and enable) at the same time as we speak, a sense of solution often occurs in the process. Rather than solving or resolving issues - a more traditional approach, intentionally aiming at fixing something - acts of conversations and reflexive inquiries are not aiming anywhere in particular. They are explorative and mind-moving and make us re-identify or re-form our sense of self. Hence, in the process of 'loosening up or breaking apart' identity, a sense of solution (I refer to as dissolution) is felt to emerge. This process can be disturbing per se, and the newly gained thinking - also of a temporary kind - can be felt as 'better' or 'worse' or neither, as movements and outcomes are unpredictable. In process consultancy, the understanding of people as an elusive science - changeable, fluid, and plural (messy and needy rather than tidy and rational) - is helpful in order to understand 'stuckness' and enable movement by taking experience seriously rather than engaging in excessive quantification or being futuristic and idealising.

Paper title: Transition towards entrepreneurship Purpose: This paper explores and creates understanding regarding the identity transition of West Africa immigrants towards entrepreneurship. Methodology: This study applied a qualitative research method that was exploratory and descriptive in nature. Primary and secondary data were collected and used as sources of information. Primary data were obtained through multiple in-depth interviews strategy; the interviews were designed in a semi-structured format. In total, seven African immigrant entrepreneurs were respondents in this study. Secondary data utilized in this study comprised of information obtained via scientific materials and organizational websites. A convenience sampling method was determined as the appropriate method for selection of entrepreneurs’ sample that was utilized in this study. Key findings: This study found immigrant entrepreneurs to have a tendency to expose themselves to new practices and knowledge within their new environments. West Africa immigrants’ entrepreneurs are tenacious about valuable information in their new environment, they have a tendency to integrate new information to align with their previous work experiences. In the quest for channels to test business ideas acquired or perceived, immigrant entrepreneurs often try out their new ideas on a smaller scale. This study uncovered that a successful trial process tends to persuade immigrants towards entrepreneurship once an opportunity is well established. Immigrant entrepreneurs construct latent attitudes regarding potential new business prospects in order to solidify an entrepreneurial identity. Implication for practice: This study challenges the assertion made in past literatures which expressly concluded that people considered entrepreneurship as a highly professionalized occupation and stated that only few percentage of persons devotedly take the necessary steps to start a business. This study rejects the above argument by offering guidelines to anyone who may have entrepreneurial ideas or objectives but hesitates to make the identity change that is substantial to help create a transition.  Furthermore, revelations in this research showed that setting up a new business venture from scratch is conceivable, this study highlighted some extensive development processes that are essential in generating entrepreneurial identity.  Future research direction: Adequate attention and recognition have not been awarded to West African entrepreneurs in western society, and as well as in previous academic research. In western societies, people still view West African entrepreneurs as second-hand business minded traders. Hence, this study encourages upcoming academia to explore and create emphasis regarding the impact businesses owned by West Africa immigrants’ entrepreneurs produce in our today’s society. In conjunction to the above suggestion, it should be important to highlight useful channels through which our society (especially non-migrants) can support in encouraging and empowering various immigrant entrepreneurs towards growing their businesses in their various communities.

As an artist, my work reflects my own life experiences, allowing me to reinterpret and process difficult events in a new light. Creating art is a therapeutic process for me, enabling me to explore and understand my past and my own Self. In line with James Baldwin's views, I believe that the duty of an artist is to provide their audience with an opportunity to rediscover themselves; to help them explore their inner selves. In my experience, to achieve that goal, the first and most important hurdle the artist needs to cross is exploring themselves. In the process of answering questions about their own selves, they can touch many other souls. In Fragmented Self, I employ composited 3D animations of my own body parts juxtaposed over still and moving images. Each body part and piece in Fragmented Self is a metaphorical representation of a specific experience I have lived through. The resulting pieces are meditative, surreal, and abstracted spaces that speak to the complexities of life experiences. I believe each body holds messages from the past, and in Fragmented Self, I disembody and fragment my own body to study and explore my own Self. Drawing inspiration from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass in which he proclaims, "I contain multitudes", I see my Self as a composite of various selves shaped by different life experiences coming together to form one Self. I believe that I am a constantly evolving individual, influencing my everyday encounters and choices. As in the Japanese tradition of Kintsugi, in Fragmented Self, I trace the gold lined cracks that unite my multitudinous selves into one in hopes of answering the question "What makes me who I am today?" / Master of Fine Arts / Fragmented Self is a body of artwork created in an effort to learn about my own Self. The work explores how I see my Self as containing multiple selves. The project utilizes video and 3D rendering to create digital composites with semi-realistic aesthetics. The finished work includes 3 pieces focusing on ideas of time, perception, and fragmentation.

<p>This thesis looks at the experience of motherhood among a sample of full-time employed mothers of pre-school children in the Metro Toronto region. The perceived costs, rewards and meaning of being a mother of young children are explored. The focus of analysis is on identity. The data show how, along with the increased workload, motherhood also provided opportunities for women to claim personal growth and development and to constitute themselves as 'morally' enhanced persons.</p> <p>The processes whereby women were 'recruited' to motherhood varied by social class and were often subjectively experienced as tentative or problematic. The data show how motherhood did not simply express gender identity as is often argued, but it allowed women to achieve a gendered identity. That is, the social organization of parenting was a profoundly socializing experience that produced, and not merely reflected, a gendered experience of self. Becoming a mother was both a gendered and engendered process whereby women came to a new sense of self. Thus, in contrast to the diversity in the ways women came to have children, women came to share experiences which transformed their identities in very similar ways. Women produced babies, but having babies produced 'womanly' persons.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The purpose of this interpretive qualitative case study was to explore how possible selves of four pre-service EFL teachers changed during their last 10 months at university and what factors were involved in developing and changing their possible selves. The concept of possible selves is a future-oriented self-concept that involves one's motivation to move toward one's ideal future selves and move away from one's feared selves. Ought-to selves are also believed to work as motivators. The main data sources included two written possible selves stories from each participant, four sets of semi-structured interviews, short e-mail messages with emoticons, and official practicum reports. Through a narrative analysis of these data, I found that participants' rather general possible teacher selves changed to more realistic, elaborated ones after they had experienced practicums. These revised possible selves were not always in the direction of more positive, more ideal selves, but also toward feared and ought-to teacher selves. The data analysis also revealed that the participants found a large gap between their actual L2 selves and ought-to L2 selves, and consequently they developed feared L2 selves who would likely get embarrassed in front of others because of their poor English speaking ability. However, they took no action to prevent their feared L2 selves because becoming fluent in English was possibly seen as a temporally distant unreachable goal that did not merit an investment of time and energy. The study also found that interpersonal relationships with parents, teachers in the past, cooperating teachers during practicum, students at school, and peers were important factors contributing to participants' developing and changing possible selves. I end with suggestions that policy makers, universities, teacher educators, and supervising teachers of student teachers seriously consider issues that will help improve English education in Japan as well as lead to better teacher education programs to prepare EFL pre-service teachers for the rather harsh conditions in the teaching profession in Japan. / Teaching & Learning

This research explored the perception of the incorporation of ‘future-self’ for young people (YP) moving from specialist provision for children where the Local Authority have identified the provision as Moderate Learning Difficulties and additional needs, their parent/carers views, and the perspectives of professionals supporting their transition to mainstream further education. The ‘future-self’ approach had its basis in social cognitive theory, as the creation of imagined ‘future-selves’ is thought to influence an individual’s behaviour to aid them to work towards their aspired self (Baker, 2015; Markus & Nurius, 1986; Oysterman & James, 2011). Phase one used a case study methodology using semi-structured interviews to explore the YP and their parent/carer’s experience of transition planning having included the young person’s vision of their ‘future-self’, at aged 16. Materials were designed to aid their understanding using visual support. Phase two gained the views of YP using focus groups as they approach transition out of FE at aged 19 or older into continued training, employment, and on towards adulthood, in relation to inclusion of their vision of their ‘future-self’ in this preparation. This phase also explored the perceptions of the professionals for incorporating the young person’s view of their ‘future-self’ using semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six stage thematic analysis to identify themes in the data. Focus groups were thematically analysed using Ritchie and Spencer’s (1994) five stage analysis. A number of themes were found for the YP at both stages, the parents/carers and the professionals. Findings indicated that the YP are more involved in the transition planning and a range of methods are applied to prepare the YP however there are a number of barriers still limiting the options for the YP such as: lack of choice available, protectiveness of others, low aspirations, failure to explore holistic longer term outcomes, insufficient multi-agency involvement, overreliance on parents, and the need for more effective strategic planning and awareness of the systems around the YP. The findings from this research indicate that applying a ‘future-selves’ approach for YP as a method to generate future aspirations to motivate YP’s behaviour has been effective as a tool to add to existing transition preparations. This could act as a way to overcome the currently existing poorer long term outcomes for YP with this population. Based upon this small scale project, further investigation would be required to assess the benefit for a wider population.

Despite the demand for a diverse STEM-educated population and workforce, college students have consistently turned away from these disciplines in large numbers, creating a persistent problem that many are trying to address. The aim of the National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program is to inspire, attract, and retain STEM majors. Funding supports undergraduate STEM students' engagement in real-world research alongside STEM mentors. As colleges and universities compete for funding for REUs, it is important to understand the mechanisms within summer research programs that resonate most deeply with undergraduate STEM researchers. While many studies reveal strong correlations between research experiences and STEM aspirations, less is known about the mechanisms within REU programs that support these gains. My research used quantitative and qualitative self-reported data from 20 REU students, 18 of whom were underrepresented minorities in STEM. Over two summers, these students, in cohorts of ten, came to the University of Vermont to participate in a team-oriented, 10-week REU: Interdisciplinary Research on Human Impacts in the Lake Champlain Ecosystem. Two mixed-methods studies, guided by the frameworks of the theory of possible selves, theory of self-efficacy for research, and social cognitive career theory, revealed four important program mechanisms that gave rise to gains in research skills, confidence and self-efficacy for research, and STEM career aspirations, particularly for individuals from underrepresented minority groups in STEM. Findings suggest that the program fostered student capacity building within a safe, inclusive, and positive setting where students experienced what it feels like to be an active participant in the world of research. Within this context, critical mechanisms that gave rise to gains in research skills, confidence and self-efficacy for research, and STEM career aspirations included: (1) experiential education through interdisciplinary research experiences, (2) student independence and ownership balanced with expert researcher guidance and support, (3) formal and informal mentoring networks where students were mentored and where they mentored others, and (4) the establishment of an intentional learning community that advanced leadership, research skill building, perseverance, and reflection. Results from this research cannot be generalized beyond the context of the Lake Champlain REU, however, findings are in alignment with the body of literature that highlights the positive effects of REUs on STEM majors' research skills, confidence and self-efficacy for research, and STEM career aspirations. Using mixed methods to identify and understand the within-program mechanisms that support student gains is a valuable new research approach for this field. Recognizing programmatic mechanisms across REU programs can lead to expansion, replication, and application of these models beyond one institution, resulting in more positive gains for more undergraduate STEM researchers.

This research explored the complexity of language teacher identity from a holistic perspective involving two features: the integration of teachers’ personal and professional experiences, and the application of conscious/rational and intuitive/tacit thought processes. The study examined four ESL teachers’ beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations about the influences of their important personal, educational, and professional experiences on the development of their teacher identity. It also investigated the overall impact of an autobiographical reflective process combined with a guided visualization activity on the re-construction of participants’ perceptions of teacher identity. The interdisciplinary theoretical orientation was grounded in theories and concepts from psychology and educational research, e.g., Personal Construct Theory (Kelly, 1955, 1963), the complementary nature of reason and intuition, and the concept of “perspective transformation” (Mezirow, 1978, 2000). The methodology was heuristic research (Moustakas, 1990, 1994) and methods included reflexive autobiographical journaling, guided visualization, and in-depth interviews. The results confirm that teacher identity is deeply embedded in one’s personal biography. Participants’ beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations nurtured in the family environment strongly influenced their school experiences, career choice, instructional practice, teaching philosophy, and teacher identity. The use of the guided visualization technique, integrated with rational reflection, considerably enhanced the depth and breadth of participants’ self-understanding and personal/professional growth, which is an important methodological contribution of the study for teacher development. The results strongly suggest that it is essential to explore teachers’ personal life experiences in order to gain a holistic understanding of the dominant influences on the development of teacher identity. The study presents a model for designing a longitudinal professional development program offered in a series of workshops to raise teachers’ awareness of the implicit influences on teacher identity and instructional practice through the application of both conscious/rational and intuitive/tacit methods to access their beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations of their life experiences.

This research explored the complexity of language teacher identity from a holistic perspective involving two features: the integration of teachers’ personal and professional experiences, and the application of conscious/rational and intuitive/tacit thought processes. The study examined four ESL teachers’ beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations about the influences of their important personal, educational, and professional experiences on the development of their teacher identity. It also investigated the overall impact of an autobiographical reflective process combined with a guided visualization activity on the re-construction of participants’ perceptions of teacher identity. The interdisciplinary theoretical orientation was grounded in theories and concepts from psychology and educational research, e.g., Personal Construct Theory (Kelly, 1955, 1963), the complementary nature of reason and intuition, and the concept of “perspective transformation” (Mezirow, 1978, 2000). The methodology was heuristic research (Moustakas, 1990, 1994) and methods included reflexive autobiographical journaling, guided visualization, and in-depth interviews. The results confirm that teacher identity is deeply embedded in one’s personal biography. Participants’ beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations nurtured in the family environment strongly influenced their school experiences, career choice, instructional practice, teaching philosophy, and teacher identity. The use of the guided visualization technique, integrated with rational reflection, considerably enhanced the depth and breadth of participants’ self-understanding and personal/professional growth, which is an important methodological contribution of the study for teacher development. The results strongly suggest that it is essential to explore teachers’ personal life experiences in order to gain a holistic understanding of the dominant influences on the development of teacher identity. The study presents a model for designing a longitudinal professional development program offered in a series of workshops to raise teachers’ awareness of the implicit influences on teacher identity and instructional practice through the application of both conscious/rational and intuitive/tacit methods to access their beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations of their life experiences.