This multi-article dissertation explores the potential for the undergraduate peer mentoring experience to contribute to transformative learning for those who serve in peer mentoring or peer leadership roles. While past research has established that peer mentors experience a variety of positive outcomes associated with their leadership experience, there are gaps in the literature with regard to how the peer mentor experience can be intentionally designed as a high-impact practice for student leaders. Through three qualitative studies, as well as a comprehensive literature review, this dissertation addresses this gap by exploring what peer mentors report learning through their mentoring experiences (Article #1), the types of experiences that contribute to transformative learning (Articles #2 and #3), and how transformative learning can be facilitated through a particular designed training intervention (Article #4). Based on the findings of these four studies, an emerging framework is proposed to describe the characteristics of high-impact and transformative PM learning environments. This framework suggests that transformative PM learning is most likely when (a) the learning of PMs themselves is an explicit objective of the program or initiative, (b) PMs are engaged in purposeful routines and structured practices that facilitate learning, (c) PMs are exposed to unfamiliar and challenging situations in their mentoring practice, (d) theoretical and conceptual understandings (e.g., selected readings) are integrated into PM development; (e) PMs are provided with frequent and structured opportunities for reflection on their experiences, and (f) PMs are part of a supportive mentoring community. Recommendations for the design of high-quality PM learning environments are made based on the elements of this framework. Additionally, directions for future research on peer mentoring as a high-impact practice are made.

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Effective professional development is vital for improving mathematics teaching (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2007), so studying effective professional development programs is important to the field of mathematics education. This case study presents findings on one teacher, Rebecca, and her experiences in a five-semester mathematics professional development for elementary teachers. The participants in this professional development engaged in collaborative problem solving of challenging mathematical tasks over extended periods of time. I used qualitative research methods based on grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2006) to analyze Rebecca's entrance and exit surveys, video data of Rebecca's individual interviews, and video data of Rebecca and her collaborative group problem solving in the professional development. Analysis shows that through the professional development program, Rebecca had transformative experiences which led to significant changes in her perspectives and practices. This case study contributes to the field of mathematics education a better understanding of the transformations teachers can experience through professional development as well as some particular conditions for professional development programs to be successful in offering teachers opportunities for transformative experiences.

BAKGRUND En övergång till ett aktivitetsbaserat kontorslandskap från cellkontor har blivit en populär kontorsutformning hos svenska kommuner. Det aktivitetsbaserade kontoret kan anses vara en funktionell lösning för kunskapsintensiva organisationer och ombyggnationen kan förklaras som en organisationsförändring. Några av de vanligaste orsakerna till att organisationsförändringar misslyckas beror på att de mänskliga resurserna inte utnyttjas på rätt sätt. HRs expertkunskap om de mänskliga resurserna kan därför spela en viktig funktion vid organisationsförändringar till aktivitetsbaserade kontorslandskap. SYFTE Studien syftar till att beskriva vilka roller HR intar vid organisationsförändringar till aktivitetsbaserade kontor. METOD Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta respondenter i fem svenska kommuner. SLUTSATS Organisationsförändringar till aktivitetsbaserade kontor kan ses som en cyklisk förändringsprocess där den transformativa förändringen, som utgörs av ombyggnationen, även består av evolutionära förändringsprocesser som i sin tur berör de mänskliga resurserna. Denna tolkning medför att HRs roller vid en organisationsförändring till aktivitetsbaserat kontor har identifierats i förändringsfaserna upptining, genomförande och återfrysning. Arbetet med mänskliga resurser präglas av ett ständigt förbättringsarbete och kan därmed förstås som en evolutionär förändringsprocess utan ett tydligt slut. Utifrån HRs expertkunskap om de mänskliga resurserna visar studiens resultat därmed att HR-medarbetarna i de studerade kommunerna agerar som förändringsledare i de evolutionära förändringsprocesserna som ett aktivitetsbaserat kontor medför snarare än kopplat till det transformativa. / BACKGROUND A transition to an activity-based office from cell-offices has become a popular office design in Swedish municipalities. The activity-based office can be considered a functional solution for knowledge-intensive organizations and the remodelling can be explained as an organizational change. Some of the most common reasons for organizational change failing are due to the inadequate use of human resources. HR's expert knowledge of human resources can therefore play an important role in organizational changes to activity-based offices. PURPOSE The study's purpose is to describe the roles HR takes in organizational change to activity[1]based offices. METHOD The study was conducted using a qualitative method through semi-structured interviews with eight respondents in five Swedish municipalities. CONCLUSION Organizational changes to activity-based offices can be seen as a cyclical process of change where the transformative change, which consists of the redevelopment, also consists of evolutionary change processes that in turn affect the human resources. This interpretation means that HR's roles in an organizational change to activity-based offices have been identified in the phases of change unfreeze, change and refreeze. The work with human resources is characterized by continuous improvement work and can thus be understood as an evolutionary process of change without a specific end. Based on HR's expert knowledge of human resources, the study's results thus show that HR employees in the studied municipalities act as change leaders in the evolutionary change processes that an activity-based office entails rather than linked to the transformative.

Research in higher education service-learning suggests that there is a positive relationship between service-learning and student learning outcomes as well as a positive relationship between students‘ interactions with the ―real world‖ through service-learning and the effects of these experiences on deepening students‘ knowledge in their disciplines. Recent studies have established this positive relationship between service-learning and university composition and literature students. However, aside from the existing literature on service-learning and composition and writing, there has been virtually no examination of the relationship between service-learning and creative writing. The purpose of this study was to investigate how seven creative writing students experienced the process of creative writing differently after engaging in service-learning in a creative writing course at a large, urban university in the southeastern United States and to determine if students experienced a transformative learning experience as indicated by Mezirow‘s (2000) transformational learning theory. This research study employed an instrumental narrative case study design to determine how seven university creative writing students experienced the process of creative writing differently after taking a creative writing course with an optional service-learning component. The results of the study indicated that service-learning invoked a transformative learning experience in these seven higher education creative writing students, each in different ways—some in their writing processes and writing content, some in how they reflected upon themselves and their writing in relation to the ―outside world,‖ and some in their sense of civic duty

In a third space, the boundaries between educational contexts and school disciplines are blurred to look at content from multiple perspectives. Out-of-school organisations, like museums, can offer educational resources that launch a museum-school partnership into a third space. This thesis describes the conceptualisation and validation of such a third space. An interdisciplinary museum programme that supports the cooperation between museum educators and teachers to encourage students in an art-based exploration of science issues is presented. A systematic comparison of the museum programme with the established Framework for Museum Practice resulted in applicable design recommendations for informal educators and schools that strive for a third space. Within an art-based science teaching strategy, this thesis additionally analysed students’ transformative aesthetic experiences and what role imagination plays in those. A newly developed visual analysis indicates how the museum programme offers students opportunities to look at complex aspects of the world depicted by contemporary art and to discern and value their intricacy. The results show how the interdisciplinary approach to science issues allows links between the conceptual and the emotional. By using their own eyes and each other’s company, students observe and create science-related art, expanding their knowledge, perceptions, values, and feelings. It is the imagination that drives cognitive operations, enabling students to envision other perspectives while at the same time considering their own subjectivity. With the conceptualisation of a third space, this thesis coins a suggestion to put the purpose of ‘subjectification’ into science education practice. In addition, it strengthens the position of Arts (A) in Science Technology Engineering Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) education by indicating the benefits of combining the cognitive with the affective and using the hands in conjunction with the head. / Students can discover the complexities of images, objects, and aspects of the world with their powerful eyes. With their imaginative minds, they can envision diverse perspectives while at the same time considering their own subjectivity. This thesis shows that by using their eyes and imagination in an art-based exploration of science issues, students can expand their knowledge, perceptions, values, and feelings. The presented art-based teaching approach is enveloped by an interdisciplinary museum programme that allows links between the conceptual and the emotional. Its design is conceptualised in this thesis as a third space, crossing boundaries between educational contexts and school disciplines. Guidelines are offered to support museum-school partnerships and an instructional design that builds on the framework of transformative aesthetic experiences. In addition, embodied and intuitive aspects of the imagination in conjunction with rationality about science issues, direct a discussion about the purpose of ‘subjectification’ in science education.

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