This research set out to explore how a group of nine educators from a Catholic Church school in Malta, who have attended the Let Me Learn professional Learning process (LMLpLp), experienced personal and professional transformation. This study investigates those factors influencing participants in their transformative learning journey. It also explores the dynamics of transformative learning and whether individual transformation affects the school’s transformative learning experience. More specifically this study set out to explore how teachers who participated in the Let Me Learn professional Learning process have experienced transformative learning. This study takes a qualitative phenomenological approach. It seeks to identify phenomena of personal and professional transformative learning through the perceptions of the educators participating in this study. Through the use of the semi-structured interview it seeks to gather ‘deep’ data. This data represents the voices of these educators in narrative, thus emphasising the importance of the personal perspective and interpretation. This allowed this research to understand the subjective experience, motivation and actions of the participants. The Literature review informs the questions asked during the interview. The interview was used as a tool for gathering information regarding values, attitudes and beliefs of participants. Each interview was transcribed, translated (when response was given in Maltese) and categorised according to Mezirow’s ten stages. Excerpts from each stage were further processed to generate themes. The themes were later streamlined and an acceptable interpretive framework was created. Each interview excerpt was then analysed through the framework. Once all interviews were coded, detailed narratives were written. These narratives are meant to help the reader reflect on the process of transformative learning. It underscores those factors highlighted by the participants, which helped bring about both personal and professional transformative learning. This research has identified that individual constructs are strongly determined by an individual’s personal learning characteristics. Awareness of these personal learning characteristics (self-knowledge) helped educators assess their practice and understand how their personal characteristics were determining their approach to teaching and affecting their interpersonal relationships with students and colleagues. This research showed that transformative learning is a mutually interdependent experience. Individual transformation amounts to, and is influenced by, the collective transformation. This study highlighted the role of the school community in the pursuit of personal transformation. Yet another important finding of this research is the importance of a shared language of possibility. Through a shared language, a learning community can create a dialogic environment through which intentions, beliefs and interventions can be shared among the professional community. This research accentuates the importance of a shared language as a means of articulating a change in perspective. The study identified three main agents of change. The Let Me Learn team, as promoters and experts of this particular learning process; the teachers, who internalised the process and applied it to their practice; and the school’s senior management team, who internalised the Process, positioned it into the larger vision of the school and created a conducive environment through which the whole school community was empowered to take responsibility to bring about change in practice. A number of implications emerge from this study that could inform policy on teacher professional learning. A major implication concerns the importance of a shared language – a language that reflects the shared values and ideological position of the community. Such language frames the learning process, makes learning visible for teachers to be able to respond effectively with strategies that respect each learner’s learning preference and makes learning visible to the learner himself. Another implication from this study arises from the finding that the transformative learning process of any individual educator and effectively of the whole school community, goes beyond the effectiveness and limitations of any one professional development programme. True and deep-seated transformative learning comes from within the individual educator. This statement has serious repercussions on any professional development programme that aims to aid participants in their quest to transform their practice. This study also emphasised the importance that any professional development needs to be seated in the local experience and needs of the school community. Any attempts at developing comprehensive, nation-wide projects with pre-packaged approaches, are doomed to fail. What this research has shown is that for effective professional development, the identified outcomes need to correspond to the local needs of the school, rather than the national guidelines, detached from the realities of the particular school. Finally, this study accentuated the importance of incorporating mentoring support in any professional development proposal. Delivery of information and skills without follow-up tend to lead to superficial application. Transformative learning presupposes a period of shared reflection on practice and collegial mediation of ideas through contact between teachers and their leaders and on-the-job support from their professional development mentors.

This research set out to explore how a group of nine educators from a Catholic Church school in Malta, who have attended the Let Me Learn professional Learning process (LMLpLp), experienced personal and professional transformation. This study investigates those factors influencing participants in their transformative learning journey. It also explores the dynamics of transformative learning and whether individual transformation affects the school’s transformative learning experience. More specifically this study set out to explore how teachers who participated in the Let Me Learn professional Learning process have experienced transformative learning. This study takes a qualitative phenomenological approach. It seeks to identify phenomena of personal and professional transformative learning through the perceptions of the educators participating in this study. Through the use of the semi-structured interview it seeks to gather ‘deep’ data. This data represents the voices of these educators in narrative, thus emphasising the importance of the personal perspective and interpretation. This allowed this research to understand the subjective experience, motivation and actions of the participants. The Literature review informs the questions asked during the interview. The interview was used as a tool for gathering information regarding values, attitudes and beliefs of participants. Each interview was transcribed, translated (when response was given in Maltese) and categorised according to Mezirow’s ten stages. Excerpts from each stage were further processed to generate themes. The themes were later streamlined and an acceptable interpretive framework was created. Each interview excerpt was then analysed through the framework. Once all interviews were coded, detailed narratives were written. These narratives are meant to help the reader reflect on the process of transformative learning. It underscores those factors highlighted by the participants, which helped bring about both personal and professional transformative learning. This research has identified that individual constructs are strongly determined by an individual’s personal learning characteristics. Awareness of these personal learning characteristics (self-knowledge) helped educators assess their practice and understand how their personal characteristics were determining their approach to teaching and affecting their interpersonal relationships with students and colleagues. This research showed that transformative learning is a mutually interdependent experience. Individual transformation amounts to, and is influenced by, the collective transformation. This study highlighted the role of the school community in the pursuit of personal transformation. Yet another important finding of this research is the importance of a shared language of possibility. Through a shared language, a learning community can create a dialogic environment through which intentions, beliefs and interventions can be shared among the professional community. This research accentuates the importance of a shared language as a means of articulating a change in perspective. The study identified three main agents of change. The Let Me Learn team, as promoters and experts of this particular learning process; the teachers, who internalised the process and applied it to their practice; and the school’s senior management team, who internalised the Process, positioned it into the larger vision of the school and created a conducive environment through which the whole school community was empowered to take responsibility to bring about change in practice. A number of implications emerge from this study that could inform policy on teacher professional learning. A major implication concerns the importance of a shared language – a language that reflects the shared values and ideological position of the community. Such language frames the learning process, makes learning visible for teachers to be able to respond effectively with strategies that respect each learner’s learning preference and makes learning visible to the learner himself. Another implication from this study arises from the finding that the transformative learning process of any individual educator and effectively of the whole school community, goes beyond the effectiveness and limitations of any one professional development programme. True and deep-seated transformative learning comes from within the individual educator. This statement has serious repercussions on any professional development programme that aims to aid participants in their quest to transform their practice. This study also emphasised the importance that any professional development needs to be seated in the local experience and needs of the school community. Any attempts at developing comprehensive, nation-wide projects with pre-packaged approaches, are doomed to fail. What this research has shown is that for effective professional development, the identified outcomes need to correspond to the local needs of the school, rather than the national guidelines, detached from the realities of the particular school. Finally, this study accentuated the importance of incorporating mentoring support in any professional development proposal. Delivery of information and skills without follow-up tend to lead to superficial application. Transformative learning presupposes a period of shared reflection on practice and collegial mediation of ideas through contact between teachers and their leaders and on-the-job support from their professional development mentors.

Es ist weithin anerkannt, dass globale Solidarität in Zeiten globaler Krisen von größter Bedeutung ist. Sie ist auch wesentlich für Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung (Education for Sustainable Development/ESD). Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich in diesem Kontext mit Virtuellem Schulgartenaustausch (Virtual School Garden Exchange/VSGE). In VSGEs tauschen sich Grund- und Sekundarschüler*innen des Globalen Nordens und Globalen Südens über ihre Erfahrungen im Schulgarten mithilfe digitaler Medien aus. In drei Fachartikeln werden empirische Befunde aus vor allem qualitativer Empirie vorgestellt. Die erste Publikation umfasst einen systematischen Literaturreview. Dieser ergab, dass im Feld der internationalen Schulgartenforschung bisher kaum dieser Ansatz thematisiert wurde. Artikel 2 & 3 analysieren konkrete VSGEs. Hierfür wurden 23 semi-strukturierte Interviews mit Pädagog*innen geführt, die mittels der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse ausgewertet wurden. Im zweiten Artiekl wurden die Intentionen der Pädagog*innen hinsichtlich der Lernergebnisse der Schüler*innen untersucht. Diese zeigen einige Überschneidungen mit den Zielen von ESD auf. Um dies näher zu untersuchen, widmete sich die dritte Publikation den von Pädagog*innen beobachteten Lernergebnissen ihrer Schüler*innen. Es konnte die Förderung einiger der erwünschten Lernergebnisse beobachtet werden. Außerdem wurden die Schüler*innen durch die VSGEs zu Transformativem Lernen und zu Othering angeregt. Während ersteres mit den Zielen von BNE im Einklang steht, widerspricht Othering diesen. Zusammenfassend zeigte sich, dass VSGE ein innovativer Ansatz ist. Einerseits eignet er sich dazu, die globale Perspektive von BNE im Schulgarten umzusetzen. Andererseits zeigt die vorliegende Studie auch, dass VSGEs keine Garantie für eine gute BNE-Praxis sind, da diese auch Othering fördern. Die Arbeit schließt mit Handlungsempfehlungen für zukünftige Forschung sowie für interessierte und bereits aktive VSGE-Pädagog*innen ab. / It is widely recognized that global solidarity is of paramount importance in times of global crises. It is also essential for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). In this context, this study deals with Virtual School Garden Exchanges (VSGEs). In VSGEs, primary and secondary school students from the Global North and Global South exchange virtually on their school gardening experiences. Three scientific articles present new findings from primarily qualitative empirical research and examine VSGEs under ESD criteria. The first publication is based on a systematic literature review. It revealed that in the field of international school garden research, little to no attention has been paid to VSGEs. In Articles 2 & 3 concrete VSGEs were analyzed with a particular focus on student learning outcomes from educators' perspectives. For this purpose, 23 semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The second publication examines VSGE educators' intentions for students’ learning outcomes. These are compared with research on ESD, which indicated some overlap. To investigate this further, the third publication focused on educators’ observations regarding students’ learning. First, the promotion of some of the desired learning outcomes was observed. Furthermore, educators observed that, on the one hand, Transformative Learning and on the other hand Othering was stimulated by VSGEs. While Transformative Learning is in line with ESD objectives, Othering contradicts the aims of ESD. In summary, it has been shown that VSGE is an innovative approach and an opportunity to implement the global perspective of ESD in school gardens. Nevertheless, this study also shows that VSGEs are not a guarantee of good ESD practice. They also risk creating Othering between international students instead of fostering solidarity. The study concludes with recommendations for future research as well as for interested and already active VSGE educators.