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In 2020, the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and Development established the International Agricultural Education Fellowship Program (IAEFP) funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service. The IAEFP provided an opportunity for nine fellows to live in Ghana and implement the school-based agricultural education system, originally based on the vocational agricultural education model from the 1917 Smith Hughes Act. A phenomenological qualitative approach examined the impact of a 10-month international fellowship experience on the fellows and their perceived impact on the rural communities they served from 2021-2022. This study examined the participants' cultural awareness, agricultural enhancement, and professional formation as a result of participating in a long-term international experience. Through analysis, six themes emerged including programmatic adjustments, international development, challenges, personal and professional growth, and personal positivity's. Recommendations from results include for future like-programs to provide intentional and timely training to match context, increase host community and school communication, use reflection and mental health services, carefully outline emergency protocols to participants, adapt participants' roles and responsibilities to match location, and ensure programmatic location sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culturally and historically sensitive material and highly diverse student bodies challenge educators in the higher education classroom. Transformative and empowering pedagogies address how different types of learners may experience sensitive material. Critical pedagogies of care create supportive educational environments, compassionate teaching practices, and empower students through diversified content. Pedagogies of discomfort, a subset of pedagogies of care, push educators and students to leave their comfort zones, recognize the non-neutrality of educational processes, and confront the discomfort of challenging knowledge. When applied correctly, these pedagogies promote critical thinking and transformative action, and counter the neoliberal and white supremacist values that often exist within the classroom. Using around 1900 survey responses and 40 in-depth interviews with students and faculty, this research studies the question: to what extent are critical pedagogies of care enacted and experienced at a global liberal arts college in the Arabian Gulf? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For social work education to remain current and responsive to the demands of the field, collaboration is required between those actively teaching, and those actively practicing. Examples, however, of co-construction of curriculums are minimal, with classroom subjects largely being taught as stand-alone components of the overall social work program, perhaps with occasional practitioners providing guest lectures about the practice context in which they work. Informed by transformational learning theory, relationship-based practice, and experiential education, practice-based learning requires social work students to engage with classroom content and skill development while at the same time building their job readiness through exposure to the modern workplace and current practitioners. To achieve this, a case example is given whereby academics and practitioners collaborated on developing advanced practice skills subject in the healthcare context, with a focus on developing empathy, authenticity and honoring the story as a core curriculum gap when teaching grief and loss skills. This case study demonstrates how experiential games, role plays and podcasts have been integrated into the teaching content and provides guidance as to the incorporation of experiential learning activities into formative and summative assessment tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformational leadership has become an essential aspect of life skills integrated into a learning activity. At the same time, the tools for evaluating transformational leadership in the context of sports students in Indonesia still need to be improved. This study aims to adapt the global transformational leadership scale (GTLS) into the Indonesian version constructed from seven potential behaviors (vision, staff development, supportive, empowerment innovative, lead by example and charismatic). Testing content validity uses nine raters from various disciplines. Construct validity uses 297 students and concurrent validity by correlating GTLS scores with the leadership practices inventory (LPI). The data were analyzed using the Aiken formula, factor analysis, Pearson, and Cronbach's alpha with the help of the SPSS-AMOS. The result was that the seven adapted GTLS items met the Aiken validity parameter=0.74-0.96, construct validity (discriminant index=0.59-0.70; factor loading=0.63-0.77; p-value=0.000; RMR=0.013; GFI=0.961; TLI=0.952, CFI=0.968; RMSEA=0.080), concurrent validity (r=0.467), and reliability parameters=0.87. Thus, the Indonesian version of GTLS is valid and reliable for measuring transformational leadership in sports student culture. However, GTLS only facilitates members' perceptions of their group leaders, so it is necessary to develop a GTLS scale oriented towards students perceiving their transformational leadership. These two data from different perspectives (peer and self-perception) enlarge the results of lecturers' comprehensive measurement, assessment, evaluation, and improvement of their students' leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Teachers play a significant societal role, yet many feel underappreciated, and commonly cite this as a reason for considering leaving the profession. This study investigated responses to the #ThankYourTeacher social media campaign, which was created to generate public expressions of gratitude towards teachers. Data were collected from Twitter, Instagram, a campaign website, and public events and thematically analysed. Orr’s (1992) Head, Heart, and Hands Model of Transformational Learning was used as a framework for understanding the qualities of teachers and their teaching that participants appreciated. Notably, more individuals expressed gratitude for teachers’ motivational and compassionate qualities (Heart) and their enthusiasm and leadership (Hands) than for their subject knowledge (Head). These findings underscore the importance of the teacher-student relationship and relational qualities over subject expertise. This study also highlights the potential for further research into the impacts of practicing gratitude towards teachers and increasing teachers’ sense of being valued and appreciated.

Business ethics education is losing credibility worldwide. This is partly due to the experience that teaching ethics in business schools does not necessarily help future professionals to be more ethical in business. The article agrees with Claus Dierksmeier's criticism of conventional business ethics education and suggests that business ethics courses should be renewed both in contents and pedagogy. The article advances a position that business ethics education is much needed in business schools as they can give room for both students and faculty for transformational learning and moral growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers play a significant societal role, yet many feel underappreciated, and commonly cite this as a reason for considering leaving the profession. This study investigated responses to the #ThankYourTeacher social media campaign, which was created to generate public expressions of gratitude towards teachers. Data were collected from Twitter, Instagram, a campaign website, and public events and thematically analysed. Orr's (1992) Head, Heart, and Hands Model of Transformational Learning was used as a framework for understanding the qualities of teachers and their teaching that participants appreciated. Notably, more individuals expressed gratitude for teachers' motivational and compassionate qualities (Heart) and their enthusiasm and leadership (Hands) than for their subject knowledge (Head). These findings underscore the importance of the teacher-student relationship and relational qualities over subject expertise. This study also highlights the potential for further research into the impacts of practicing gratitude towards teachers and increasing teachers' sense of being valued and appreciated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In the context of transforming mental healthcare towards more personalised and recovery-oriented models, Open Dialogue has attracted significant international interest. Open Dialogue proposes a way of organising services and delivering care that supports an immediate response to crisis, relational continuity of care, a social network approach and the empowerment of networks through shared decision-making and a flattened hierarchy. The ODDESSI trial currently being conducted in the UK is assessing the model’s clinical and cost-effectiveness. Practitioners who delivered the approach within the trial undertook a one-year Open Dialogue foundation training programme, however little is known about their training experiences. This study aimed to explore practitioners’ experiences of receiving the training and transitioning to dialogic practice. Methods: Individual, joint and focus group interviews with 32 Open Dialogue practitioners were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the transcripts and transformational learning theory informed the interpretation of the findings. Results: Two themes further divided in subthemes were generated from the data: (1) experiences and impact of formal training and (2) becoming an Open Dialogue practitioner as an ongoing learning process beyond formal training: barriers and facilitators. Discussion: The one-year Open Dialogue foundation training was a transformative experience for participants due to its emphasis on self-work and its impact on a personal level. Practitioners felt adequately prepared by their training for dialogic practice, yet becoming an OD practitioner was seen as a continual process extending beyond formal training, necessitating ongoing engagement with the approach and organisational support. However, the commitment of participants to deliver optimal dialogic care was occasionally impeded by organisational constraints, resource limitations, and often having to concurrently deliver conventional care alongside Open Dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis explores a literacy teacher's changing perspective about teaching in a prestigious high school after learning about ahimsa, or holistic nonviolence. Drawing from theories of transformational learning and critical pedagogy in addition to understandings of ahimsa, this article presents some of the participant's new perceptions about her teaching and about the culture of the elite high school where she worked, including perceptions of structural violence. New understandings suggest that in order for schools to be nonviolent spaces, structural violences need to be considered alongside more overtly visible forms of violence. There are also implications for teacher learning. When professional development supports transformational change, it can be both inspirational and unnerving, and might shift participants' perspectives and unsettle their ways of relating to established practices and familiar contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coaching Psychology literature suggests that coaching is effective and associated with a range of positive gains. Outcome research, however, is largely quantitative and assesses short-term gains with coachees who are managers receiving coaching in work contexts. This qualitative study provides new insight into the learning gained from coaching that enables sustained change. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather narratives from nine participants who had finished a period of coaching, applied across work and life domains, after a delay. Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022) was used to analyse participant responses to a set of novel questions designed to assess learning in the months following coaching. Four non-linear interconnected themes were created reflecting that the enablers of sustained change were a changed relationship with: self, action, others and coaching. Profound internalised deep learnings worked together to sustain change. A model suggests the presence of an 'inner coach' as a sustainer of lasting change and continued development. The implications for the development of evaluation tools, return on investment (ROI) and ethical conversations about coaching impact are discussed. The study provides a new lens through which to explore coaching as a tool for sustainable change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women-only leadership development programmes are vital for reducing the global gender gap in senior management; however, research on their impact is limited. This study explores the effect of a transformational women’s leadership development programme on self-confidence among female academics in a South African higher education institution. A mixed methods approach combines quantitative analysis to assess the changes in women leaders’ communication confidence, while the qualitative analysis explores the women leaders’ experiences in adopting new behaviour patterns. The quantitative results reveal significant enhancements in women leaders’ confidence, underscoring the programme’s ability to drive transformational change. The qualitative insights uncover a four-phase transformational learning process, which includes encountering a disorienting dilemma, meaning-making, achieving transformational insight and integrating these insights into leadership practice. Contribution: This study provides new insights, recommendations for future research and guidance on developing, evaluating and implementing women’s leadership programmes in higher education. It contributes significantly to understanding the role of women-only leadership development in addressing gender equity.

IntroductionIn the context of transforming mental healthcare towards more personalised and recovery-oriented models, Open Dialogue has attracted significant international interest. Open Dialogue proposes a way of organising services and delivering care that supports an immediate response to crisis, relational continuity of care, a social network approach and the empowerment of networks through shared decision-making and a flattened hierarchy. The ODDESSI trial currently being conducted in the UK is assessing the model’s clinical and cost-effectiveness. Practitioners who delivered the approach within the trial undertook a one-year Open Dialogue foundation training programme, however little is known about their training experiences. This study aimed to explore practitioners’ experiences of receiving the training and transitioning to dialogic practice.MethodsIndividual, joint and focus group interviews with 32 Open Dialogue practitioners were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the transcripts and transformational learning theory informed the interpretation of the findings.ResultsTwo themes further divided in subthemes were generated from the data: (1) experiences and impact of formal training and (2) becoming an Open Dialogue practitioner as an ongoing learning process beyond formal training: barriers and facilitators.DiscussionThe one-year Open Dialogue foundation training was a transformative experience for participants due to its emphasis on self-work and its impact on a personal level. Practitioners felt adequately prepared by their training for dialogic practice, yet becoming an OD practitioner was seen as a continual process extending beyond formal training, necessitating ongoing engagement with the approach and organisational support. However, the commitment of participants to deliver optimal dialogic care was occasionally impeded by organisational constraints, resource limitations, and often having to concurrently deliver conventional care alongside Open Dialogue.

This paper presents an example of transformative learning afforded to social work students participating in an international study program between United States and Germany focusing on Genocide and the Holocaust. Using epistemic justice as a frame, it foregrounds the experience of a Black female social work student who was the target of microaggressions while abroad and highlights the critical theories, such as critical consciousness, critical realism, and intersectionality, used to help students reflect on and make meaning of their experiences. Through self-reflection and sustained dialogue, the experience offers examples of how students were engaged in a learning process that enabled them to become critically aware of the various individual and social forces that impact the lived experience of others. It also demonstrates how examining past issues of social injustice and oppression can be central to transformational learning about agency and advocacy in the modern day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students entering third-level higher education undergo a transformational learning journey. Learning in this context is defined as the need to understand key concepts (threshold) to engage with the academic content of the course. This learning journey is moulded by their experiences not only within the context of the third-level institution but is also moulded by their experiences in work placement. Threshold concepts and the inherent troublesome knowledge associated with them represent significant barriers to transformational learning. This research uses a case study approach in the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology to explore final year business information systems (BIS) undergraduate students' understanding of information systems (IS). This research objective was developed following a comprehensive review of the literature which determined that there was a research gap in understanding how BIS students encountered and overcame threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge when learning about IS. The research objective was investigated using several research questions which were explored using a mixed-method approach combining lecturer interviews, a student questionnaire and a student focus group. The study adopts a social constructivist research approach encompassing four theories of learning which act as theoretical lenses: threshold concepts, troublesome knowledge, socio-cultural development and communities of practice. The findings reveal that the students find the theory, and terminology associated with technical aspects, used within the discipline relating to learning about IS challenging. Specific threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge associated with these concepts are identified under several headings. Additionally, it emerged that the students use specific coping mechanisms to assist them in their transformational journey to understand IS which include peer learning, independent learning, practical application, lecturer support, experience and language, work placement mentor support and work-place-based learning. Finally, the results suggest that IS, as social systems, constitute a threshold concept whereby the students struggle with the following troublesome knowledge considerations in their communities of practice: communication, ethics and social system versus technical system differentiation. The study concludes by offering recommendations on how third-level education institutes can enhance awareness of threshold concepts and troublesome to limit their impact on students' transformational learning experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote, blended, and online teaching and learning presented universities around the world with myriad challenges. This rapid shift into uncharted territory, however, also created an opportunity for faculty developers to lead exploration of new pedagogies, challenging teaching assumptions. In this article, we share the story of how a center for teaching and learning led the shift to remote and blended learning through a community of transformation (Kezar et al., 2018). We share results from a survey of faculty following multiple professional development opportunities and explore themes that emerged from interviews with six instructors representing a range of disciplines and experience in remote and blended teaching. We conclude by offering our design elements to consider when pursuing faculty development as a potentially transformative learning experience (Mezirow, 1991). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenges relating to first-year student retention and learning outcomes are recognized as a multi-faceted issue in the tertiary education sector across many professional programs, including social work. Graduating students can find it difficult to establish themselves in the workplace. The researchers wanted to understand if fostering a sense of professional identity for social work students as part of the research experience might in and of itself enable retention because of improved opportunities for transformational learning, agency, and wellbeing as a student. The participatory action research project was designed around a community of practice of social work students facilitated by two recent graduates to undertake the collaborative design and creation of supportive educational resources. Student empowerment, connectedness, and wellbeing were improved by involvement in the collaborative professional task of doing research, with students reporting increased connection with the university and engagement in their learning. Implications for fostering professional identity development during social work education are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial titled "Emancipatory inquiry in educational research: models and methods for transformational learning." It discusses the concept of emancipatory research, which aims to redefine the researcher and researched, value diverse forms of knowledge, address social power and oppression, and promote social justice. The editorial highlights several articles in a special issue of Frontiers in Education that explore different qualitative methodological approaches in education research, such as mixtaping, participatory research partnerships, and the use of arts-based methods. These articles demonstrate how critical methods in education can lead to deeper learning and social change. [Extracted from the article]

Culturally and historically sensitive material and highly diverse student bodies challenge educators in the higher education classroom. Transformative and empowering pedagogies address how different types of learners may experience sensitive material. Critical pedagogies of care create supportive educational environments, compassionate teaching practices, and empower students through diversified content. Pedagogies of discomfort, a subset of pedagogies of care, push educators and students to leave their comfort zones, recognize the non-neutrality of educational processes, and confront the discomfort of challenging knowledge. When applied correctly, these pedagogies promote critical thinking and transformative action, and counter the neoliberal and white supremacist values that often exist within the classroom. Using around 1900 survey responses and 40 in-depth interviews with students and faculty, this research studies the question: to what extent are critical pedagogies of care enacted and experienced at a global liberal arts college in the Arabian Gulf?

Path-breaking transformative change is needed in human-environment relations to move towards more sustainable development trajectories at local, national and global scales. Crises may trigger transformative change and learning in the short and in the long term. However, in particular, a short-term response to crises may also be reactive, strengthening established unsustainable practices and further perpetuating vulnerability and inequality rather than supporting transformative change towards a more sustainable path. To understand the nature and response to a crisis in the context of sustainability transformations, this paper elaborates on the following aspects of a crisis: What are the characteristics of a crisis? What and who shapes the narrative(s) of a crisis? What and who shapes the nature of the response to a crisis? Do responses to crises trigger higher levels of learning? Conceptual synthesis is complemented with an exploratory comparative analysis of the Cape Town water crisis and of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. To this end the paper analyzes the interplay between mobilizing individual, collective and relational agency and navigating and transforming power relations to challenge and profit from already weakened unsustainable structures. This approach proves to be promising to understand the role of crises in catalysing and supporting transformative learning to eventually replace unsustainable structures. ● During and immediately after crises, it is important to identify opportunities for policy change to address persistent governance failures. ● To support transformative change towards sustainability, governments typically should adopt a network governance style and act more as a convenor for deliberative processes in the later phase of the response to a crisis. ● Formation of innovation platforms bringing together actors from different levels and different roles (e.g. pioneering innovators, investors, scientists, policymakers, regulators) could support the scaling up of local initiatives and innovative approaches that have been developed during crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of today's educational organizations around the world contend with complex challenges. Yet, longstanding practices and norms in educational systems can hamper educators' abilities to identify and address these challenges, such as only principals leading change efforts or the use of misaligned "quick fixes" for ill-defined challenges. A design-based approach to organizational change, on the other hand, holds promise to reframe change in local educational agencies like schools. Design thinking is one way to enact a design-based approach, but little research has investigated the process's use to help educators conceptualize and implement change. Drawing upon transformational learning theory, this United States-based mixed-methods study examined a year-long professional learning workshop sponsored by a state education agency that used design thinking to reframe how participants orchestrated change in their contexts. Results indicated that design thinking helped participants devise more nuanced understandings of themselves and the change process in their contexts, yet, most participants' actions continued to be influenced by longstanding practices and norms of the U.S. educational system. We close by discussing implications for practice and policy, particularly the need for professional learning experiences that prompt educators to critically reflect upon their mindsets and how their actions may differ from those mindsets. This greater understanding can better position educators to engage in change efforts that address increasingly complex challenges in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the written reflections of 30 Canadian undergraduate students who participated in an international field course focusing on migration and human rights in Mexico. It endeavors to understand how the students reconciled their thoughts and feelings about trauma and oppression in an intercultural setting. Borrowing Foucault's 'ethic of discomfort', which emphasizes the proactive and transformative potential of discomfort in education, the paper extends existing scholarship in teaching and learning around study abroad and social justice by focusing on ethically complex situations in the field. The findings reveal that while preparation for unprecedented and unforeseeable scenarios during an international field course was challenging for faculty, exposing students to the realities of migration ultimately facilitated learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACTPath-breaking transformative change is needed in human-environment relations to move towards more sustainable development trajectories at local, national and global scales. Crises may trigger transformative change and learning in the short and in the long term. However, in particular, a short-term response to crises may also be reactive, strengthening established unsustainable practices and further perpetuating vulnerability and inequality rather than supporting transformative change towards a more sustainable path. To understand the nature and response to a crisis in the context of sustainability transformations, this paper elaborates on the following aspects of a crisis: What are the characteristics of a crisis? What and who shapes the narrative(s) of a crisis? What and who shapes the nature of the response to a crisis? Do responses to crises trigger higher levels of learning? Conceptual synthesis is complemented with an exploratory comparative analysis of the Cape Town water crisis and of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. To this end the paper analyzes the interplay between mobilizing individual, collective and relational agency and navigating and transforming power relations to challenge and profit from already weakened unsustainable structures. This approach proves to be promising to understand the role of crises in catalysing and supporting transformative learning to eventually replace unsustainable structures.

Improving the sustainability of global food systems requires competent and impactful change agents who are tasked with disseminating knowledge to stakeholders in local communities. Agricultural Extension agents and agricultural educator, who provide mentorship and preparation of youth, are pivotal for the positive outcomes of youth livestock production programs. Digital professional development, as one intervention for both formal and nonformal educators, can be a more effective use of an educator's time. This study examined the needs and competency levels of agents and teachers related to their capacity for training youth livestock exhibitors. Through an online course, participants completed a pre-posttest within an interactive module. The data revealed that agents and agricultural teachers were proficient in Texas, USA, youth livestock production programs. This study found that the majority of both groups scored over 90% on the curricula's assessment. There was a significant difference; agricultural education teachers reported higher mean scores than Extension agents on the Effective Teaching assessment. Both groups reported agreement with the Time to Complete, Tool Navigation, and Effective Teaching assessments. The data indicated that participants should additionally receive training materials on ethics policy and livestock validation. Livestock production digital professional development for nonformal agents of change is essential for sustaining global food chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shares the reflective experiences and learning of two students and a faculty member from the Bachelor of Child Studies degree at Mount Royal University who embarked on a collaborative learning journey in a 4th-year capstone course. Capstone courses provide students with real-life projects within a community agency where they are able to apply theories and knowledge under the guidance of a faculty member and community partner. Key themes are shared that led to transformative change and learning. This was done through collaboration, relational practice, co-learning, and critical reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This autoethnographic account is a critical reflection on my experience teaching online classes during the pandemic. It is a narrative of my transformation through the 28 months of teaching events marketing courses through the online distance learning modality. I learned that as a marketing educator, my role is to help students develop positive perspectives, attitudes, and behaviors about learning by providing the conditions conducive for a meaningful learning experience. However, as an educator, a student's learning experience is not my sole responsibility because the learning experience is co-created with the student. My role is an educator is to provide them with opportunities, tools, and knowledge to help them make the most out of their learning experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Midwifery curricula in Australia incorporate 'Continuity of care experiences' (CoCE) as an educational strategy based on an assumption that midwifery students will learn skills and knowledge about woman-centred care that they may not learn in the typical fragmented care system. However, exactly what skills and knowledge they are expected to 'learn' and how these can be assessed have never been specifically identified. To explore midwifery students' continuity of care learning experiences within pre-registration midwifery education. Focus groups were conducted with first, second and third year Bachelor of Midwifery students (n = 12), who were undertaking CoCE in rural and regional tertiary hospitals in NSW, Australia. The overarching theme, 'Learning through relationships', was made up of three interrelated themes: Meeting women and making connections, Being known, and Understanding holistic care. The findings from this study contribute to understanding the educational effects of CoCE. The CoCE relationship provided safety and freedom to learn which was seen as foundational for midwifery students' vision of their future practice and can be seen as a self-determined transformational approach to learning. This study adds insight into midwifery students' experience of CoCE, and demonstrates that transformative learning occurs through developing a relationship with both the woman and the midwife. For midwifery to develop as a profession and maintain its focus on woman-centredness, it is important that this aspect of midwifery education remains embedded within midwifery program philosophies and learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The school of nursing at the University of Wollongong developed an innovative approach entitled the 'Students as Researchers Internship' to provide an opportunity for students who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders to experience research as co-researchers. This programme was developed in response to a need to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons who complete research degrees and progress to academic careers in nursing. The initial programme included two students who identified as Aboriginal women in their final year as bachelor of nursing students, with both employed as research assistants. Aim: This article aims to share the students' perspective of their learnings from participating in the Students as Researchers Internship programme through a critical reflection using the Mezirow model of reflection. Conclusion: The opportunity to be a research assistant and co-researcher during the final year of the bachelor of nursing degree offered the students a platform to gain skills, and an understanding of the research process and the application of research in practice. It also provided the experience of being supported in their academic studies. Implications for practice: * Mezirow's model of reflection provides an effective framework for students to unearth their assumptions and learnings from experience * Developing skills and experience in research can transform undergraduate students' understanding of the application of research in their practice * Participation in writing ethics applications and research publications offers students insight into the skills of referencing, academic writing and critical thinking * The experience as co-researchers enabled students who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders to consider future career opportunities in research [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformation to sustainable agriculture in the Netherlands is increasingly called for. Agroecology is acknowledged as a sustainable – potentially transformative – alternative for conventional methods of agriculture. However, few farmers adopt agroecological practices. Recent literature suggests failure to achieve sustained and transformational change may be due to neglectance of personal, nonmaterial aspects of such processes, also referred to as "inner" dimensions of sustainability. Aiming for empirical underpinning, individual transition pathways of nine agroecological farmers were explored, and processes of change were analyzed using a conceptual framework of "zones of friction and traction" across three interconnected and embedded spheres of transformation: the personal, the practical and the political. The chosen framework allows for seeing the role of the personal aspects of transformation, without losing sight of pressures and influences from the "outside." Identification of zones of friction and traction revealed where and why transformation was happening, as well as the drivers behind farmers' choice and passion for agroecology. We argue that focus on the "inner" dimension or personal sphere is foundational to sustained transformational change in the practical and political spheres, i.e. the outside world. The presented findings have implications for strategies targeting envisioned transition toward a sustainable food system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of the study was to report an analysis of the novel concept, facilitating presence through guided reflection for transformative learning. Design: A concept analysis. Methods: Search included keywords 'presence', 'reflective practices', 'nursing education' and 'concept analysis'. 65 peer‐reviewed articles between 2000–2020 were included. Results: The final definition of the main concept is an interpersonal, co‐constructed, intersubjective and intentional process to accompany nursing students in deep, constructive learning to discover new meanings and perspectives through self‐inquiry and critical reflection on experiences. The nurse educator actively listens and intimately connect in the moment to create a safe environment. This leads to the nursing student's ability to learn to see what is important to the other and to respond by doing what can be done and/or by being who the other needs one to be. Patient Contribution This concept will help to streamline the practice of presence ultimately enhancing the quality of patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cross-cultural learning provides students with the opportunity for improved self-awareness when they are placed in unfamiliar situations where their understanding of who they are and what they can do is challenged or expanded. This paper built on the concepts of experiential learning in rich contexts and self-image shocks and explored the research question on how cross-cultural learning in entrepreneurship exchange programmes offered students unique personal learning possibilities and outcomes. Aim: The aim was to build new theoretical and empirical knowledge on the influence and importance of cross-cultural learning in entrepreneurship education (EE). Setting: The study involved South African (SA) students taking part in an internship programme in the vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem of Bergen, Norway. Methods: Adopting a longitudinal design and purposive sampling, four SA students were included in the study. Data were acquired from two reflective group sessions, on two separate instances, and a final student reflection report. The interviews were transcribed and coded along with the written reflection reports and these data sources were subjected to thematic analysis. Results: Four themes were uncovered: Learning about the entrepreneurial culture triggers comparison with own culture, Embracing uncertainty and developing entrepreneurial capabilities, Transformational learning through self-image shocks, Can I become a future entrepreneur? Where am I going? Conclusion: The research highlighted the importance of cross-cultural experience and foreignness as powerful triggers in stimulating students’ introspection and development of self-image. Contribution: The research combines two research streams, hence advancing our theoretical conceptualisation of cross-cultural learning in EE.

Exposing medical student cohorts to the lived reality of uncertainty and complexity experienced by GPs is challenging to achieve. We present a novel teaching concept: 'Challenge GP' designed for early years students. Gamification methodology is used to reproduce key elements of the 'duty GP' experience in a classroom setting where working in teams, students play a competitive card game. Cards drawn at random pose scenarios based on practical, logistical, and ethical dilemmas of a duty doctor surgery. Each team discusses whether to score by reporting a decision or play special cards to pass the dilemma onto, or collaborate with, another team. Answers are facilitated and scored by a GP tutor. Student feedback demonstrated highly effective learning for clinical reasoning, risk management and problem-solving. Students were exposed to the uncertainty and complexity of real-life medicine. Gamification, through competitiveness, increased task engagement. Students learned the value of working in teams under time pressure and grew in confidence by sharing knowledge in a safe environment. Students were enabled to think, feel and practise as real-life clinicians. This became a powerful force in contextualising their theory-based knowledge, aided understanding of the GP role and opened their eyes to a possible career in general practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A global goal for early childhood education and care is to ensure universal, "quality" provision that reaches all children. Achieving this goal requires a well-prepared workforce that is equipped to adapt to and deliver early childhood programs across the vastly diverse contexts and communities where children are growing up around the world. Yet currently there is a severe shortage of early childhood workers, particularly in "low resource" and complex communities. Evidence to support appropriate training for such workers is also lacking. In response, this paper presents findings from a case study of a large-scale training program for community-based early childhood workers in central-east India. A total of 650 community-based Village Communicators were trained to deliver a responsive caregiving package to parents of young children. Data collected over 3 months highlight how the unique contextually grounded, caring and reflexive approach to training resulted in profound personal and professional change among training participants. The findings are of significance in informing policy and practice associated with global goals for early childhood. First, they challenge the technical, programmatic approaches to training that are commonly adopted for preparing this workforce. Second, they evidence the potentially transformative, long-term impact of person-centered approaches to training that facilitate knowledge-sharing to understand local needs and attitudes. Third, they provide insight into ways in which training programs can support enhanced local relevance and effectiveness of early childhood services implemented for children and families across diverse contexts. Highlights: Caring, consultative approaches to training support transformative changes in knowledge and practice among community-based early childhood workers. Community-based workers comprise a crucial yet under-researched workforce globally. Active contribution to adapting early childhood interventions for greater local relevance empowers community-based workers as well as enhancing program content. Training for community-based workers in early childhood needs to shift away from overly programmatic, technical approaches. Meeting global goals for early childhood development requires localized responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advancements in science and innovation have been carried out in the state of art engineering design standards for the improvement of humankind. Regardless, there is a basic need to take the benefits of science and engineering and offer reasonable responses for the headway of the overall rural population. The Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech.) in Biotechnology students of Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, India (KARE) refined the water-related issues faced by rural people of Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu. The students through their custom audits identified specific drinking water and wastewaterrelated issues faced by the rural people in one of the backward districts of Tamil Nadu. Afterward, the students had the option to foster the ideas to devise decisive solutions to the water-based issues of the rural people. The endeavors taken by the students through their half-year community-based projects have made advances in the instructive program to alleviate the water problems faced by the rural community. Besides, the solutions mandated by the students have been tested in this study. The solutions devised and tested by the students are of minimal expense and effectively moderate. Consequently, we prescribe that educational institutions incorporate socially applicable resultbased ventures for addressing the environmental problems of rural communities while enhancing transformational learning through conventional teaching methods to service-learning methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Informal and hidden curricula as well as the positivist paradigm partly explain the decline in empathy observed among health students. They also generate epistemic inequities that are exerted on patients but also between health professionals. An interprofessional program involving patient-mentors was set up as part of the initial training of health students to improve this situation. Objective: The aim was to assess whether it made it possible to achieve this objective and to characterize the explanatory mechanisms in order to identify the active ingredients of the program. Methods: Forty-five health students from six different training courses were brought together in small groups on four occasions with a patient-mentor. The qualitative study combined individual and group interviews as well as written responses to a questionnaire. Results and discussion: These meetings acted as a trigger for transformational learning. The students became aware of some of their prejudices and limitations, which should foster more horizontal relationships with patients and other health professionals. The self-management of the groups, the fact that the number of participants in these groups was relatively small, the multiple encounters with a patient outside of care, and the suggested themes for discussion, enabled the updating of learning mechanisms. The latter refer to decentration, humility, non-judgment and closeness which were actualized in these groups. The development of autonomous thinking and the consideration of their own feelings can be seen as intermediate effects. The final effects are the development of embodied knowledge of the patient-centered approach and an increased sense of responsibility. Both dimensions are manifested in new resolutions and new professional practices. Conclusion: The study explains the learning processes of the students in teaching of this order. But it also shows that transformational learning is still possible at this stage of their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of teaching is student success, but defining success can be daunting. A rudimentary description of student success involves academic achievement and students' attainment of a high level of satisfaction with their educational process. The pinnacle of student success is transformational learning. Transformational learning is ultimately evidenced by knowledge-based, responsible, and autonomous thinking. Student engagement enhances student success. As a result, course design and assignment design are critical. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how an online discussion assignment can be used to enhance student engagement and increase student success in a university class. The assignment presented in this paper was used in three sections of Global Environment of Business classes in 2021. We designed it to be more than a simple transactional assignment. For the discussion assignment, students were required to address the following: "Should society adopt capitalism or socialism as an economic system Why" Students were presented relevant information and were required to think critically about the topic, write their thoughts on a discussion board, and respond to their peers. Then, the instructors evaluated students' comments, sought to understand their perspectives on the topic, and followed up with appropriate materials in subsequent classes. The coursework moves students toward transformational learning. The assignment requires students to present new information, reflect critically on their point of view, consider the applications of what they have learned, and, finally, think responsibly and autonomously, which is the goal of transformational learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite international consensus advocating a physiological approach to childbirth, there are inconsistent opinions on how to acquire the competencies needed to successfully carry out this approach. While continuity of care experiences (CoCE) within placements is a valued educational strategy, there are limited studies that focus on the learning experiences to support physiological birth. To describe and understand the learning experiences related to physiological birth, as well as the transformations required to become a midwife who supports physiological birth, during the CoCE placement process in a birth centre. An interpretive description study design was adopted. Data were collected through audio diaries (n=126) with midwifery students and preceptors (n=14) across four level of placements in birth centres, in Québec, Canada, and discussion groups with students who kept the audio diaries. Three main themes were identified: 1) appropriating culture: relational autonomy; 2) developing competencies: acknowledging attitude, enabling behaviours and narrative skills; 3) constructing identity: coherence and resistance. The findings demonstrated the importance of CoCE, along with the continuity of preceptorship and a low-tech environment as optimal educational strategies for the acquisition of a culture and competencies that promote physiological childbirth. Resistance is part of identity transformation and represents an opportunity for critical questioning and safe feedback. This study contributes to the understanding of the nature of the competencies developed and the transformations experienced to support physiological childbirth. It recognises the primacy of CoCE within extended placements, embedded in a workplace culture and environment that support relational autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]