What does it mean to be a graduate student and to "do" graduate school? What happens when we shift our focus away from learning as a process of gaining expertise in a field or being socialized into the literacy conventions of a discipline and instead consider the ontological component of learning--the idea that learning entails becoming a certain…

Students today are becoming more interested in international opportunities for study, and are drawn to alternative programs such as international service learning and international internships. These programs, however, must be carefully designed. In this paper, the authors propose using tools that go beyond the traditional understanding of…

Many continuing adult and professional education programs have heeded the call of what Packer and Greco-Brooks (1998) refer to as the "ontological work of school," or helping "change the kinds of person their students become" (p. 134). This new "ontological" work attempts to incorporate critical pedagogy to stimulate critical self-reflection and…

Action research assumes the active engagement of the stakeholders, such as the community, in the research, and a multiple-level process of reflection in order to evaluate and monitor the actions taken. This makes action research a suitable methodology to increase the critical understanding of the participants. In this paper we describe the…

The dissertation explores the relationship between international education to transformational learning and environmental sustainability. Part one of the dissertation addresses a need for wisdom in higher education, while exploring the relationship of globalization. A theoretical foundation is established by reviewing current theorists in…

A rationalist is prevailed upon to enroll in a program on meditation. During a day of silence, he begins to wonder about the concept of the self as implied in some forms of educational practice. Over the next few weeks, he identifies four doubts, which he calls a Marxian doubt, a dialectical doubt, an absurd doubt, and a moral doubt. He argues…

This article gives an account of their work with psychodynamic principles within an action learning framework. Linklater and Kellner are primarily Organisation Development consultants with a rich heritage in psychodynamic theory and methods. Having worked with action learning for decades (and seen hugely positive results using traditional models)…

In this paper, the authors engage in a dialogue to illustrate their teaching practice with experiential arts-based diversity learning. The adult education theoretical frameworks of transformative learning/unlearning and experiential learning frame the paper. Examples of experiential arts-based diversity learning include: participating in…

This research study examined the long-term effects of a professional development study tour to Southeast Asia that took place in 2001. Participants included ten public school teachers from Western Massachusetts, which has a significant population of people of Vietnamese and Cambodian descent. Funded by a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant,…

Workplace learning circumscribes processes leading to the development of competencies and skills through daily work. It is of increasing importance for many modern enterprises, which consider themselves as being learning organisations, to make use of the potential of their employees in order to be competitive within global markets. Dealing with…

Pedagogical literature focuses on the effectiveness of first-year programs on students' success in college. Less attention is devoted to the effects these programs have on faculty. In this study, focus groups were conducted with 20 faculty members who teach first-year seminars at North Carolina State University, a large, public research…

Background: Service-learning is a pedagogical practice which requires students to learn through engaged service-based community activities. Service-learning requires students become active members in their community. Through this practice student influence their communities, putting their knowledge to use. As a method of instruction,…

Often, a traumatic event that forces a profound redefinition of the self forges leadership. The stories of a diverse group of business leaders and the "crucible experiences" that shaped them reveal four essential skills: ability to engage others in shared meanings, compelling voice, integrity, and adaptive capacity (applied creativity). (SK)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the central role of critical reflection for practitioners. Design/methodology/approach: This joint paper is informed by a practitioner and an academic perspective and is an output from ongoing research. An MA in Strategic HR provides the initial focus. This partnership programme is…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe a retrospective reflection over unconscious, emergent learning among employees of an organization and to suggest how to capture these moments of experiential learning for future organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach: Action research in organizations is undertaken in interaction with…