Critical social theory and transformative learning: evidence in pre‐service teachers’ service‐learning reflection logs

This paper reports on the opportunities for transformational learning experienced by a group of pre‐service teachers who were engaged in service‐learning as a pedagogical process with a focus on reflection. Critical social theory informed the design of the reflection process as it enabled a move away from knowledge transmission toward knowledge transformation. The structured reflection log was designed to illustrate the critical social theory expectations of quality learning that teach students to think critically: ideology critique and utopian critique. Butin’s lenses and a reflection framework informed by the work of Bain, Ballantyne, Mills and Lester were used in the design of the service‐learning reflection log. Reported data provide evidence of transformational learning and highlight how the students critique their world and imagine how they could contribute to a better world in their work as a beginning teacher.     

Animating critical action learning: process-based leadership and management development

Increasing attention is focusing on the value of critical approaches to enhancing leadership and management development processes. This paper examines how a critical action learning perspectives can be harnessed to produce valuable learning and development through critically reflective practise. Critical action learning approaches not only explore underlying power and control issues, but actively engage in an examination of political and cultural processes affecting leadership development. The aims of this paper are to explore approaches to critical action learning, to elucidate its principal features, to highlight how it can be applied in leadership and management development contexts and, finally, to illuminate some of the complexities and challenges of working with critical action learning in practice.     

Action learning in East Africa: new encounters or impossible challenges?

Action learning is extending its reach internationally and is increasingly used in distinct cultural settings. This paper explores action learning in an African context and examines how action learning as a cultural product is biased towards Western values and practices. We draw attention to the political, cultural and social encounters of internationalizing action learning which are often glossed over in current debates. The paper illuminates the historical development of pedagogical practices in Africa to elucidate how the social, political, cultural and economic processes have influenced and informed learning in African societies. Second, we review action learning and question its relevance and transferability in non-Western contexts. Finally, we will reflect on the potential of action learning in Africa, and its implications for future research and practice.     

The Journey Toward Transformational Learning in a Statewide Doctoral Program

This article describes strategies for redesigning the University of Missouri's Statewide Cooperative Ed.D. Cohort Program in educational leadership. Results had suggested a need to redesign aspects of the program in order to achieve higher levels of cognitive learning outcomes inclusive of transformational learning. To help meet this objective, the areas targeted for redesign were the curriculum as it relates to issues of diversity and ethics, instruction as it relates to group dynamics and cohort models, and increased time and a forum for students to reflect on their leadership practices. This forum also allowed faculty to monitor and assess the transformational learning outcomes of their students. This article is meant to assist others who are interested in fostering higher levels of transformational learning outcomes within their programs. Meredith L. Mountford holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Illinois State University, a Master of Science degree in educational administration from Northern Illinois University and a Philosophy of Science degree in educational administration from the University of Wisconsin—Madison. She is an Assistant Professor and has served as Director for the Statewide Cooperative Ed.D. Cohort Program in educational leadership at the University of Missouri—Columbia.     

The development of critical being? Reflection and reflexivity in an action learning programme for health promotion practitioners in the Netherlands

Public health is a major focus of government policy worldwide and an expanding area of practice that includes an array of professionals and disciplines. Since the 1980s ‘empowerment’ of individuals and communities to gain greater control over the factors that in?uence their health has become the focus of many national and local policies and practices. In The Netherlands, where the current study is undertaken, empowerment has only recently found its way in the health promotion discourse and a review study found that practitioners feel incapable to transform their current practice in line with the new discourse. Therefore, an action learning programme on empowerment was developed to support practitioners in this process and evaluated using a qualitative case-study approach. In this paper, the process and outcomes of reflection as experienced and described by the practitioners in the action learning programme, are discussed against the background of notions of reflection and reflexivity, critical being and critical pedagogy.     

Issues in action learning: a critical realist interpretation

The purpose of this paper is to argue that the perspective of ‘critical realism’ has considerable potential for moving forward the theory and practice of action learning. The paper addresses three questions: (1) Does action learning emphasise the individual or the collective? (2) Can action learning be thought of as critical, but should it also be the subject of criticism? (3) What gets carried forward from action learning by way of learning? Critical realism is argued to be illuminative of these issues; this involves dealing with ontological questions – what is there out there to learn about – as well as epistemological ones – how can this be learned about. It also involves seeing the world as an open system with emergent properties rather than the predictable machine of the positivist approach and the ‘nothing but a sea of meaning’ of the extreme social constructionist approach. The conclusions are that: (1) Yes, it can, and should, focus on both. Individual and organisational foci (one form of the individual-collective question) for action learning are compatible and reconcilable, though often with difficulty. (2) Yes to critical approach of and from action learning, which is its true intent. Suggestions are made on how to do this in an ultimately constructive way. (3) There are several answers to this, the ability to learn, ‘mechanisms’ that can but may not necessarily work in future situations, depending on circumstance and ‘state of play’ information.     

Innovation development – an action learning programme for medical scientists and engineers

There is increasing evidence that action learning is valuable in a higher education setting. This paper goes on to report a personal development programme, based on principles of critical action learning, where the aim is to equip early-career scientists and engineers working in a university setting with the knowledge, skills and confidence to approach the management of innovation. After learning about action learning and critical reflection, the participants, all postdoctorate researchers, completed innovation projects at work, meeting in action learning sets as they proceed. We explain a method of critical thinking before reporting results from an evaluation study based on interviews and focus groups. We consider examples of projects undertaken before considering challenges for students with this approach to learning. Challenges included scepticism about the usefulness of management literature, difficulties in finding ‘problems’ within the constraints of postdoctoral work, and the discomfort and intensiveness of action learning. However, through adaptation by the tutors with students, some significant results were achieved.     

成人转换学习及其教学策略

成人转换学习在当今社会的作用日益凸显,成人只有不断地质疑、反思和转换自己的世界观、人生观或价值观,才能获得解放和发展,才能适应现实生活世界的各种变化。为此,成人教育的教学策略需要在批判性反思、人生经验的学习、教学氛围和教师角色等方面作出相应的调整和改革,但这种调整和改革要注意防止极端化和片面化。     

Transformational professional development: (re)claiming agency and change (in the margins)

With performativity and evidence-based teaching, the development of action research (AR) by teachers brings tensions and challenges as teachers move outside their comfort zones and question their practice. This article draws on a small-scale research study developed with teachers. It was funded as part of a professional development initiative by a Teaching School Alliance to support partner schools with university support to build teacher-led systematic research into everyday practice. The dataset combined interviews with teachers about their motivations and experiences, field notes from the sessions, the teachers’ final written reports and their evaluation surveys about the project. This article offers a unique perspective on teachers as researchers in a new age of work-based AR with the risk of research by teachers in schools being regarded as part of an uncritical ‘tick box’ performative and celebratory culture. However, the authors argue that teacher research can contribute to a transformational approach to professional development working as an antidote and a source of (re)professionalization based on the outcomes of collaboration, reflection and attention to the singularity of their ‘contexts-for action’ and specific pupils’ needs.     

Study of a self-managed action learning set: what makes it last 14 years?

What contributes to longevity in an action learning (AL) set? What holds it together over a long period? The article relates the chronology and reasons why a self-managed set has flourished when so many sets of voluntary membership peter out. Major attributes of successful longevity are the adherence to strong ground rules and disciplined recruitment. The author, a member of the set, uses anecdotal data from interviews of existing and former set members to narrate picture of a group of action learners who attend set meetings regularly and enthusiastically. Another cause of longevity is the flexible employment of AL process serving the needs of professionally qualified people unstintingly learning from, and caring for, each other.     

Why are we using action learning and in what contexts?

The purpose of this study was to examine the contexts in which action learning has been used and provide implications for the design of action learning programmes. We performed a content analysis of 127 articles (case studies and case reports included) published in Action Learning: Research and Practice between 2004 and 2012. In this study, we address the following research questions: (a) In what contexts has action learning been used? (b) What are the distinctive features of cases identified? (c) What are the implications for the design of action learning programmes? The results showed that the UK and European countries have most frequently used action learning, and the most dominant purposes for action learning were leadership development, organization development, and professional development. We also elaborated on design considerations and implications for action learning research and practice.