In formal learning spaces, students must navigate making meaning of both new knowledge and potentially new worldviews. In this qualitative grounded theory study, we examined how adult Buddhist monastic students learned about and described the origin of biodiversity in an introductory biology course. The study was conducted at a Tibetan settlement in south India during an 8‐day class that was offered as part of joint program between an American university and the Tibetan Buddhist monastic community. Informed by hybridity theory, we describe four findings regarding how the monks made meaning (i.e., deciding what to learn, framing what to learn, why they should learn, and how they could learn). The monks (1) integrated the new knowledge about physical diversity into their worldview of “mental diversity;” (2) found similarities between their worldview and academic science; (3) were both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated to learn about biology; and (4) valued opportunities to engage in dialectical discourse to assist in meaning making. We conclude that the monks navigated different epistemologies demonstrating secured collateral learning. We encourage researchers to consider using a decolonized perspective when conducting studies of learning in hybrid or third spaces.

中文翻译：

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穿越后殖民时代的混合空间：和尚如何实现生物学意义

在正式的学习空间中，学生必须驾驭新知识和潜在新世界观的意义。在这项基于定性的理论研究中，我们研究了成年的佛教僧侣学生如何通过生物学入门课程学习和描述生物多样性的起源。这项研究是在印度南部的一个藏族聚居区进行的为期8天的课程，该课程是美国大学与藏传佛教寺院社区共同计划的一部分。通过合理论知情，我们描述关于和尚如何使意思（即，决定4点的发现学习什么，取景学什么，他们为什么要学习，而且他们如何学习）。僧侣（1）将有关物质多样性的新知识整合到他们的“心理多样性”世界观中；（2）发现他们的世界观与学术科学之间存在相似之处；（3）出于内在和外在的动机去学习生物学；（4）珍视参与辩证性话语以帮助进行意义创造的机会。我们得出的结论是，僧侣们在不同的认识论中进行了探索，展示了安全的附带学习。我们鼓励研究人员在进行混合或第三空间的学习研究时考虑使用非殖民化的观点。