Transformative learning in the field of sustainability: a systematic literature review (1999-2019)
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 29 June 2020
Issue publication date: 17 July 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how transformative learning has been conceptualised and operationalised in education for sustainable development (ESD) and sustainability learning and to collect evidence on how to support transformative learning in formal and non-formal environments.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a systematic literature review to provide a structured and replicable search and analysis of the relevant literature to produce a bibliometric overview that combines a quantitative description of the body of literature and qualitative analysis of the learning processes, outcomes and conditions.
Findings
The convergence between transformative learning and sustainability has become an emerging field of inquiry, despite the superficial use of transformative learning theory in many studies. By examining the learning process, outcomes and conditions in the core sample of studies, this study demonstrates that transformative learning theory – if carefully studied – can contribute to the design and implementation of educational interventions and assessments of learning towards sustainability. Furthermore, the sustainability context provides an empirical grounding that highlights the fact that social learning, the role of experience and the development of sustainability competencies are inherently part of transformative learning.
Originality/value
To date, few attempts have been made to better understand how transformative learning theory has been used in sustainability learning and ESD research. This systematic review allows for a better comprehension of how concepts and mechanisms elucidated in transformative learning theory are operationalised in sustainability learning and ESD research and serves as a source of inspiration for those researchers and practitioners who aims to make sustainability education, teaching and learning more transformative.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
We want to thank the reviewers for their constructive critics to this manuscript. This research was made possible within the graduate school “Processes of Sustainability Transformation”, which is a cooperation between Leuphana University of Lüneburg and the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Robert Bosch Stiftung (12.5.F082.0021.0).
Citation
Rodríguez Aboytes, J.G. and Barth, M. (2020), "Transformative learning in the field of sustainability: a systematic literature review (1999-2019)", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 21 No. 5, pp. 993-1013. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-05-2019-0168
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited