{"id":3614,"date":"2019-04-10T18:06:43","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T18:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/?p=3614"},"modified":"2019-04-10T18:06:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T18:06:44","slug":"transformative-learning-experiments-a-conference-session-at-the-2019-leverage-points-conference-at-leuphana-university-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/2019\/04\/10\/transformative-learning-experiments-a-conference-session-at-the-2019-leverage-points-conference-at-leuphana-university-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Transformative Learning Experiments: A Conference Session at the 2019 Leverage Points Conference at Leuphana University, Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2019\/04\/leuphana1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3615\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2019\/04\/leuphana1.jpg 660w, https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2019\/04\/leuphana1-300x136.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">by Bruce Goldstein<br><em>CSTPR Faculty and Associate Professor in Environmental Design and Environmental Studies, University of Colorado Boulder<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the Leverage Points conference held at Leuphana University in\nGermany in February 2019, I organized a panel entitled \u201cTransformative Co-Production Experiments as a Nucleus\nfor Societal Learning\u201d. This panel built on activities that\nbegan at the International Sustainability Transition Conferences 2016\n(Wuppertal) and 2017 (Gothenburg), where a thematic research network on\nlearning in sustainability transitions was formed, drawing together members of the social-ecological systems research,\norganizational science, and educational science communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The session\nwas divided in two parts. The first part included six introductory talks that\nfocused on specific aspects of the role of learning about sustainability\ntransitions within transformative co-production experiments. Our panelists, and\ntheir affiliations and presentation titles, were as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Bruce Goldstein (CSTPR and Program in      Environmental Design, University of Colorado Boulder): \u201cTransformative      Learning Networks\u201d<\/li><li>Ilan Chabay (Institute for Advanced      Sustainability Studies and Arizona State University): \u201cFacilitating mutual learning for sustainability through multi-player games\u201d<\/li><li>Flurina Schneider (Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern): \u201cFostering multi-level learning for sustainability transformations in different cultural contexts\u201d (Flurina could not attend, but was there in spirit.)<\/li><li>Johannes Halbe (Institute of Environmental System Research, University of Osnabr\u00fcck): \u201cA Multi-Level Learning Framework to Analyze and Design Transition Governance Processes\u201d<\/li><li>Richard Beecroft (Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology): \u201cEmbedding Transdisciplinary Project Courses in a Real-world Lab\u201d<\/li><li>Julianna Gwiszcz (School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University): \u201cCatalyzing Global Ecological Citizenship through Transformative Learning: The Integral Role of Affective Engagement&#8221;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The primary issues we explored in our\npresentations were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Developing <strong>learning concepts to understand co-production experiments<\/strong> and their outreach. We will explore how micro (e.g., individual and group) to macro learning (e.g., structural change at the societal level) concepts help to understand how co-production experiments foster critical links between personal, small-group, and societal learning.<\/li><li>Facilitation of <strong>mutual learning among diverse stakeholders<\/strong> as a lever for advancing changing perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors (e.g., towards global ecological citizenship). We will consider how diverse knowledge practices (traditional, cultural, procedural, and scientific) enhance meaning making and knowledge co-production, while taking challenges like power dynamics into account. <\/li><li>Designing <strong>cross-boundary learning processes <\/strong>that connect \u201cinner\u201d (within participating individuals and groups) with \u201couter\u201d (e.g., institutional changes) processes of change. We are particularly      interested in how co-production experiments can leverage paradigm      transcendence through reflection on the Modernist framing of learning processes as inner\/outer learning, and emergence of new ways of framing and articulating to seek a \u201cpersonal-to-civilizational scale transformation.\u201d<\/li><li>Co-production experiments have complex and case-specific features that impede <strong>transfer of findings between interventions<\/strong>. What kinds of learning are possible when methods are not standardized and other conditions for reliability, scalability and transferability do not hold?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"484\" src=\"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2019\/04\/leuphana2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3616\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2019\/04\/leuphana2.jpg 660w, https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2019\/04\/leuphana2-300x220.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After a lively summary or inter-related themes at the conclusion of these presentation, we held an interactive panel discussion which Bruce facilitated, using a fishbowl format. Here is the fruit of that conversation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How can we create opportunities to engage\ngroups of people with scary, real-world problems and complex sustainability\nchallenges?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Build good containers: enable trust to form by providing safety, and\ncomfort<\/li><li>Good preparation, \u201cpriming\u201d participants to engage<\/li><li>Abstraction \u2013 or gamification \u2013 creates safety, a sense of play<\/li><li>Is a traumatizing event necessary before a community engages in second-loop\nor triple-loop learning? Not necessarily, there are ways to prepare a community<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How do we facilitate good learning\nprocesses?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Facilitators who model loving behavior and create a virtuous cycle of\nreciprocity<\/li><li>Foster embodied, personal connections<\/li><li>Create a safe space for participants to be vulnerable<\/li><li>Facilitators who aren\u2019t too directive, or motivated by their agendas\n(literally and figuratively)<\/li><li>Accept messiness, conflict, some loss of control of the process (productive\ntension that results in emergence)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How do we pivot from learning to action?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It\u2019s not linear, there are cycles of engaging in the world and creating\nsafe spaces to learn and reflect<\/li><li>We need to cultivate different learning contexts, which afford different\nkinds of interaction (e.g. ecovillages, workshops, visioning exercises)<\/li><li>Not all learning is facilitated and planned \u2013 we need to engage in settings\nwhere unintended learning occurs, in order to shape it and allow it to achieve\nits potential<\/li><li>Identifying shared, core narratives are key to making the pivot<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Agenda for our research\/action community:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Continue to engage in learning about learning<\/li><li>Explore how system resilience can be a quality of collaborative learning<\/li><li>Explore action research approaches that enable us to recognize and act on\nour normative commitments and engage critically<\/li><li>Enhance our own transparency about our mistakes, emotional responses,\nexperiments that are failures<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the conclusion of the session, Blane Harvey provided a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"brief account of the work of the learning community (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tias-web.info\/tias-activities\/learning-community\/\" target=\"_blank\">brief account of the work of the learning community<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This session was linked to another session\nthat I organized: Experiments in Transformative Coproduction, which focused\non the possibilities offered by a recent explosion of transformative\ncoproduction experiments, such as \u201cT-Labs\u201d, \u201cCo-Labs\u201d, \u201cBright Spots\u201d, \u201cSeeds\u201d,\nand \u201cLearning Networks\u201d. In this\nsession, we explored learning efforts that are experimental both in\nthe sense of innovative process design and in their intention to probe the\npotential for leveraging systems transformation. We highlighted some promising cases, brought\npractitioners into conversation about the design and implementation of\nco-production experiments to enhance co-learning and realize their\ntransformative potential. Through both of these panels, our hope was to increase\nmutual support among researcher\/practitioners who share a passion for figuring\nout how to enhance transformative learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Bruce GoldsteinCSTPR Faculty and Associate Professor in Environmental Design and Environmental Studies, University of Colorado Boulder At the Leverage Points conference held at Leuphana University in Germany in February 2019, I organized a panel entitled \u201cTransformative Co-Production Experiments as &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/2019\/04\/10\/transformative-learning-experiments-a-conference-session-at-the-2019-leverage-points-conference-at-leuphana-university-germany\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentaries"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-25 10:23:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3617,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3614\/revisions\/3617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}