Transformative Education Through International Service-learning: Realising an Ethical Ecology of Learning

Transformative learning is a compelling approach to learning that is becoming increasingly popular in a diverse range of educational settings and encounters. This book reconceptualises transformative learning through an investigation of the learning process and outcomes of International Service-Learning (ISL), a pedagogical approach that blends student learning with community engagement overseas and the development of a more just society. Drawing upon key philosophers and theorists, Bamber offers an integrated, multi-dimensional approach, linking transformative learning to the development of the authentic self, and analysing the aesthetic, moral and relational dimensions of ISL in an increasingly globalized world. Chapters explore rich empirical data to provide a timely framework and ethical ecology of transformative learning, detailing the challenges facing the approach, and how it can be embedded at the levels of practice, institutional ethos and partnership.

Transformative Learning through International Service-Learning will appeal to academics, researchers, teachers, instructors and leaders in the fields of service-learning, international education, character education and in adult learning and education. It will also be of interest to practitioners working in international education, development education, volunteering, service-learning and community engagement.

Philip M. Bamber is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Liverpool Hope University, where he is Head of the Department of Education Studies. He was awarded the International Association of University Presidents' 2013 International Education Faculty Achievement Award for leadership in research and teaching in global citizenship. He is co-editor (with L. Bourke and J. Clarkson) of In Safe Hands: Facilitating service learning in schools in the developing world (Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham, 2008) and is currently Associate Director of TEESNet, the UK Teacher Education for Equity and Sustainability Network. His papers on global citizenship and values in education can be found in Education, Citizenship and Social Justice; Journal of Beliefs and Values; Journal of Curriculum Studies and Journal of Transformative Education.