Conference presentation
Academics’ transformative learning during curriculum reform
HERDSA 2025 Annual Conference: Shaping Education Past, Present, Future (Perth, WA, 07/07/2025–10/07/2025)
08/07/2025
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Abstract
Background: Major curriculum reforms can be disorienting and uncertain for academics, particularly when they involve new and unfamiliar ways of designing and delivering education (Nisbet et al., in press). This presentation shares insights on navigating major curriculum reform from six academics who experienced the transition from 13-week semesters to a six-week immersive block model at an Australian university.
Description: Academics’ experiences of curriculum reform are explored through the lens of Mezirow’s (2003) transformative learning theory (TLT). We examined two key questions:
1) Did we experience transformative learning during curriculum reform?
2) If so, what contributed to our transformations?
Method(s) : The participatory action research methodology of co-operative inquiry was used. This methodology is a structured, cyclical process of dialogue and reflection, engaging those directly involved in issues as co-participant-researchers and coauthors (Heron & Reason, 2001; Russ et al., 2024). We met for 15 months to discuss our evolving experiences of curriculum reform. Thematic analysis of our transcribed reflections and discussions drew upon Mezirow’s (2008) TLT and Bronfenbrenner’s (1995) Ecological Systems Theory (EST) to generate insights about our professional learning processes during curriculum change.
Evidence: Our findings illustrate how we progressed from confronting disorienting dilemmas to integrating new, context-bound perspectives on student learning and our teaching practices. We identify changes in academics’ worldviews, cognition, and behaviour as outcomes of transformative learning during curriculum change.
Contribution: This study indicates that TLT and EST are useful frameworks for academics to better understand and negotiate change, enabling them to take an active role in their own development. We demonstrate that confronting and collectively addressing the disorienting dilemmas that arise during curriculum reform can be transformative, facilitating agency, capability and wellbeing.
Engagement: Discussion prompts and interactive polls will encourage reflection on participants’ own ‘disorienting dilemmas’
and their experiences of transformation through collaborative reflection.
Details
- Title
- Academics’ transformative learning during curriculum reform
- Creators
- Elizabeth Goode - Southern Cross UniversityErica Russ - Southern Cross UniversitySharen Nisbet - Southern Cross UniversityJohn Haw - Southern Cross UniversityRobert Rollin - Southern Cross UniversityJohanna Nieuwoudt - Southern Cross University
- Conference
- HERDSA 2025 Annual Conference: Shaping Education Past, Present, Future (Perth, WA, 07/07/2025–10/07/2025)
- Identifiers
- 991013295355102368
- Academic Unit
- Office of the PVC (Academic Quality)
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation
- Local Fields
- Original Research - SoLT