Seeds of transformative learning and its pedagogical implications on a conference-based university course for environmental and geosciences

Abstract. Expertise in Arctic climate change requires not only a deep knowledge of the physical processes but also an awareness and understanding of the region’s complex socio-economic dynamics. In this study, we explore students’ learning experience on a university course where students of environmental and geosciences attend the Arctic Circle Assembly conference, introducing them to a wide range of stakeholders and viewpoints from geopolitics to Indigenous perspectives. With a qualitative inquiry, we study the students' sense of belonging and transformativeness of the learning process, and how those might influence the development of the students’ professional identity. Interviews in the event, written reflections of the students and post-course in-depth interviews reveal elements of the transformative learning process, in which the students’ sense of belonging played a role: lack of belonging to the expert community induced dilemmas and belonging to the student group enabled joined reflection. However, some dilemmas do not seem to lead into transformation. Therefore, as pedagogical implications of our findings, we highlight the importance of facilitation of critical reflection and discourse of the learner’s values and beliefs. Facilitation should consider students’ prior learning and background and include building of trust and belonging in the learning community, enabling the challenging reflections. We suggest that flexible pedagogies and approaches of transformative climate change education have potential to mould students’ professional identity and widen their perspectives on what it means to be a responsible scientist or expert in the Arctic context.