TEACHING SUSTAINABILITY AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING IN THE CONTEXT OF A GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ADMINISTRATION AT UFCG
Transformative Learning. Sustainability. Postgraduate Studies in Administration. Interpretative Qualitative Research.
The objective of this dissertation is to understand the learning process of students in a graduate program in administration specializing in sustainability, from the perspective of transformative learning. The research was supported by three specific objectives, which can be perceived as: identifying the transformative learning process in the dimension of meaning perspectives; understanding the transformative learning process in the dimension of learning domain; and verifying the types of reflection adopted by the graduate students in the learning process. Through the analyzed discourses, it was possible to delimit the findings by level of depth, from the simplest to the most direct and profound discourses. In this way, the presented objectives were achieved, revealing pertinent changes, such as behaviors, the construction of new thoughts, reflective processes, and the breaking of reference frames. In defining the methodological approach, a basic interpretative qualitative study was chosen, based on Merriam (2009) and Merriam and Tisdell (2016). The choice of a qualitative approach allowed for flexibility and the use of open-ended questions to encourage free participation from those involved. Data collection employed a semi-structured interview guide (Godoy, 2006) with questions based on Mezirow's (2000) three dimensions. Interpretive data analysis (Silva, 2005) was used to understand the data.