
SP Seminar | Evaluating the u.lab experience: the role of relational capacities in transformative learning by Dr Beatriz Carrillo Garcia
This sociology seminar series is presented in collaboration between the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University and the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney.
Monday 29 March, 1pm – 2pm via Zoom *. For any queries contact Dr Dinesh Wadiwel
Abstract:
The seminar presents some of the findings from an anlysis of the experiences of a small group of students at a Sino-British joint-venture university enrolled in u.lab: Leading from the emerging future (MOOC MIT edX), and who participated in an in-person social innovation hub as part of the u.lab course. u.lab provides a conceptual framework, a series of awareness-based practices, and a platform from which participants can catalyse personal and systems change (Pomeroy & Oliver 2021). The aim is to identify the key tools, practices, and interactions within the u.lab and hub recognised by participants as enablers of transformative learning. The analysis of those experiences shows that u.lab content and the quality of the interactions enabled within the hub allowed for a heightened awareness among participants of the ways in which interrelationships create reality (Buechner et al 2020: 95), their own as well as that of the broader social field (Scharmer & Pomeroy 2019). This foregrounded the importance of developing relational capacities in students to not only to create more inclusive learning spaces, but also because those learning spaces provide the grounding within which transformative learning can take place.
About the Speaker:
Beatriz Carrillo Garcia is a Lecturer in China Studies and is a joint appointment of the China Studies Centre and the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at The University of Sydney. Her broad research interest is in social development and social change in contemporary China, and on development and social justice issues more broadly.
*To join the meeting click on this Zoom link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/81266238063
The image has Creative Commons licence.
Beatriz is also involved with the Presencing Institute (which created the image)and they have given permission to use it in other forums.