Currents of change: exploring relationships between teaching, learning and development: conversations from the Learning and Teaching for Transformation Workshop April 2005

Aimed at a educators, this report from the ‘learning and teaching for transformation’ (LTT) initiative outlines the challenges of implementing transformative and participatory learning and looks critically at how development actors learn (and are taught) within institutes of higher learning.

The LTT initiative seeks to deepen thinking about pedagogical approaches within higher learning that can challenge potentially influential development actors to adopt participatory, inclusive and pro-poor decision making processes in shaping the development agendas.

The publication is divided into three parts:

• part one introduces the LTT initiative by presenting the background and processes involved
• part two provides a framework for understanding the interrelationship of the main issues concerning teaching and learning for social change, and outlines how the LTT initiative will continue to explore these issues collaboratively with an international network of partners
• part three explores the main issues in more depth. The concepts are discussed and then challenged and questioned as they are grounded in the realities of four specific contexts around the world

Four key areas emerged as common concerns confronting the implementation of transformative teaching and learning:

• power and relationships, specifically how these can promote or impede transformative learning and teaching
• challenges in designing and implementing innovative curricula
• ways of working within particular institutional environments that generate broader institutional change and acceptance of innovative practices
• the personal relationships and identities that underpin all aspects of teaching, learning, participation and social change