IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i1p525-d717416.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustaining Faculty Development through Visiting Scholar Programmes: A Transformative Learning Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Xiantong Zhao

    (Faculty of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Xu Liu

    (Centre for Higher Education Studies, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China)

Abstract

International academic visits by university faculty members are common around the world. While most researchers approach such an international experience in terms of intercultural communication and acculturation, in this study we view the travel experience as a learning opportunity in light of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory (TLT). Drawing on Singleton’s ‘3H model’ (head-heart-hands), we find that the outcomes of transformative learning (TL) are related to cognitive, affective and behavioral domains, the prevalence of which were then explored among 314 visiting scholars. The results are further interpreted by drawing on key concepts from TLT to better understand the learning process. We conclude that the international experience is beneficial for scholars’ sustainable development, and call for more study abroad opportunities for Chinese university faculty.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiantong Zhao & Xu Liu, 2022. "Sustaining Faculty Development through Visiting Scholar Programmes: A Transformative Learning Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-19, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:1:p:525-:d:717416
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/1/525/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/1/525/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maggi W.H. Leung, 2013. "Unraveling the Skilled Mobility for Sustainable Development Mantra: An Analysis of China-EU Academic Mobility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(6), pages 1-20, June.
    2. Honggang Liu & Lixiang Gao & Fan Fang, 2020. "Exploring and Sustaining Language Teacher Motivation for Being a Visiting Scholar in Higher Education: An Empirical Study in the Chinese Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-16, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karina A. Rus & Ștefan Dezsi & Ovidiu R. Ciascai, 2023. "Transformative Experiences in Cycling Tourism: A Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-22, October.
    2. Xiantong Zhao & Xu Liu, 2022. "Academic Visits as Transformative Learning Opportunities: The Case of Chinese Visiting Academics," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, November.
    3. Karina A. Rus & Ștefan Dezsi & Ovidiu R. Ciascai & Florin Pop, 2022. "Calibrating Evolution of Transformative Tourism: A Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-40, September.
    4. Asma Almusharraf & Norah Almusharraf & Daniel Bailey, 2022. "The Influence of Multilingualism and Professional Development Activities on Teacher Reflection Levels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-14, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emir Ozeren & Aykut Arslan & Serdar Yener & Andrea Appolloni, 2020. "The Predictive Effect of Teachers’ Perception of School Principals’ Motivating Language on Teachers’ Self-Efficacy via a Cultural Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Hanwei Li, 2020. "How to Retain Global Talent? Economic and Social Integration of Chinese Students in Finland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-19, May.
    3. Wenxiu Chu & Honggang Liu & Fan Fang, 2021. "A Tale of Three Excellent Chinese EFL Teachers: Unpacking Teacher Professional Qualities for Their Sustainable Career Trajectories from an Ecological Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, June.
    4. Hui Li & Shoukat Iqbal Khattak & Qingquan Jiang, 2021. "A Qualitative Assessment of the Determinants of Faculty Engagement in Internationalization: A Chinese Perspective," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, September.
    5. Qiongqiong Chen & Yuan Li, 2019. "Mobility, Knowledge Transfer, and Innovation: An Empirical Study on Returned Chinese Academics at Two Research Universities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-14, November.
    6. Shi Jiao & Jing Wang & Xu Ma & Zheng You & Dini Jiang, 2022. "Motivation and Its Impact on Language Achievement: Sustainable Development of Ethnic Minority Students’ Second Language Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-20, June.
    7. Gareth Morris & Junhua Mo, 2023. "Exploring the employment motivation, job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of university English instructors in public institutions: a Chinese case study analysis," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Honggang Liu & Wenxiu Chu & Fan Fang & Tariq Elyas, 2021. "Examining the Professional Quality of Experienced EFL Teachers for Their Sustainable Career Trajectories in Rural Areas in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-14, September.
    9. Xiantong Zhao & Hongbiao Yin & Chenyang Fang & Xu Liu, 2021. "For the Sustainable Development of Universities: Exploring the External Factors Impacting Returned Early Career Academic’s Research Performance in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-20, January.
    10. Xiantong Zhao & Xu Liu, 2022. "Academic Visits as Transformative Learning Opportunities: The Case of Chinese Visiting Academics," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:1:p:525-:d:717416. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.