Abstract
ABSTRACTThis paper explores how people learn about global societal challenges as they work towards them in collaborative activity. It focuses on the activity of volunteering within UK health and social charities and draws upon the approach of Transformative Activist Stance to conceptualize learning in this environment as a form of individual and social transformation. The study is a multiple qualitative case study, which includes three charities that address complex health and social challenges. By exploring how volunteers learn about and address complex societal challenges findings show the transformative opportunities this process offers for volunteers, the charity, and the wider community.
Highlights
This paper explores how people learn about global societal challenges as they work towards them in collaborative activity
It focuses on the activity of volunteering within UK health and social charities and draws upon the approach of Transformative Activist Stance to conceptualize learning in this environment as a form of individual and social transformation
Dualistic approaches to human development that separate cognitive processes and social influence have long been challenged and critiqued through a cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) perspective as being unable to explain processes of learning (e.g., Karimi-Aghdam, 2016; Stetsenko, 2016a)
Summary
This paper explores how people learn about global societal challenges as they work towards them in collaborative activity. Dualistic approaches to human development that separate cognitive processes and social influence have long been challenged and critiqued through a cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) perspective as being unable to explain processes of learning (e.g., Karimi-Aghdam, 2016; Stetsenko, 2016a) This problem has been highlighted through the approach of TAS (Stetsenko, 2008) as neglecting the ethical and value-based foundations of the Vygotskian tradition and being inadequate to address societal challenges and social change in the current time of social and political turbulence (Stetsenko, 2016b). There have been few studies on how people learn about global societal challenges, such as violence, poverty, and chronic health conditions These complex issues are dynamic and may require “learning what is not yet there” The study presents learning in this environment as not about acquiring value-neutral knowledge, but as more concerned with “becoming a certain kind of a person” (Vianna & Stetsenko, 2014, p. 582)
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