Transformative learning in educational tourism

Transformative learning is important not only for the learner, but so too the teacher-as-learner. Educational tourism - here defined as tourist experiences that explicitly aim to provide structured learning, in situthough active and engaged intellectual praxis - provides an opportunity for university teachers to engage with lifelong learners beyond the Academy. Both the medium (educational tourism) and the participants (lifelong learners) can generate transformative experiences for the teacher which may in turn inform and improve his or her classroom teaching. This paper outlines the results of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council study into how humanities scholars use educational tourism to engage with lifelong learners. The study found that educational tourism is characterised by intentional and structured learning experiences that provide opportunities for the teacher to immerse him or herself in experiences that have the potential to challenge previously held beliefs and biases. Furthermore, the typical educational tourist is a well-educated, critical lifelong learner and as such, challenges the teacher in ways which may not occur in the classroom