Tanya Elder Deepens Understanding of Experiential Learning through Qualitative Research

For Tanya Elder, experiential learning means learning about learning. As Professor of Communications in AUP’s Master’s in Global Communications, Elder has been pioneering experiential learning in sustainable development, anthropology and communications for nearly two decades.

Through the Sustainable Development Practicum in India, she has crafted an academic experience that immerses students in real-world sustainability projects beyond the classroom.

Since its inception in 2008-2009, the Sustainable Development Practicum has taken students to Auroville, India and on occasion Pondicherry during the inter-semester period, from mid-December to mid-January. Once on site, students create communication materials—short films, social media content, annual reports—for partner NGOs in the field. Students collaborate in groups of two or three, matched with NGOs based on their skills and the organizations’ needs. Recent projects—which always contribute directly to sustainable development initiatives—have included exploring plant dyeing and its connections to fashion with the NGO The Colors of Nature, and making a short film on the latest technology used to recycle water.

Her initial inspiration for the Practicum stemmed from an experience with Living Roots, a year-long study abroad program at the University of Massachusetts, with AUP alumnus and fellow professor Laurent Sauerwein ’62, that incorporated field visits into its curriculum. For Elder, the program, run by a woman who led small-group bike tours to various development projects, demonstrated the power of hands-on engagement. Upon returning to France, Elder co-created the Sustainable Development Practicum, with Professor Charles Talcott coming on board the second year, as a way to merge academic learning with civic media production for NGOs in India.

“The underlying idea behind the Practicum has always been that students learn best when they’re experiencing what they’re learning; the ability to use all their senses, to connect both emotionally and intellectually is essential,” she says.

This approach is part of what UNESCO considers sustainable education, which relies on cognitive, emotional and behavioral learning to engage students. Not only has the Practicum helped students better understand the realities of climate change and the need for sustainable practices through engagement; Professor Elder has also created opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning, a process that is now the focus of the research she is conducting with a group of students that examines how experiential learning shapes students’ perceptions of sustainability and social change.

Prior to departure, students attend preparatory sessions on observational methods, ethnographic writing and the ethics of development work. On-site assignments lead students away from conventional academic tasks, requiring them to keep field journals, write blog posts (accessible at https://aupindia.org) and conduct on-site interviews. These reflections encourage students to confront their own potentially ethnocentric gaze, engage critically with their surroundings, and develop a more nuanced understanding of sustainability.

“I help them see how to suspend judgement and look at things objectively. We’re always placing our filter on whatever we’re looking at; the foreign and the different become lesser. But students learn to address their own ethnocentrism through observational journaling,” she explains. “Ethnographic writing is observing the self.”

The blogs, journal entries and final essays that students write at the end of the Practicum are crucial to Elder’s current research project, for which she obtained a John Lewis Grant. Drawing on the work of educational theorists such as John Dewey and David A. Kolb, Elder and a team of students are exploring how immersive experiences can deepen students’ understanding of complex global challenges.

In using the qualitative analysis software Quirkos, they have been coding the data collected from AUP students (from 2011 onwards) to identify key themes such as empowerment, shifting perceptions of sustainability and the emotions experienced during fieldwork. Elder recently took the team on a working retreat to Nantes, an opportunity to advance the research, as well as to team-build and develop the student-professor relationship, which she sees as essential.

To further assess the impact of the Practicum, Elder developed pre- and post-program surveys to measure students’ definitions of sustainability, their apprehensions, and the ways their perspectives evolve. She has also recently sought to track down former Practicum participants to examine how the experience has influenced their career paths and life choices. Through in-depth interviews, Elder aims to understand the long-term impact of experiential learning, particularly in fostering agency and interdisciplinary problem-solving skills.

“Students often enter the program with a simplified understanding of sustainability but leave with a much more integrated and complex perspective,” she explains.

Beyond the Practicum, Elder continues to renew her commitment to sustainability as an AUP Green Faculty Mentor. She is currently advocating for more immersive approaches to sustainability education at AUP. She envisions a rural campus component that would balance Paris-based coursework with hands-on projects in the countryside. She is also working to carbon offset the travel impact of the Practicum through tree-planting.

With the findings of this research project, Elder plans to publish multiple articles and potentially a collective publication with other scholars engaged in experiential learning. Collaborators such as Christy Shields, who has led a similar practicum in the Jura region focusing on food sustainability, are part of these discussions.