Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Every year an increasing number of students are taking Erasmus work placements or traineeships. This paper details an account of narrative research that explores sojourners experiences of voluntary work placements as part of an Erasmus traineeship. Previous research shows that international work placements are good places for sojourners to learn about themselves and to develop skills and attributes for working with and within other cultures. This qualitative research gathered the life stories of sojourners and narratives of their experiences throughout their time aboard. This research listened to the stories of sojourners, gaining a deeper understanding of the type of learning that took place and offering a theory to explain how that learning occurred and why that learning is transformative. It also, gathered the narratives of a group of sojourners who completed an Erasmus work placement at least two years previously to see if those transformations were long lasting. The results suggested that the liminal state of the international work placement can create the environment for extra rational transformative learning, and develop a form of tertiary socialisation, which allows sojourners a different perspective of the world around them. It also suggested that the changes that take place as part of the experience of living and working abroad stay with sojourners after they return home.