![]() ![]() The emerging field of regenerative higher education (RHE) aims to do exactly that by linking strongly to local transition challenges rooted in place as rich contexts for personal and systemic learning-based transformation. The state of the world asks from us an educational response that actively connects with these wicked challenges, also known as sustainability transitions (STs), with the intention of bringing back the systemic exceeding of the carrying capacity of the Earth, society, and individuals or, in other words, an approach to education that aims to contribute to the regeneration of personal and planetary health within the ‘safe and just equitable space for humanity’. The calls for an educational response for these times of interconnected transitions have been growing. ![]() ![]() This wicked nature of sustainability challenges (which also extends to other challenges such as transitions in how we build, how we feed our societies, or how we dress, amongst many others) is one of the reasons why we are, collectively, transgressing the social and ecological foundations that allow for a healthy planetary existence for humanity. For example, transitioning towards a solar-based energy system for a borough in Amsterdam depends on, among other things, policy at the local, national, and European level, not to mention the impact of fossil fuel prices, the impact of mining rare earth metals for batteries on ecosystems and local peoples, or simply the willingness of the inhabitants of Amsterdam to accept solar panels aesthetically on their roofs. This is also expressed through the transdisciplinary nature of such challenges. This type of wickedness in sustainability challenges is expressed through interlinkages between disparate systems that interplay with each other at multiple levels. Today humanity faces a wide range of wicked (sustainability) challenges including an enduring global pandemic and dire climate predictions. These themes can be used by practitioners to design and engage with regenerative forms of higher education, and by scholars to guide further inquiry. The results of this study include four themes (1) Opting in-Choosing RHE, (2) Learning in Regenerative Ways, (3) Navigating Resistance(s), and (4) Transformative Impacts of RHE. At the end of each iteration, the students reflected on their experience using the Living Spiral Framework, which served as basis for an interpretative phenomenological analysis of their journey navigating this transformative course. This semester-length course ran for two iterations with the intention of connecting the students with local transitions towards a more circular society, one where products are lasting and have multiple lives when they are shared, refurbished, or become a source for a new product. This paper explores the lived experience of 21 students learning to navigate a regenerative form of higher education in the Mission Impact course at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Regenerative forms of higher education are emerging, and required, to connect with some of the grand transition challenges of our times. ![]()
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