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Empowering Educators:
Improving Lifelong Learning in Europe through Transformative Pedagogies

This Erasmus+ co-funded initiative introduces an innovative pedagogical framework based on Awareness-Based Design (ABD) and embodied learning. By centring embodiment and relational practices, it addresses complex socio-educational challenges while fostering critical self-reflection, emotional intelligence, and inclusive teaching strategies.

Integrating key principles of Transformative Learning (TL)—such as inner transformation, delayed meaning-making, and co-creative literacies—the project reimagines adult education as a dynamic blend of material, emotional, and systemic awareness.

Background

Responding to a growing demand for transformative approaches, this project builds on over five years of applied research in Transformative Learning by Ricardo Dutra Goncalves and Arawana Hayashi, grounded in the vision of Studio Atelirista. 

While supported by Erasmus+ and enriched by transnational collaboration—including with the hosting organisation Association Méditation dans l’Enseignement (AMLE, France)—the project’s core direction is led by Studio Atelirista’s mission to bring people together to co-create social and environmental art that respond to pressing global issues

Methodology

The project combines Social Presencing Theatre (SPT) with design-led tools and collaborative co-creation, informed by the research of Ricardo Dutra Goncalves. These methods make intangible dynamics (e.g. implicit bias, power asymmetries) visible, helping trainers critically engage with systemic barriers in adult education.

Through job shadowing, training placements, and co-designed courses with AMLE, participants explored an innovative framework and prototype interventions that challenge entrenched narratives through embodied participatory inquiry.

Objectives

  • Build trainer capacity in Transformative Learning (TL):
    Experiential workshops on Pedagogies of Togetherness and ABD equiped trainers to lead learner-centred, context-sensitive programmes.
  • Refine and validate the Transformative Learning Framework:
    The TL model was improved iteratively through participant feedback and academic collaboration, integrating best practices from across Europe.
  • Promote intersectional participation in Erasmus+ adult learning:
    Intersectionality was, and still be embedded in programme design, stakeholder training, and policy dialogue to ensure inclusive access and representation.


This project empowered educators to build learning environments that foster systemic belonging and collective agency, prioritising awareness over static knowledge transfer—core values aligned with the European Education Area’s goals of inclusion and innovation.






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