The Individual, Collective, and Cyclical Transformational Learning Created by Food Tourism Education

Research on food tourism education is rare, despite a significant growth in food tourism literature in recent decades. A food tourism module was developed for a new MA Gastronomy and Food Studies at the Technological University Dublin, Ireland in 2017. This article, written by the two module creators and lecturers, analyses reflections of two cohorts of mature post-graduate students (n.14). We explore the transformational role (if any) that this module had. Then, using purposive sampling, employ semi-structured interviews with five graduates who had a collective transformational learning experience – setting up the food tourism network Wicklow Naturally – to explore their lived experiences. Using a relativist ontology, and an interpretative phenomenological analysis epistemology, this qualitative research revealed three different levels of learning identified from the reflections: (1) knowledge and understanding, (2) reflection, and (3) action. Next, reflexive thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews revealed three key themes: (1) knowledge, and confidence in that knowledge, (2) shared experience and connection, and (3) serendipity. The significance of this research is threefold. It adds to the literature on food tourism education; it extends the literature on both individual and collective transformational learning, and finally it introduces the concept of circular transformational learning.