2025-Kellie Forbes-Simpson

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An exploration of student experential learning through an identity lens

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Dr Kellie Forbe-Simpson (PI), Northumbria University - An exploration of student experential learning through an identity lens

Grant Ref: 2023-MKE-536

Grant Amount: £5,539.77

Project Summary: The project aims to develop knowledge of students' learning when they engage in a higher education (HE) programme, focusing on experiential learning (EL) supported by a coaching pedagogy, through an identity lens.

EL has become popular within HE, enabling students to better link theory with practice, gain insight into potential careers, and gain critical employability skills (Cornell et al., 2013). However, EL requires students to take on a new identity, such as manager or entrepreneur, and understanding the unintended outcome can provide new insights into students' learning that help inform what approaches may be most effective (Warhurst, 2011).

This project conceptualises learning as identity formation and identity work (Brown, 2017) and brings together literature in the management education field which has made advances in theorising learning as identity work (Moore & Koning, 2015; Bolander, Holmberg & Fellbom, 2019) and applies it to the field of HE and EL (Robinson & Leigh, 2025). By analysing new empirical data, the project will develop high-quality theory about student learning to advance the management learning and education field.