Transformative listening across global contexts: situated learning theory and the use of a listening protocol to create safe spaces for listening and connection

As a group of global scholars, we see authentic listening, with its focus on attention and presence, as crucial to the formation of trust, connection, and the facilitation of learning. We co-created the Transformative Listening Collaborative and a Transformative Listening Protocol (the Protocol) as a means to increase awareness of the importance of authentic listening as a transformative component of learning through story. The Protocol is intended to improve listening skills, foster deep sensemaking, and generate contextually situated spaces in which participants may connect with another, understand another, and/or learn more deeply about oneself.