Immersive excursions in Initial Teacher Education are often positioned as affective orientation spaces rather than curriculum-integrated pedagogical sites. Building on prior work that conceptualised excursions as enabling learning environments grounded in social constructivism and Vygotsky’s Zone of proximal development, this paper analyses the 2026 redesign of a first-year Bachelor of Education Foundation Phase excursion at a South African university. While 2025 findings highlighted belonging, care, and reflexivity as emergent outcomes, the 2026 programme was intentionally restructured to embed these dimensions within explicit learning outcomes and scaffolded praxis. Activities such as Step Apart, Step Together, multilingual language portraits, low-cost sunstove construction, critical engagement with children’s literature, and structured professional identity reflection were systematically aligned with curriculum goals. Drawing on social constructivism and experiential learning, the redesign positioned play (Homo ludens) and embodied participation as epistemologically legitimate modes of professional learning. Data from the 2025 cohort were analysed using thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke, supported by ATLAS.ti. Comparative analysis of programme documentation, artefacts, and student reflections enabled identification of three curricular shifts: from implicit to explicit outcome alignment, from activity-based engagement to theoretically informed praxis, and from relational bonding to structured identity formation.The paper aligns with IAFOR’s themes of Humanity and Human Intelligence and Leadership by foregrounding relational, ethical, and socially responsive teacher preparation. It argues that immersive learning in higher education should be deliberately designed as curriculum-embedded, transformative praxis in multilingual and unequal contexts.

Authors:
Susanna Louw, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Carli Louw, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

About the Presenter(s)
My research explores language, gender, media, and responsible AI in higher education. I co-develop an AI-Study buddy framework and immersive first-year excursions that promote self-directed learning and reflective foundation phase teachers.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susann-hermina-louw/

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Susann-Louw

Additional website of interest
https://sites.google.com/uwc.ac.za/drsusannlouw/home

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