Reimagining Sustainable Interdisciplinary Learning: Developing Global Citizenship through Community-Engaged Mobility in Islamic Higher Education

Abstract

International mobility programs represent underutilized platforms for advancing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education (GCED), particularly for students from peripheral higher education institutions with limited international exposure. This study investigates how the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) 2026 at Universiti Utara Malaysia facilitated transformative learning aligned with UNESCO's Education for Sustainable Development: Towards Achieving the SDGs (ESD for 2030) framework and the OECD Global Competence Framework among students from a small Islamic higher education institution in Indonesia. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study explored the lived experiences of 15 undergraduate students from STITNU Sakinah Dharmasraya who participated in multicultural academic collaboration, community-based learning in Kampung Telok Kandis, and intercultural homestay immersion. The findings reveal a progressive transformative process characterized by four interrelated themes: navigating uncertainty through intercultural encounters, community engagement as experiential sustainability learning, collaborative learning as a catalyst for intercultural competence and professional confidence, and transformative learning toward global citizenship. Based on these findings, the study proposes the Transformative Education for Sustainable Mobility (TESM) Model, an integrative framework that explains transformative international mobility and provides practical guidance for designing sustainability-oriented mobility programs within Islamic higher education and comparable institutional contexts, while informing future internationalization initiatives.