Using the UN’s SDGs in Reviewing the Literature on Action Learning for Community Development

Abstract: As action learning has expanded to take social action beyond its use for traditional management education and leadership development, it is considered a great tool to make meaningful interactions happen in the problem-solving process for community development. The lack of attention to the literature on action learning for community development motivated us to conduct a review study on the topic. We aimed at conducting a systematic literature review to examine the current state of the literature on action learning for community development and to provide implications for research and practice, using the UN’s SDGs as an analytical framework. We identified a total of 85 articles published 2004-2023 in Action Learning: Research and Practice, which is a lead journal in action learning, analyzed those articles from the lens of the UN’s 17 SDGs, and presented three themes: the research focus of the literature (large-scale action learning projects with multiple stakeholders’ participation, inclusion of criticality in the action learning process, and action learning projects combined with action research for change), analysis of the articles from the lens of the UN’s SDGs (85 articles are aligned with 10 SDGs, warranting future investigation on seven missing SDGs), and comparison of global and Korean contexts in the literature. Based on the study findings, we discuss the significance of the study, implications for research and practice, and study limitations.