Nature-Based Wilderness Field Trips as Inner Development Guide (IDG) Interventions: A Southern African Case Study of Inner to Outer Transformation Among University Students

This case study explores how a nature-based wilderness intervention can foster inner-to-outer sustainability transformation among university students in Southern Africa. Grounded explicitly in the Inner Development Guide (IDG) and the earlier Inner Development Goals framework, which positions inner capacities such as self-awareness, relational intelligence, and systems thinking as foundational to sustainable transformation, the study investigates how experiential learning in nature contributes to the development of these capacities. Drawing on the archetypal frameworks of the Hero’s and Heroine’s Journey, the intervention was designed as a six-day immersive field experience structured around departure, initiation, and return, centred on a real-world conservation crisis. Using a qualitative interpretivist case study design, data were collected through student journals, facilitator field notes, and group reflection sessions and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings indicate that participants experienced significant inner transformation, including increased self-awareness, emotional regulation, ecological identity, and relational sensitivity which are capacities closely aligned with the IDG dimensions of Being, Relating, and Thinking. Female participants in particular described a rebalancing of internalised leadership norms after observing matriarchal animal societies, suggesting the importance of integrating relational and intuitive capacities into sustainability leadership development. The intervention also generated outer transformation outcomes, including enhanced commitment to community-based sustainability initiatives and peer engagement. The study contributes to emerging research on IDG-aligned higher education interventions by offering a replicable experiential model that integrates archetypal psychology, transformative learning theory, and sustainability education. It responds to calls for higher education institutions to move beyond traditional cognitive pedagogies toward developmental approaches that cultivate the inner capacities required for systemic change.