Hearing silenced voices: a learning-centred approach to sustainable land rehabilitation and natural resource management
- Authors: Wolff, Margaret Gascoyne
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Watershed management -- South Africa -- Citizen participation , Water-supply -- Management -- Citizen participation , Environmental education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/94958 , vital:31101
- Description: South Africa is a semi-arid country with dysfunctional water management. The National Water Act encourages integrated water resource management and public participation in contributing to strategies for managing water within delineated areas. Various challenges hamper progress of integrated water resource management and meaningful participation by residents in catchments across the country. One of the challenges is the lack of knowledge about their role in water resource management. By viewing catchments as complex social-ecological systems, this case study investigates how to establish a learning-centred approach to catchment management forum (CMF) formation. The study addressed three sub-questions: What activity systems need to be prioritised for community participation in CMF formation? What existing learning can be identified within the activity systems? What are the sources for expansive social learning in and between the activity systems? The study draws on social learning theory, and on cultural historical activity theory as it offers a methodological approach to identifying a learning-centred approach to learning in a catchment context. Drawing on this theoretical framework, for research question 1, I identified five activity systems that are present in the study area, are partly representative of the people who live in the area, and are linked to land and water governance either through their positions as government employees within the sector, or the NLEIP in ways that influence communities’ lives and livelihoods. To address question 2, I ran learning-centred workshops and interviewed people who lived in the study area. Careful, respectful listening and participants’ use of home language created the safe space in which residents revealed that they know which water resources are important to protect and where breakdowns in communication happen. For question 3, I analysed the data from the workshops and interviews using a cultural historical activity theory framework to identify discursive manifestations of contradictions within and between activity systems which illuminate the potential for expansive social learning. This study recommends developing an understanding of the complex social-ecological context and prioritising co-learning and community participation in a learning-centred approach to catchment management forum formation. For this, there is need to develop in-depth insight into activity systems associated with water governance in local contexts. In this study I identified five of these activity systems, but the study points to a further range of activity systems that need to be considered for a learning-centred approach to be fully established. The study also found that communities are learning via engaging in the rehabilitation work, through engagements in workshops and within the municipal structures. Additionally, the study identified a number of contradictions that can provide sources of learning for taking an expansive learning approach further in CMF formation. Such an approach may provide the space to build bridges of trust between diverse knowledge systems, and has the potential to encourage sustainable co-operation in natural resource management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Wolff, Margaret Gascoyne
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Watershed management -- South Africa -- Citizen participation , Water-supply -- Management -- Citizen participation , Environmental education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/94958 , vital:31101
- Description: South Africa is a semi-arid country with dysfunctional water management. The National Water Act encourages integrated water resource management and public participation in contributing to strategies for managing water within delineated areas. Various challenges hamper progress of integrated water resource management and meaningful participation by residents in catchments across the country. One of the challenges is the lack of knowledge about their role in water resource management. By viewing catchments as complex social-ecological systems, this case study investigates how to establish a learning-centred approach to catchment management forum (CMF) formation. The study addressed three sub-questions: What activity systems need to be prioritised for community participation in CMF formation? What existing learning can be identified within the activity systems? What are the sources for expansive social learning in and between the activity systems? The study draws on social learning theory, and on cultural historical activity theory as it offers a methodological approach to identifying a learning-centred approach to learning in a catchment context. Drawing on this theoretical framework, for research question 1, I identified five activity systems that are present in the study area, are partly representative of the people who live in the area, and are linked to land and water governance either through their positions as government employees within the sector, or the NLEIP in ways that influence communities’ lives and livelihoods. To address question 2, I ran learning-centred workshops and interviewed people who lived in the study area. Careful, respectful listening and participants’ use of home language created the safe space in which residents revealed that they know which water resources are important to protect and where breakdowns in communication happen. For question 3, I analysed the data from the workshops and interviews using a cultural historical activity theory framework to identify discursive manifestations of contradictions within and between activity systems which illuminate the potential for expansive social learning. This study recommends developing an understanding of the complex social-ecological context and prioritising co-learning and community participation in a learning-centred approach to catchment management forum formation. For this, there is need to develop in-depth insight into activity systems associated with water governance in local contexts. In this study I identified five of these activity systems, but the study points to a further range of activity systems that need to be considered for a learning-centred approach to be fully established. The study also found that communities are learning via engaging in the rehabilitation work, through engagements in workshops and within the municipal structures. Additionally, the study identified a number of contradictions that can provide sources of learning for taking an expansive learning approach further in CMF formation. Such an approach may provide the space to build bridges of trust between diverse knowledge systems, and has the potential to encourage sustainable co-operation in natural resource management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Investigating how outdoor environmental education programmes in South Africa respond to the needs of visually impaired learners via inclusive practices
- Authors: Eksteen, Hendrik Christiaan
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Children with visual disabilities -- Education -- South Africa , Outdoor education -- South Africa , Environmental education -- South Africa , Outdoor recreation for children with disabilities -- South Africa , Inclusive education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92716 , vital:30721
- Description: Outdoor environmental education programmes in South Africa are conducted at campsites and centres owned by the government, non-profit organisations and private owners. People suffering from impairments are often disabled by society because of their handicap. More than three percent (3%) of young people in South Africa aged between 10 – 19 years are disabled. This study investigates the status of inclusion of outdoor environmental education programmes for disabled young people; what is offered and what practices are working in the industry in South Africa. It also investigates barriers to inclusion. Though many disabilities have been identified, visual impairment is the focus of the study. This study also looks at what more can be done from an Ecological Systems Theory of Human Development point of view and investigates what underlying mechanisms influence the inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes in South Africa. What is done and what is not done to promote inclusion for visually impaired learners in these programmes is also investigated. This study aims to answer the question; What is the current status quo concerning the inclusion of visually impaired learners in outdoor environmental learning programmes in environmental education centres and campsites in South Africa? An initial focus group conducted informally prior to the study, helped me to understand the context. In this study, key-interviews and questionnaires were used as research tools. I also ran a photo narrative project throughout the research project which was used as a participatory activity and provided further insight into practices. Inductive, abductive and retroductive analysis approaches were used to identify emerging themes, and I applied method triangulation using all research tools in order to address the research questions. Some of the most important findings are that: • There are many barriers, some intrinsic others extrinsic, that hinder inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes in South Africa. • Although there are many things done in the industry to promote inclusion, there is much more that could be done. • The visually impaired individual him/herself influences inclusivity in outdoor environmental education programmes. • Interactions and influences in the mesosystem (between different microsystems and ecosystems) have an impact on the inclusivity of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes. • Dispositions of people have an impact on the inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes. • The diversity of generative mechanisms (drivers to events), that interact at the level of the real, influence the inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes. Disability/impairment is a much-neglected area of environmental education research in South Africa. This study has contributed scholarship to this area and has also identified possible further areas of study in creating awareness, creating an opportunity to reflect on practices, and finding possible solutions to the barriers of exclusion.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Eksteen, Hendrik Christiaan
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Children with visual disabilities -- Education -- South Africa , Outdoor education -- South Africa , Environmental education -- South Africa , Outdoor recreation for children with disabilities -- South Africa , Inclusive education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/92716 , vital:30721
- Description: Outdoor environmental education programmes in South Africa are conducted at campsites and centres owned by the government, non-profit organisations and private owners. People suffering from impairments are often disabled by society because of their handicap. More than three percent (3%) of young people in South Africa aged between 10 – 19 years are disabled. This study investigates the status of inclusion of outdoor environmental education programmes for disabled young people; what is offered and what practices are working in the industry in South Africa. It also investigates barriers to inclusion. Though many disabilities have been identified, visual impairment is the focus of the study. This study also looks at what more can be done from an Ecological Systems Theory of Human Development point of view and investigates what underlying mechanisms influence the inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes in South Africa. What is done and what is not done to promote inclusion for visually impaired learners in these programmes is also investigated. This study aims to answer the question; What is the current status quo concerning the inclusion of visually impaired learners in outdoor environmental learning programmes in environmental education centres and campsites in South Africa? An initial focus group conducted informally prior to the study, helped me to understand the context. In this study, key-interviews and questionnaires were used as research tools. I also ran a photo narrative project throughout the research project which was used as a participatory activity and provided further insight into practices. Inductive, abductive and retroductive analysis approaches were used to identify emerging themes, and I applied method triangulation using all research tools in order to address the research questions. Some of the most important findings are that: • There are many barriers, some intrinsic others extrinsic, that hinder inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes in South Africa. • Although there are many things done in the industry to promote inclusion, there is much more that could be done. • The visually impaired individual him/herself influences inclusivity in outdoor environmental education programmes. • Interactions and influences in the mesosystem (between different microsystems and ecosystems) have an impact on the inclusivity of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes. • Dispositions of people have an impact on the inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes. • The diversity of generative mechanisms (drivers to events), that interact at the level of the real, influence the inclusion of visually impaired individuals in outdoor environmental education programmes. Disability/impairment is a much-neglected area of environmental education research in South Africa. This study has contributed scholarship to this area and has also identified possible further areas of study in creating awareness, creating an opportunity to reflect on practices, and finding possible solutions to the barriers of exclusion.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
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