Boundary-crossing learning in agricultural learning systems: formative interventions for water and seed provision in southern Africa
- Authors: Pesanayi, Victor Tichaona
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Agriultural extension work -- Africa, Southern , Agriultural colleges -- Africa, Southern , Farmers -- Education -- Africa, Southern , Agriculture and state -- Africa, Southern , Sustainable agriculture -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/94067 , vital:30997
- Description: This research was conducted in the Amathole rural district of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, and in Zvishavane and Zhombe rural districts of the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe over a period of four years. In the first two years of this period I was involved in co-engaged boundary-crossing expansive learning processes with research participants from agricultural education (agricultural college lecturers, principals and university lecturers), extension services (extension officers, advisors and workers), small-scale farmers and a local economic development (LED) agency as agricultural learning activity systems. The latter was applicable only to the South African nested case while the rest applied to both country nested cases. The study focusses on the boundary-crossing learning of sustainable agricultural water relevant for small-scale farming contexts under rain-fed and climate constrained conditions with specific attention to rainwater harvesting and conservation and climate-adaptive seed. The study employed cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and developmental work research methodology developed by Yrjö Engeström and his colleagues at the Centre for Researching Activity Development and Learning (CRADLE) at the University of Helsinki in Finland. The study was guided by three objectives. The first objective was to find out how the different groups represented across the activity systems listed above learn together to mediate and communicate sustainable agricultural water and seed saving. To address this objective I conducted focus groups and interviews with key informants, made observations and analysed documents. The second objective was to explore and document the socio-ecological histories of rainwater harvesting and conservation, locally-adaptive seed systems and associated value chains, and socio-cultural histories of agricultural learning systems in the context of small-scale farming using historical and ethnographic research techniques. The third objective was to understand how learning, curriculum innovation and mediation tools for agricultural extension education and farmer training that can expand learning of rainwater harvesting and conservation sustainable practices for improved local agricultural water and climate-adaptive non-formal seed systems in agricultural education and small-scale farmer activity systems could be co-generated. This third objective constituted the boundary-crossing expansive learning that emerged from change laboratory workshops carefully designed to explore the common water for food object across the different but related activity systems. The study reveals historically-persisting tensions and contradictions in the work of agricultural college lecturers, small-scale farmers and extension workers that limit their ability to work together relationally leaving them operating in isolated ‘silos’. The industrially-driven agricultural college curriculum promoting conventional irrigated agriculture conflicted with the college’s objective of producing extension workers who will work with resource-poor small-scale farmers in rain-fed farming systems. This conflict was aggravated by the work of extension workers who had little to no knowledge regarding how to support small-scale farmers facing persistent drought and consequent crop failure due to poor and erratic rainfall. At the same time extension services promoting genetically modified (GMO) seed in South Africa were in conflict with some small-scale farmers’ demands for seed that was adapted to their changing climate and their ability to operate independently with access to and ownership of land. This study shows that the work of agricultural colleges and extension services often defeats its intended structural objectives due to historically-constituted power relations around knowledge. This study has demonstrated the effectiveness of co-generative formative interventions in boundary-crossing scenarios in learning network contexts for expansion of activity in farming communities, agricultural colleges and extension services, with emphasis of transformed activity towards engaging a collective object of rainwater harvesting and conservation for more sustainable agriculture and poverty alleviation. The study shows that diverse combinations of change practice courses, change laboratories, demonstration sites and media engagements as mediation processes in the context of learning networks strengthened the possibility for boundary-crossing expansive learning across activity systems of agricultural college lecturers, smallholder farmers, extension workers and local economic development agency facilitators. Three of the five mediation processes emerged out of the formative intervention processes in both the South African and Zimbabwean case studies while two were not realised in the Zimbabwean case study, namely the change practice course and media engagements, due to different formative intervention conditions, inadequate time and resources. Boundary-crossing was enabled by a variety of actions including understanding and identifying with the context of the other (i.e. developing empathy) as a result of change laboratory workshops that also ensured confrontation with relational contradictions. The study concludes that it is possible for historically-constituted contradictions around water for food to be resolved when participants from different agricultural learning systems co-engage as equals in boundary-crossing change laboratory fora mediated by appropriate tools and processes. The study contributes to innovation in agricultural learning systems in southern Africa, in particular to means of engaging across boundaries of previously largely disconnected activity systems in ways that benefit smallholder farmers who have previously been marginalised from mainstream agricultural learning systems.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Pesanayi, Victor Tichaona
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Agriultural extension work -- Africa, Southern , Agriultural colleges -- Africa, Southern , Farmers -- Education -- Africa, Southern , Agriculture and state -- Africa, Southern , Sustainable agriculture -- Africa, Southern
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/94067 , vital:30997
- Description: This research was conducted in the Amathole rural district of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, and in Zvishavane and Zhombe rural districts of the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe over a period of four years. In the first two years of this period I was involved in co-engaged boundary-crossing expansive learning processes with research participants from agricultural education (agricultural college lecturers, principals and university lecturers), extension services (extension officers, advisors and workers), small-scale farmers and a local economic development (LED) agency as agricultural learning activity systems. The latter was applicable only to the South African nested case while the rest applied to both country nested cases. The study focusses on the boundary-crossing learning of sustainable agricultural water relevant for small-scale farming contexts under rain-fed and climate constrained conditions with specific attention to rainwater harvesting and conservation and climate-adaptive seed. The study employed cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and developmental work research methodology developed by Yrjö Engeström and his colleagues at the Centre for Researching Activity Development and Learning (CRADLE) at the University of Helsinki in Finland. The study was guided by three objectives. The first objective was to find out how the different groups represented across the activity systems listed above learn together to mediate and communicate sustainable agricultural water and seed saving. To address this objective I conducted focus groups and interviews with key informants, made observations and analysed documents. The second objective was to explore and document the socio-ecological histories of rainwater harvesting and conservation, locally-adaptive seed systems and associated value chains, and socio-cultural histories of agricultural learning systems in the context of small-scale farming using historical and ethnographic research techniques. The third objective was to understand how learning, curriculum innovation and mediation tools for agricultural extension education and farmer training that can expand learning of rainwater harvesting and conservation sustainable practices for improved local agricultural water and climate-adaptive non-formal seed systems in agricultural education and small-scale farmer activity systems could be co-generated. This third objective constituted the boundary-crossing expansive learning that emerged from change laboratory workshops carefully designed to explore the common water for food object across the different but related activity systems. The study reveals historically-persisting tensions and contradictions in the work of agricultural college lecturers, small-scale farmers and extension workers that limit their ability to work together relationally leaving them operating in isolated ‘silos’. The industrially-driven agricultural college curriculum promoting conventional irrigated agriculture conflicted with the college’s objective of producing extension workers who will work with resource-poor small-scale farmers in rain-fed farming systems. This conflict was aggravated by the work of extension workers who had little to no knowledge regarding how to support small-scale farmers facing persistent drought and consequent crop failure due to poor and erratic rainfall. At the same time extension services promoting genetically modified (GMO) seed in South Africa were in conflict with some small-scale farmers’ demands for seed that was adapted to their changing climate and their ability to operate independently with access to and ownership of land. This study shows that the work of agricultural colleges and extension services often defeats its intended structural objectives due to historically-constituted power relations around knowledge. This study has demonstrated the effectiveness of co-generative formative interventions in boundary-crossing scenarios in learning network contexts for expansion of activity in farming communities, agricultural colleges and extension services, with emphasis of transformed activity towards engaging a collective object of rainwater harvesting and conservation for more sustainable agriculture and poverty alleviation. The study shows that diverse combinations of change practice courses, change laboratories, demonstration sites and media engagements as mediation processes in the context of learning networks strengthened the possibility for boundary-crossing expansive learning across activity systems of agricultural college lecturers, smallholder farmers, extension workers and local economic development agency facilitators. Three of the five mediation processes emerged out of the formative intervention processes in both the South African and Zimbabwean case studies while two were not realised in the Zimbabwean case study, namely the change practice course and media engagements, due to different formative intervention conditions, inadequate time and resources. Boundary-crossing was enabled by a variety of actions including understanding and identifying with the context of the other (i.e. developing empathy) as a result of change laboratory workshops that also ensured confrontation with relational contradictions. The study concludes that it is possible for historically-constituted contradictions around water for food to be resolved when participants from different agricultural learning systems co-engage as equals in boundary-crossing change laboratory fora mediated by appropriate tools and processes. The study contributes to innovation in agricultural learning systems in southern Africa, in particular to means of engaging across boundaries of previously largely disconnected activity systems in ways that benefit smallholder farmers who have previously been marginalised from mainstream agricultural learning systems.
- Full Text:
Investigating and expanding learning across activity system boundaries in improved cook stove innovation diffusion and adoption in Malawi
- Jalasi, Experencia Madalitso
- Authors: Jalasi, Experencia Madalitso
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Stoves, Wood -- Technological innovations -- Malawi , Biomass stoves -- Malawi , Economic development projects -- Environmental aspects -- Malawi , Rural development projects -- Environmental aspects -- Malawi
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68170 , vital:29212
- Description: This study investigates and expands learning within and between activity systems working with Improved Cook Stoves (hereafter ICS) in Malawi. The study focuses on how existing learning interactions among ICS actors can be expanded using expansive learning processes, mobilised through Boundary Crossing Change Laboratories (BCCL) to potentially inform more sustained uptake and utilisation of the ICS technology. The ICS, as a socio-technical innovation, seeks to respond to climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in the country. However, sustained uptake and utilisation has been problematic. The study is located in the field of Environmental Education, with emphasis on the diffusion and adoption of socio-technical innovations in the context of ICS technology. The study addresses societal environmental health risks faced by people using traditional biomass fuels indoors on open fires, commonly referred to as Three Stone Fire (hereafter TSF) through formative intervention supported by Developmental Work Research (hereafter DWR) or Expansive Learning. The study was conducted in three climate change hotspot districts in Malawi: Balaka, Dedza and Mzimba. The case studies are in each of the three administrative regions of the country. Chapita Village case study is in Balaka district, in the Southern region; Waziloya Makwakwa Village is in Mzimba district in the Northern region; and Chilije Village in Dedza district in the Central region. In order to engage the potential for transformation in study areas, I divided the study into two phases. The first phase involved collection of ethnographic data to more deeply understand the context of the problem including existing learning approaches. This informed the second phase, which focused on expansive learning processes in the Chapita and Waziloya Makwakwa case studies. The study used a formative intervention approach, which focused on supporting the actors to manage the challenges they were facing and work out the problematic situations in their joint activity. The study employed a qualitative intensive research design because it aimed at in-depth understanding of uptake and utilisation of ICS. This was an important foundation for improving the existing situations through co-creating solutions with research participants. With this generative and action-oriented approach, the study employed a multiple embedded case study design. CHAT and Critical Realism were the two main theories that I employed as they resonated with the transformative interest of the study through focusing on learning as an emancipatory process with potential for transformation of human practices. In addition, I used the methodological theory of Expansive Learning from CHAT to guide the expansive learning processes. With the critical realist framing of the study, I employed a critical realist analytical framework, and used inductive, abductive and retroductive analyses.The major findings of the study indicate that broadly, uptake and utilisation of ICS is problematic, hence unsustained. The findings indicate that the majority of end-users in Chapita and Chilije case studies switched between TSF and ICS, or abandoned the ICS, which was not the case in Waziloya Makwakwa case study. The underlying causal mechanisms that appear to explain and influence end-users’ actions in all the case studies were the search for convenience during the cooking activity. Further, findings revealed that learning interactions among activity systems were unidirectional which provides evidence for top-down approaches prevalent in cook stove dissemination. The findings also indicated that most of the learning taking place was informative, not transformative. It was also inadequate, particularly for end-users. A causal mechanism that appears to shape how actors are learning ICS technology is poverty, which results in over-reliance on donor-driven projects. Findings also reveal that contradictions in the learning, uptake and utilisation of ICS influence the profile of uptake and utilisation of ICSs. Further, the change-oriented learning processes, as carried out in the Chapita and Waziloya Makwakwa case studies, have shown their potential in expanding learning interactions among ICS actors, evoking and supporting their transformative agency and enhancing their reflexivity. These processes are crucial in development and sustaining learning and change in the uptake and utilisation of ICS innovation. The main contribution of the study is methodological. It contributes broadly to diffusion and adoption of socio-technical innovations through change-oriented expansive learning processes. The study generated an Innovative Extension and Communicative Methodology, which foregrounds interaction and learning and links the socio-technical innovation intention and socio-technical innovation uptake and utilisation that potentially informs the dissemination and implementation of ICS projects. Further, the study contributes to community education by mobilising communities to address contradictions, absences, or ills in the society via change-oriented learning processes. The societal ills facing the case study sites and the areas around them, caused by climate change and variability and deforestation exacerbate the lives of rural women who are afflicted by conditions of poverty. The study contributes to global and local efforts and initiatives to address environmental health risks faced by people using traditional biomass fuels indoors on TSF and climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study has found out that putting the agency of the end-user in the centre in socio-technical transitions through context-based problem resolution and rigorous deliberate1 mediated processes of participation and learning, which allows multivoicedness and takes power relations into account, catalyses transformative agency, reflexivity, collaboration and learning capacity of ICS actors for sustained uptake and utilisation of the ICS socio-technical innovation.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Jalasi, Experencia Madalitso
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Stoves, Wood -- Technological innovations -- Malawi , Biomass stoves -- Malawi , Economic development projects -- Environmental aspects -- Malawi , Rural development projects -- Environmental aspects -- Malawi
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68170 , vital:29212
- Description: This study investigates and expands learning within and between activity systems working with Improved Cook Stoves (hereafter ICS) in Malawi. The study focuses on how existing learning interactions among ICS actors can be expanded using expansive learning processes, mobilised through Boundary Crossing Change Laboratories (BCCL) to potentially inform more sustained uptake and utilisation of the ICS technology. The ICS, as a socio-technical innovation, seeks to respond to climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in the country. However, sustained uptake and utilisation has been problematic. The study is located in the field of Environmental Education, with emphasis on the diffusion and adoption of socio-technical innovations in the context of ICS technology. The study addresses societal environmental health risks faced by people using traditional biomass fuels indoors on open fires, commonly referred to as Three Stone Fire (hereafter TSF) through formative intervention supported by Developmental Work Research (hereafter DWR) or Expansive Learning. The study was conducted in three climate change hotspot districts in Malawi: Balaka, Dedza and Mzimba. The case studies are in each of the three administrative regions of the country. Chapita Village case study is in Balaka district, in the Southern region; Waziloya Makwakwa Village is in Mzimba district in the Northern region; and Chilije Village in Dedza district in the Central region. In order to engage the potential for transformation in study areas, I divided the study into two phases. The first phase involved collection of ethnographic data to more deeply understand the context of the problem including existing learning approaches. This informed the second phase, which focused on expansive learning processes in the Chapita and Waziloya Makwakwa case studies. The study used a formative intervention approach, which focused on supporting the actors to manage the challenges they were facing and work out the problematic situations in their joint activity. The study employed a qualitative intensive research design because it aimed at in-depth understanding of uptake and utilisation of ICS. This was an important foundation for improving the existing situations through co-creating solutions with research participants. With this generative and action-oriented approach, the study employed a multiple embedded case study design. CHAT and Critical Realism were the two main theories that I employed as they resonated with the transformative interest of the study through focusing on learning as an emancipatory process with potential for transformation of human practices. In addition, I used the methodological theory of Expansive Learning from CHAT to guide the expansive learning processes. With the critical realist framing of the study, I employed a critical realist analytical framework, and used inductive, abductive and retroductive analyses.The major findings of the study indicate that broadly, uptake and utilisation of ICS is problematic, hence unsustained. The findings indicate that the majority of end-users in Chapita and Chilije case studies switched between TSF and ICS, or abandoned the ICS, which was not the case in Waziloya Makwakwa case study. The underlying causal mechanisms that appear to explain and influence end-users’ actions in all the case studies were the search for convenience during the cooking activity. Further, findings revealed that learning interactions among activity systems were unidirectional which provides evidence for top-down approaches prevalent in cook stove dissemination. The findings also indicated that most of the learning taking place was informative, not transformative. It was also inadequate, particularly for end-users. A causal mechanism that appears to shape how actors are learning ICS technology is poverty, which results in over-reliance on donor-driven projects. Findings also reveal that contradictions in the learning, uptake and utilisation of ICS influence the profile of uptake and utilisation of ICSs. Further, the change-oriented learning processes, as carried out in the Chapita and Waziloya Makwakwa case studies, have shown their potential in expanding learning interactions among ICS actors, evoking and supporting their transformative agency and enhancing their reflexivity. These processes are crucial in development and sustaining learning and change in the uptake and utilisation of ICS innovation. The main contribution of the study is methodological. It contributes broadly to diffusion and adoption of socio-technical innovations through change-oriented expansive learning processes. The study generated an Innovative Extension and Communicative Methodology, which foregrounds interaction and learning and links the socio-technical innovation intention and socio-technical innovation uptake and utilisation that potentially informs the dissemination and implementation of ICS projects. Further, the study contributes to community education by mobilising communities to address contradictions, absences, or ills in the society via change-oriented learning processes. The societal ills facing the case study sites and the areas around them, caused by climate change and variability and deforestation exacerbate the lives of rural women who are afflicted by conditions of poverty. The study contributes to global and local efforts and initiatives to address environmental health risks faced by people using traditional biomass fuels indoors on TSF and climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study has found out that putting the agency of the end-user in the centre in socio-technical transitions through context-based problem resolution and rigorous deliberate1 mediated processes of participation and learning, which allows multivoicedness and takes power relations into account, catalyses transformative agency, reflexivity, collaboration and learning capacity of ICS actors for sustained uptake and utilisation of the ICS socio-technical innovation.
- Full Text:
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