Students as Agents of Social Change-Student Initiatives at Rhodes University, South Africa
- Authors: Togo, Muchaiteyi
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/386561 , vital:68151 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122830"
- Description: Rhodes University has a diversity of sustainable development initiatives meant for students and in a range of cases activities are initiated by students themselves with the support of the university. Results of a sustainability assessment revealed the involvement of students in environmental societies, environmental awareness campaigns, campus sustainability initiatives and community sustainability projects. Though most of the projects are still in their infancy and some challenges are yet to be overcome, the sustainability initiatives are gaining momentum and have contributed to improving the overall picture of sustainability at the university. Based on the results of the Rhodes University case study, the underpinning viewpoint in this paper is that university students are not merely recipients of Education for Sustainable Development but have the capacity to become agents for social change.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
Understanding social learning processes in a citrus farming community of practice
- Authors: Downsborough, Linda
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/386949 , vital:68191 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122819"
- Description: This paper focuses on what would traditionally be termed ‘non-formal’ learning processes in the context of a case study examining how citrus farming communities in the Patensie Valley in the Eastern Cape in South Africa were learning conservation practices. Communities of Practice theory was used to provide a conceptual framework for researching these learning interactions. Through historical and other qualitative research methods, I was able to establish that farmers in this community of practice learned mainly through responding to change and uncertainty, through forming and drawing on networks and community structures, through intergenerational learning, and through various interactions with each other. The historical research also pointed to the significance of policy and market-based changes in farmer learning, and their attachment to the land, which is shaped through historical associations with the land, and through embedded relations in farming practice cultures. The paper provides an example of how Communities of Practice theory, complemented by historical research, can be used to understand non-formal learning.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
A Bernsteinian analysis of the integration of natural resource management in the curriculum of a rural disadvantaged school
- Authors: Nsubuga, Yvonne
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/386415 , vital:68139 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122771"
- Description: Knowledge integration is one of the key principles that underpin curriculum reform in post-apartheid South Africa. One form of teacher support that has been adopted in South Africa is to provide schools throughout the country with samples of pedagogic texts such as curriculum documents and examination exemplars to act as guidelines to teachers as they implement this new curriculum requirement. In the isolated and under-resourced rural schools of South Africa, these texts are the main form of curriculum guidance to teachers. Hence the knowledge integration principles and messages conveyed within these texts are of crucial importance. One contributory factor to the lack of information on knowledge integration at rural underresourced schools is the lack of simple and effective research tools by which to analyse and compare the extent of knowledge integration within pedagogic texts and classroom practices. This article reports on a Bernstein informed analysis that was carried out on three different Grade 10 Life Sciences pedagogic texts in order to assess the extent to which they integrate natural resource management (NRM). The study involved the construction of two indicator frameworks as the research tools with which the analysis was conducted. Results from the analysis showed that although the official Grade 10 Life Sciences pedagogic texts contained very high levels of NRM integration, this was not the case for the Grade 10 Life Sciences text that was produced at the school level. The study provides useful insight into curriculum recontextualisation at a rural under-resourced school through the lens of NRM integration within the Grade 10 Life Sciences pedagogic texts. Such insight has the potential to contribute to better curriculum design and implementation strategies to service schools. This will hopefully help to narrow the gap that currently exists between the official and enacted curricula.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
Contextualising formal education for improved relevance: A case from the Rufiji Wetlands, Tanzania
- Authors: Hogan, Rose
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373591 , vital:66705 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122762"
- Description: The aim of this action research case study was to engage a community of villagers, teachers, students and district officers in a participatory process to adapt a module of a school curriculum to the local context, and teach it in order to describe one way in which contextualisation, using local and indigenous knowledge and active discovery teaching-learning processes, can be done. The major research question was: Does integrating local environmental cultural knowledge into formal schooling contribute to curriculum relevance? If so, in what way? This paper summarises the background and context of the research, the motivation and the theoretical basis for the work, the methodology and methods, and the action research process itself. The results are interpreted and discussed in light of current theoretical perspectives on education and environmental education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
Eco-Schools and the quality of education in South Africa: Realising the potential
- Authors: Rosenberg, Eureta
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/370511 , vital:66349 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122759"
- Description: Eco-Schools South Africa is increasingly being used by external partners as a framework for supporting environmental education in schools. This paper shares the findings of a recent evaluation of the programme in relation to the quality of education in South African schools. Do Eco-Schools activities help to improve the conditions of teaching and learning? Or do they take teachers and students away from their core focus? Evaluation of learner and teacher work in Eco-Schools found signs of the quality problems that currently plague the schools system, and there is evidence that the programme can add to the complexity to which many teachers struggle to respond. The evaluation also found, however, that the programme has significant potential to improve conditions for teaching and learning. The paper is an opportunity to reflect on how environmental education support for schools, in general, and Eco-Schools South Africa, in particular, can detract from and strengthen teaching and learning.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
Reading Conference recommendations in a wider context of social change
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373792 , vital:66723 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122783"
- Description: This short Viewpoint paper considers the role and value of conference recommendations in shaping the field of environmental education. It explores the social politics, and often contested nature, of conference recommendations and their institutional histories, arguing that the act of producing conference recommendations forms part of the practices of new social movements. The paper recommends historicising conference recommendations and OEcross readings‚ to consider changing discourses and new developments in the field. Accompanying the short Viewpoint paper, are two sets of recently produced conference recommendations, one from the 4th International Environmental Education Conference held in Ahmedabad, India, and the other from the 1st International Conference on Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities held in Nairobi, Kenya.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
Sustainability assessment using a unit-based sustainability assessment tool: The case of three teaching departments at Rhodes University, South Africa
- Authors: Togo, Muchaiteyi
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/386863 , vital:68182 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122776"
- Description: A sustainability assessment study was performed with three teaching departments at Rhodes University – Ichthyology and Fisheries Science, Anthropology, and Accounting. The assessment used a Unit-based Sustainability Assessment Tool (USAT) and was guided by systems thinking and the ontological framework provided by critical realism. Results of the study showed that the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science had a higher integration of sustainability issues in its activities than the other departments sampled, with Accounting having the lowest integration. Interviews conducted with departmental heads and content analyses of documents revealed differences in sustainability issues addressed and in approaches used in tackling them among these departments. The study is intended to inform the Mainstreaming of Environment and Sustainability in African (MESA) Universities Partnership, which promotes mainstreaming environment and sustainability in universities during the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The study does not provide answers to mainstreaming activities, but opens up space to debate and deliberate how to deal with the mainstreaming of sustainability in universities. It identified some of the challenges to be addressed in university-wide mainstreaming work, and affirmed the need for systems thinking in bringing about change at institutional level to extend changes taking place in individual teaching contexts.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Underlying mechanisms affecting institutionalisation of environmental education courses in Southern Africa
- Authors: Lupele, Justin
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/386926 , vital:68188 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122773"
- Description: This paper discusses the underlying causal mechanisms that enabled or constrained institutionalisation of environmental education in 12 institutions in eight countries in southern Africa. The study was carried out in the context of the Southern Africa Development Community Regional Environmental Education Support Programme’s Course Development Network (CDN). This paper reports on part of the author's doctoral study and draws on critical realism as the ontological lens. Data analysis was done by means of a retroductive mode of inference, as articulated by Danermark, Ekström, Jakosben and Karlsson (2002). The paper demonstrates that there are a number of underlying causal mechanisms, which may enable or constrain institutionalisation of environmental education. They include factors at play at both national and institutional level; namely, responsiveness to national and institutional needs, recognition and ownership, accreditation and certification, institutional culture and politics, short course support structure and support from colleagues. As part of the discussions of the results of the study, I have advanced some retroductive theories that suggest causal mechanisms beyond the empirical data based on the participants’ experiences and events in the CDN.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
Environment and sustainability education in a changing South Africa: A critical historical analysis of outline schemes for defining and guiding learning interactions
- Authors: O'Donoghue, Rob B
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373634 , vital:66708 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122749"
- Description: This paper examines how, in response to emerging risk, methodological narratives for conservation (CE), environmental (EE) and now sustainability education (ESD) were constituted in diverse settings within a changing South African state. After documenting an awareness creation perspective underpinning early extension and experiential activities, the study examines shaping social processes and changing outline schemes for defining and guiding planned learning interactions (methodology) within the broadening field into the present day. The critical historical analysis developed in the study reflects a well-documented shift from early topdown (intervention/extension) to more participatory approaches (collaborative engagement/stewardship). A situated process-mapping of changing orientations also reveals characterising methodological features across the contours of an increasingly diverse field of conservation, environment and sustainability education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
Actor/actant-network theory as emerging methodology for environmental education research in southern Africa
- Authors: Nhamo, Godwell
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373553 , vital:66701 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122722"
- Description: This paper deliberates on actor/actant-network theory (AANT) as methodology for policy research in environmental education (EE). Insights are drawn from work that applied AANT to research environmental policy processes surrounding the formulation and implementation of South Africa’s Plastic Bags Regulations of 2003. The paper reveals that the application of AANT methodology made it possible to trace relationships, actors, actants and actor/actant-networks surrounding the Plastic Bags Regulations as quasi-object (token). The methodology also enabled a focus on understanding and investigating tensions, debates and responses emerging from the policy process. The findings were that after the promulgation of the first draft of the Plastic Bags Regulations in May 2000, tensions emerged around the nature of regulation (whether to use the command and control approach – preferred by Organised Government – or self regulation – preferred by Organised Business and Organised Labour). From these findings, a series of conceptual frameworks were drawn up as identified around key actors and actor/actant-networks. The conceptual frameworks included among them, Organised Government, Organised Business and Organised Labour.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2006
Actor/actant-network theory as emerging methodology for environmental education research in southern Africa
- Authors: Nhamo, Godwell
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373537 , vital:66702 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122722"
- Description: This paper deliberates on actor/actant-network theory (AANT) as methodology for policy research in environmental education (EE). Insights are drawn from work that applied AANT to research environmental policy processes surrounding the formulation and implementation of South Africa’s Plastic Bags Regulations of 2003. The paper reveals that the application of AANT methodology made it possible to trace relationships, actors, actants and actor/actant-networks surrounding the Plastic Bags Regulations as quasi-object (token). The methodology also enabled a focus on understanding and investigating tensions, debates and responses emerging from the policy process. The findings were that after the promulgation of the first draft of the Plastic Bags Regulations in May 2000, tensions emerged around the nature of regulation (whether to use the command and control approach – preferred by Organised Government – or self regulation – preferred by Organised Business and Organised Labour). From these findings, a series of conceptual frameworks were drawn up as identified around key actors and actor/actant-networks. The conceptual frameworks included among them, Organised Government, Organised Business and Organised Labour.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
An Exploration of How Natural Resource Management (NRM) Discourse is Integrated into Key Pedagogic Texts
- Authors: Nsubuga, Yvonne
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373552 , vital:66703 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122753"
- Description: Natural resource management (NRM) education has the potential to improve the quality and relevance of rural education in South Africa. For this potential to be realised, the various educational resources that are commonly used by teachers and learners in rural schools need to incorporate natural resource management knowledge. Using Bernstein’s concepts of classification and his theories on recontextualisation, a content analysis study was carried out to compare the level of NRM integration within the Grade 10 Life Sciences syllabus, and a Grade 10 Life Sciences textbook. Results from the analysis of the syllabus showed that overall only 9% of all the knowledge statements analysed had a strong link to NRM and related issues. The highest percentage of such sentences was found in the Core Knowledge section of the syllabus (21%). For the textbook, only 8% of the analysed items had a strong link to NRM and related issues, with the highest percentage of such items occurring in the Suggested Activities section (16%). However, the level of NRM integration in both documents increased considerably when sentences that had only an implicit link to NRM and related issues were included. It was concluded that both documents provide ample opportunities for NRM learning, although the extent to which this occurs varies among their different sections. The recontextualising role of the Grade 10 Life Sciences textbook was reflected in its relatively higher level of NRM integration in the Suggested Activities category, and in the Glossary category. This study highlights the need for further strengthening of the position of NRM within the Grade 10 Life Sciences syllabus, and for more Bernstein-based research to inform South Africa’s curriculum reform initiatives in environmental education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
Identifying needs and opportunities for local government environmental education and training in South Africa
- Authors: Olvitt, Lausanne L , Hamaamba, Tyson
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/370991 , vital:66400 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122739"
- Description: Effective environmental management and public engagement with environmental concerns are needed for the attainment of sustainable development goals and socio-ecological balance in local government contexts. This vision is clearly articulated in international environmental policy frameworks and in South Africa’s national and regional legislation. However, policy and legislation fall short of identifying the range of a priori competences required by local government officials and environmental managers before well intended policy can be translated into effective practice. This paper reports on recent research into identifying the underlying competences required for better environmental management and the establishment of education and training processes for local government managers. The research draws on the notion of ‘applied competence’ put forward by South Africa’s National Qualifications Framework, and argues that greater attention needs to be paid to competence-based capacity building processes within local government departments if environmental sustainability and development goals are to be met. The paper draws on the researchers’ experiences of formulating a national level generic competence framework for environmental management, and conducting an education and training needs analysis for the Makana Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Early findings suggest that a broad range of competences all have a role in ensuring the capacity and effectiveness of local governments to better manage their local environment. The paper argues that these are significant for the development of environmental education and training programmes in local government contexts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
Joking around in Zimbabwe, undoing and redoing participation
- Authors: Price, Leigh
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373715 , vital:66716 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122750"
- Description: In Zimbabwe, I teach a participatory course on environmental education to trainers. The course is an adaptation of a course designed by Rhodes University, South Africa. It gives participants a background in educational theories and has a strong theoretical component built around a focus on practice. During the time that the course was being delivered to non-industry participants, the theoretical component of the course was whole-heartedly embraced. We assumed that calling the course ‘participatory’ presupposed the need for this theory because within the theory were the tools for emancipation. And participation, we believed, had an emancipatory mandate. However, when we decided to redevelop the course for industry, we were uncomfortably surprised by the request from a majority of industry participants to reduce the theory and concentrate solely on skills-based training. This paper documents how this discomfort resulted in my adjusting my view of participation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
Teacher-community cooperation to promote sustainability of wetlands in Kenya
- Authors: Ndaruga, Ayub M , Irwin, Patrick R
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373860 , vital:66728 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122727"
- Description: This study was undertaken with 83 teachers from 54 primary schools in Kenya. Its purpose was to establish how teachers relate with the local community and how they harness this interaction to promote sustainability of wetlands within their locality. Data were collected using questionnaires, interviews and observation. Results of the study indicated that teachers acknowledge the value of, and threats to, their local wetlands. Some teachers reported interacting and engaging in diverse activities with members of the community to conserve the local wetlands. Forums for interaction and action mentioned by the teachers included public baraza, women’s groups, church, youth groups, local community, parents’ meetings and environmental days. Use of these forums differed. The approaches used to involve the community in awareness and action ranged from theoretical arguments to visits to wetlands, use of wetland resources, ecomanagement and political action. The responses by teachers revealed lack of engagement with the real local wetland problems. This study demonstrated existence of a potential but under-utilised opportunity that can be harnessed by environmental education programmes to champion the sustainability of wetlands.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
Methodological Decisions in Context: The dilemmas and challenges of novice African scholars
- Authors: Lupele, Justin , Mwingi, Mweru P , Kinyanjui, Felistus , Kimani, Joyce , Kisamba, Christine
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373734 , vital:66717 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122698"
- Description: This paper emerges out of a panel discussion during a PhD week and subsequent 8th International Environmental Education Invitation Seminar held at Rhodes University in 2004 and 2005 respectively. It illuminates some insights into our struggles (as novice African researchers) in trying to respond to contextual realities as we research education and social change in African contexts, seeking insight into what counts as legitimate research in this context. The paper considers our struggles at conceptual, methodological, analytical and data generation levels, and in a politics of research. This is done by means of examples drawn from five current doctoral research projects being undertaken in east and southern African regions, using a review framework that represents fairly common dimensions of PhD research. We conclude that research, when defined rigidly within research disciplines/paradigms (as have been defined in some – primarily Western – research trajectories) may fail to take into account African social and contextual realities when applied uncritically. We argue that there is need for researchers in Africa to consider a multiplicity of approaches if research is to be meaningful in, and responsive to, social and contextual realities. In particular, we argue for taking account of socio historical and socio-cultural contexts in creating African epistemology in and through research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2005
Playing musement games: Retroduction in social research, with particular reference to indigenous knowledge in environmental and health education
- Authors: Price, Leigh
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373763 , vital:66722 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122701"
- Description: My aim here is to introduce the concept of musement (retroduction or abduction) as an appropriate alternative to deduction and induction, both in indigenous knowledge (IK) specifically and in social science generally. As an example, I will use musement to tentatively address some of the ethical problems of using indigenous knowledge (IK) in environmental education and health education. This paper will therefore be of use both to researchers/educators wanting a discussion of retroduction, and researchers/educators wanting a discussion of indigenous knowledge epistemology and its relationship with ethics. I am arguing, from a perspective that allows a stratified reality (things can be real even if not measurable or actually present), that, we admit retroduction into our list of allowable research logics. In terms of IK, the result of accepting retroduction as a valid logic is that we allow IK to be dynamic and non-reified. It also allows a previously ignored aspect of IK, its spiritual/non-empirical beliefs, to be validated through ethical outcomes experienced in our lives, rather than through the previous criteria of empirical validity. In other words, we ask for IK: does believing in (whatever) adequately explain experience and/or provide optimistic, long term, ethical, appropriate ways of living? Thus, retroduction has the potential to allow IK to contribute to a normative ethics.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2005
Research on indigenous knowledge and its application: A case of wild food plants of Zimbabwe
- Authors: Shava, Soul
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373809 , vital:66725 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122700"
- Description: Research on indigenous knowledge should go beyond documenting and interpreting it. Rather, it should stimulate inquiry into its application in present day community development and education settings. This study intends to steer indigenous knowledge research towards practical application initiatives. The study documents wild food plants of Zimbabwe, highlights some popular wild food plants, and cites some commercially marketed wild food plants and makes recommendations on the application of indigenous knowledge of wild food plants in community and educational settings.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2005
"We're just teaching in a vacuum". Teaching in context in the learning for sustainability project
- Authors: Janse van Rensburg, Eureta
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438817 , vital:73502 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/137417"
- Description: Learning for Sustainability is a Danish-funded project for supporting teachers in environmental education curriculum development, in the Departments of Education in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa. The Rhodes University Environmental Education Unit is responsible for its evaluation. Instead of establishing baseline data against which to compare the project outcomes, the researchers are developing contextual profiles towards a deepening understanding of the contexts in which the teachers work, and to judge the appropriateness of project activities. This paper introduces insights from the developing profile based on questionnaires; interviews; observations during project meetings and school visits; and document analysis. The emerging issues pertain to curriculum and professional development in environmental education, within the context of educational policy transformation. In particular the paper highlights the role of context in responsive reform initiatives.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
Editorial
- Authors: Irwin, Patrick R
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438730 , vital:73495 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/137406"
- Description: The 1998 EEASA Conference-and-Workshops meeting was a sound success. The Botswana organisers must be congratulated on convening such a convivial and stimulating event. The conference gave exposure to some of the environmental education research in progress in the region. While there is an exciting level of regional research activity, this is not adequately represented in the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education, or any other published forum for that matter. The SAJEE receives a rather small number of research papers from southern Africans for review; in addition the journal's referees and editors judge an even smaller number of these as suitable for publication. What this reflects, inter alia, is the need for environmental educators in the region to write more vigorously about their research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998