Emergence of Environment and Sustainability Education (ESE) in teacher education contexts in Southern Africa : a common good concern
- Authors: Mandikonza, Caleb , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Sustainable development -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , Environmental education -- South Africa , SADC Regional Environmental Education Programme
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59624 , vital:27632 , http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2016/v5i1a7
- Description: Environmental and sustainability issues prevail in modern society. Southern Africa, where this study is based, is one of the regions most at risk from intersecting issues of climate health risk, and poverty-related ills. Education has the potential to facilitate catalytic transformation of society through development of understandings of these intersecting environment and sustainability concerns, and to support engagements in more sustainable social practices oriented towards the common good. This requires a rethinking of education within a wider common good frame. It also has implications for how quality education is considered. However, little is said of how this could be done, especially in teacher education. The paper shares two cases of teacher educators’ change project experiences, as they emerged via professional development support and the mediatory processes applied in courses conducted by the Southern African Development Community Regional Environmental Education Programme (SADC REEP) aimed at enhancing professional capacity of teacher educators and other environmental educators for mainstreaming environment and sustainability education (ESE)1. These courses are framed using a change project approach, and involve teacher educators as main participants. In-depth data were generated from interviews with two teacher educators, their assignment write-ups, and observations of their teacher education practice. Realist social theory, particularly the principle of emergence, was used to trace the emergence of change in teacher education practice. Sociocultural learning theory was used to explain mediation of learning-oriented changes in teacher education practice. We illustrate how the change project model and approach contributed to mediating change in practice, showing emergent attributes of capacity for mainstreaming ESE and elements of a concept of quality education among course participants oriented towards the common good. In conclusion, we argue that ESE seems to be a sensitising construct for initiating and sustaining change for ESE in teacher education. In addition, the change project has proved to be a potential vehicle for mainstreaming the notion and practice of ESE into social systems and teacher education practices. We argue that reflexive ESE praxis provides a sensitising focus, initiating quality education with humanising properties necessary for the common good.
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Food for us: reducing food waste, supporting social learning, creating value
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ward, Mike , Jenkin, Nicola P , Tantsi, Thato
- Subjects: Environmental education -- South Africa , Environmental education -- Study and teaching -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Instructional and educational works , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/70859 , vital:29754 , 978-0-620-82216-9 , https://doi.org/10.21504/10962/70859
- Description: An estimated third of the 29 million tons of food produced annually in South Africa goes to waste (Oelofse, 2014). Fifty percent of this waste (by mass) occurs during the agricultural production and post-harvest handling and storage stages (von Bormann et al., 2017). At the same time 13 million South Africans routinely experience hunger, with malnutrition a serious concern for early childhood development (StatsSA, 2018). This disconnect between the need for food and the food that is available for consumption but being wasted, has profound social, environmental and economic impacts. This, in turn, suggests that there must be opportunities to create social, environmental and economic value through innovative and transformative initiatives that link food producers with food consumers in South Africa, particularly those in need. Food for Us is a sustainable food systems mobile phone learning pilot project initiated in 2017 by a consortium of partners in South Africa working with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Lifestyles and Education Programme within the One Planet Network. The intention was to design and develop a mobile application (app) that could help reduce on-farm food surplus, while also supporting social learning. The initial phase of the project was 18 months. This publication shares what has been learned and can also be considered a springboard for the potential that is possible.
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