Introducing VET Africa 4.0
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , McGrath, Simon
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434930 , vital:73117 , ISBN 978-1529224634 , https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/transitioning-vocational-education-and-training-in-africa
- Description: This book is about vocational education and training (VET). It is concerned with how the current policy and practice orthodoxy is not working despite the efforts of educators and learners. It is driven by a realization that the futures for which VET is intended to prepare people are ever more precarious at the individual, societal and planetary levels. And it is motivated by a sense that while better futures are possible, VET is poorly positioned to respond to the new skilling needs these will require.
- Full Text:
The Emancipatory Nature of Transformative Agency
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Thifhulufhelwi, Reuben , Chikunda, Charles , Mponwana, Maletje
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436175 , vital:73232 , ISBN 9781009153799 , https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009153799
- Description: Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) research has established an impressive body of scholarship that advances social understanding of human agency in the transformation of society, much of which is captured in contributions to this volume (cf. Hopwood (Chapter 15); Sannino (Chapter 2); Stetsenko (Chapter 3); Bal and Bird Bear (Chapter 8)). The main tenets of this work, building on the historical legacy of Vygotsky and Marx, affirm that humans are not passive recipients of external stimuli or influences but are active co-creators of the world (s) they inhabit. They are capable of using and producing cultural tools to take power over their own volitional action (s)(cf. Sannino, 2015, Chap-ter 2 of this volume; Hopwood and Gottshalk, 2017). Vygotsky’s major legacy in coming to understand transformative agency is that the cultural tools produced and used as mediational means are critical in the emergence of transformative agency (Sannino, 2015, 2020, Chapter 2 of this volume; Stetsenko, 2019; Hopwood, Chapter 15 of this volume) and thus in the transformation of human activity. As shown by Sannino (2015, 2020), such tools offer stimulus for volitional action that can break paralysis, especially when conflicts of motives are experienced.
- Full Text:
The Role of the University as Mediator in a Skills Ecosystem Approach to VET
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Openjuru, George , Zeelen, Jacques
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434907 , vital:73115 , ISBN 978-1529224634 , https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/transitioning-vocational-education-and-training-in-africa
- Description: In this chapter, we focus particularly on the mediating role of the university, in close connection with vocational institutions and informal community actors, in developing an inclusive approach to vocational education and training (VET) through an expanded social ecosystem for skills model. Here we draw upon lessons learnt from the Alice and Gulu cases on communitybased approaches to establishing an expanded skills ecosystem approach to VET in Africa. The main ques-tion guiding this chapter relates to the possible mediating role of the university to enhance a regional expanded ecosystem for supporting quality vocational education that is also rele-vant to its context, including emergent possibilities to build skills and livelihoods linked to just transitions. Universities are not VET centres as conventionally understood, but they can contribute to VET in various ways. Most often, universities are identified as contributing to the qualifications and training of VET educators. In this chapter, we take a different angle and consider the role of engaged research and community engagement as two approaches that can contribute to the advancement of an expanded social ecosystem model with positive benefits for VET institutions. Drawing on insights gained in the earlier chapters of this book requires us to take into account several important realities as previously dis-cussed, as well as key ingredients for the development of a regional skills ecosystem of vocational education, as demon-strated by the two cases considered in this chapter.
- Full Text:
Water, Transport, Oil and Food: A Political–Economy–Ecology Lens on Changing Conceptions of Work, Learning and Skills Development in Africa
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434894 , vital:73114 , ISBN 978-1529224634 , https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/transitioning-vocational-education-and-training-in-africa
- Description: Not enough has been said about the kinds of skills develop-ment that are needed if we are to stem the rising tides and impacts of political economies that have been driving what some call ‘fossil capital’(Malm, 2016). In this book, we are producing an emerging argument that it is necessary to also rethink and reframe vocational education and training (VET) logics and approaches if we are to fully consider the implica-tions of a warming future. This chapter provides the context of why this is such an urgent challenge and some thinking tools for understanding where we have come from and where we need to go. The prognosis is that it is now almost impossible to stop global warming below 2oC. The 2021 In-tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is-sued a ‘red alert’for humanity, noting climate change to be one of the most severe challenges facing human societies for decades and potentially centuries to come. Scientists are warning that we have entered a new ‘geological epoch’, named the ‘Anthropocene’, in which human activity, especial-ly the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through fossil-based pollution, is transforming the stability of the earth system and creating knock on effects such as ice melt and methane release, which exacerbate the impacts of pollutants on the stability of the earth system.
- Full Text:
Digitalisation and Transformative Learning for Sustainable Futures in Rural Africa Leaving No One Behind
- Authors: Shetye, Nyanta , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Albrecht, Eike , Durr, Sarah , Marx, Dirk , Chirambo, Dumisani , Metelerkamp, Luke , van Zyl-Bulitta, Verena
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/435263 , vital:73143 , ISBN 9781928502241 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003274322-14/digitalisation-transformative-learning-sustainable-futures-rural-africa-niyanta-shetye-heila-lotz-sisitka-eike-albrecht-sarah-durr-dirk-marx-dumisani-chirambo-luke-metelerkamp-verena-van-zyl-bulitta
- Description: This chapter assesses the use of Information and Telecommunication Technologies (ICTs) for social and community learning to achieve sustainable development in rural communities in Africa. It focuses on new and emerging trends in the cooperation between the African Union and European Union (AU–EU) and links two thematic areas; namely green transitions and digital transformations. The chapter highlights low-cost and effective digital learning solutions. It is based on a literature review and cases that provide insight into potential AU–EU cooperation and the “leave no one behind” agenda. The chapter argues that in addition to digital technology transfer, innovation and investments are needed in building a learning-centred support for green transitioning and digital cooperation. Hence, we focus on transformative learning opportunities and informal Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). In response to ICTs becoming a catalyst for such a transformation, we seek insights into how constructive AU–EU cooperation and co-learning can pave ways for societal transformations, particularly in rural communities.
- Full Text:
Advancing Assessment Thinking in Education for Sustainable Development with a Focus on Significant Learning Processes
- Authors: Shumba, Overson , Mandikonza, Caleb , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/435209 , vital:73138 , ISBN 9781928502241 , https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/64082
- Description: This position paper is developed in the context of the Fundisa [Teaching] for Change teacher education programme (www.fundisaforchange.co.za), as well as the Sustainability Starts with Teachers programmes for teacher education (www. sustainabilityteachers.org/course). Fundisa for Change is a South African programme while Sustainability Starts with Teachers is a Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) programme for teacher educators. Both these programmes seek to enhance transformative environments and sustainability education processes in teacher education. They have a strategic focus on situated and transformative learning approaches for learners to learn to ‘know the world’ and practice ‘being in the world’. The real world provides the context for learning and assessment for learning, but not enough is known about assessment of such learning.
- Full Text:
Engaging Education for Sustainable Development as Quality Education in the Fundisa for Change Programme
- Authors: Schudel, Ingrid J , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Songqwaru, Zintle , Tshiningayamwe, Sirkka
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/435031 , vital:73125 , ISBN 9781928502241 , https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/64082
- Description: Since the Industrial Revolution began in the late 18th century, development has provided humankind with numerous benefits, such as modern medicine, housing, transport and communication systems. However, progress and the contemporary model of development has also brought its problems, as non-renewable resources have been overextracted, and large volumes of waste created, resulting in pollution that has impacted on the health of people and the environment. Most people are now aware that human actions are changing the climate in unpredictable ways. Massive over-consumption of resources and continued environmental degradation are undermining the natural systems we depend on, impacting most severely on the poor and marginalised people in our society. Societies around the world must adapt and change their practices for a low-carbon, more sustainable future.
- Full Text:
Enhancing Capabilities of Life Sciences Teachers: Professional Development, Conversion Factors and Functionings in Teachers’ Professional Learning Communities
- Authors: Tshiningayamwe, Sirkka , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/435220 , vital:73139 , ISBN 9781928502241 , https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/64082
- Description: South Africa is rich in biodiversity and is home to about 95 000 known species (South Africa DEA 2014; SANBI 2019). Yet, compared to other southern African countries, the country has a high number of threatened species (Driver et al. 2012). Approximately 12 million South Africans depend on the natural environment to meet their needs. Among other factors, overharvesting of biological resources is one of the main causes of biodiversity loss in the country (South Africa DEA 2014; SANBI 2019). In line with assessment of biodiversity reports, Unesco (2018) notes that biodiversity loss is a global phenomenon. Emphasis in these reports is that over 7 billion people in the world rely on biodiversity to maintain and enhance their well-being. The realisation of biodiversity conservation as a global concern has resulted in various international conventions, policies, legislation and educational programmes that foreground biodiversity (Shava and Schudel 2013). Aligned with international trends, South Africa also has national policies and legislation aimed at protecting biodiversity. Among these is the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act which introduces a legal framework for governing sustainable development in the country, and includes a clause for all training and education programmes to integrate education for sustainable development (RSA 1998). Thus, like many other countries in the world, South Africa has incorporated biodiversity components in its ongoing curriculum reforms including in the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS).
- Full Text:
Environmental ethics: A sourcebook for educators
- Authors: Jickling, Bob , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Olvitt, Lausanne L , O’Donoghue, Rob B , Schudel, Ingrid J , McGarry, Dylan K , Niblett, Blair
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/435834 , vital:73205 , ISBN 978-1991201287 , https://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Ethics-Sourcebook-Bob-Jickling/dp/1991201281
- Description: This well-constructed, and highly original, sourcebook inte-grates educational materials for teaching environmental eth-ics with theoretical reflections. The book is set to contribute immensely to its aim of taking ethics out of philosophy de-partments and putting it into the streets, into villages, and on the Earth—to make ethics an everyday activity, not some-thing left to experts and specialists. Context-based activities are presented in almost every chapter. While it acknowledg-es foundational theories in environmental ethics, and the work that they continue to do, it wholeheartedly embraces a growing body of literature that emphasises contextual, pro-cess-oriented, and place-based approaches to ethical reflec-tion, deliberation, and action. It walks on the ground and isn’t afraid to get a little dirty or to seek joy in earthly relationships. And it ultimately breaks with much Western academic tradi-tion by framing “ethics in a storied world”, thus making room to move beyond Euro-American perspectives in environmen-tal issues. This work will be of interest to school teachers and other non-formal and informal educators, teacher educators, college instructors, university professors, and other profes-sionals who wish to bring environmental ethics to the fore-front of their pedagogical practices.
- Full Text:
Making sense of climate change in a national curriculum
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Mandikonza, Caleb , Misser, Shanu , Thomas, Kgomotso
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/435193 , vital:73137 , ISBN 9781928502241 , https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/64082
- Description: This chapter draws on three recent South African reviews of climate change education that have been undertaken by the authors: one in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) in 2016 which produced a national case study on Climate Change Education in South Africa (Lotz-Sisitka and Mandikonza 2016); another that was undertaken for the Department of Environmental Affairs in 2018 for the Third National Communication on Climate Change for the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (Lotz-Sisitka et al. 2018); 1 and a more recent review undertaken in the context of a research seminar series hosted by Rhodes University focusing on climate change education in South Africa (Lotz-Sisitka 2021). The chapter also draws on perspectives being developed in the Fundisa for Change Keep it Cool Project (VVOB/GreenMatter 2021) and from wider studies being undertaken for the international Monitoring and Evaluation of Climate Change Education programme (McKenzie 2020).
- Full Text:
Strengthening Environment and Sustainability Subject Knowledge Curriculum Challenges and Opportunities
- Authors: Schudel, Ingrid J , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/435045 , vital:73126 , ISBN 9781928502241 , https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/64082
- Description: This chapter serves as a positioning paper for the chapters that follow in which different environment and sustainability knowledge foci will be explored in the South African Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS). As a series of interconnected and cross-cutting complexities, environment and sustainability content knowledge has relevance for, and is widely distributed across, different phases and subjects in the school curriculum (see discussion of environmental content knowledge in Schudel and Lotz-Sisitka, Chapter 1; Lotz-Sisitka et al., Chapter 6; Msezane, Chapter 7). Knowledge that makes its way into education curricula and teaching is produced within the wider scientific context. Bernstein (2000), in his theory of the pedagogical device, refers to this as the ‘Field of Production’. A significant knowledge-producing community for sustainability concerns is the global change research community (international and national)(South Africa DST 2010). Examining their research outputs and discourses can provide important insights for the development of knowledge in what Bernstein names ‘regions’, where singular disciplines such as Science (eg climate sciences/biodiversity sciences/water sciences/health sciences), come together with other singular disciplines such as education. Bernstein suggests that a first level of knowledge recontextualisation in the Field of Production occurs in these regions (eg where environmental educators or science educators recontextualise the knowledge of scientists).
- Full Text:
CSR, Corporate Heritage Identity and Social Learning
- Authors: Ijabadeniyi, Abosede , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436841 , vital:73309 , ISBN 978-981-15-6370-6 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6370-6_8
- Description: Prevailing approaches to the structural challenges of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) tend to be monolithic and skewed towards CSR at the organisational level. Albeit, mirroring CSR at the organisational level with activities of practitioners at the social level can offer new reflexive approaches for identifying capabilities for and understanding thresholds of social learning. This chapter maps out how identity perspectives to CSR can offer new approaches for surfacing emergent properties inherent in the uptake of CSR institutionally and in practice. The chapter also presents an overview of the interplay be-tween structure and agency (prescribed and actual CSR practices) and its underlying in-strumental role for illuminating systemic factors which perpetuate such capabilities and thresholds. Using a morphogenetic theo-ry of change, the chapter offers a framework for approaching CSR-based corporate identity. Empirical evidence from the applied framework is thereafter presented, in the context of the agro-processing industry based on a content analysis of an-nual reports, in-depth-interview data generated from four sus-tainability managers and corporate communication officers and the practices of extension and Local Economic Development (LED) officers. The framework demonstrates that companies with a disintegrated CSR identity inherently have more capaci-ty to be change agents. Similarly, a strong corporate heritage identity is not indicative of a reciprocal link between espoused values and activity. Conversely, an enduring corporate herit-age identity may not necessarily be improvisatory for social learning. In conclusion, the chapter gives an overview of a tax-onomy of agential capabilities and associated cognitive re-sources inherent in the interaction between structural-cultural and personal emergent properties, which can initiate the posi-tioning of social learning at the forefront of organisational de-liberations.
- Full Text:
Finding ‘pulses of freedom’ in the border zone between higher and public education for sustainable development
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436866 , vital:73311 , ISBN 9780367076436 , https://www.routledge.com/Prioritizing-Sustainability-Education-A-Comprehensive-Approach/Armon-Scoffham-Armon/p/book/9780367076436
- Description: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Higher Edu-cation has long been a subject of discussion (eg Sterling, 2010; Togo and Lotz-Sisitka, 2013; Baarth, Michelsen, Rieckmann, and Thomas, 2016), with an increasing number of arguments being put forward for transformative, and even transgressive (ie transgressing the taken for granted) learning in these contexts (Lotz-Sisitka, Wals, Kronlid, and McGarry, 2015). There is, however, as yet little theoretical or practical work that focuses on the border zone or the interface between Higher Education and Public Education, due perhaps to an overemphasis on internal change in Higher Education settings. Public Education brings sustainable development (SD) into everyday life focus (Von Poeck et al., 2012), as it is here that complex, ‘wicked’ problems (Rittel and Webber, 1973) are ex-perienced. Such problems defy easy resolution. In this chapter I address this gap in the ESD literature by drawing on three cases of public education praxis in the border zone between Higher Education and Public Education: 1) using mobile learn-ing tools to transform markets for small holder farmers; 2) build-ing social learning networks that cross boundaries between colleges, farmers, and universities; and 3) using arts-based creative practice methods for public action. I start with these case stories, exploring them theoretically in order to illuminate new possibilities for ESD praxis in the sections that follow.
- Full Text:
Formative interventionist research generating iterative mediation processes in a vocational education and training learning network
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Pesanayi, Tichaona
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/435998 , vital:73219 , ISBN 9780429279362 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429279362-13/synthesis-elaboration-critical-realist-methodology-green-skills-research-eureta-rosenberg
- Description: This chapter addresses a research problem identified in the vocational agricultural learning system where there was a gap in vocational education and training knowledge flow from research institutions to knowledge users. The chapter develops a theoretical framework for dealing with the problem of ‘knowledge flow’ in vocational education and training settings. The problem emerges around the uptake and use of relevant research-based knowledge resources on rainwater harvesting and conservation practices for agricultural education and training focused on small-scale farmers and household food producers in South Africa. These resources, despite their con-temporary relevance, were not being used in agricultural col-leges or in the related agricultural learning support system. Drawing on a social ecosystemic approach to knowledge flow and mediation, the chapter surfaces five iterative mediation processes developed via a generative, formative interventionist research process over a five year period (Lotz-Sisitka et al. 2016; Pesanayi, 2019; cf. Chapter 8) that facilitated the development of a regional learning network which enabled vertical facilitatory processes and horizontal connectivities that impact-ed on farmers’ food production system, as well as the agricultural learning system. We illuminate key features of these as important for supporting knowledge flow within a regional social ecosystemic framework for skills development.
- Full Text:
Green skills research in South Africa
- Authors: Rosenberg, Eureta , Ramsarup, Preesha , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436040 , vital:73222 , ISBN 9780429279362 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429279362-13/synthesis-elaboration-critical-realist-methodology-green-skills-research-eureta-rosenberg
- Description: This book brings the diverse contributions offered in the different sections of this book together into a pathway for new policy development research, new forms of critical skills research and ongoing engagement with education and training system development. The chapter first provides a meta-reflection on the different types of green skills research that are needed to, in combination, make a stronger impact on the national system of skills research and planning. Secondly, the chapter makes a strong argument for aligning green skills research to the Sustainable Development Goals, and their critical and contextual articulation at national level, with emphasis on working with the cross-cutting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, Target 4.7 that motivates for governments to include a focus on education and sustainable development across the lifelong learning system in order to enable and support learning and skills for enabling the other SDGs to be realised in practice. Lastly, the chapter considers the shift in the way that work is considered when political economy meets political ecology, and we argue that work transforms towards not only a productive focus, or a social focus, but also an ontologically grounded regenerative focus, much needed at the start of the twenty-first century.
- Full Text:
Green skills supply: Research from providers’ vantage point (s)
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436051 , vital:73223 , ISBN 9780429279362 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429279362-13/synthesis-elaboration-critical-realist-methodology-green-skills-research-eureta-rosenberg
- Description: This chapter emerges from a need to consider the dynamics of supply side research for green skills from a providers’ vantage point. The chapter starts with the argument that environment and sustainability skills are cross institutional, cross sectoral and also inter- and transdisciplinary. The chapter notes that there are a wide variety and diversity of supply side studies that can offer perspective on the many dynamics of green skills supply and provisioning. Four cases have been selected and brought into view to illuminate the influence of context and history on designing curricula and the importance of reflexive curriculum review studies, whole institution approaches and transformative, transgressive forms of learning that move beyond the boundaries of single institutions. These studies are also brought into view to indicate the scope and depth of contextual, systemic and engaged research that is required to develop transformative orientations and perspectives on green skills supply, taking skills system supply beyond the traditional training needs analysis. The chapter argues that this is an important dimension of green skills research, if conceptualised within just transitions and transformations to sustainability.
- Full Text:
Probing the potential of social ecosystemic skills approaches for green skills planning: Perspectives from Expanded Public Works Programme studies
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436064 , vital:73224 , ISBN 9780429279362 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429279362-13/synthesis-elaboration-critical-realist-methodology-green-skills-research-eureta-rosenberg
- Description: The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in South Af-rica is an extensive governmental intervention to provide work opportunities. The EPWP context is a significant site of green skills emergence in South Africa, especially at the elementary occupation level. The training associated with these pro-grammes has, to date, been largely top down, and little nu-anced understanding exists on the training and learning path-ways potential development for these green skills. There is a paradox between the top down approach to training, and the primarily regional implementation platforms of EPWP job op-portunities and their developmental intent. To reconcile this paradox, I draw on social ecosystemic skills research to probe the potential for such a conceptual and theoretical framework for guiding green skills research for the EPWP. I share some methodologies and insights developed in EPWP green skills research projects that offer potential for providing insight into a social ecosystemic model for green skills research in EPWP programmes. Social ecosystemic models in skills research seek to develop skills development approaches that forge stronger connections between working, living and learning, foregrounding regional, place-based models for skills planning that require interfacing with vertical facilitatory mechanisms and horizontal connectivities.
- Full Text:
Green skills Transformative niches for greening work
- Authors: Ramsarup, Preesha , Rosenberg, Eureta , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Jenkin, Nicola
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436882 , vital:73313 , ISBN 978-981-15-6370-6 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6370-6_8
- Description: Supporting green skills development is integral in the transition to a green economy. Green skills can be difficult to define and measure at an aggregate level because they are a socially constructed concept, intangible and are often unobservable. Further, a demand-led approach to green skills has not worked because employers are unable to effectively articulate their needs to skills delivery bodies. This advances the need for a transformative methodology that is able to provide a more nu-anced view of skills planning to support green work. Drawing on transition theorists, this chapter demonstrates that greening work transitions occur in “niches” at local levels, where nexus concerns arise around the impetus to green work. Furthermore, it is from these transformative niches that wider social changes and regime shifts are driven or emerge. Using experiences from the chemicals sector in South Africa, the chapter illus-trates the need to develop non-reductionist conceptualisations that illustrate the “regime lock-ins” as well as green skills oppor-tunities at multiple levels.
- Full Text:
Decolonisation as future frame for environmental and sustainability education: embracing the commons with absence and emergence
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437466 , vital:73386 , ISBN 9789086868469 , https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-846-9_2
- Description: This chapter considers how engagement with decolonization history, theory and practice may provide an interesting future frame for Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE). The chapter provides an overview of some of the key dynam-ics of decolonization thinking that are circulating at present, and considers particularly the problematique of absence and emergence. It argues for giving attention not only to critical analysis of colonization concerns (ie identification of absence), but also to expansive, emergent theories of learning which we might mobilise in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) out of our existing forms of being in order to re-imagine new becomings that are oriented to the common good (ie pro-cesses of emergence). In situating the argument within wider discourses around education and the common good, this chapter argues that decolonisation is a project that concerns us all (not only those in the global South), given the contempo-rary realities and geopolitics of resource flows, hypercapitalism, colonization by market logic, and the privatisation of the commons.
- Full Text:
Education and the common good
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/126060 , vital:35846 , ISBN 9783319513225 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-51322-5_5?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=ads&utm_campaign=SRHS_2_VB_Edu-Series-FTA-Nine#citeas , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51322-5_5
- Description: The chapter responds to a recent invitation by the UNESCO to respond to the contents of their book on the purpose of education, entitled Rethinking Education: Towards a Global Common Good? I explore the concept of the common good (as it relates to concepts of commons and commoning activity) and what it might mean to engage with commoning as an educational activity, if the commons, as argued by Amin and Howell, is to be “released” from historical descriptions of commons and commoning activity, to embrace a futures orientation. Drawing on critical realism and decolonization theory, as well as experience of working with expansive social learning, I propose that an educational theory grounded in a concept of emergence is needed in such a context.
- Full Text: false