A case study of lessons learned through empowering and mobilizing unemployed youth into sustainable green jobs within the SANBI – Groen Sebenza partnership programme by a Host Institution in South Africa
- Authors: Fullard, Donovan
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: South African National Biodiversity Institute , Green movement South Africa , Environmental education South Africa , Communities of practice South Africa , Social learning South Africa , Biodiversity conservation Employees , Job creation South Africa , Mentoring South Africa , Groen Sebenza
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/191964 , vital:45183
- Description: This research project constituted as a thesis of limited scope for a Masters in Education Degree (i.e. as 50% of the degree) focusses on a job creation programme named ‘Groen Sebenza’ [Green Work]. Groen Sebenza is an environmental education ‘incubator’ programme driven and implemented by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) to unlock green jobs and bridge the gap between education and job opportunities in the biodiversity sector in South Africa. The programme is a key intervention to strengthen biodiversity human capacity development in the biodiversity sector in South Africa, seeking to contribute to transformation of the biodiversity sector, and also address issues of youth unemployment in the country. The young ‘interns’ in the programme were called ‘pioneers’ at the start of the project. This research project explores how a host institution operating as a community of practice within a landscape of practice managed to implement the Groen Sebenza programme by absorbing and appointing all their pioneers into sustainable jobs beyond the pilot project. I sought to better understand the process of supporting and empowering unemployed youth into sustainable green jobs within the Groen Sebenza partnership programme. I drew on Community of Practice (CoP) theory, and its value creation framework to develop this understanding, and I under-laboured the analysis with a social realist analysis of enabling and constraining factors. The unit of analysis of a Community of Practice was a useful focus for the study, as these mentors, managers, and administrators were all involved in supporting the empowerment and retention of the young pioneers in the host institution. To develop deeper insight into the learning and knowing, and value created in and by the Groen Sebenza CoP in the Host Institution, I also sought insight into enabling and constraining factors and how these shaped and contributed to empowerment and retention of the pioneers in sustainable green jobs. The research addressed the main question of ‘How do processes of learning, knowing and value creation contribute to empowerment and retention of unemployed youth in a successful Host Institution in the Groen Sebenza programme, and what enabled or constrained the empowerment and retention processes and outcomes?’. Three sub-questions were used in the study, which focussed on the mentoring, training and workplace experiences and how they contribute to the process of learning and knowing within the Groen Sebenza Community of Practice in the Host Institution? [Addressed in Chapter 4], the value creation elements that emerged in the implementation of the programme in support and empowerment of the pioneers in the Host institution’s Groen Sebenza CoP? [Addressed in Chapter 5], and the enabling and constraining factors that shaped and contributed to the uptake of the Pioneers into sustainable green jobs at the Host Institution within the Groen Sebenza Programme? [Addressed in Chapter 6]. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study, in which I used semi-structured interviews as a key data source, as well as document analysis, and a questionnaire. The study drew on inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference since I sought to explore an understanding of the practices and learning that occurred that contributed and led to the successful uptake of Pioneers into jobs, as well as the enabling and constraining factors. The study was interpretive at the epistemic level, and had a social realist under-labouring at the ontological level. Key findings of the study point to the development of enabling cultures of mentoring in workplaces, and the provision of a diversity of workplace learning experiences including formal training. It also points to the importance of personal emergent properties amongst mentors and pioneers that embrace a willingness to work together and build strong relationships, and to learn together. Learning in the community of practice was shown to develop identity and a sense of belonging as pioneers were given meaningful tasks to do and their training and interactions with mentors was experienced as meaningful and relevant. The contributions of the pioneers to the institutional mandate was appreciated by the mentors and therefore also well supported within an empowerment orientation. Various structural factors contributed to this enabling situation, most notably strong support from management as well as good co-operation across divisions. Constraining factors included the physical distances in the province, as well as financial and technical issues such as poor ICT communication systems. Overall, though the study showed that a strong approach to learning in communities of practice supported by empowering mentoring can lead to the integration of young pioneers into sustainable green jobs in the environmental sector. A whole institution approach to this process is, however, needed, and the organisation needs to develop a culture of social learning. As recently as September 2020 as this study was being finalised, the Presidential Employment Stimulus Plan (Office of the President, 2020) following the initial economic shocks emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic, made yet another commitment to using the Groen Sebenza model to create and support sustainable job creation for young people in South Africa today in the environmental sector. This study has been developed and designed to understand those processes and enabling conditions that can support retention and empowerment of young people to take up jobs in the environmental sector today. Its recommendations may therefore be of value to those involved in seeking to support sustainable impacts in terms of retention and employment in programmes such as the Groen Sebenza, and in the Groen Sebenza programme itself as it continues to unfold as a key job creation tool for unemployed youth. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2021
- Full Text:
- Authors: Fullard, Donovan
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: South African National Biodiversity Institute , Green movement South Africa , Environmental education South Africa , Communities of practice South Africa , Social learning South Africa , Biodiversity conservation Employees , Job creation South Africa , Mentoring South Africa , Groen Sebenza
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/191964 , vital:45183
- Description: This research project constituted as a thesis of limited scope for a Masters in Education Degree (i.e. as 50% of the degree) focusses on a job creation programme named ‘Groen Sebenza’ [Green Work]. Groen Sebenza is an environmental education ‘incubator’ programme driven and implemented by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) to unlock green jobs and bridge the gap between education and job opportunities in the biodiversity sector in South Africa. The programme is a key intervention to strengthen biodiversity human capacity development in the biodiversity sector in South Africa, seeking to contribute to transformation of the biodiversity sector, and also address issues of youth unemployment in the country. The young ‘interns’ in the programme were called ‘pioneers’ at the start of the project. This research project explores how a host institution operating as a community of practice within a landscape of practice managed to implement the Groen Sebenza programme by absorbing and appointing all their pioneers into sustainable jobs beyond the pilot project. I sought to better understand the process of supporting and empowering unemployed youth into sustainable green jobs within the Groen Sebenza partnership programme. I drew on Community of Practice (CoP) theory, and its value creation framework to develop this understanding, and I under-laboured the analysis with a social realist analysis of enabling and constraining factors. The unit of analysis of a Community of Practice was a useful focus for the study, as these mentors, managers, and administrators were all involved in supporting the empowerment and retention of the young pioneers in the host institution. To develop deeper insight into the learning and knowing, and value created in and by the Groen Sebenza CoP in the Host Institution, I also sought insight into enabling and constraining factors and how these shaped and contributed to empowerment and retention of the pioneers in sustainable green jobs. The research addressed the main question of ‘How do processes of learning, knowing and value creation contribute to empowerment and retention of unemployed youth in a successful Host Institution in the Groen Sebenza programme, and what enabled or constrained the empowerment and retention processes and outcomes?’. Three sub-questions were used in the study, which focussed on the mentoring, training and workplace experiences and how they contribute to the process of learning and knowing within the Groen Sebenza Community of Practice in the Host Institution? [Addressed in Chapter 4], the value creation elements that emerged in the implementation of the programme in support and empowerment of the pioneers in the Host institution’s Groen Sebenza CoP? [Addressed in Chapter 5], and the enabling and constraining factors that shaped and contributed to the uptake of the Pioneers into sustainable green jobs at the Host Institution within the Groen Sebenza Programme? [Addressed in Chapter 6]. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study, in which I used semi-structured interviews as a key data source, as well as document analysis, and a questionnaire. The study drew on inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference since I sought to explore an understanding of the practices and learning that occurred that contributed and led to the successful uptake of Pioneers into jobs, as well as the enabling and constraining factors. The study was interpretive at the epistemic level, and had a social realist under-labouring at the ontological level. Key findings of the study point to the development of enabling cultures of mentoring in workplaces, and the provision of a diversity of workplace learning experiences including formal training. It also points to the importance of personal emergent properties amongst mentors and pioneers that embrace a willingness to work together and build strong relationships, and to learn together. Learning in the community of practice was shown to develop identity and a sense of belonging as pioneers were given meaningful tasks to do and their training and interactions with mentors was experienced as meaningful and relevant. The contributions of the pioneers to the institutional mandate was appreciated by the mentors and therefore also well supported within an empowerment orientation. Various structural factors contributed to this enabling situation, most notably strong support from management as well as good co-operation across divisions. Constraining factors included the physical distances in the province, as well as financial and technical issues such as poor ICT communication systems. Overall, though the study showed that a strong approach to learning in communities of practice supported by empowering mentoring can lead to the integration of young pioneers into sustainable green jobs in the environmental sector. A whole institution approach to this process is, however, needed, and the organisation needs to develop a culture of social learning. As recently as September 2020 as this study was being finalised, the Presidential Employment Stimulus Plan (Office of the President, 2020) following the initial economic shocks emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic, made yet another commitment to using the Groen Sebenza model to create and support sustainable job creation for young people in South Africa today in the environmental sector. This study has been developed and designed to understand those processes and enabling conditions that can support retention and empowerment of young people to take up jobs in the environmental sector today. Its recommendations may therefore be of value to those involved in seeking to support sustainable impacts in terms of retention and employment in programmes such as the Groen Sebenza, and in the Groen Sebenza programme itself as it continues to unfold as a key job creation tool for unemployed youth. , Thesis (MEd) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2021
- Full Text:
Museums for the Planet: Critical Realist Philosophy and the Possibility of an Eco-decolonial Museology
- Authors: Jeffery, Thomas Carnegie
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Museums Management , Critical realism , Ontology , Decolonization , Organizational change , Social ecology , Eco-decolonial
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/192692 , vital:45251 , 10.21504/10962/192692
- Description: This study introduces dialectical critical realism into museology as a philosophical underlabourer for the development of new theoretical potentials for the transformation of museum practice. The idea of the museum is in a moment of fluidity evident in emergent decolonial and ecological perspectives and in the International Council of Museum’s process of redefinition of the museum. The potential to reimagine the museum lacks a coherent philosophical and theoretical foundation. The persistence of museological dualism separates the social from the ecological and absents the emergence of relational modes of thinking and practice. This study conceives an ecological-decolonial or eco-decolonial mode of museology that is disruptive of dualism and generative of relationality, and is thus generative of agency for deeper, more effective and enduring social-ecological justice. The core of this thesis is the development of the eco-decolonial mode of museology through the DCR onto-axiological chain or ‘MELD’ schema. At 1M a depth ontological analysis augmented by interviews with key informants establishes a dialectic of society and ecology in the museological context. 1M surfaces capitalism and the implicit neoliberal ontology of museology as deep causal mechanisms of the 2E persistence of museological human-nature dualism. The paradox of ‘emancipatory neoliberalism’ is a policy-practice contradiction that absents potentials for transformation of the museum and that is held in place by the grounding ontological activity of museology, collection. The 2E perspective on absences enables the emergence of new transformative pathways towards the 3L vision of the eco-decolonial mode of museology as a (4D) new way of thinking and working to resolve neoliberal restrictions. The fundamental 4D change envisioned for museum philosophy, theory and practice is an ontological transformation from traditionalist human-nature dualism to a progressive human-nature dialectic. A case study considers instances where museum workers exercised the agency to expand practice in this way. Future work using the expansive learning methodology of Change Laboratories will develop and implement the potentials generated by the onto-axiological chain for the eco-decolonial mode to bring real change to traditional, dualist museum practice, in order to ensure the relevance and the agency of the museum as a social structure in and for a changing world. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2021
- Full Text:
- Authors: Jeffery, Thomas Carnegie
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Museums Management , Critical realism , Ontology , Decolonization , Organizational change , Social ecology , Eco-decolonial
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/192692 , vital:45251 , 10.21504/10962/192692
- Description: This study introduces dialectical critical realism into museology as a philosophical underlabourer for the development of new theoretical potentials for the transformation of museum practice. The idea of the museum is in a moment of fluidity evident in emergent decolonial and ecological perspectives and in the International Council of Museum’s process of redefinition of the museum. The potential to reimagine the museum lacks a coherent philosophical and theoretical foundation. The persistence of museological dualism separates the social from the ecological and absents the emergence of relational modes of thinking and practice. This study conceives an ecological-decolonial or eco-decolonial mode of museology that is disruptive of dualism and generative of relationality, and is thus generative of agency for deeper, more effective and enduring social-ecological justice. The core of this thesis is the development of the eco-decolonial mode of museology through the DCR onto-axiological chain or ‘MELD’ schema. At 1M a depth ontological analysis augmented by interviews with key informants establishes a dialectic of society and ecology in the museological context. 1M surfaces capitalism and the implicit neoliberal ontology of museology as deep causal mechanisms of the 2E persistence of museological human-nature dualism. The paradox of ‘emancipatory neoliberalism’ is a policy-practice contradiction that absents potentials for transformation of the museum and that is held in place by the grounding ontological activity of museology, collection. The 2E perspective on absences enables the emergence of new transformative pathways towards the 3L vision of the eco-decolonial mode of museology as a (4D) new way of thinking and working to resolve neoliberal restrictions. The fundamental 4D change envisioned for museum philosophy, theory and practice is an ontological transformation from traditionalist human-nature dualism to a progressive human-nature dialectic. A case study considers instances where museum workers exercised the agency to expand practice in this way. Future work using the expansive learning methodology of Change Laboratories will develop and implement the potentials generated by the onto-axiological chain for the eco-decolonial mode to bring real change to traditional, dualist museum practice, in order to ensure the relevance and the agency of the museum as a social structure in and for a changing world. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 2021
- Full Text:
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