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ESD and transformative learning in RCEs
Rob O’DonoghueRhodes University and Makana RCE
Education for
“Sustain-ability”The ability to learn to sustain
ourselves without compromising the futures of people
and planet
Society * Economy * Environment * Culture&
a whole school-in-community approach
How is transformative learning central to Education for Sustainability (ESD)?
Transformative learning
Wals notes that transformative learning implies change that can be: •a practical, an intellectual and a political process of re-orientation, •a personal and a community process of change, •an educative opening up of new insights and social innovation
(Wals, 2013)
Within the socio-cultural tradition, Stetsenko (2008) argues for an expansive move from a relational to a transformative stance, noting that: …communities belong together and co-evolve with all other communities on the global scale, sharing one common fate and history.
(Stetsenko, 2008:490)
How are RCEs transforming modern education to enable transformative learning?
ESD for transformative learning in RCEs implies: •Communication that fosters awareness and change •Personal empowerment experiences. •Practical learning-to-change in a local context. •Community research and activism for change in an area.
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY
LOCAL RCE CONTEXT
ESD: What is in the mix for mediating transformative learning in RCEs?
COMMUNICATION•Get the message across (Target groups)•Advocacy, buy-in and networked learning•e-learning (Wiki and MOOCs)
INDIVIDUAL COMPETENCE•Empowerment (valued beings, knowing and doings)•Agency (Anticipatory competence and strategic thinking)•Practical competence (problem solving & action-taking)COMMUNITY LEARNING AND SOCIAL INNOVATION•Capability approach (transfer factors and expansive learning)•Community of Practice (practice architecture)•Complex constellations of risk (Systems thinking)
PRAC
TICA
L RE
ASO
NREASO
NED
PRACTICE
Three Lenses for learning in ESDIntegrative and widening (holistic) perspective on:•not only the ecological and the environmental, but also the socio-economic and the ethical, •not only the present but also the past and the future, •not only the local but also the regional and the global, •not only the human world but also the non human worldCritical envisaging of alternatives to: •continuous economic growth and consumerism•associated lifestyles •sources of information and claims made, etc.Transformative engagement around: •alternative lifestyles (e.g. ‘voluntary simplicity’), •values and systems that break from existing ones that are inherently unsustainable •beyond data, information, knowledge and understanding
(Wals, 2013)
Integrative, critical envisioning and transformative dimensions in ESD competences (UNECE, 2011)
Source: George Siemens, 2008
Transformative competence in a process model for learning in complex RCE constellations
Interpersonal engagement, problem solving and action-taking develop with:•Systems thinking for appreciating complex constellations of risk and for shaping•Anticipatory competence to imagine future conditions that might enable a •Normative competence of reflexive re-imagining with •Strategic competence to initiative and sustain change
Research with problem solving
Knowledge w
ith action-taking
Interpersonalengagement andcommunication
(Adapted Wiek, 2012)
Competences for transformative learning processes
Socio-cultural context
B‘Bring out’
Heritage practices and
knowledge
C‘Bring in’ Societal
explanatory knowledge
‘Bring about’LEARNING &
SOCIAL INNOVATION
ALivelihood
Contexts ofdoing, knowing
and being
Modern Expert Culture (What is now known about things)
Heritage practices(What was done and known in the past)
Complex constellation of social - ecological risk
A capabilities approach to social innovation
(Personal, social and environmental conversion factors)
Looking back
Looking about
Looking across
unsustainability visionsunsustainability visions
Sustainability visionsSustainability visions
Transition strategies
Developing competence in co-engaged learning practices
How does ESD include socio-cultural practices and competence development?
Complex problem constellation in the situation and history Sustainability visions
Non-intervention futures
Strategic
AnticipatoryInterpersonal
Systems thinking
Transition strategiesChange strategies(Adapted from Wiek etal. 2011)
Intervention
point
Socio-cultural Practice
Individual competence
Normative
Reduce resource use
Modern livelihood practices
Water
Agriculture
Energy
Waste
Adapting to and mitigating climate change
Restore habitats & ecosystem services
Health
Biodiversity
Enhance equity and quality of life
Evaluating sustainable livelihood practices and
interventions
(Access and equity with better consumption and stewardship Practices)
Constellations of systems and
history
Strategic intervention
Learning and social innovation: Classroom
Video start-up with Mother Tongue enquiry and reporting
• IK- Today is a heritage practices video series that has been effective as a start-up activity for exploring how things have changed.
• Here, knowledge practices are represented in Mother Tongue by one member of a group, with translation and verification by others in contexts of sharing knowledge practices.
• This form of knowledge sharing is both fun an effective for uncovering change and much of the depth of practical and ecological wisdom in heritage practices.
Video, readings and case stories including photographs and artifacts for practical work.
Materials
Learning and social innovation: Community activists
Discussion and exploratory work on heritage and change choice practice
• Photo narratives are a useful starting point for change-choice-practice approaches.
• Here, the emphasis is on learning by doing and re-imagining social innovations that reduce impact and are better aligned to natural systems whilst meeting social needs.
• Picture narrative and practice approaches shift the concern for awareness creation to the production of situated competence with the capability to produce change in context.
Materials on trial by Water Dignity are bucket filters, ‘tippy-tap’ hand washers and testing kits.
Materials
Learning and social innovation: Change Practices Training
Water: Professional development training of community learning facilitators
• Through research on rural community learning (Piri, 2010 and Rivers 2013), materials to enable water conservation and food production were developed and pilot tested
• A training manual was then developed through a course to train community facilitatory to enable co-engaged learning to conserve water and produce food locally.
• A review of the curriculum of agricultural colleges is being undertaken and a co-engaged project to improve support for small-scale agriculture and extension is being developed.
Change Practice Short Course Manual with resource documents on Rainwater harvesting and Rainwater harvesting for homes and food gardens.
Materials
Learning and social innovation: ORASECOM Project
Mini SASS for civic science water quality testing in a local context
• The Orange Senqu River Basin Project (ORASECOM) developed miniSASS as a civic science process for assessing river health.
• Civic groups and school science teachers are being equipped and trained to monitor the health of local rivers.
• Results are uploaded onto a national database where results can be exchanged and problems and actions to improve the problem can be discussed
Krucher, T. (2012) Orange-Senqu Artery of Life. Frankfurt, Brandes & Apsel. Graham M., Dickens C. and Taylor, R.J. (2004) miniSASS — A novel technique for community participation in river health monitoring and management. African Journal of Aquatic Science 2004, 29(1): 25–35 Printed in South Africa
Materials
Some other heritage focus areas and change practices……
Transformative learning challenges in RCEs
• Local and global issues are connected• Information is everywhere, how to choose?• Sustainability is multi-dimensional:
ecological, economic, ethics, environment, etc.
• Becoming critical of consumption & consumerism
• Alternatives are possible!• Interviewing, presenting, reporting,
listening, googeling, critiquing…
Some concluding points for discussion
• The label is less important than what is actually done on the ground
• When RCE processes of ESD are challenging, good outcomes will follow even though we may not know beforehand what they might be.
• That sustainability and SD can mean so many things is a major advantage as it forces people to give it meaning themselves.
• The more the private sector becomes interested in ESD and the greening of the economy, the more alert we need to be for ‘wolf in sheep’s clothes’
21 April 2023 All rights reserved © 2013 Fundisa for Change. Do not distribute * page 20
Co-engaged learning and
change
Mapping key nexus of events for epistemological access with relevance
• Fermentation practice by cracking grain• smell of malting in • warm calabash with • visible bubbles as evidence of success A microscope reveals cell division of yeast
Abstract concepts allow us to test & deduce:• Bubbles are carbon dioxide being released• Yeast (enzymes) break down starch/glucose
Abstract modelling allow us to formulate how:•Maltase and other enzymes break down starchC6H12O6 with yeast -> 2C2H5OH + 2CO2
(glucose) (alcohol) (carbon dioxide)
Abstracting theory enables the use of concepts, models and insights in context and other nexus of events
Concepts, models and theory in intergenerational knowledge practice of fermenting sorghum.
LIVED WORLD CULTURAL CONTEXT
EXPERT FIELD CULTURAL CAPITAL
LearningProcesses
Modern context of social - ecological risk
Key: Re-describe for relevanceReconcile in contextRetrodict to antecedent causes Eliminate ambiguity and riskIdentify open explanationsCorrection as reflexive process
RE
RI
(c)
R