Exploring learning networks for homestead food gardening and smallholder farming
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182775 , vital:43873 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-f09c3866c "
- Description: The Water Research Commission (WRC) is well known for its high quality knowledge products. The Water Utilisation in Agriculture (WUA) section has, over the years, produced valuable knowledge to guide the harvesting and conservation of rainwater to improve agricultural productivity among smallholder crop farmers and household food producers. This knowledge is useful for especially the many women farmers around the country growing crops to feed their families, and whenever possible selling excess to generate some income. However, one of the problems experienced in the field is that this knowledge does not always reach the intended audience. This is the problem that the Amanzi [Water] for Food project was engaged with.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182775 , vital:43873 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC-f09c3866c "
- Description: The Water Research Commission (WRC) is well known for its high quality knowledge products. The Water Utilisation in Agriculture (WUA) section has, over the years, produced valuable knowledge to guide the harvesting and conservation of rainwater to improve agricultural productivity among smallholder crop farmers and household food producers. This knowledge is useful for especially the many women farmers around the country growing crops to feed their families, and whenever possible selling excess to generate some income. However, one of the problems experienced in the field is that this knowledge does not always reach the intended audience. This is the problem that the Amanzi [Water] for Food project was engaged with.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Green skills Transformative niches for greening work
- Ramsarup, Preesha, Rosenberg, Eureta, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Jenkin, Nicola P
- Authors: Ramsarup, Preesha , Rosenberg, Eureta , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Jenkin, Nicola P
- 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:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Ramsarup, Preesha , Rosenberg, Eureta , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Jenkin, Nicola P
- 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:
- Date Issued: 2018
Special section on urbanisation and ecosystem services in sub-Saharan Africa: Current status and scenarios
- Pauleit, Stephan, Lindley, Sarah, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Shackleton, Charlie M
- Authors: Pauleit, Stephan , Lindley, Sarah , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183082 , vital:43910 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.09.008"
- Description: The African continent is facing unprecedented population growth in the 21st century. Most of this growth will be absorbed by urban areas where the overall population is projected to triple from presently appr. 400 people to 1.3 billion people in 2050 (UN-Habitat, 2014). In sub-Saharan Africa, which is the focus of this Special Issue, not only the number of megacities with more than 10 million such as Lagos will rise, but smaller or medium sized cities will attract most of this growth (UN-Habitat, 2014). The majority of this increase is taking place in the form of informal settlements where people are living in poverty and where basic facilities and services such as a secure supply of clean drinking water and safe waste water disposal are missing.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Pauleit, Stephan , Lindley, Sarah , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183082 , vital:43910 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.09.008"
- Description: The African continent is facing unprecedented population growth in the 21st century. Most of this growth will be absorbed by urban areas where the overall population is projected to triple from presently appr. 400 people to 1.3 billion people in 2050 (UN-Habitat, 2014). In sub-Saharan Africa, which is the focus of this Special Issue, not only the number of megacities with more than 10 million such as Lagos will rise, but smaller or medium sized cities will attract most of this growth (UN-Habitat, 2014). The majority of this increase is taking place in the form of informal settlements where people are living in poverty and where basic facilities and services such as a secure supply of clean drinking water and safe waste water disposal are missing.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
The green economy learning assessment South Africa: Lessons for higher education, skills and work-based learning
- Rosenberg, Eureta, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Ramsarup, Presha
- Authors: Rosenberg, Eureta , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ramsarup, Presha
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182765 , vital:43872 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-03-2018-0041"
- Description: The purpose of this paper is to share and analyse the methodology and findings of the 2016 Green Economy Learning Assessment South Africa, including learning needs identified with reference to the competency framings of Scharmer (2009) and Wiek et al. (2011); and implications for university and work-based sustainability education, broadly conceptualised in a just transitions framework. The assessment was conducted using desktop policy reviews and an audit of sustainability education providers, online questionnaires to sector experts, focus groups and interviews with practitioners driving green economy initiatives. Policy monitoring and evaluation, and education for sustainable development, emerged as key change levers across nine priority areas including agriculture, energy, natural resources, water, transport and infrastructure. The competencies required to drive sustainability in these areas were clustered as technical, relational and transformational competencies for: making the case; integrated sustainable development planning; strategic adaptive management and expansive learning; working across organisational units; working across knowledge fields; capacity and organisational development; and principle-based leadership. Practitioners develop such competencies through formal higher education and short courses plus course-activated networks and “on the job” learning. The paper adds to the literature on sustainability competencies and raises questions regarding forms of hybrid learning suitable for developing technical, relational and transformative competencies. A national learning needs assessment methodology and tools for customised organisational learning needs assessments are shared. The assessment methodology is novel in this context and the workplace-based tools, original.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Rosenberg, Eureta , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ramsarup, Presha
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182765 , vital:43872 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-03-2018-0041"
- Description: The purpose of this paper is to share and analyse the methodology and findings of the 2016 Green Economy Learning Assessment South Africa, including learning needs identified with reference to the competency framings of Scharmer (2009) and Wiek et al. (2011); and implications for university and work-based sustainability education, broadly conceptualised in a just transitions framework. The assessment was conducted using desktop policy reviews and an audit of sustainability education providers, online questionnaires to sector experts, focus groups and interviews with practitioners driving green economy initiatives. Policy monitoring and evaluation, and education for sustainable development, emerged as key change levers across nine priority areas including agriculture, energy, natural resources, water, transport and infrastructure. The competencies required to drive sustainability in these areas were clustered as technical, relational and transformational competencies for: making the case; integrated sustainable development planning; strategic adaptive management and expansive learning; working across organisational units; working across knowledge fields; capacity and organisational development; and principle-based leadership. Practitioners develop such competencies through formal higher education and short courses plus course-activated networks and “on the job” learning. The paper adds to the literature on sustainability competencies and raises questions regarding forms of hybrid learning suitable for developing technical, relational and transformative competencies. A national learning needs assessment methodology and tools for customised organisational learning needs assessments are shared. The assessment methodology is novel in this context and the workplace-based tools, original.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Think Piece: Pioneers as relational subjects? Probing relationality as phenomenon shaping collective learning and change agency formation
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182787 , vital:43874 , xlink:href="DOI 10.4314/sajee.v34i1.5"
- Description: This paper deliberates on how relationality is framed in collective learning and change agency formation processes, with an emphasis on green economy and renewable energy learning contexts. The paper is not focused on empirical analysis of relationality in collective learning, but rather probes the phenomenon in order to provide more carefully constituted theoretical and analytical tools for further empirical research. The paper uses references to South African and Danish cases (albeit in slightly different ways), and, through this, it sets out to provide tools for generative insights and research into a recent international policy and strategy process which is bringing national-level Green Economy Learning Assessments (GELA) into being, including one in South Africa. Central to these GELAs is the notion of participatory or relational competence, which appears to be a central feature of collective learning, although this is not empirically analysed in this paper. In case study work undertaken for the GELA in South Africa that focused on South Africa’s major renewable energy development, and in the Samsø Island renewable energy transition case in Denmark, this competence appeared to come into focus in praxis. Interestingly, however, it appeared to come into focus colloquially as a discourse on ‘pioneers’ or ‘champions’, a phenomenon noticed in both the South African and Danish contexts. This paper probes this phenomenon further, especially since it initially appears to be contradictory to the emphasis on participatory and relational competence in the GELA study framework. This is because the concept of ‘pioneer/champion’ appears to highlight individual capabilities rather than collective, relational competences. Yet, on closer inspection, it is indeed the relational competences of the pioneer/champion, who is constituted as a ‘relational subject’ with a key role to play in producing shared relational goods, that appears to be significant to the collective learning and action process. This, as argued in the paper, requires a differentiation of relationism and relational realism. This Think Piece, which thinks with both theory and praxis, therefore offers a possible framework for more detailed empirical studies on relationality in collective learning and change agency formation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182787 , vital:43874 , xlink:href="DOI 10.4314/sajee.v34i1.5"
- Description: This paper deliberates on how relationality is framed in collective learning and change agency formation processes, with an emphasis on green economy and renewable energy learning contexts. The paper is not focused on empirical analysis of relationality in collective learning, but rather probes the phenomenon in order to provide more carefully constituted theoretical and analytical tools for further empirical research. The paper uses references to South African and Danish cases (albeit in slightly different ways), and, through this, it sets out to provide tools for generative insights and research into a recent international policy and strategy process which is bringing national-level Green Economy Learning Assessments (GELA) into being, including one in South Africa. Central to these GELAs is the notion of participatory or relational competence, which appears to be a central feature of collective learning, although this is not empirically analysed in this paper. In case study work undertaken for the GELA in South Africa that focused on South Africa’s major renewable energy development, and in the Samsø Island renewable energy transition case in Denmark, this competence appeared to come into focus in praxis. Interestingly, however, it appeared to come into focus colloquially as a discourse on ‘pioneers’ or ‘champions’, a phenomenon noticed in both the South African and Danish contexts. This paper probes this phenomenon further, especially since it initially appears to be contradictory to the emphasis on participatory and relational competence in the GELA study framework. This is because the concept of ‘pioneer/champion’ appears to highlight individual capabilities rather than collective, relational competences. Yet, on closer inspection, it is indeed the relational competences of the pioneer/champion, who is constituted as a ‘relational subject’ with a key role to play in producing shared relational goods, that appears to be significant to the collective learning and action process. This, as argued in the paper, requires a differentiation of relationism and relational realism. This Think Piece, which thinks with both theory and praxis, therefore offers a possible framework for more detailed empirical studies on relationality in collective learning and change agency formation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Towards transformative social learning on the path to 1.5 degrees
- Macintyre, Thomas, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Wals, Arjen E, Vogel, Coleen, Tassone, Valenina
- Authors: Macintyre, Thomas , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Wals, Arjen E , Vogel, Coleen , Tassone, Valenina
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182461 , vital:43832 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.12.003"
- Description: This paper provides insights into learning orientations and approaches that encourage change and transformation on the path to achieving the 1.5 degree C target. This literature review of the climate change and education/learning interface positions relevant literature in a heuristic tool, and reveals different learning approaches to addressing climate change. We highlight that although traditional lines of departure for achieving climate targets are usually technocratic in nature, especially if a zero emissions pathway is aimed for, there is an increasing realisation that climate issues are complex, deeply intertwined with unsustainable development and cultural change, and require collective engagement. Through considering the 1.5 degree C target as a metaphor for the fundamental changes needed in society, we argue that a wide range of learning orientations, including more inclusive and transformative social learning approaches, are needed to address the colossal challenges facing society.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Macintyre, Thomas , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Wals, Arjen E , Vogel, Coleen , Tassone, Valenina
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182461 , vital:43832 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.12.003"
- Description: This paper provides insights into learning orientations and approaches that encourage change and transformation on the path to achieving the 1.5 degree C target. This literature review of the climate change and education/learning interface positions relevant literature in a heuristic tool, and reveals different learning approaches to addressing climate change. We highlight that although traditional lines of departure for achieving climate targets are usually technocratic in nature, especially if a zero emissions pathway is aimed for, there is an increasing realisation that climate issues are complex, deeply intertwined with unsustainable development and cultural change, and require collective engagement. Through considering the 1.5 degree C target as a metaphor for the fundamental changes needed in society, we argue that a wide range of learning orientations, including more inclusive and transformative social learning approaches, are needed to address the colossal challenges facing society.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Understanding Collective Learning and Human Agency in Diverse Social, Cultural and Material Settings
- Olvitt, Lausanne L, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Læssøe, Jeppe, Jordt Jørgensen, Nanna
- Authors: Olvitt, Lausanne L , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Læssøe, Jeppe , Jordt Jørgensen, Nanna
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/127226 , vital:35979 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/172221/161620
- Description: The significance of environment and sustainability education research and practice, and its potential contribution to a sustainable future for humanity, is conveyed by the International Social Science Council (n.d.), which explains: People everywhere will need to learn how to create new forms of human activity and new social systems that are more sustainable and socially just. However, we have limited knowledge about the type of learning that creates such change, how such learning emerges, or how it can be scaled-up to create transformations at many levels.Here, the important shift is towards considering what social systems, forms of knowledge, learning processes and questions of justice are associated with perpetuating or halting the decline of Earth’s bio-geo-chemical systems. This edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education contributes three research papers and a themed Think Piece collection to these international deliberations about the role of education in enabling transformations to sustainability. Collectively, the articles highlight how relationality and the formation of human agency in socio-cultural and material settings in past–present–future configurations underpin all environment-oriented learning processes. The three research papers constituting the first part of this volume offer glimpses into how current unsustainable socio-cultural and material configurations might be transformed to address social inequalities and damaged people–nature relations. The Think Piece collection, introduced by Lotz-Sisitka, Læssøe and Jørgensen later in this editorial, focuses on how learning can foster and contribute to the development of change agents and collective agency for climate-resilient development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
Understanding Collective Learning and Human Agency in Diverse Social, Cultural and Material Settings
- Authors: Olvitt, Lausanne L , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Læssøe, Jeppe , Jordt Jørgensen, Nanna
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/127226 , vital:35979 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/172221/161620
- Description: The significance of environment and sustainability education research and practice, and its potential contribution to a sustainable future for humanity, is conveyed by the International Social Science Council (n.d.), which explains: People everywhere will need to learn how to create new forms of human activity and new social systems that are more sustainable and socially just. However, we have limited knowledge about the type of learning that creates such change, how such learning emerges, or how it can be scaled-up to create transformations at many levels.Here, the important shift is towards considering what social systems, forms of knowledge, learning processes and questions of justice are associated with perpetuating or halting the decline of Earth’s bio-geo-chemical systems. This edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education contributes three research papers and a themed Think Piece collection to these international deliberations about the role of education in enabling transformations to sustainability. Collectively, the articles highlight how relationality and the formation of human agency in socio-cultural and material settings in past–present–future configurations underpin all environment-oriented learning processes. The three research papers constituting the first part of this volume offer glimpses into how current unsustainable socio-cultural and material configurations might be transformed to address social inequalities and damaged people–nature relations. The Think Piece collection, introduced by Lotz-Sisitka, Læssøe and Jørgensen later in this editorial, focuses on how learning can foster and contribute to the development of change agents and collective agency for climate-resilient development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
An Expanded Methodological View on Learning Pathways as Educational and Occupational Progression: A ‘Laminated Systems’ Perspective
- Ramsarup, Preesha, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Authors: Ramsarup, Preesha , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436344 , vital:73262 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: As shown across the collection of papers in this Bulletin, the central ques-tion that the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA)-Rhodes Uni-versity research programme tried to explore was to understand the na-ture of environmental learning pathways and the systemic and agentive factors that shape their emergence. This was based on an emerging un-derstanding of the demand for environment and sustainable development occupations and greening of existing occupations (see Introduction, and Papers 1 and 7 in this Bulletin; Department of Environmental Affairs [DEA], 2010; International Labour Organisation [ILO], 2010; Rosenberg et al 2016).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Ramsarup, Preesha , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436344 , vital:73262 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: As shown across the collection of papers in this Bulletin, the central ques-tion that the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA)-Rhodes Uni-versity research programme tried to explore was to understand the na-ture of environmental learning pathways and the systemic and agentive factors that shape their emergence. This was based on an emerging un-derstanding of the demand for environment and sustainable development occupations and greening of existing occupations (see Introduction, and Papers 1 and 7 in this Bulletin; Department of Environmental Affairs [DEA], 2010; International Labour Organisation [ILO], 2010; Rosenberg et al 2016).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
An In-depth Case Study of Environmental Engineering Learning and Work Transitioning in Boundary-less Work
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Ramsarup, Preesha
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ramsarup, Preesha
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436361 , vital:73264 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: Environmental issues are increasingly seen as complex, multi-faceted and integral to social and economic development. As societies grapple with the rapid and catastrophic effects of environmental degradation, occupa-tional and educational systems have to comprehend meaningfully, the implications. In a study on the ‘Green Skills’59 in South Africa’s economy, the International Labour Organisation (ILO, 2010:19) noted that “new skills and retraining needs for the greening sector should filter successfully through the ‘demand and supply’ process”. However, despite the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) commitment to responsive skills devel-opment and lifelong learning, several recent studies (including Depart-ment of Environmental Affairs [DEA], 2010; Human Sciences Research Council [HSRC], 2009) have highlighted many skills and competence-related issues within environmental provisioning. While there is a skills development focus and a greening focus, there is little articulated align-ment between the two (ILO, 2010), which highlights that the whole sys-tem of training provisioning for workplace learning and sustainability practices is poorly constituted and unresponsive to the rapidly changing nature of the sector.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ramsarup, Preesha
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436361 , vital:73264 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: Environmental issues are increasingly seen as complex, multi-faceted and integral to social and economic development. As societies grapple with the rapid and catastrophic effects of environmental degradation, occupa-tional and educational systems have to comprehend meaningfully, the implications. In a study on the ‘Green Skills’59 in South Africa’s economy, the International Labour Organisation (ILO, 2010:19) noted that “new skills and retraining needs for the greening sector should filter successfully through the ‘demand and supply’ process”. However, despite the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) commitment to responsive skills devel-opment and lifelong learning, several recent studies (including Depart-ment of Environmental Affairs [DEA], 2010; Human Sciences Research Council [HSRC], 2009) have highlighted many skills and competence-related issues within environmental provisioning. While there is a skills development focus and a greening focus, there is little articulated align-ment between the two (ILO, 2010), which highlights that the whole sys-tem of training provisioning for workplace learning and sustainability practices is poorly constituted and unresponsive to the rapidly changing nature of the sector.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Boundary making and boundary crossing in learning pathways access and progression: Voices from the workplace
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Mohanoe, M Nthabiseng, Ramsarup, Preesha, Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Mohanoe, M Nthabiseng , Ramsarup, Preesha , Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436374 , vital:73265 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: In the South African Qualifications Authority and Rhodes University (SAQA-Rhodes) partnership research it was found that ‘researching the boundary’is an important unit of analysis in learning pathways research (see Papers 1 and 2 in this Bulle-tin). The researchers have argued that this focus has rele-vance for discussions on articulation, as articulation is a boundary crossing practice39. However, to understand boundary crossing processes, it is important to understand what the boundaries are in learning pathways research and to understand how these boundaries were developed. Bounda-ries in learning pathways are both social and material and are constructed by people’s actions and practices, and can only be resolved through people’s actions and practices. This pa-per–Paper 5–considers the manner in which social-material factors are ‘boundary makers’ in learning pathways, affecting access, mobility, progression and articulation possibilities, with specific reference to articulation between workplace experi-ences and contexts on one hand, and education and training systems on the other. The paper argues for a perspective on the social-material that includes the Critical Realist concept of ‘absence’(Bhaskar, 1993) as an important shaping force in learning pathways research (see Paper 4, in this Bulletin). By identifying ‘boundary making’processes and factors, as articu-lated through ‘voices in the workplace’[one perspective on this issue], the paper identifies key areas for ‘boundary cross-ing’practices in the South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF) system and its associated sub-systems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Mohanoe, M Nthabiseng , Ramsarup, Preesha , Olvitt, Lausanne L
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436374 , vital:73265 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: In the South African Qualifications Authority and Rhodes University (SAQA-Rhodes) partnership research it was found that ‘researching the boundary’is an important unit of analysis in learning pathways research (see Papers 1 and 2 in this Bulle-tin). The researchers have argued that this focus has rele-vance for discussions on articulation, as articulation is a boundary crossing practice39. However, to understand boundary crossing processes, it is important to understand what the boundaries are in learning pathways research and to understand how these boundaries were developed. Bounda-ries in learning pathways are both social and material and are constructed by people’s actions and practices, and can only be resolved through people’s actions and practices. This pa-per–Paper 5–considers the manner in which social-material factors are ‘boundary makers’ in learning pathways, affecting access, mobility, progression and articulation possibilities, with specific reference to articulation between workplace experi-ences and contexts on one hand, and education and training systems on the other. The paper argues for a perspective on the social-material that includes the Critical Realist concept of ‘absence’(Bhaskar, 1993) as an important shaping force in learning pathways research (see Paper 4, in this Bulletin). By identifying ‘boundary making’processes and factors, as articu-lated through ‘voices in the workplace’[one perspective on this issue], the paper identifies key areas for ‘boundary cross-ing’practices in the South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF) system and its associated sub-systems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
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:
- Date Issued: 2017
- 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:
- Date Issued: 2017
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
- Date Issued: 2017
- 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
- Date Issued: 2017
Enabling green skills: Pathways to sustainable development
- Ramsarup, Presha, Ward, Mike, Rosenberg, Eureta, Jenkin, Nicola P, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Authors: Ramsarup, Presha , Ward, Mike , Rosenberg, Eureta , Jenkin, Nicola P , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436702 , vital:73294 , ISBN 978-0-620-79605-7 , https://www.vetafrica4-0.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Green-Skills-Sourcebook-Jul18.pdf
- Description: The purpose of this source book is to support skills planning entities to work with employers to identify and anticipate green skills needs and to build these needs into occupational de-scriptors and sector skills plans. Thus, the source book com-plements the existing Enabling Document (DEA, 2010b) and provides guidelines to support Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) to embed environmental considerations, related occupations and green skills into their skills planning processes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Ramsarup, Presha , Ward, Mike , Rosenberg, Eureta , Jenkin, Nicola P , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436702 , vital:73294 , ISBN 978-0-620-79605-7 , https://www.vetafrica4-0.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Green-Skills-Sourcebook-Jul18.pdf
- Description: The purpose of this source book is to support skills planning entities to work with employers to identify and anticipate green skills needs and to build these needs into occupational de-scriptors and sector skills plans. Thus, the source book com-plements the existing Enabling Document (DEA, 2010b) and provides guidelines to support Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) to embed environmental considerations, related occupations and green skills into their skills planning processes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Introduction: Researching sustainable development learning pathways towards progression in learning and work
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Ramsarup, Preesha, Bolton, Heidi
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ramsarup, Preesha , Bolton, Heidi
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436401 , vital:73269 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: Environment and sustainable development issues are increasingly seen as complex, multi-faceted and integral to social and economic development, as can be seen from the recently proclaimed sustainable development goals (www.globalgoals.org1 ). As societies grapple with the rapid and catastrophic effects of environmental degradation, anthropogenic earth system change and a long history of unsustainable development, educa-tional systems have had to attempt to comprehend meaningfully, the im-plications. Within post-apartheid South Africa, these challenges are mark-edly more complex. In a country facing fundamental national transfor-mation on every front, the environment and sustainable development discourses are raising significant new challenges for work and learning systems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ramsarup, Preesha , Bolton, Heidi
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436401 , vital:73269 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: Environment and sustainable development issues are increasingly seen as complex, multi-faceted and integral to social and economic development, as can be seen from the recently proclaimed sustainable development goals (www.globalgoals.org1 ). As societies grapple with the rapid and catastrophic effects of environmental degradation, anthropogenic earth system change and a long history of unsustainable development, educa-tional systems have had to attempt to comprehend meaningfully, the im-plications. Within post-apartheid South Africa, these challenges are mark-edly more complex. In a country facing fundamental national transfor-mation on every front, the environment and sustainable development discourses are raising significant new challenges for work and learning systems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Learning pathways and articulation: Early conceptual explorations and implications for research design (s)
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Ramsarup, Preesha
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ramsarup, Preesha
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436388 , vital:73268 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: This paper is an introductory, exploratory paper which opened up the ter-rain for a second phase of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA)-Rhodes University research partnership focusing on change-oriented workplace learning and sustainability practices, with an emphasis on learning pathways (the main period being 2011-2013, ongoing until 2016). The paper reviews early conceptual explorations of learning path-ways and articulation questions, as these relate to a transversal issue8 in the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), namely environment and sustainable development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ramsarup, Preesha
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436388 , vital:73268 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: This paper is an introductory, exploratory paper which opened up the ter-rain for a second phase of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA)-Rhodes University research partnership focusing on change-oriented workplace learning and sustainability practices, with an emphasis on learning pathways (the main period being 2011-2013, ongoing until 2016). The paper reviews early conceptual explorations of learning path-ways and articulation questions, as these relate to a transversal issue8 in the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), namely environment and sustainable development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
The nature of learning and work transitioning in boundaryless work : the case of the environmental engineer
- Ramsarup, Presha, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Authors: Ramsarup, Presha , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Environmental engineers -- South Africa , Environmental degradation , Workplace literacy
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59657 , vital:27635 , https://doi.org/10.4314/sajee.v.33i1.8
- Description: Transition is a common characteristic of our lives, particularly in a rapidly changing world. In this context, how careers are enacted has become increasingly varied, requiring new conceptual tools to study the transitions of learners and workers. This paper uses theoretical constructs from the literature on boundaryless career discourse as well as learning and on work transitioning in order to explore the learning pathways of environmental engineers. It thus contributes to empirical work that articulates ongoing transitions (beyond the first job) within ‘occupational and organisational life’, as well as to the understanding of learning pathways as educational and occupational progression. The career stories help us to understand how non-linear transitions emerge, the complexity of these transitions, and the need to attend to broader institutional arrangements within and across education and training, the labour market and the workplace. Through its focus on the environmental engineer, it helps us to understand the processes and outcomes of transitions in an important occupation in contemporary professional work in South Africa. Finally, in a field dominated by research on entry into a first job, the paper also provides much-needed insights into occupational transitions into specialised work.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Ramsarup, Presha , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Environmental engineers -- South Africa , Environmental degradation , Workplace literacy
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59657 , vital:27635 , https://doi.org/10.4314/sajee.v.33i1.8
- Description: Transition is a common characteristic of our lives, particularly in a rapidly changing world. In this context, how careers are enacted has become increasingly varied, requiring new conceptual tools to study the transitions of learners and workers. This paper uses theoretical constructs from the literature on boundaryless career discourse as well as learning and on work transitioning in order to explore the learning pathways of environmental engineers. It thus contributes to empirical work that articulates ongoing transitions (beyond the first job) within ‘occupational and organisational life’, as well as to the understanding of learning pathways as educational and occupational progression. The career stories help us to understand how non-linear transitions emerge, the complexity of these transitions, and the need to attend to broader institutional arrangements within and across education and training, the labour market and the workplace. Through its focus on the environmental engineer, it helps us to understand the processes and outcomes of transitions in an important occupation in contemporary professional work in South Africa. Finally, in a field dominated by research on entry into a first job, the paper also provides much-needed insights into occupational transitions into specialised work.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Transgressing the norm: Transformative agency in community-based learning for sustainability in southern African contexts
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Mukute, Mutizwa, Chikunda, Charles, Baloi, Aristides, Pesanayi, Tichaona V
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Mukute, Mutizwa , Chikunda, Charles , Baloi, Aristides , Pesanayi, Tichaona V
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/127204 , vital:35977 , https://10.1007/s11159-017-9689-3
- Description: Environment and sustainability education processes are often oriented to change and transformation, and frequently involve the emergence of new forms of human activity. However, not much is known about how such change emerges from the learning process, or how it contributes to the development of transformative agency in community contexts. The authors of this article present four cross-case perspectives of expansive learning and transformative agency development in community-based education in southern Africa, studying communities pursuing new activities that are more socially just and sustainable. The four cases of community learning and transformative agency focus on the following activities: (1) sustainable agriculture in Lesotho; (2) seed saving and rainwater harvesting in Zimbabwe; (3) community-based irrigation scheme management in Mozambique; and (4) biodiversity conservation co-management in South Africa. The case studies all draw on cultural-historical activity theory to guide learning and change processes, especially third-generation cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), which emphasises expansive learning in collectives across interacting activity systems. CHAT researchers, such as the authors of this article, argue that expansive learning can lead to the emergence of transformative agency. The authors extend their transformative agency analysis to probe if and how expansive learning might also facilitate instances of transgressing norms – viewed here as embedded practices which need to be reframed and changed in order for sustainability to emerge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Mukute, Mutizwa , Chikunda, Charles , Baloi, Aristides , Pesanayi, Tichaona V
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/127204 , vital:35977 , https://10.1007/s11159-017-9689-3
- Description: Environment and sustainability education processes are often oriented to change and transformation, and frequently involve the emergence of new forms of human activity. However, not much is known about how such change emerges from the learning process, or how it contributes to the development of transformative agency in community contexts. The authors of this article present four cross-case perspectives of expansive learning and transformative agency development in community-based education in southern Africa, studying communities pursuing new activities that are more socially just and sustainable. The four cases of community learning and transformative agency focus on the following activities: (1) sustainable agriculture in Lesotho; (2) seed saving and rainwater harvesting in Zimbabwe; (3) community-based irrigation scheme management in Mozambique; and (4) biodiversity conservation co-management in South Africa. The case studies all draw on cultural-historical activity theory to guide learning and change processes, especially third-generation cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), which emphasises expansive learning in collectives across interacting activity systems. CHAT researchers, such as the authors of this article, argue that expansive learning can lead to the emergence of transformative agency. The authors extend their transformative agency analysis to probe if and how expansive learning might also facilitate instances of transgressing norms – viewed here as embedded practices which need to be reframed and changed in order for sustainability to emerge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Using Dialectical Critical Realism in the Analysis of Career Stories in Learning Pathways Research
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Ramsarup, Preesha
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ramsarup, Preesha
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436416 , vital:73270 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: In this paper we expand on our earlier methodological deliberations asso-ciated with differentiation within systems, boundaries and transition mechanisms (see Paper 2 in this Bulletin). We explore the potential for using a combination of two methodological tools for our learning path-ways research, in order to address the central methodological question raised through the literature review of learning pathways research, which highlighted a macro-micro dualism this area of study (see Paper 3 in this Bulletin). In Paper 4, we seek to explore whether Bhaskar’s (1993) dialec-tical approach may help with addressing this methodological dualism. We do this through applying the dialectical method, to career stories research approaches, which are one of the foundational approaches used in learn-ing pathways research (see Paper 3 in this Bulletin). Our analysis in this paper therefore uses (a) the development of ‘career stories’ and (b) Criti-cal Realist analysis of these career stories, using Bhaskar’s (1993) dialecti-cal method which foregrounds both absence and emergence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ramsarup, Preesha
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , bulletin
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436416 , vital:73270 , ISBN bulletin , https://www.saqa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SAQA-Bulletin-2017-1.pdf#page=37
- Description: In this paper we expand on our earlier methodological deliberations asso-ciated with differentiation within systems, boundaries and transition mechanisms (see Paper 2 in this Bulletin). We explore the potential for using a combination of two methodological tools for our learning path-ways research, in order to address the central methodological question raised through the literature review of learning pathways research, which highlighted a macro-micro dualism this area of study (see Paper 3 in this Bulletin). In Paper 4, we seek to explore whether Bhaskar’s (1993) dialec-tical approach may help with addressing this methodological dualism. We do this through applying the dialectical method, to career stories research approaches, which are one of the foundational approaches used in learn-ing pathways research (see Paper 3 in this Bulletin). Our analysis in this paper therefore uses (a) the development of ‘career stories’ and (b) Criti-cal Realist analysis of these career stories, using Bhaskar’s (1993) dialecti-cal method which foregrounds both absence and emergence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Agentive learning for sustainability and equity: Communities, cooperatives and social movements as emerging foci of the learning sciences
- Engeström, Yrjö, Sannino, Annalisa, Bal, Aydin, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Pesanayi, Tichaona, Chikunda, Charles, Lesama, Manoel F, Picinatto, Antonio C, Querol, Marco P, Lee, Yew J
- Authors: Engeström, Yrjö , Sannino, Annalisa , Bal, Aydin , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Pesanayi, Tichaona , Chikunda, Charles , Lesama, Manoel F , Picinatto, Antonio C , Querol, Marco P , Lee, Yew J
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , symposium
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436670 , vital:73292 , ISBN 978-1-4312-0852-4 , https://repository.isls.org//handle/1/372
- Description: This symposium expands the object and scope of the learning sciences by introducing communities, cooperatives and social movements as crucially important sites of learning. The sym-posium papers employ and critically interrogate cultural-historical activity theory, specifically the theory of expansive learning, and the emerging methodology of formative interven-tions as a potential framework for dealing with learning in communities, cooperatives and social movements. Expansive learning emerges as a process of revitalizing the commons, or commoning. The contributions of the symposium point toward the importance of analyzing and fostering transformative agency as a quality of learning.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Engeström, Yrjö , Sannino, Annalisa , Bal, Aydin , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Pesanayi, Tichaona , Chikunda, Charles , Lesama, Manoel F , Picinatto, Antonio C , Querol, Marco P , Lee, Yew J
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , symposium
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436670 , vital:73292 , ISBN 978-1-4312-0852-4 , https://repository.isls.org//handle/1/372
- Description: This symposium expands the object and scope of the learning sciences by introducing communities, cooperatives and social movements as crucially important sites of learning. The sym-posium papers employ and critically interrogate cultural-historical activity theory, specifically the theory of expansive learning, and the emerging methodology of formative interven-tions as a potential framework for dealing with learning in communities, cooperatives and social movements. Expansive learning emerges as a process of revitalizing the commons, or commoning. The contributions of the symposium point toward the importance of analyzing and fostering transformative agency as a quality of learning.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Building capacity for green, just and sustainable futures – a new knowledge field requiring transformative research methodology
- Rosenberg, Eureta, Ramsarup, Presha, Gumede, Sibusisiwe, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Authors: Rosenberg, Eureta , Ramsarup, Presha , Gumede, Sibusisiwe , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Sustainable development -- South Africa , Renewable energy sources , Climatic changes , Clean energy
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59613 , vital:27631 , http://joe.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/No_65_2016/JoE_complete.sflb.ashx
- Description: Education has contributed to a society-wide awareness of environmental issues, and we are increasingly confronted with the need for new ways to generate energy, save water and reduce pollution. Thus new forms of work are emerging and government, employers and educators need to know what ‘green’ skills South Africa needs and has. This creates a new demand for ‘green skills’ research. We propose that this new knowledge field – like some other educational fields – requires a transformative approach to research methodology. In conducting reviews of existing research, we found that a transformative approach requires a reframing of key concepts commonly used in researching work and learning; multi-layered, mixed method studies; researching within and across diverse knowledge fields including non-traditional fields; and both newly configured national platforms and new conceptual frameworks to help us integrate coherently across these. Critical realism is presented as a helpful underpinning for such conceptual frameworks, and implications for how universities prepare educational researchers are flagged.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Rosenberg, Eureta , Ramsarup, Presha , Gumede, Sibusisiwe , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Sustainable development -- South Africa , Renewable energy sources , Climatic changes , Clean energy
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59613 , vital:27631 , http://joe.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/No_65_2016/JoE_complete.sflb.ashx
- Description: Education has contributed to a society-wide awareness of environmental issues, and we are increasingly confronted with the need for new ways to generate energy, save water and reduce pollution. Thus new forms of work are emerging and government, employers and educators need to know what ‘green’ skills South Africa needs and has. This creates a new demand for ‘green skills’ research. We propose that this new knowledge field – like some other educational fields – requires a transformative approach to research methodology. In conducting reviews of existing research, we found that a transformative approach requires a reframing of key concepts commonly used in researching work and learning; multi-layered, mixed method studies; researching within and across diverse knowledge fields including non-traditional fields; and both newly configured national platforms and new conceptual frameworks to help us integrate coherently across these. Critical realism is presented as a helpful underpinning for such conceptual frameworks, and implications for how universities prepare educational researchers are flagged.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016