National case study : teacher professional development with an education for sustainable development focus in South Africa: development of a network, curriculum framework and resources for teacher education
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Teachers -- Training of , Career development , Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59646 , vital:27634 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122242
- Description: This national case study reports on the development of a national network, curriculum framework and resources for teacher education, with specific focus on the inclusion of environment and sustainability, also known as education for sustainable development (ESD) in the South African teacher education system. It reviews and reports on the history of environment and sustainability education in teacher education, and from this, the national case study begins to conceptualise a new approach to environment and sustainability teacher education within a new curriculum policy environment, and a new teacher education and development policy environment. Action research case study methodology is used to document the first phase of the emergence of this network, and this report covers Phase 1 of the initiative, which covers formation of the network, review of previous practices, three conceptual development pilot studies undertaken in both in-service and pre-service teacher education environments and a piloting of a ‘Train the Trainers’ or ‘Educate the Teacher Educators’ programme, which complements and extends the actual teacher education and development (TED) programme under development. The study highlights critical insights of relevance to the shift to a content referenced curriculum in South Africa, and shows how the ‘knowledge mix’ which forms the foundation of the new Teacher Education Qualifications Framework can be engaged. It also highlights some features of the changing knowledge environment, and what dominant knowledge practices are in environment and sustainability-related teaching and teacher education practices, opening these up for further scrutiny. It raises concerns that dominant knowledge work, while integrating a range of forms of knowledge (as is expected of the teacher education system under the new policy), tends to be limited by content on problems and issues for raising awareness, and fails to develop deeper conceptual depth and understanding of environment and sustainability, as issues based knowledge dominates. Similarly, it fails to support social innovation as a response to environment and sustainability concerns, as awareness raising dominates in dominant knowledge work. The study provides a revised conceptual framework for the Teacher Development Network (TEDN) programme, with guidance on key elements necessary to take the programme forward in Phase 2.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Teachers -- Training of , Career development , Sustainable development -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59646 , vital:27634 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122242
- Description: This national case study reports on the development of a national network, curriculum framework and resources for teacher education, with specific focus on the inclusion of environment and sustainability, also known as education for sustainable development (ESD) in the South African teacher education system. It reviews and reports on the history of environment and sustainability education in teacher education, and from this, the national case study begins to conceptualise a new approach to environment and sustainability teacher education within a new curriculum policy environment, and a new teacher education and development policy environment. Action research case study methodology is used to document the first phase of the emergence of this network, and this report covers Phase 1 of the initiative, which covers formation of the network, review of previous practices, three conceptual development pilot studies undertaken in both in-service and pre-service teacher education environments and a piloting of a ‘Train the Trainers’ or ‘Educate the Teacher Educators’ programme, which complements and extends the actual teacher education and development (TED) programme under development. The study highlights critical insights of relevance to the shift to a content referenced curriculum in South Africa, and shows how the ‘knowledge mix’ which forms the foundation of the new Teacher Education Qualifications Framework can be engaged. It also highlights some features of the changing knowledge environment, and what dominant knowledge practices are in environment and sustainability-related teaching and teacher education practices, opening these up for further scrutiny. It raises concerns that dominant knowledge work, while integrating a range of forms of knowledge (as is expected of the teacher education system under the new policy), tends to be limited by content on problems and issues for raising awareness, and fails to develop deeper conceptual depth and understanding of environment and sustainability, as issues based knowledge dominates. Similarly, it fails to support social innovation as a response to environment and sustainability concerns, as awareness raising dominates in dominant knowledge work. The study provides a revised conceptual framework for the Teacher Development Network (TEDN) programme, with guidance on key elements necessary to take the programme forward in Phase 2.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
Participating in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainability: voices in a southern African consultation process
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67367 , vital:29081 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122720
- Description: publisher version , This paper documents the outcomes of the consultation process on participating in the UNDESD which was led by the SADC Regional Environmental Education Programme in 2005/2006, assisted by the Rhodes University Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit and Environment Africa. The goals of the consultation process were to explore interpretations and meaning-making around the global discourse of ESD in a southern African context. Findings from the consultation process provide useful baseline information on the status of debate on sustainable development in educational circles; participation and partnerships; insights into environmental and sustainability education (ESD) practice and mechanisms needed for supporting this practice. The paper ends by outlining a research agenda for ESD in southern Africa, as discussed during the consultation process.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67367 , vital:29081 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122720
- Description: publisher version , This paper documents the outcomes of the consultation process on participating in the UNDESD which was led by the SADC Regional Environmental Education Programme in 2005/2006, assisted by the Rhodes University Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit and Environment Africa. The goals of the consultation process were to explore interpretations and meaning-making around the global discourse of ESD in a southern African context. Findings from the consultation process provide useful baseline information on the status of debate on sustainable development in educational circles; participation and partnerships; insights into environmental and sustainability education (ESD) practice and mechanisms needed for supporting this practice. The paper ends by outlining a research agenda for ESD in southern Africa, as discussed during the consultation process.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
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
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/392924 , vital:68812 , ISBN 9780429279362 , https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429279362
- Description: The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in South Africa 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 programmes has, to date, been largely top down, and little nuanced understanding exists on the training and learning pathways 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 opportunities 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:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/392924 , vital:68812 , ISBN 9780429279362 , https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429279362
- Description: The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in South Africa 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 programmes has, to date, been largely top down, and little nuanced understanding exists on the training and learning pathways 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 opportunities 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:
- Date Issued: 2019
Reading Conference recommendations in a wider context of social change
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373792 , vital:66723 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122783"
- Description: This short Viewpoint paper considers the role and value of conference recommendations in shaping the field of environmental education. It explores the social politics, and often contested nature, of conference recommendations and their institutional histories, arguing that the act of producing conference recommendations forms part of the practices of new social movements. The paper recommends historicising conference recommendations and OEcross readings‚ to consider changing discourses and new developments in the field. Accompanying the short Viewpoint paper, are two sets of recently produced conference recommendations, one from the 4th International Environmental Education Conference held in Ahmedabad, India, and the other from the 1st International Conference on Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities held in Nairobi, Kenya.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373792 , vital:66723 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122783"
- Description: This short Viewpoint paper considers the role and value of conference recommendations in shaping the field of environmental education. It explores the social politics, and often contested nature, of conference recommendations and their institutional histories, arguing that the act of producing conference recommendations forms part of the practices of new social movements. The paper recommends historicising conference recommendations and OEcross readings‚ to consider changing discourses and new developments in the field. Accompanying the short Viewpoint paper, are two sets of recently produced conference recommendations, one from the 4th International Environmental Education Conference held in Ahmedabad, India, and the other from the 1st International Conference on Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities held in Nairobi, Kenya.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
Refelcting on the 2007 World Environmental Education Congress
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183047 , vital:43907 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820700100207"
- Description: What motivates more than 800 people from 101 countries around the world to meet at a World Environmental Education Congress? And how does one make the most of such an incredible gathering of people, cultures, thoughts and minds? What did people learn and was it worthwhile? These are just some of the questions that have been chasing through my mind in the weeks following the fourth World Environmental Education Congress held in Durban, South Africa, in July 2007. This short paper shares some preliminary reflections on the 2007 WEEC event, noting that in-depth analyses will only become possible as time passes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183047 , vital:43907 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820700100207"
- Description: What motivates more than 800 people from 101 countries around the world to meet at a World Environmental Education Congress? And how does one make the most of such an incredible gathering of people, cultures, thoughts and minds? What did people learn and was it worthwhile? These are just some of the questions that have been chasing through my mind in the weeks following the fourth World Environmental Education Congress held in Durban, South Africa, in July 2007. This short paper shares some preliminary reflections on the 2007 WEEC event, noting that in-depth analyses will only become possible as time passes.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
Reflections on the ‘3rd World Environmental Education Congress: Educational pathways towards sustainability’, Italy, 2005
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6096 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008619
- Description: Conference Theme: The congress theme ‘Educational pathways towards sustainability’ foregrounded the current ‘state of play’ in environmental education / education for sustainability, at the start of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), and drew attention to the role of education in creating pathways towards sustainability. Mario Solomone, convenor of the congress, in his orientation to the congress describes the congress as being about ‘cultural changes and cultural forces for change’, highlighting the role of education, training and communication in redirecting values, knowledge and behaviour to construct a human society ‘that is fairer and more aware of the equilibrium of a beautiful and fragile planet’ (Salomone, 2005: 6). To facilitate deliberations during the conference a set of interrelated themes were established which included: communication and the environment; paths to sustainability; research and assessment in environmental education; sustainable education; training the trainers; community awareness; promoting participation and governance and creating a network; economics and ecology; environment and health; farming and related issues; ethics; and emotional involvements. These congress themes, together with an impressive array of keynote papers kept congress participants actively engaged with the question of the DESD.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2005
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6096 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008619
- Description: Conference Theme: The congress theme ‘Educational pathways towards sustainability’ foregrounded the current ‘state of play’ in environmental education / education for sustainability, at the start of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), and drew attention to the role of education in creating pathways towards sustainability. Mario Solomone, convenor of the congress, in his orientation to the congress describes the congress as being about ‘cultural changes and cultural forces for change’, highlighting the role of education, training and communication in redirecting values, knowledge and behaviour to construct a human society ‘that is fairer and more aware of the equilibrium of a beautiful and fragile planet’ (Salomone, 2005: 6). To facilitate deliberations during the conference a set of interrelated themes were established which included: communication and the environment; paths to sustainability; research and assessment in environmental education; sustainable education; training the trainers; community awareness; promoting participation and governance and creating a network; economics and ecology; environment and health; farming and related issues; ethics; and emotional involvements. These congress themes, together with an impressive array of keynote papers kept congress participants actively engaged with the question of the DESD.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2005
Report containing learning, reflection and evaluation based on social learning:
- Burt, Jane C, Wilson, Jessica, Copteros, Athina, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Pereira, Taryn, Mokoena, Samson, Munnik, Victor, Ngcozela, Thabang, Lusithi, Thabo
- Authors: Burt, Jane C , Wilson, Jessica , Copteros, Athina , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Pereira, Taryn , Mokoena, Samson , Munnik, Victor , Ngcozela, Thabang , Lusithi, Thabo
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142005 , vital:38023 , ISBN WRC Report no K5/2313 Deliverable 7
- Description: This report forms the seventh deliverable in the NWRS2 citizen monitoring project and builds on the previous 6 deliverables, which include methodology for the project (Del 1), an assessment of civil society involvement in water policy (Del 2), an overview of the social learning approach and introduction to the case studies (Del 3), draft citizen monitoring guidelines (Del 4), an update on social learning to-date, including action plans (Del 5) and a report on a description and assessment of the case studies (Del 6). This report describes the last social learning module of the ‘Changing Practice’ course and highlights preliminary reflections on the learning that has taken place during this course. The report also describes the plans that were taken at the follow up research meeting. Finally we present the approach towards evaluating the role of social learning in the project as a whole.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Burt, Jane C , Wilson, Jessica , Copteros, Athina , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Pereira, Taryn , Mokoena, Samson , Munnik, Victor , Ngcozela, Thabang , Lusithi, Thabo
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142005 , vital:38023 , ISBN WRC Report no K5/2313 Deliverable 7
- Description: This report forms the seventh deliverable in the NWRS2 citizen monitoring project and builds on the previous 6 deliverables, which include methodology for the project (Del 1), an assessment of civil society involvement in water policy (Del 2), an overview of the social learning approach and introduction to the case studies (Del 3), draft citizen monitoring guidelines (Del 4), an update on social learning to-date, including action plans (Del 5) and a report on a description and assessment of the case studies (Del 6). This report describes the last social learning module of the ‘Changing Practice’ course and highlights preliminary reflections on the learning that has taken place during this course. The report also describes the plans that were taken at the follow up research meeting. Finally we present the approach towards evaluating the role of social learning in the project as a whole.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Reviewing strategies in/for ESD policy engagement: Agency reclaimed
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182483 , vital:43834 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2015.1113915"
- Description: In this response article, I draw on critical realist perspectives to engage with the argument put forward in Bengtsson's study, which sees agency as an ontological necessity for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) policy engagement. Bengtsson supports a notion of the logic of contingent action over the logic of power as dominance, suggesting possibilities for agency and resistance. Although I do not in principle disagree with the agentive possibilities embedded in this aspect of the Bengtsson argument, it is the scope of the conceptualization thereof that I consider in this response. I start with considering the limitations of a Westphalian analysis of policy appropriations and agency for ESD, and argue that the Westphalian frame for policy analysis may be inadequate for capturing the significance of non-state actors and wider generative mechanisms such as informal normative structures, and private, economic power in the global political economy. Drawing on Fraser's (2008) concept of the transnational public sphere, I explore other potential possibilities for agency-centered appropriations or negations of, and/or resistance to ESD policy discourses, potentially expanding the agency-centered perspective referred to in Bengtsson's analysis and critique of policy making for ESD, or, at the very least, by offering a wider view of possibility for what he refers to as the ‘ineradicable moment of conflict, or antagonism.’ In particular, I broaden the notion of the transnational public sphere to be inclusive of Dussel's (1998) three concerns of transformation, namely; poverty and wealth inequality, environmental degradation, and narrow rationalities involving ongoing colonization of people, territories and resources. In doing this, I concur with Fraser, who suggests that the concept of the public sphere may well be “so thoroughly Westphalian in its deep conceptual structure as to be unsalvageable as a critical tool for theorizing the present” and suggest that public sphere thinking and associated conceptions of agency require expansion, which I offer from postcolonial and decolonization literature, critical realism, ontological experiences, and reflection on Environmental Education (EE) /ESD policy in the southern African region. Ultimately, I propose need for a more radical framework for EE/ ESD policy research that reaches beyond analyses of appropriations of policy within the Wesphalian state framework, and that moves beyond critiquing or seeking out resistance moments associated with the assumptions of trickle down effects from UN level policy, or analysis that is centered on the EE versus ESD debate. Such a framework requires a revitalized notion of agency involving commitment to collective, relational (including the socio-materially relational) and transgressive forms of agency for deep societal transformations all round. Overall, it seems that environmental education policy and praxis research conceptualized within a decolonizing transnational sphere frame appears to still be an open and as yet under-explored terrain.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182483 , vital:43834 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2015.1113915"
- Description: In this response article, I draw on critical realist perspectives to engage with the argument put forward in Bengtsson's study, which sees agency as an ontological necessity for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) policy engagement. Bengtsson supports a notion of the logic of contingent action over the logic of power as dominance, suggesting possibilities for agency and resistance. Although I do not in principle disagree with the agentive possibilities embedded in this aspect of the Bengtsson argument, it is the scope of the conceptualization thereof that I consider in this response. I start with considering the limitations of a Westphalian analysis of policy appropriations and agency for ESD, and argue that the Westphalian frame for policy analysis may be inadequate for capturing the significance of non-state actors and wider generative mechanisms such as informal normative structures, and private, economic power in the global political economy. Drawing on Fraser's (2008) concept of the transnational public sphere, I explore other potential possibilities for agency-centered appropriations or negations of, and/or resistance to ESD policy discourses, potentially expanding the agency-centered perspective referred to in Bengtsson's analysis and critique of policy making for ESD, or, at the very least, by offering a wider view of possibility for what he refers to as the ‘ineradicable moment of conflict, or antagonism.’ In particular, I broaden the notion of the transnational public sphere to be inclusive of Dussel's (1998) three concerns of transformation, namely; poverty and wealth inequality, environmental degradation, and narrow rationalities involving ongoing colonization of people, territories and resources. In doing this, I concur with Fraser, who suggests that the concept of the public sphere may well be “so thoroughly Westphalian in its deep conceptual structure as to be unsalvageable as a critical tool for theorizing the present” and suggest that public sphere thinking and associated conceptions of agency require expansion, which I offer from postcolonial and decolonization literature, critical realism, ontological experiences, and reflection on Environmental Education (EE) /ESD policy in the southern African region. Ultimately, I propose need for a more radical framework for EE/ ESD policy research that reaches beyond analyses of appropriations of policy within the Wesphalian state framework, and that moves beyond critiquing or seeking out resistance moments associated with the assumptions of trickle down effects from UN level policy, or analysis that is centered on the EE versus ESD debate. Such a framework requires a revitalized notion of agency involving commitment to collective, relational (including the socio-materially relational) and transgressive forms of agency for deep societal transformations all round. Overall, it seems that environmental education policy and praxis research conceptualized within a decolonizing transnational sphere frame appears to still be an open and as yet under-explored terrain.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Rhizome connections...
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2004
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6097 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008620
- Description: There are a number of papers in the journal that reflect a trend in environmental education towards deliberating recuperative, relational epistemologies. In their paper addressing the near-schism between those that appear to be antagonistic to post-structuralism and deconstruction, and those that find them generative in their inquiries, Noel Gough and Leigh Price go right to the heart of human inquiry by questioning the most commonly held assumption in the research enterprise – that the social sciences require a different methodology from the natural sciences.Through giving attention to relativist (constructionist) epistemology and a stratified, realist ontology – which assumes a relational account of ontology – they suggest the same basic methodology for both the social and natural sciences, arguing that ‘... society and humans mutually transform/reproduce each other, just as nature and humans mutually transform/reproduce each other’. In doing this, they address over-simplified dialectics between ‘constructionism’ and realism which has shaped much human inquiry (including environmental education research).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2004
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6097 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008620
- Description: There are a number of papers in the journal that reflect a trend in environmental education towards deliberating recuperative, relational epistemologies. In their paper addressing the near-schism between those that appear to be antagonistic to post-structuralism and deconstruction, and those that find them generative in their inquiries, Noel Gough and Leigh Price go right to the heart of human inquiry by questioning the most commonly held assumption in the research enterprise – that the social sciences require a different methodology from the natural sciences.Through giving attention to relativist (constructionist) epistemology and a stratified, realist ontology – which assumes a relational account of ontology – they suggest the same basic methodology for both the social and natural sciences, arguing that ‘... society and humans mutually transform/reproduce each other, just as nature and humans mutually transform/reproduce each other’. In doing this, they address over-simplified dialectics between ‘constructionism’ and realism which has shaped much human inquiry (including environmental education research).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
Rhodes University EE and Sustainability Unit
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Schudel, Ingrid J
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Schudel, Ingrid J
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/294423 , vital:57220 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820700100127"
- Description: In the early 1990s, in response to the emphasis laid on environment and development issues by the new South African Constitution, Rhodes University undertook several initiatives such as establishing the first Chair of Environmental Education (EE) in Africa. Another important initiative was the introduction of an open-entry participatory course for environmental educators. Owing to its flexible format and practice-based methodology, the course gained rapid popularity, necessitating the setting up of a Service Centre to help meet the increased demand. The Chair and the Service Centre have been providing a range of short courses in environment and sustainability education to professionals, and are today widely known as the Rhodes University Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit (RUEESU). The Unit offers PhD and Masters level programmes in EE, encourages meaningful research in key thematic areas, and is actively involved in publishing, and policy transformation. It also endeavours to define the role of Universities in enabling sustainability education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Schudel, Ingrid J
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/294423 , vital:57220 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820700100127"
- Description: In the early 1990s, in response to the emphasis laid on environment and development issues by the new South African Constitution, Rhodes University undertook several initiatives such as establishing the first Chair of Environmental Education (EE) in Africa. Another important initiative was the introduction of an open-entry participatory course for environmental educators. Owing to its flexible format and practice-based methodology, the course gained rapid popularity, necessitating the setting up of a Service Centre to help meet the increased demand. The Chair and the Service Centre have been providing a range of short courses in environment and sustainability education to professionals, and are today widely known as the Rhodes University Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit (RUEESU). The Unit offers PhD and Masters level programmes in EE, encourages meaningful research in key thematic areas, and is actively involved in publishing, and policy transformation. It also endeavours to define the role of Universities in enabling sustainability education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2007
Sigtuna Think Piece 8: Piecing together conceptual framings for climate change education research in southern African contexts
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67378 , vital:29082 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122808
- Description: publisher version , This think piece considers a range of theoretical and conceptual tools that may assist with the emergence of a research agenda for climate change in education. It considers the conditions that are created by climate change in and for southern African contexts, and then deliberates which contextually related theoretical tools may be useful to frame research questions for climate change education. I consider the educational research implications of adaptation practices, reflexive justice and agency, reflexivity and capability, noting that a climate change education research agenda, not different to a wider reflexive environmental education research agenda dealing with transformative praxis in southern Africa, is essentially a sociologically and historically emergent ‘researching with’ agenda, and is in effect a social learning process. In putting together these conceptual framings for a climate change research agenda in southern Africa, I am interested in exploring how participatory social learning research may strengthen agency and reflexivity (development of capabilities) in response to socio-ecological conditions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67378 , vital:29082 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122808
- Description: publisher version , This think piece considers a range of theoretical and conceptual tools that may assist with the emergence of a research agenda for climate change in education. It considers the conditions that are created by climate change in and for southern African contexts, and then deliberates which contextually related theoretical tools may be useful to frame research questions for climate change education. I consider the educational research implications of adaptation practices, reflexive justice and agency, reflexivity and capability, noting that a climate change education research agenda, not different to a wider reflexive environmental education research agenda dealing with transformative praxis in southern Africa, is essentially a sociologically and historically emergent ‘researching with’ agenda, and is in effect a social learning process. In putting together these conceptual framings for a climate change research agenda in southern Africa, I am interested in exploring how participatory social learning research may strengthen agency and reflexivity (development of capabilities) in response to socio-ecological conditions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
Situated culture, ethics and new learning theory: emerging perspectives in environmental education research
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6095 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008617
- Description: Celebrating the 8th International Invitational Research and Development Seminar. This edition of the EEASA Journal celebrates the hosting of the 8th International Invitational Research and Development Seminar on Environmental and Health Education in South Africa in March 2005. The International Invitational Research and Development Seminars are ‘special events’ in the field of environmental and health education research. They are characterised by their democratic, deliberative nature, and by their intent to scope innovation and methodological issues. First established some years ago in Copenhagen, Denmark, these seminars have provided an evolving international forum for researchers interested in research methodology to meet and frame new themes, trends and issues arising in the field of environmental education and health education research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2005
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6095 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008617
- Description: Celebrating the 8th International Invitational Research and Development Seminar. This edition of the EEASA Journal celebrates the hosting of the 8th International Invitational Research and Development Seminar on Environmental and Health Education in South Africa in March 2005. The International Invitational Research and Development Seminars are ‘special events’ in the field of environmental and health education research. They are characterised by their democratic, deliberative nature, and by their intent to scope innovation and methodological issues. First established some years ago in Copenhagen, Denmark, these seminars have provided an evolving international forum for researchers interested in research methodology to meet and frame new themes, trends and issues arising in the field of environmental education and health education research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2005
Situated environmental learning in Southern Africa at the start of the UN decade of education for sustainable development
- O'Donoghue, Rob, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Authors: O'Donoghue, Rob , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183059 , vital:43908 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0814062600001737"
- Description: Within the globalising trajectory of modernism, conservation, then environmental (EE) and now sustainability education (ESD) have each emerged as developing responses to risk produced by and in the modern state. Through adopting a long term process perspective, this paper narrates the emergence of situated learning perspectives and a developing re-orientation of EE at the start of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD). We identified the need to examine ESD practice in responses to recent ESD consultations in 14 southern African countries, where a rhetorical marking was noted in discussions on ESD practices, particularly with regard to changing teaching and learning processes. The paper narrates how an interplay of review, research and practical engagement activities have all contributed to an extended critical review of learning interactions in environmental education in an attempt to provide useful perspective for educational activities within the UNDESD. We found that EE and ESD initiatives only acquired more substantive meaning and coherent orientation when examined within ongoing inquiries into situated learning, agency and risk reduction in contexts of poverty, vulnerability and risk, the key concern to us in this paper and the primary focus of the WEHAB (Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity) sustainable development agenda in the region.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
- Authors: O'Donoghue, Rob , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183059 , vital:43908 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0814062600001737"
- Description: Within the globalising trajectory of modernism, conservation, then environmental (EE) and now sustainability education (ESD) have each emerged as developing responses to risk produced by and in the modern state. Through adopting a long term process perspective, this paper narrates the emergence of situated learning perspectives and a developing re-orientation of EE at the start of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD). We identified the need to examine ESD practice in responses to recent ESD consultations in 14 southern African countries, where a rhetorical marking was noted in discussions on ESD practices, particularly with regard to changing teaching and learning processes. The paper narrates how an interplay of review, research and practical engagement activities have all contributed to an extended critical review of learning interactions in environmental education in an attempt to provide useful perspective for educational activities within the UNDESD. We found that EE and ESD initiatives only acquired more substantive meaning and coherent orientation when examined within ongoing inquiries into situated learning, agency and risk reduction in contexts of poverty, vulnerability and risk, the key concern to us in this paper and the primary focus of the WEHAB (Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity) sustainable development agenda in the region.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
Some insights on the gap
- O'Donoghue, Rob, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Authors: O'Donoghue, Rob , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182720 , vital:43856 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620220145410"
- Description: In our response to 'Mind the gap' by Kollmuss and Agyeman (2002) we review contemporary pro-environmental behaviour research and perspectives. We apply a social processes vantage point to reveal a blindness to the historical origins of these perspectives. Through drawing on a case in an African context, we illuminate the way in which experts in institutional contexts come to etch instrumental perspectives, and thus we probe the limitations of instrumentalist assumptions associated with pro-environmental behaviour research and perspectives. We also point to ideological blind spots and blockages that persist in disallowing social politics and history to illuminate the complexities of human social habitus, and we reveal some of the complexities that have been set aside in the Kollmuss and Agyeman article.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
- Authors: O'Donoghue, Rob , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182720 , vital:43856 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620220145410"
- Description: In our response to 'Mind the gap' by Kollmuss and Agyeman (2002) we review contemporary pro-environmental behaviour research and perspectives. We apply a social processes vantage point to reveal a blindness to the historical origins of these perspectives. Through drawing on a case in an African context, we illuminate the way in which experts in institutional contexts come to etch instrumental perspectives, and thus we probe the limitations of instrumentalist assumptions associated with pro-environmental behaviour research and perspectives. We also point to ideological blind spots and blockages that persist in disallowing social politics and history to illuminate the complexities of human social habitus, and we reveal some of the complexities that have been set aside in the Kollmuss and Agyeman article.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
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
Sustainability Assessment of University of Gondar, Gondar, North-west Ethiopia
- Moges, Haimanot G, Kifle, Desalegn W, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Woldyohhanes, Solomon M
- Authors: Moges, Haimanot G , Kifle, Desalegn W , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Woldyohhanes, Solomon M
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182845 , vital:43885 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0973408214529990"
- Description: The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the cross-institutional assessment of sustainable development practices in the University of Gondar (UoG). The focus of the assessment was the level of UoG academic departments’ integration of sustainability concerns in teaching, research and community service. Management contributions to sustainable development, student initiatives on sustainability issues and policy statements about sustainable development of UoG were also considered in the assessment. The data collection was based on the Unit-based Sustainability Assessment Tool (USAT); in addition, supplementary information was collected through observations across the four campuses of UoG from January to February 2012.The result of the assessment showed that only a few academic departments have incorporated sustainability concerns in their curricula and teaching approach. The initiation and commitment of academic departments in mainstreaming sustainability concerns in the research and community service delivered were relatively poor. The operation and management of UoG showed inadequate sustainable development practices on waste management, energy utilization and purchasing from environment-friendly companies. In addition, the written policy and statements of UoG did not reflect sustainability in an explicit manner. The university is expected to respond to the key themes defined through sustainability declarations on higher education; there is also a need to establish the relevance of these in relation to the systemic environment. From the study undertaken, we have learnt that sustainability assessment of universities using USAT will be more valuable, if universities have already initiated the embedding of sustainability so that USAT can be used to benchmark the continual improvement.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Moges, Haimanot G , Kifle, Desalegn W , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Woldyohhanes, Solomon M
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182845 , vital:43885 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0973408214529990"
- Description: The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the cross-institutional assessment of sustainable development practices in the University of Gondar (UoG). The focus of the assessment was the level of UoG academic departments’ integration of sustainability concerns in teaching, research and community service. Management contributions to sustainable development, student initiatives on sustainability issues and policy statements about sustainable development of UoG were also considered in the assessment. The data collection was based on the Unit-based Sustainability Assessment Tool (USAT); in addition, supplementary information was collected through observations across the four campuses of UoG from January to February 2012.The result of the assessment showed that only a few academic departments have incorporated sustainability concerns in their curricula and teaching approach. The initiation and commitment of academic departments in mainstreaming sustainability concerns in the research and community service delivered were relatively poor. The operation and management of UoG showed inadequate sustainable development practices on waste management, energy utilization and purchasing from environment-friendly companies. In addition, the written policy and statements of UoG did not reflect sustainability in an explicit manner. The university is expected to respond to the key themes defined through sustainability declarations on higher education; there is also a need to establish the relevance of these in relation to the systemic environment. From the study undertaken, we have learnt that sustainability assessment of universities using USAT will be more valuable, if universities have already initiated the embedding of sustainability so that USAT can be used to benchmark the continual improvement.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
Teacher professional development with an Education for Sustainable Development focus in South Africa: Development of a network, curriculum framework and resources for teacher education
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/128949 , vital:36193 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122242
- Description: This national case study reports on the development of a national network, curriculum framework and resources for teacher education, with specific focus on the inclusion of environment and sustainability, also known as education for sustainable development (ESD) in the South African teacher education system. It reviews and reports on the history of environment and sustainability education in teacher education, and from this, the national case study begins to conceptualise a new approach to environment and sustainability teacher education within a new curriculum policy environment, and a new teacher education and development policy environment.Action research case study methodology is used to document the first phase of the emergence of this network, and this report covers Phase 1 of the initiative, which covers formation of the network, review of previous practices, three conceptual development pilot studies undertaken in both in-service and pre-service teacher education environments and a piloting of a ‘Train the Trainers’ or ‘Educate the Teacher Educators’ programme, which complements and extends the actual teacher education and development (TED) programme under development.The study highlights critical insights of relevance to the shift to a content referenced curriculum in South Africa, and shows how the ‘knowledge mix’ which forms the foundation of the new Teacher Education Qualifications Framework can be engaged. It also highlights some features of the changing knowledge environment, and what dominant knowledge practices are in environment and sustainability-related teaching and teacher education practices, opening these up for further scrutiny. It raises concerns that dominant knowledge work, while integrating a range of forms of knowledge (as is expected of the teacher education system under the new policy), tends to be limited by content on problems and issues for raising awareness, and fails to develop deeper conceptual depth and understanding of environment and sustainability, as issues based knowledge dominates. Similarly, it fails to support social innovation as a response to environment and sustainability concerns, as awareness raising dominates in dominant knowledge work. The study provides a revised conceptual framework for the Teacher Development Network (TEDN) programme, with guidance on key elements necessary to take the programme forward in Phase 2.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/128949 , vital:36193 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122242
- Description: This national case study reports on the development of a national network, curriculum framework and resources for teacher education, with specific focus on the inclusion of environment and sustainability, also known as education for sustainable development (ESD) in the South African teacher education system. It reviews and reports on the history of environment and sustainability education in teacher education, and from this, the national case study begins to conceptualise a new approach to environment and sustainability teacher education within a new curriculum policy environment, and a new teacher education and development policy environment.Action research case study methodology is used to document the first phase of the emergence of this network, and this report covers Phase 1 of the initiative, which covers formation of the network, review of previous practices, three conceptual development pilot studies undertaken in both in-service and pre-service teacher education environments and a piloting of a ‘Train the Trainers’ or ‘Educate the Teacher Educators’ programme, which complements and extends the actual teacher education and development (TED) programme under development.The study highlights critical insights of relevance to the shift to a content referenced curriculum in South Africa, and shows how the ‘knowledge mix’ which forms the foundation of the new Teacher Education Qualifications Framework can be engaged. It also highlights some features of the changing knowledge environment, and what dominant knowledge practices are in environment and sustainability-related teaching and teacher education practices, opening these up for further scrutiny. It raises concerns that dominant knowledge work, while integrating a range of forms of knowledge (as is expected of the teacher education system under the new policy), tends to be limited by content on problems and issues for raising awareness, and fails to develop deeper conceptual depth and understanding of environment and sustainability, as issues based knowledge dominates. Similarly, it fails to support social innovation as a response to environment and sustainability concerns, as awareness raising dominates in dominant knowledge work. The study provides a revised conceptual framework for the Teacher Development Network (TEDN) programme, with guidance on key elements necessary to take the programme forward in Phase 2.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
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
The Makana Regional Centre of expertise: Experiments in social learning
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, O'Donoghue, Rob, Wilmot, P Dianne
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , O'Donoghue, Rob , Wilmot, P Dianne
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182634 , vital:43849 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820900400114"
- Description: This article deliberates the possibilities for Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) to become ‘experiments’ in social learning. The purpose of the article is to advance the broader research agenda of RCEs through reflection on the empirical research agenda of one RCE, Makana RCE in South Africa. As such it opens questions on how we might see RCE’s as morphogenic social learning processes (i.e., processes of social change). It provides an oversight of the key issues, educational foci and developing areas of engagement in the Makana RCE. These provide an overview of the ‘starting points’ for social learning in the Makana RCE. A model of social learning is also provided which seeks to engage the ecocultural nature of sustainability practices in the Makana RCE.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , O'Donoghue, Rob , Wilmot, P Dianne
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182634 , vital:43849 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820900400114"
- Description: This article deliberates the possibilities for Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) to become ‘experiments’ in social learning. The purpose of the article is to advance the broader research agenda of RCEs through reflection on the empirical research agenda of one RCE, Makana RCE in South Africa. As such it opens questions on how we might see RCE’s as morphogenic social learning processes (i.e., processes of social change). It provides an oversight of the key issues, educational foci and developing areas of engagement in the Makana RCE. These provide an overview of the ‘starting points’ for social learning in the Makana RCE. A model of social learning is also provided which seeks to engage the ecocultural nature of sustainability practices in the Makana RCE.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
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