Editorial – Volume 37 (2021) Issue 1

Editorial

The Change Project Approach: A response for reorienting teacher education to address Education 2030 in southern Africa – The case of Midlands State University, Zimbabwe

The change project approach could be applied to enhance teacher education for the purpose of confronting 21st Century challenges through education (Education 2030). The challenge for teacher education institutions is to prepare future teachers with the socio-ecological knowledge, skills, attitudes and values essential for sustainable living, by reorienting current unsustainable ways of thinking and doing. This can be achieved by integrating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and in a number of teacher education programmes in southern Africa, teacher educators have begun to do this. This paper discusses the critical role of a change project approach in creating the social transformation processes and actions required to achieve the ambitions of Education 2030. Cases from the Midlands State University in Zimbabwe have demonstrated important efforts to reorient university curricula. The paper investigates and discusses the challenges associated with reimagining teacher education and key considerations that need to be addressed to achieve the goal of Agenda 2030. Keywords: Change project approach; social transformation; Education 2030; Education for Sustainable Development

Localisation of SDGs in Higher Education: Unisa’s whole institution, all goals and entire sector approach

This paper documents the processes leading to the hosting of the University of South Africa (Unisa) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Localisation Indaba1 in November 2019. Of interest is how the programming, which started as a purely inreach community engagement project, ultimately embraced the whole institution, all SDGs and the South African higher education sector. Data was generated via two platforms, namely participatory action research and a survey evaluating the Indaba. The following cycles emerged: the development of a Unisa Management Policy Brief calling for the SDGs Localisation Indaba in 2017 (Cycle 1); the development of an SDGs for Society Research Stream as part of the Unisa Annual Interdisciplinary Academy and Summer School in 2018 (Cycle 2); and the SDGs Localisation Indaba in 2019 (Cycle 3). The Indaba led to the SDGs Localisation Declaration which resulted in the formation of the SDGs Liaison Committee. Several agreements were made to expand SDGs localisation at Unisa. Finally, the Indaba attracted many participants from outside Unisa, especially from other institutions of higher education. However, it took almost three years to realise the SDGs localisation dream at Unisa. The key recommendation is thus that those championing SDGs localisation should be prepared to continue moving forward despite delays due to management changes and processes.Keywords: Higher education, sustainable development goals, domestication, localisation of the SDGs Introduction

ThinkPiece: Embracing Love as an Educational Force in the Anthropocene

In the past decade, an increasing number of geologists and other scientific researchers have presented evidence that we have entered a new geologic epoch called the Anthropocene. The primary characteristic of the Anthropocene, researchers argue, revolves around the combination of an emerging and measurable sedimentary layer of increasing human artifacts (mostly plastics) in combination with significant and negative transformations within the Earth’s biodiversity and climate systems. In this article, the researchers were interested in exploring how anthropogenic events will likely affect educational systems and institutions through multi-decade environmental audits and educational planning that are more closely linked to addressing the world’s major anthropogenic problems such as climate change and a global loss of biodiversity related to human development and activity. This article concludes by exploring how anthropogenic forces might be redirected as human catalysts for a more positive environmental and geologic legacy. Keywords: Anthropocene, anthropogenic force, environmental education, educational catalysts, emotion

Creating Community Based Environmental Awareness with Social Media: A Kenyan perspective

One of the roles of community education is keeping citizens more informed on the need to conserve their environment. However, for this to be effective in the digital era, the use of modern communication tools is required to keep pace with current technological developments. One of these tools is social media, which is enormously popular and is used by both individuals and organisations for online communication. This paper analyses the role of social media in community-based organisations (CBOs) in creating environmental awareness through community education in Kenya. A non-probability sample comprising nine CBOs in Nakuru City was used to explore activities focused on environmental issues. Data were collected and analysed from a total of 98 respondents who participated in an online survey. It was concluded that the use of social media for environmental awareness in CBOs was minimal, but there is potential in its use as a social learning environment for creating environmental awareness. The study recommends capacity building and open online communication as a means of promoting the use of social media in creating environmental awareness through community education programmes. Keywords: environmental management, environmental awareness, community based organisation (CBO), community education, social media

Towards an Eco-decolonial Museology: A critical realist analysis of the crises of South African museums

South African museums face multivalent, simultaneous crises. The MELD dialectical framework of critical realist philosophy can be used to explore potential for a deep reimagining of museum theory and practice that may generate a new, relational mode better able than persistent dualist modes to respond to complex, emergent crises. This has been conceived by the author (Jeffery, 2021) as an ecological-decolonial, or eco-decolonial, mode of museology, and is further developed in the present analysis. At 1M, the MELD analysis surfaces the implicit neoliberal ontology of South African museum work and the emergent paradox of ‘emancipatory neoliberalism’. This paradox is generative of a number of constraints on practice and agency, including commodification of heritage, a restrictive form of official memory, and quantitative management practice. These limit potential for museums to respond to complex crises that require relational capabilities. 2E explores the potential negation of these constraints. To disrupt the principle of collection as the grounding ontological activity of museum practice may disrupt the implicit neoliberal ontology. This may contribute to emergent, sophisticated socialecological trends in museum practice, both in South Africa and internationally. At 3L, a dialectical view on the concept of cultural landscape offers a relational frame for an eco-decolonial museum practice that may better respond to the crises faced by museums. The practical implications of the eco-decolonial approach are considered at 4D. Keywords: museum practice, critical realism, ontology, eco-decolonial, collection, cultural landscape

ThinkPiece: A Critical Realist’s Reflections on Coupling the Hydrological and Social Systems during a Global Crisis

Hydro-sociology is a recent field of study that aims to couple the human and water systems. It appears to be a response to dualistic thinking within hydrology and sociology that is also reflected in theoretical debates about structure and agency. Reflections about how specific rivers have ignited personal agency and define some of our political and economic structures are shared. Critical realists like Margaret Archer argue that reflexivity is a mediating tool between structure and agency. But what mediating tool is/can be used to mediate between the hydrological and sociological fields and related thinking? This think piece is a reflection on how a critical realist approach to structure and agency may deepen the connection and understanding of hydro-sociology. Keywords: critical realism, hydro-sociology, duality, water, structure and agency

Learning to Adapt in a Global Pandemic of COVID-19: Insights to Support Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Southern Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted all education sectors significantly during the full global lockdown between March and June 2020, including the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector. During this period, the authors jointly led nine researchers who were postgraduate students in six Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries (Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe). Due to the restrictions during the lockdown, these nine researchers conducted a literature review and thirty interviews in local communities in these six SADC countries. This included both VET colleges as well as individuals in informal, small-scale and entrepreneurial activities. The authors refer to the qualitative data gathered by the interviews with these interviewees as ‘stories of adaptation’. In this paper we used these ‘stories of adaptation’ to explore the links between learning to adapt and expertise, and to consider how together these constructs offer insights into how VET can be strengthened to better support local communities.Two research questions were asked: (1) how do the notions of adaptive capacity and expertise as conceptual constructs help to understand vocational learning in a global pandemic? and (2) what insights can be drawn from the ‘stories of adaptation’ to strengthen the role of VET in local communities? Through a thematic analysis of the ‘stories of adaptation’, three key findings emerged: (1) capacity to adapt is a multi-level and multi-pronged construct; (2) use of digital platforms as well as local networks were key enabling mechanisms for adaptation; and, (3) learning and expertise are embedded in the capacity to adapt. Thus, we argue that building a responsive VET system for the SADC region is achievable by strengthening the nexus between learning, expertise and adaptive capacity. Keywords: adaptive capacity; expertise; global pandemic; vocational education

Viewpoint: Prospect of Military Educational Roles during Public Health Crises - Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa

This viewpoint paper examines the prospect of an effective educational role for the military during public health crises. Reflecting a broad understanding of environmental education as education to protect the public space, the authors argue that the military could provide this during times of crises. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa included the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), thus offering a unique opportunity to inquire into this contentious possibility. At the outset of the outbreak, some scholars deemed the SANDF unfit to make any meaningful contribution to the fight against the novel coronavirus. Leadership and coordination hurdles, a longstanding legitimacy crisis and inadequate training, may justify this pessimistic view. Based on available literature and document analysis, the authors propose the viewpoint that the military can play a progressive environmental educational role during crises if (1) its educational programmes such as green soldiering are intensified, widened and adequately informed by training; (2) if more is made of the experience, cultural insights and personnel gain during peacekeeping missions; (3) if healthy civil-military relations are prioritised, along with (4) military professionalism, supported by a deeper understanding in society of the diversity of roles and skills the military could offer. The military itself needs to recognise this and not train all personnel as if they are about to enter combat with an enemy. Should these elements be present, the security forces could indeed be a force for good during times of public health crises.Keywords: COVID-19, civil-military relations, environmental education, pandemics, SANDF

Teacher Professional Development and Geography Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices for Climate Change Education

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was added to the South African Geography school curriculum when the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) was implemented from 2012. Many in-service teachers who qualified prior to 2014 did not cover this concept during their initial teacher education qualification because it was not part of the curriculum at that time. To address this deficiency, a teacher professional development (TPD) module was developed by the Fundisa for Change programme and offered to a selection of in-service high school Geography teachers. Transformative learning theory helped to understand the pedagogical practices used by teachers after attending the Fundisa for Change teacher professional development programme, in particular the use of a learner-centred approach. Using a small-scale, qualitative and interpretive case study method, the influence of this short TPD course on the teaching of climate change in the Geography CAPS curriculum on teachers’ pedagogical practices was investigated. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, document analysis and lesson observations. Data were analysed using both inductive thematic and deductive analysis. Findings from this small sample of five teachers and their practices suggest that despite attending the programme, most of the participating teachers did not sufficientlyintegrate climate change education in their Geography classroom practices. The majority of the research participants did not implement the learner-centred teaching methods covered in the course. It is therefore recommended that a teacher professional development programme should be incorporated into longer-term and preferably ongoing professional development programmes so as to adequately foster climate change education in classroom practices. Keywords: Geography, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), climate change education, teacher professional development, learner-centred pedagogies