ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O Donoghue

ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

So? . . How is transformative learning central to Education for Sustainability (ESD)? Education for “Sustain-ability” The ability to learn to sustain ourselves without compromising the futures of people and planet Society * Economy * Environment * Culture & a whole school-in-community approach

Transformative learning Wals notes that transformative learning implies change that can be: • a practical, an intellectual and a political process of re-orientation, • a personal and a community process of change, • an educative opening up of new insights and social innovation (Wals, 2013) Within the socio-cultural tradition, Stetsenko (2008) argues for an expansive move from a relational to a transformative stance, noting that: …communities belong together and co-evolve with all other communities on the global scale, sharing one common fate and history. (Stetsenko, 2008: 490)

How are RCEs transforming modern education to enable transformative learning? ESD for transformative learning in RCEs implies: • Communication that fosters awareness and change • Personal empowerment experiences. • Practical learning-to-change in a local context. • Community research and activism for change in an area. GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMUNICATION INDIVIDUAL COMPETENCE COMMUNITY CHANGE PRACTICES LOCAL RCE CONTEXT

ESD: What is in the mix for mediating transformative learning in RCEs? INDIVIDUAL COMPETENCE • Empowerment (valued beings, knowing and doings) • Agency (Anticipatory competence and strategic thinking) • Practical competence (problem solving & action-taking) COMMUNITY LEARNING AND SOCIAL INNOVATION • Capability approach (transfer factors and expansive learning) • Community of Practice (practice architecture) • Complex constellations of risk (Systems thinking) PRACTICAL REASONED PRACTICE COMMUNICATION • Get the message across (Target groups) • Advocacy, buy-in and networked learning • e-learning (Wiki and MOOCs)

Three Lenses for learning in ESD Integrative and widening (holistic) perspective on: • not only the ecological and the environmental, but also the socio-economic and the ethical, • not only the present but also the past and the future, • not only the local but also the regional and the global, • not only the human world but also the non human world Critical envisaging of alternatives to: • continuous economic growth and consumerism • associated lifestyles • sources of information and claims made, etc. Transformative engagement around: • alternative lifestyles (e. g. ‘voluntary simplicity’), • values and systems that break from existing ones that are inherently unsustainable • beyond data, information, knowledge and understanding (Wals, 2013)

Integrative, critical envisioning and transformative dimensions in ESD competences (UNECE, 2011)

Source: George Siemens, 2008

Transformative competence in a process model for learning in complex RCE constellations Competences for transformative learning processes Interpersonal engagement, Knowledge with action-taking problem solving and actiontaking develop with: • Systems thinking for appreciating complex constellations of risk and for shaping • Anticipatory competence to imagine future conditions that might enable a • Normative competence of reflexive re-imagining with • Strategic competence to initiative and sustain change Research with problem solving Interpersonal engagement and communication Socio-cultural context (Adapted Wiek, 2012)

Heritage practices Modern Expert Culture (What was done and known in the past) B (What is now known about things) C Looking across ‘Bring out’ Bring Heritage practices and out knowledge Looking back Complex constellation ‘Bring about’ LEARNING & Bring SOCIAL INNOVATION about…. A Bring Livelihood Contexts of together doing, knowing and being ‘Bring in’ Bring Societal explanatory in knowledge Looking about of social - ecological risk A capabilities approach to social innovation (Personal, social and environmental conversion factors)

Developing competence in co-engaged learning practices So? . . Start up Bring in Bring together Bring about. . . Bring out How does ESD include socio-cultural practices and competence development? Anticipatory Individual competence Interpersonal unsustainability visions unsustainability futures Non-interventionvisions Systems thinking Complex problem constellation in the situation and history Socio-cultural Practice Intervention point Strategic Transition strategies Change strategies Sustainability visions Normative (Adapted from Wiek etal. 2011)

Restore habitats & ecosystem services Reduce resource use Water Waste Constellations of Modern livelihood systems and practices history Biodiversity Agriculture Strategic intervention Energy Health Enhance equity and quality of life Adapting to and mitigating climate change Evaluating sustainable livelihood practices and interventions

Learning and social innovation: Classroom Video start-up with Mother Tongue enquiry and reporting • IK- Today is a heritage practices video series that has been effective as a start-up activity for exploring how things have changed. • Here, knowledge practices are represented in Mother Tongue by one member of a group, with translation and verification by others in contexts of sharing knowledge practices. • This form of knowledge sharing is both fun an effective for uncovering change and much of the depth of practical and ecological wisdom in heritage practices. Materials Video, readings and case stories including photographs and artifacts for practical work.

Learning and social innovation: Community activists Discussion and exploratory work on heritage and change choice practice • Photo narratives are a useful starting point for change-choicepractice approaches. • Here, the emphasis is on learning by doing and re-imagining social innovations that reduce impact and are better aligned to natural systems whilst meeting social needs. • Picture narrative and practice approaches shift the concern for awareness creation to the production of situated competence with the capability to produce change in context. Materials on trial by Water Dignity are bucket filters, ‘tippy-tap’ hand washers and testing kits.

Learning and social innovation: Change Practices Training Water: Professional development training of community learning facilitators • Through research on rural community learning (Piri, 2010 and Rivers 2013), materials to enable water conservation and food production were developed and pilot tested • A training manual was then developed through a course to train community facilitatory to enable coengaged learning to conserve water and produce food locally. • A review of the curriculum of agricultural colleges is being undertaken and a co-engaged project to improve support for small -scale agriculture and extension is being developed. Materials Change Practice Short Course Manual with resource documents on Rainwater harvesting and Rainwater harvesting for homes and food gardens.

Learning and social innovation: ORASECOM Project Mini SASS for civic science water quality testing in a local context • The Orange Senqu River Basin Project (ORASECOM) developed mini. SASS as a civic science process for assessing river health. • Civic groups and school science teachers are being equipped and trained to monitor the health of local rivers. • Results are uploaded onto a national database where results can be exchanged and problems and actions to improve the problem can be discussed Materials Krucher, T. (2012) Orange-Senqu Artery of Life. Frankfurt, Brandes & Apsel. Graham M. , Dickens C. and Taylor, R. J. (2004) mini. SASS — A novel technique for community participation in river health monitoring and management. African Journal of Aquatic Science 2004, 29(1): 25– 35 Printed in South Africa

Some other heritage focus areas and change practices……

Transformative learning challenges in RCEs • Local and global issues are connected • Information is everywhere, how to choose? • Sustainability is multi-dimensional: ecological, economic, ethics, environment, etc. • Becoming critical of consumption & consumerism • Alternatives are possible! • Interviewing, presenting, reporting, listening, googeling, critiquing…

Some concluding points for discussion • The label is less important than what is actually done on the ground • When RCE processes of ESD are challenging, good outcomes will follow even though we may not know beforehand what they might be. • That sustainability and SD can mean so many things is a major advantage as it forces people to give it meaning themselves. • The more the private sector becomes interested in ESD and the greening of the economy, the more alert we need to be for ‘wolf in sheep’s clothes’

Co-engaged learning and change 15 March 2018 All rights reserved © 2013 Fundisa for

Mapping key nexus of events for epistemological access with relevance EXPERT FIELD CULTURAL CAPITAL LIVED WORLD CULTURAL CONTEXT Abstracting theory enables the use of concepts, models and insights in context and other nexus of events Concepts, models and theory in intergenerational knowledge practice of fermenting sorghum. Abstract modelling allow us to formulate how: • Maltase and other enzymes break down starch C 6 H 12 O 6 with yeast -> 2 C 2 H 5 OH + 2 CO 2 • Fermentation practice by cracking grain • smell of malting in • warm calabash with • visible bubbles as evidence of success (glucose) Learning Processes R R R E I (c) (alcohol) (carbon dioxide) Abstract concepts allow us to test & deduce: • Bubbles are carbon dioxide being released • Yeast (enzymes) break down starch/glucose A microscope reveals cell division of yeast Modern context of social - ecological risk Key: Re-describe for relevance Reconcile in context Retrodict to antecedent causes Eliminate ambiguity and risk Identify open explanations Correction as reflexive process