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

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

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Page 1: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

ESD and transformative learning in RCEs

Rob O’DonoghueRhodes University and Makana RCE

Page 2: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

Education for

“Sustain-ability”The ability to learn to sustain

ourselves without compromising the futures of people

and planet

Society * Economy * Environment * Culture&

a whole school-in-community approach

How is transformative learning central to Education for Sustainability (ESD)?

Page 3: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

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)

Page 4: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

How are RCEs transforming modern education to enable transformative learning?

ESD for transformative learning in RCEs implies: •Communication that fosters awareness and change •Personal empowerment experiences. •Practical learning-to-change in a local context. •Community research and activism for change in an area.

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY

LOCAL RCE CONTEXT

Page 5: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

ESD: What is in the mix for mediating transformative learning in RCEs?

COMMUNICATION•Get the message across (Target groups)•Advocacy, buy-in and networked learning•e-learning (Wiki and MOOCs)

INDIVIDUAL COMPETENCE•Empowerment (valued beings, knowing and doings)•Agency (Anticipatory competence and strategic thinking)•Practical competence (problem solving & action-taking)COMMUNITY LEARNING AND SOCIAL INNOVATION•Capability approach (transfer factors and expansive learning)•Community of Practice (practice architecture)•Complex constellations of risk (Systems thinking)

PRAC

TICA

L RE

ASO

NREASO

NED

PRACTICE

Page 6: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

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

(Wals, 2013)

Page 7: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

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

Page 8: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

Source: George Siemens, 2008

Page 9: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

Transformative competence in a process model for learning in complex RCE constellations

Interpersonal engagement, problem solving and action-taking develop with:•Systems thinking for appreciating complex constellations of risk and for shaping•Anticipatory competence to imagine future conditions that might enable a •Normative competence of reflexive re-imagining with •Strategic competence to initiative and sustain change

Research with problem solving

Knowledge w

ith action-taking

Interpersonalengagement andcommunication

(Adapted Wiek, 2012)

Competences for transformative learning processes

Socio-cultural context

Ingrid Jung
This additional list of competencies makes the slide a bit too complex, better explain while you speak
Page 10: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

B‘Bring out’

Heritage practices and

knowledge

C‘Bring in’ Societal

explanatory knowledge

‘Bring about’LEARNING &

SOCIAL INNOVATION

ALivelihood

Contexts ofdoing, knowing

and being

Modern Expert Culture (What is now known about things)

Heritage practices(What was done and known in the past)

Complex constellation of social - ecological risk

A capabilities approach to social innovation

(Personal, social and environmental conversion factors)

Looking back

Looking about

Looking across

Page 11: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

unsustainability visionsunsustainability visions

Sustainability visionsSustainability visions

Transition strategies

Developing competence in co-engaged learning practices

How does ESD include socio-cultural practices and competence development?

Complex problem constellation in the situation and history Sustainability visions

Non-intervention futures

Strategic

AnticipatoryInterpersonal

Systems thinking

Transition strategiesChange strategies(Adapted from Wiek etal. 2011)

Intervention

point

Socio-cultural Practice

Individual competence

Normative

Ingrid Jung
this slide is a bit too full, why not put only the graphic at the end of the page or the upper part more transparent or smaller? Difficult to get your main message.The intervention point: where is it located within the education process? I understand that it might or not be part of the ESD process. Actually I am grippling with the somehow static graph of Wiek's competencies and this somehow more dynamic approach. But I feel uneasy regarding its coherence. The Anticipatory and the normative is there before any action is taken. And I have a problem with putting both your dynmic graphs in parallel
Page 12: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

Reduce resource use

Modern livelihood practices

Water

Agriculture

Energy

Waste

Adapting to and mitigating climate change

Restore habitats & ecosystem services

Health

Biodiversity

Enhance equity and quality of life

Evaluating sustainable livelihood practices and

interventions

(Access and equity with better consumption and stewardship Practices)

Constellations of systems and

history

Strategic intervention

Ingrid Jung
what is the specifics of strategic change? Does it refer to the change in politics in all other domains?
Page 13: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

Learning and social innovation: Classroom

Video start-up with Mother Tongue enquiry and reporting

• IK- Today is a heritage practices video series that has been effective as a start-up activity for exploring how things have changed.

• Here, knowledge practices are represented in Mother Tongue by one member of a group, with translation and verification by others in contexts of sharing knowledge practices.

• This form of knowledge sharing is both fun an effective for uncovering change and much of the depth of practical and ecological wisdom in heritage practices.

Video, readings and case stories including photographs and artifacts for practical work.

Materials

Page 14: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

Learning and social innovation: Community activists

Discussion and exploratory work on heritage and change choice practice

• Photo narratives are a useful starting point for change-choice-practice approaches.

• Here, the emphasis is on learning by doing and re-imagining social innovations that reduce impact and are better aligned to natural systems whilst meeting social needs.

• Picture narrative and practice approaches shift the concern for awareness creation to the production of situated competence with the capability to produce change in context.

Materials on trial by Water Dignity are bucket filters, ‘tippy-tap’ hand washers and testing kits.

Materials

Page 15: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

Learning and social innovation: Change Practices Training

Water: Professional development training of community learning facilitators

• Through research on rural community learning (Piri, 2010 and Rivers 2013), materials to enable water conservation and food production were developed and pilot tested

• A training manual was then developed through a course to train community facilitatory to enable co-engaged learning to conserve water and produce food locally.

• A review of the curriculum of agricultural colleges is being undertaken and a co-engaged project to improve support for small-scale agriculture and extension is being developed.

Change Practice Short Course Manual with resource documents on Rainwater harvesting and Rainwater harvesting for homes and food gardens.

Materials

Page 16: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

Learning and social innovation: ORASECOM Project

Mini SASS for civic science water quality testing in a local context

• The Orange Senqu River Basin Project (ORASECOM) developed miniSASS as a civic science process for assessing river health.

• Civic groups and school science teachers are being equipped and trained to monitor the health of local rivers.

• Results are uploaded onto a national database where results can be exchanged and problems and actions to improve the problem can be discussed

Krucher, T. (2012) Orange-Senqu Artery of Life. Frankfurt, Brandes & Apsel. Graham M., Dickens C. and Taylor, R.J. (2004) miniSASS — A novel technique for community participation in river health monitoring and management. African Journal of Aquatic Science 2004, 29(1): 25–35 Printed in South Africa

Materials

Page 17: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

Some other heritage focus areas and change practices……

Page 18: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

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…

Ingrid Jung
Sorry! this slide does not represent the complexity of what you show before and what has been learned in ESD in the way we discussed it in Feldafing. For me was very important the revisiting of the competence approach, and your question about what is in the heart of ESD, and my suspicion is that it might be related to the methodological dimensions Wiek consider a bit weak in ESD. The question of information (2) and (last) interviewing etc. relate somehow to the issue of methods.
Page 19: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

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’

Page 20: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

21 April 2023 All rights reserved © 2013 Fundisa for Change. Do not distribute * page 20

Co-engaged learning and

change

Page 21: ESD and transformative learning in RCEs Rob O’Donoghue Rhodes University and Makana RCE

Mapping key nexus of events for epistemological access with relevance

• Fermentation practice by cracking grain• smell of malting in • warm calabash with • visible bubbles as evidence of success A microscope reveals cell division of yeast

Abstract concepts allow us to test & deduce:• Bubbles are carbon dioxide being released• Yeast (enzymes) break down starch/glucose

Abstract modelling allow us to formulate how:•Maltase and other enzymes break down starchC6H12O6 with yeast -> 2C2H5OH + 2CO2

(glucose) (alcohol) (carbon dioxide)

Abstracting theory enables the use of concepts, models and insights in context and other nexus of events

Concepts, models and theory in intergenerational knowledge practice of fermenting sorghum.

LIVED WORLD CULTURAL CONTEXT

EXPERT FIELD CULTURAL CAPITAL

LearningProcesses

Modern context of social - ecological risk

Key: Re-describe for relevanceReconcile in contextRetrodict to antecedent causes Eliminate ambiguity and riskIdentify open explanationsCorrection as reflexive process

RE

RI

(c)

R