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A morphogenic and laminated system explanation of position-practice systems and professional development training in mainstreaming education for sustainable development in African universities
(Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Department of Education, 2016) Agbedahin, Adesuwa Vanessa; Lotz-Sisitka, Heila; Hlengwa, Amanda
This research focuses on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), particularly in Africa. It explores the roles and practices of these institutions, especially their professionals, in the Anthropocene era where increasing concern for contemporary environmental and sustainability issues and risks emerge. The study presents a longitudinal case study of institutions and participants of the Swedish/African/Asian International Training Programme (ITP) on ESD in Higher Education (HE), who are mostly university educators. This thesis however focuses on African ITP participants only. At a macro level, the research sought to examine how African university educators have contributed to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) through their participation in the ITP (which is a change oriented professional development training programme on ESD) and the associated ESD 'change projects'. The change projects are ITP participants' direct attempts to mainstream environment and sustainability issues, concerns, and concepts into core university functions and practices: teaching, research, community engagement, and management operations and policy engagement. At a meso level the study sought insight into how educators in national institutions were supported by sub-regional and regional initiatives, institutions and organisations, including the Mainstreaming of Environment and Sustainability in African (MESA) Universities Partnership programme, especially an initiative supported by the Southern African Development Community Regional Environmental Education Programme to provide (limited) seed funding to three southern African universities to establish what are known as 'MESA Chairs', with dedicated time and support for MESA activities in their universities . At a micro level, this research sought to investigate how the position-practice systems and the ITP shape (enable or constrain) effective ESD mainstreaming in higher education, and how the morphogenetic approach and laminated system can be used to understand and explain these dynamics and their relations with meso and macro level engagements. The research sought to understand these dynamics through empirical investigations using survey questionnaires, interviews, document analysis and field visits. The research is constituted as theoretical, conceptual, methodological and analytical exploration using a singular and nested case study research approach, underlaboured by a critical realist ontology, and drawing on a social learning epistemology and social realist morphogenetic interpretive lens. In particular, ontological depth was sought via critical realist laminated system explanation. See Chapter Two for details. This study was carried out in three phases. Phase one encapsulates the investigation of all ITP ESD in higher education alumni who were Asian and African participants from the inception of the ITP to its completion, over a six-year period (2008-2013). This included 280 academics from Asia and Africa in 35 countries in Asia and Africa from 106 institutions in Asia and Africa with their 139 change projects. The outcome of phase one of the research is only included in this thesis as an appendix (see Appendix 3; Agbedahin & Lotz-Sisitka, 2015). However, this phase provided and formed the foundational data that was expanded in phases two and three for the purpose of this study. Phase two of this research concentrated on a less broad population of research participants comprising only all African ITP alumni, from all regions in Africa. The overall data collection and analysis included 162 academics in 23 African countries from 66 institutions with their 81 change projects. The aim was to investigate and provide a morphogenetic explanation of their change projects and how the relationship between participants' positions and practices (and that of others) may influence ESD mainstreaming in universities. The outcome of this phase two investigation is presented in Chapter Four. In phase three, (nested) case studies of Swaziland, Zambia, and Botswana (in the southern Africa region), which included all the ESD ITP HE participants therein and the three corresponding EE/ESD MESA Chairs, were developed. The population sample in this phase three therefore contained 20 academics, from six institutions with their nine change projects. This phase was characterised by field trips to these countries and in-depth data collection and analysis in order to investigate and deepen the morphogenetic explanations of their change projects and how the relationship between participants' positions and practices (and that of others) have indeed influenced the ESD mainstreaming in universities. The outcome of this phase three research is presented in Chapters Five, Six and Seven. The final Chapter Eight of this thesis focuses on the seven scalar laminated system perspective and reflections on this research and discussion of these perspectives for supporting the mainstreaming of ESD in African higher education institutions and more specifically in the three case countries and respective institutions presented in Chapters Five, Six, and Seven. The seven scalar laminated system is presented in relation to the position-practice system, and draws on morphogenetic social realist and social learning theory to provide perspective on the actual change processes. Chapter Eight also includes a discussion on social learning and its implication for ESD mainstreaming, and provides recommendations for further research. The outcome of the theoretical exploration underpinning this study provided a potential model for understanding ESD learning and change processes that are facilitated by professional development training programmes in the context of ESD in HE. This study also provides a model for appraising educational changes in time and in space, especially in relation to ESD, or the types of changes that can be brought about by professional development interventions such as those provided by the ITP and how they can be tracked, monitored and documented. For the field of professional or academic development in higher education, this research highlights the significance of the relationship between position-practice systems, professional development interventions and institutional transformation. For the field of ESD in higher education, this study shows the need for in-depth consideration of the position-practice system and sphere of influence of change agents and related stakeholders in and around their institutions in the design and development of professional development programmes. It further sheds light on the laminated system of factors that contextually constrain and/or enable effective ESD mainstreaming at individual, collective, institutional, national, regional and global levels.
The influence of introduced forest management practices on transformative social learning in a selected social-ecological forest community : a case of PFM and REDD projects at Pugu and Kazimzumbwi Forest Reserves in Tanzania
(Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Department of Education, 2016) Ferdinand, Victoria Ugulumu; Lotz-Sisitka, Heila; O'Donoghue, Rob
This research investigates the influence of introduced forest management approaches on transformative social learning in the community surrounding the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi forest reserves in Tanzania from 2000 to 2015. The term transformative social learning reflects an understanding of learning processes that emerge through conscious changes in the perspectives of individuals or communities while interacting with forest management practices. The investigation explores the learning (if any) that occurred in the community and how and why the learning occurred. It also explores whether the learning was social and transformative and examines the conditions that enable or constrain transformative social learning at the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community. Thus, the three concepts of social learning, transformative learning, and social practices are central to the research. Participatory Forest Management (PFM) emerged globally in the early 1980s to mobilise rural capabilities and resources in development and environmental stewardship. The Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community was introduced to Participatory Forest Management (PFM) projects by the late 1990s. The recent global focus on empowering communities around forests has drawn attention towards transformational adaptation to climate change impacts and building resilience capacities. As a result, in 2011 the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community started working with a project for Reduction of Emissions through Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), which forms a key focus in this study as the most recently introduced PFM with embedded social learning assumptions. This research is designed and conducted as a qualitative case study. The research seeks to study the complex object of socially and contextually constructed learning through a systemic exploration of learning,using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, analysis of documents and archival records as well as observations and a reflexive workshop. Supportive information throughfield notes and audio voice and video recording was also generated. A contextual profile of the research site was conducted in March 2012, prior to the actual data collection in 2013 and 2014. Field explorations during the contextual profile helped to describe the research site and promote initial understanding of the context. During data collection, field inquiries based on interactive relationships between a researcher and participants stimulated practice memories and people's living experiences with forestry and the introduced PFM projects under examination. Analysis of data employed analytical modes of induction, abduction and retroduction. Thick descriptions of learning obtained from fieldi based interactionswere produced before re-contextualising data through theoretical lenses. The research employed realist social theory by Archer (1995), under-laboured by critical realism, and practice theory advanced by Schatzki (2012) and Kemmis et al. (2014). The research process as a whole was underlaboured by the layered ontology of critical realism which proposes emergence of phenomena in open systems as shaped by interacting mechanisms which in this study were both material / ecological and social /political /economic /cultural. And more...
Exploring transformative social learning and sustainability in community based irrigation scheme contexts in Mozambique
(Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Department of Education, 2017) Baloi, Aristides; Lotz-Sisitka, Heila; O'Donoghue, Rob
This study set out to examine transformative social learning and sustainability in the context of community-based irrigation systems in Mozambique. These irrigation systems are socio-ecological in nature. The history of irrigation systems in Mozambique can be described in two periods: pre-Independence period (mainly the colonial period) and the post-Independence period from 1975 onwards. Most recently, the Mozambique Government has introduced a policy which supports community-based irrigation system implementation and management via irrigation associations in a move to support a shift from rain-fed farming practices to irrigation-supported farming practices amongst smallholder farmers. It is this shift in the object of activity that this study focusses on. It does this by studying learning process in the constituted irrigation associations, examining whether such learning is transformative and sustainability oriented or not, and how such learning can be further expanded and supported. Learning may occur in socio-ecological systems, but whether that learning enables transformation and sustainability of irrigation systems and the constituted associations is as yet under-explored in the Mozambique context and in the context of Education for Sustainable Development in southern Africa. The aim of this research was therefore to understand transformative social learning within the development of sustainable irrigation practices in the context of irrigation associations and new agrarian policy development in Mozambique. To examine transformative social learning in sustainable irrigation system practices (including management practices), the study worked with three research goals, which also formed phases of the study's design: GOAL 1: Examine how and what transformative social learning has (or has not) emerged in existing activity systems to date (Phase 1: Activity System Analysis). GOAL 2: Examine how transformative social learning could emerge through expansive learning processes (Phase 2: Identification of contradictions and new solution modelling through Developmental Work Research and Change Laboratories). GOAL 3: Identify what opportunities exist for ongoing transformative social learning (Phase 3: Identification of absences and ongoing dialectical transformation possibilities). The study draws on theories of Social Learning, Transformative Learning and Cultural Historical Activity Theory's (CHAT) expansive learning and formative interventionist research framework to develop insights into the learning processes. It works especially with third generation Cultural Historical Activity Theory which provides a theory of expansive social learning and collective transformative agency formation, which I deemed most appropriate for the need to understand the transformation of farmers' activities in a collective formation such as an irrigation association. The study involved identification and examination of interacting activity systems, contradictions or dissonances in two case studies of community-based irrigation system development via the respective associations. It involved identifying existing learning, as well as engaging in formative intervention research to expand learning in two case study sites: namely the Macubulane and Massaca Irrigation Associations, located near Maputo, Mozambique in the Inkomati and Umbeluzi river basins. The Macubulane community practices a monocropping system of sugar cane plantations using sprinkler irrigation methods and the Massaca community practices a mixed cropping system growing vegetables using mainly gravity or furrow irrigation methods. The study uses a qualitative research approach and is underlaboured by Dialectical Critical Realism which allowed for a deeper probing of ontology and transformative praxis, and transformative learning. The study used methods which included in-depth interviews, change laboratory workshops, document analysis and focus group interviews with farmers and subjects in associated activity systems. Analysis involved activity system analysis, identification of contradictions, modeling of solutions, transformative agency analysis, as well as analysis of real and nominal absences and generative mechanisms as recommended in dialectical critical realism. I used inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference, relying on the latter to identify further potential for transformative learning. The study demonstrates that within the associations, transformative social learning is taking place as farmers seek to address problems and contradictions. This learning leads to the creation of new agency and capabilities by ensuring good yields and continuous improvement of management practices and social status. Learning operates through formal mediation in the irrigation system of workplace-based operation, maintenance and crop management practices (i.e. through workplace learning). Social learning occurs through collective engagement with the constraints that the association faces while applying new knowledge, introducing new technology, in the process of administration and planning of irrigation activities. Expansive learning is possible when mediated actively through formative interventions in change laboratory workshops. All three types of learning were found to be present and possible in the context of the two irrigation scheme contexts. The main study findings are that transformative social learning is a collective object-driven process in the context of a transforming object (from rain-fed to sustainable community-based irrigation scheme farming in this study), that can be explained from the level of generative mechanisms and associated real absences that shape nominal absences and contradictions within and between activity systems. These induce, and have potential to induce, transformative learning in irrigation systems, including the emergence of transformative agency via learning through workplace-based, wider social learning, and expansive learning interaction processes amongst subjects in interacting activity systems. Absenting absences is also crucial for extending the potential of transformative learning in irrigation associations. The study further shows how critical realism helps to interpret learning processes and how it strengthens the empirical findings obtained from qualitative analysis. A key outcome of the study is a model that frames conceptualisation of transformative social learning in irrigation systems. The model and the insights gained into farmers learning around the transformation of the object of activity explored in this study have implications for wider curriculum and policy development interventions. The study therefore also makes recommendations for curriculum development and policy implementation intervention. The curriculum development recommendations are not at the level of making recommendations for new courses only, but frame how the design of new courses should take into account the wider processes of learning and change associated with the transformation of an object of activity as articulated in the study. It recommends an approach that allows for in-field engagement with contradictions and the absenting of absences (a problem-based type of curriculum) that will also allow for conceptual development and understanding of the changing object of activity (i.e. community-based irrigation scheme practice and management). The main policy recommendation made from the study is to invest more in farmer support and farmers' learning so that they can transition from rain-fed agriculture to sustainable irrigation scheme development and management via their associations. The research contributes to knowledge production on irrigation practices; considering that substantial understandings were generated through analysis of communal irrigation scheme practice and management and its implications, especially from a transformative learning perspective. As shown in this study, transformative social learning theories are still not well understood in the context of irrigation system development, and this study has contributed knowledge to this field. The study contributes towards understanding of sustainability learning in irrigation associations in terms of concepts and practices. The study offers a model for transformative social learning in irrigation scheme development and suggests an expanded curriculum for community-based irrigation association practice and management. Overall, the study contributes to an understanding of transformative, sustainability oriented learning processes as support for the emergence of community-based irrigation associations. Additionally, the study has added perspectives on how to frame transformative social learning from a CHAT and critical realist perspective in Education for Sustainable Development. The study also contributes to a growing body of scholarship in southern Africa which seeks to develop expansive, transformative social learning approaches in response to concerns experienced by communities who are reliant on natural resources and the environment for their livelihoods and well-being, and who are also seeking to emerge out of poverty.
A practitioner’s guide to faking it
(Rhodes University) Western, Natalie Anne; Seddon, Deborah
This thesis explores the concepts of authenticity, sincerity, and their perceived opposites in art history: the fake and the forgery. Focusing on the experiential dimensions of art, I examine how these concepts construct notions of value in postcolonial contemporary art. The study is framed by three central research questions. Firstly, why has authenticity, a term best used in evaluating the materiality or provenance of an historical artefact, gained such purchase in validating and branding the conceptual content of contemporary art, particularly from what are considered emerging markets for speculative investment? Secondly, how might sincerity, as an alignment between internal feeling and outward expression, better evaluate the expressive, reflective and experiential qualities of art? Thirdly, how might a materially inauthentic artwork be considered conceptually authentic, serving as a ‘creative lie’ that reveals sincere experiential truths? The interdisciplinary methodology combines Wolfgang Iser’s phenomenological approach to the “realisation of the text”, Susan Stewart’s conception of “the souvenir” as an indexical trace of experience, Walter Benjamin’s notion of the “aura” of an artwork (as that which can only be apprehended through proximity to an original work of art in the here and now), and tourism theorist John P. Taylor’s description of the “zone of contact” created through sincere exchange. These frameworks highlight the dialogical processes through which meaning is co-constructed between artworks and audiences. Chapter One seeks to better define and examine conceptions of ‘authenticity’ and ‘sincerity’, with Iser and Stewart’s ideas applied to a work by Candice Breitz. Chapter Two examines the concepts of the forgery and the fake in relation to the alternate histories created in work by Chad Rossouw, and the critical reception of Andrew Lamprecht’s exhibition: Tretchikoff: The People’s Painter (2011). Chapter Three critiques the influence of museums, branding, market forces, and the role of curatorship, focusing on African representation at the Venice Biennale and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. Chapter Four considers live performative works by Lerato Shadi and Sikhumbuzo Makandula as forms of syncretic ritualising, which borrow from tradition but are not traditional (i.e. not ‘authentic’) but sincere. The study advocates for an experiential engagement with art that values open-ended, personal interactions over fixed narratives or economic imperatives. It investigates sincerity’s transformative potential as a lens for understanding art’s role in reflecting and shaping local cultural expression, as distinct from a performative ‘authenticity’ tailored towards international markets.
Responsible data implementation and use in digital citizen engagement for youth sexual reproductive health services in southern Africa
(Rhodes University) Zhou, Channel; Siebörger, Ingrid; Khene, Caroline
Embargo applied. Embargo period to expire in October of 2027.