THE KNOWLEDGE COMMONS

A Knowledge Commons at the Environmental Learning Research Centre provides a space for social innovation, engaging the border zones between the academy, public sector and civil society; between the academy, public sector and civil society; between theory and practice; and knowledge, learning and human agency. A diversity of Knowledge Commons Projects operate at any one time, involving collectives of people who experiment, innovative, monitor and report on key features of sustainability practices and social learning in different social-ecological contexts, using a diversity of media.
Knowledge Commons Activities include, amongst others, creative practices, citizen sciences, productive demonstration site development, learning network development, youth leadership for environment and sustainability and more. These activities infuse various environmental learning programmes focussing on water, food security, climate change, biodiversity, energy, waste as well as the nexus between these concerns, social justice and human well being.

PARTNERSHIPS AND ENGAGEMENT EXCHANGE

The Environmental Learning Centre and its Knowledge Commons projects work with a partnership approach. They are connected with a range of partners at local, national and international levels in a ‘chain’ of networking learning interactions. Partners range from the local Makana Municipality (a key partner in the initiative) and local NGOs to national government departments and international organisations involved in environment and sustainability education such as UNESCO, UNEP and UNDP. The Centre houses the United Nations linked Makana and Rural Eastern Cape Regional Centre Expertise (RCE) in Education for Sustainable Development.

The Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 Environmental Learning Research Centre and Knowledge Commons are committed to promoting quality, relevant education, accessible to all in equal measure.

Read more

RESEARCH CENTRE

The Environmental Learning Research Centre produces state of the art knowledge on environment and sustainability education, training and social learning. It promotes encourages social scientific methodological innovation to produce knowledge of the African education and social-ecological context. Research and teaching are interlinked. Research programmes have local, national and international reach and relevance.

The Research Centre houses two research chairs: An National Research Foundation and Department of Science and Technology Tier 1 Chair in Global Change and Social Learning Systems, and a Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 Chair in Environment and Sustainability Education. The two research chairs co-ordinate research programmes working along these themes: transformative social learning and green skills learning pathways; green work and learning for just transitions; evaluation and ethics led-learning; professional learning for educational quality and relevance. Overall the research programmes all contribute knowledge to education system change for just transitions towards sustainability.
These programmes attract researchers from all educational sub-sectors, including schools, universities, colleges, adult education, industrial training, public and community education; as well as from the sciences, arts and social sciences. The focus is on the people-environment-learning interface in a variety of sectors. The research programmes include research at Honours, Masters and PhD levels, and the ELRC hosts approximately 40 post-graduates at any one time, making this a vibrant research community.

Read more

ELRC YouTube

TEACHING AND CAPACITY BUILDING

The Environmental Learning Research Centre, located in the Department and Faculty of Education at Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网, offers a number of teaching and capacity building programmes that are closely aligned to its research programme.

These include:

• PHD (Environment and Sustainability Education)
• Masters in Education (Environment and Sustainability Education)
• Environment and Sustainability Education specialism in education degree courses such as the Bachelor of Education and the Bachelor of Education (Honours)
• A range of Environment and Sustainability Education Short Courses that are oriented towards Changing Practice in diverse settings

Read more

SOUTHERN AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

SAJEE is an accredited and internationally refereed journal, published by the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA). SAJEE is indexed to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and SCOPUS. The journal is produced annually on a continuous-publishing-model basis.

SAJEE aims to publish and report on a wide range of aspects relating to Environmental Education, Ethics and Action in southern Africa and elsewhere, with a strong focus on research. The journal seeks to further the academic study and the practice of environmental education by providing a forum for researchers, scholars, practitioners and policy makers, and aims to carry papers reflecting the diversity of environmental education practice in southern Africa. It includes a variety of research genres; conference reviews and keynote papers; comparative studies; retrospective analyses of activities or trends in a particular field; commentaries on policy issues; and critical reviews of environmental education, ethics and action in a particular country or context. The journal actively seeks out international dialogue in order to provide perspective on and for environmental education in southern Africa.

The SAJEE Editors subscribe to the open access publishing best practice code of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). 

Read more