Towards Green Skills Learning Pathways – Synthesising Sustainability Science and Social Learning Affordances
Partnering Institute: Environmental Learning Research Centre, Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网
Project lead: Distinguished Professor Heila Lotz-Sisitka, SARChI Chair
About the project: The SARChI Chair in Global Change and Social Learning Systems aims to strengthen the relationship between sustainability science, social learning and sustainable development actions, and to contribute to education system development. This is to contribute to citizen and youth capabilities for participating in sustainable development action, and to curriculum and education system innovations that are based on transformative social learning principles, leading to articulation of boundary crossing green skills learning pathways (Lotz-Sisitka & Ramsarup, 2017).
Leading the CoP overall, the SARChI Chair will work with all partners in the CoP to synthesise and surface knowledge co-development, flow and uptake possibilities into education and learning systems, as these are afforded by the Sustainability Sciences for just transitions towards sustainability (Swilling et al., 2012). A key focus will be theory and methodology development. The Chair will also research learning network approaches (Lotz-Sisitka et al., 2016) to green skills learning pathways made possible via sustainability science, transformative social learning and sustainable development actions for clean water, climate action and ecological infrastructure development.
Lastly, the Chair work with CoP partners to surface, describe and share policy, practice and science outcomes, via various media, learning and science networks (held together by the Knowledge HUB), to bridge the existing gap and problems of mis-alignment between the Sustainability Sciences and Education system development, and inadequate articulation of green skills learning pathways, which provides the main motivation for the establishment of this CoP. This is significant as the education, skills development and life-long learning system impacts the lives of more than 20 million South Africans each day, with implications for current and future generations’ capabilities for living a good life on a degrading planet.
Contribution 1: Overall co-ordination and meta-synthesis of the CoP research programmes and activities, to strengthen theory and practice of the link between transformative social learning, sustainable development action and green skills learning pathways. This will involve a) theory development (i.e. conceptual framings), b) methodological development (in own research sites, but also with CoP members) and c) scientific and practical synthesis work, in the three thematic areas:
- CLEAN WATER: Citizen contributions to the sustainability sciences, including citizen science and citizen-based water quality monitoring, and public engagement in water bio-technology and biological control interventions
- CLIMATE ACTION: Multi-actor capabilities and agency development, including youth- and community-based programmes for climate action and food security
- ECOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE: Multi-actor capabilities and agency development for ecological infrastructure restoration, management and governance
A key role of the Chair will be to assist with meta-synthesis work that surfaces TSL and education system transformation implications across the CoP, with emphasis on how this relates to building viable, sustainable green skills learning pathways for South Africa’s youth, government officials and citizens in the life-long learning system.
Contribution 2: Citizen Science / Engagement theory and practice development. The SARChI Chair has been leading citizen science synthesis projects including a national study for the Water Research Commission focussing on approximately 60 citizen-based water quality monitoring projects, to develop scaling approaches and shared resources for advancing these practices. This complements Masters and PhD research being undertaken in the SARChI Chair which has reviewed epistemic cultures, affordances and orientations to existing and emerging South African citizen science and engagement projects noting a dominance of data gathering roles for citizens in support of scientists (Vallabh in press). This negates the potential for expanding these projects towards wider social learning, necessitating epistemic culture shifts, and capabilities for working with ICTs and other citizen science tools (Vallabh et al., 2017; Lotz-Sisitka et al., 2016; Durr et al. 2019). This lso requires wider ecologies of knowledges, transformative experiential learning approaches, and more sustainable support (including training and use of ICTs – e.g. mobile apps for monitoring) for green skills learning pathways in citizen science-based monitoring projects (ibid). In this CoP the SARChI Chair will extend the findings of these studies by developing reflective tools for and with CoP partners who are engaged in citizen science and monitoring development working in the Berg-Breede, Tsitsa and Olifants catchments, and in Makhanda where the Chair is based.
Contribution 3: Curriculum and Skills Development System Innovations for Clean Water, Climate Action, and Ecological Infrastructure. The third contribution that this SARChI Chair will make to the CoP is to surface, from the transformative social learning work of CoP members, key implications and guidelines for curriculum and green skills learning pathways for clean water, climate action and ecological infrastructure restoration, management and governance. This will involve working with CoP members to consider their specific contributions in this regard to the wider system of education, training and skills development in South Africa. Previous research into curriculum innovation (Lotz-Sisitka and Urquart, 2014; Lotz-Sisitka et al., 2016) has shown fragmentation and lack of synergies between the Sustainability Sciences and the Educational Sciences which research under this component will aim to address. Important to this contribution, is the need to build on research that shows significant absences in the national systems of skills development for establishing viable green skills learning pathways (Lotz- Sisitka & Ramsarup, 2017), and research that shows that these problems relate to lack of adequate insight into types and qualities of transformative learning required for sustainability transitions (Lotz-Sisitka, 2019 in press), and inadequate curriculum theory (cf. Le Grange CoP contribution proposal).
Science, Policy and Practice Outcomes: Methodologies used for producing Science Outcomes, will be meta-level systemic reviews, critical realist theory mining reviews; co-engaged reflexive enquiries with CoP members, and expansive learning research (Engestrom & Sannino, 2010). The SARChI Chair will work closely with Educational Science Senior Professors Rosenberg and Le Grange to strengthen the Educational Science and Monitoring, Evaluation and Social Learning component of the CoPs work. She will also work closely with Sustainability Science SARChI Chairs Professors Hill, Limson, Luus- Powell, Scholes, and Senior Professors Moyo, Odume, Shackleton, Palmer, Vogel, and Swillng to articulate the substantive epistemic, pedagogical and transformative social learning dimensions of the Sustainability Sciences that they are working on (e.g. A-IWRM, Water Quality Monitoring, Biological Control, Just Transitions etc. cf. Chair Proposals), making this available for wider education system innovation. With Profs Rosenberg and Le Grange, the Chair will co-edit an ISI Accredited Journal Special Issue that brings this work together. For practice outcomes, the SARChI Chair will work with CoP partners and affiliated learning networks to produce learning materials and tools to advance Sustainability Science and sustainability learning pathways. These will be developed via, and shared in the Knowledge HUB.
For policy outcomes, the SARChI Chair will work with CoP members to articulate a Policy Brief Series and host a set of policy dialogues where insights surfaced for science, practice and policy can be deliberated.
Distinguished Professor Heila Lotz-Sisitka
Professor Heila Lotz-Sisitka holds a Tier 1 South African National Research Foundation/ Department of Science and Technology Chair in Global Change and Social Learning Systems, and is a Distinguished Research Professor at Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网.
Her Chair is based in the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网, South Africa which she directed for 15 years (2000-2015). The current focus of the Chair’s research is transformative social learning and green skills learning pathways in areas of biodiversity, the water food nexus, climate change, social and environmental justice, and just sustainability transitions.
She has served on over 20 national and international research and policy programmes and scientific committees focusing on education, transformative learning and sustainability and is regularly invited to present keynote contributions in this area, to date in 34 countries around the world. She has led various national and international research programmes, and has supervised 59 Masters, 32 PhD and 10 post-doctoral scholars, and has examined 17 PhDs internationally. Her publications number 160 and she has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Award, the Vice Chancellor’s Community Engagement Award (twice), and the Vice Chancellor’s Senior Researcher Award, being one of two academics in the university to have obtained the honour of receiving all three awards.
Environmental Learning Research Centre, Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网
The Environmental Learning Research Centre (ELRC), Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 functions as the Makana and Rural Eastern Cape Regional Centre of Expertise for Sustainable Development (RCE).The ELRC forms part of a worldwide network of such centres connected through United Nations 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网. As an RCE, we aim to promote environmental sustainable development in our region through partnering with local and regional stakeholders, building platforms for sharing information and experience, and encouraging education around sustainable development in institutions and professional environments.
Last Modified: Fri, 10 Sep 2021 16:34:13 SAST