South Africa’s Change Projects
The focus of the Change Projects is on strengthening the implementation of ESD in teacher / TVET education and basic school curriculum with the aim of contributing to the achievement of SDG 4.
The different institutions are enthusiastic about the Change Projects and have continued to emphasise the importance of constant Change Project peer review meetings as enablers to their Change Projects.
All participants see potential in their Change Projects for contributing to SDG 4, Target 4.7.
Change Project: Implementing transformative pedagogies to promote sustainability education in the Schools Development Unit courses and qualifications.
Susan Brundit, University of Cape Town, Schools Development Unit, School of Education
The ESD challenge identified by CoP members of the Schools Development Unit (SDU) at the University of Cape Town was that there was a need for ESD integration and fore-fronting across the four strands in the Natural Sciences CAPS curriculum. This change project was challenging as it was done under the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The solution to the ESD challenge identified was to re-design the ESD component of the Intermediate Phase Natural Science to engender the use of transformative pedagogies amongst student teachers. A number of key competencies which underpin T-learning were identified which included: systems thinking, anticipatory thinking, critical thinking, self-awareness competency, normative competency and collaboration competency. This was an online course which pioneered the use of the Moodle Platform and incorporated the use of a Wiki and break-out rooms.
The ABC Design Studio was used to design the course activities as this software provided a way to measure the effectiveness of the re-designed course on the extent of the collaboration amongst learners and learning types. The Mission Project (SWEDESD) was found to be particularly useful. The CoP members reported that their own professional growth arising from SST was significant especially concerning a revised “back-to-front” pedagogical approach where competencies are now considered first and then content and activities are designed to support the competencies. The CoP members benefitted from the mentorship of a colleague. As a result of this change project the use of the Moodle Platform has been extended to other courses within the SDU; and 48 student teachers on two courses have benefitted from the ‘enhanced planning for e-learning short courses’ capability of the CoP members. Challenges concerning the assessment of competencies are being considered. Plans for the horizontal scaling of the change project are underway to include more courses and a broader group of colleagues in the SDU.
Change Project: River Rescuing in Makhanda
Preven Chetty, Rhodes University – River Health
The Director of this video is Maletje Mponwana. We also acknowledge Preven Chetty, as the CoP leader, and the River Rescue Teams for their active participation and contribution to this video.
Makhanda, a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, has suffered drought, failing water infrastructure, overflowing sewage, and interruptions in litter collection. There is a small river which runs through the informal settlement which is choked with pollution and alien species which have invaded the water source. The gap identified by the CoP was two-fold, firstly the health of the river had declined to an unhealthy state for the surrounding community and to the extent that the river could no longer regenerate itself; and secondly, the relationship between the river and the community had become alienated and the river was treated as a dump. The CoP decided to embark on activities to heal the river; and to develop river (eco)literacies amongst school children and the broader community.
The way the CoP decided to effect change in the community to improve river health was to address ESD Priority Action Area 4: Empowering and mobilizing youth by giving them tools to become citizen scientists. The CoP created River Rescue groups and conducted river clean-ups. Preven taught these young people how to conduct miniSASS tests. This is a simple tool developed by Ground Truth to monitor the health of a river by observing and documenting the number of small animals (macroinvertebrates) in the water.
After each river clean-up the young people were led in an educational discussion about the river which brings life to their homes.
These River Rescue activities have led to a further contribution towards ESD Priority Action Area 5: Accelerating local level actions because participants have been able to approach the local municipality to deal with the pollution problems at source. This has mobilised the youth and empowered communities and has provided impetus for policy change too. This change project has engendered a deeper appreciation of the environment as well as a sense of place, and ownership of the river which runs through the settlement. As stated in the video, “If Makhanda River Rescuers can achieve it in this stretch of (very polluted) river then surely we can achieve this across all river networks in South Africa.”
Change Project: Upscaled ESD teacher education activities in the Fundisa for Change programme CoP through online course development for climate change.
Shanu Misser, Fundisa for Change
Fundisa for Change is a national sector based ESD teacher educator programme involving 16 Higher Education Institutions. The aim of the change project was to contribute to SDG Goal 4 and sub-target of 4.7 of Quality Education by developing an online course and learning materials. The CoP was successful and the Fundisa for Change Online Learning Platform was presented at the a) EEASA Conference in Namibia in August 2022; b) Strategic Dialogue and Stakeholder Engagement Meeting in October 2022; and c) 5th Global Change Conference in January 2023. To be noted is that the broader Fundisa for Change team consists of Shanu Misser, Eureta Rosenberg (video), Arorise Sibanda, Rob O’Donoghue, Sebastian Sanjigadu and Wilma van Staden. These presentations invited discussion on online course frameworks, the monitoring and evaluation process, the absorption of knowledge, and value created through the use of an online learning platform as a mediation tool.
In addition to the development of the online course, the CoP engaged in a number of activities to strengthen the national system of engagement in Teacher Education. These included inter alia, formalising the Terms of Condition of the Fundisa for Change Programme Steering Committee (PSC) and incorporating representation from universities and the Department of Basic Education on the PSC. The PSC held a strategic meeting in December 2020 Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, the South African National Botanical Institute, the Department of Basic Education, Rhodes University, University of KwaZulu Natal, Fort Hare University, Stellenbosch University, North West University, VVOB (NGO) and Green Matter (NGO). A business plan was developed to support the ESD 2030 Roadmap, GAP and the SDGs 2030. One of the Immediate Values of the change project was raising ZAR 1.8 million to develop the online course; and beyond the online course the Reframing Value of the change project was the integration of Fundisa for Change Education Programmes into teacher education programmes and teaching and learning practices across a number of teacher education institutions.
Change Project: Community Service-Learning for improving relevance TVET
Delana Eksteen, South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)
The CoP identified that there was a gap concerning community awareness of ESD, and that there were potential employment opportunities for youth to explore. This change project was housed in the SANBI Biodiversity Education and Public Engagement (BEPE) Directorate.
In response to this gap, the CoP of the CoP included the close monitoring and evaluation of SANBI interns over a period of five months. The CoP also set about developing a community-based programme which was adapted to the local conditions of each BEPE site. Baseline assessments were completed by the interns and the Community Centre Managers for the community sites. Weekly reflections from the interns were also collected. Plans for community-based projects were mapped out by the Centres and, at the time of reporting, activities and engagements had started in most of the communities. The Immediate Value of the change project was that internal and external training was provided, nine interns were employed during the programme, eight interns went on to study further, and 2 interns started their own businesses. National Botanical Assessment messages were communicated at most events and they reached approximately 1 500 beneficiaries. The Potential Value (social capital) was a deeper understanding of how to implement ESD at a local community level and how to make ESD applicable to community members’ daily lives. At least eight community gardens were established. The Reframing Value of this change project was particularly interesting as the CoP reflected on their activities and implemented changes to the learning materials used by the BEPE teams to target specific audiences i.e. community, children in school, youth out of school and the municipality.