Bridging and enriching top-down and participatory learning: The case of smallholder, organic conservation agriculture farmers in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Mukute, Mutizwa
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/432967 , vital:72919 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122261"
- Description: This article discusses the combined use of top-down and participatory learning approaches during the course of a 42-month organic conservation agriculture project that is being implemented in eight districts of Mashonaland East Province in Zimbabwe. The initial 18-month project was extended by a further 24 months in order to build on what had been achieved by deepening organic conservation agriculture practices, by increasing the understanding of, and access to, markets, and by expanding farmer agency. The top-down approach involves farmer representatives, known as ‘access farmers’ in the project, undergoing training at training centres and then returning to their respective farmer associations to train other farmers in what they have learnt. Participatory learning includes farmer-to-farmer learning within and among associations, and trainers learning from, and acting on, farmer experiences. Expansive learning, which combines, and goes beyond, both approaches and allows for joint learning, innovation and agency, has been used to support the associations to learn about, practise and benefit from organic conservation agriculture. This was stimulated by change laboratory workshops being conducted with each of the 32 farmer associations formed during the first 18 months of the project. The main argument in the present article is that combining these seemingly opposite approaches to learning is feasible and is essential for accelerating practice-oriented changes in agriculture. The concept that appears to enable this linkage is dialectics.
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- Date Issued: 2012
Production of and trade in African indigenous vegetables in the urban and peri-urban areas of Durban, South Africa
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Paumgarten, Fiona , Mthembu, Thami , Ernst, Lisa , Pasquini, Margaret W , Pichop, Germain
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/181134 , vital:43701 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2010.498937"
- Description: This paper reports on the farming and trade of lesser known crops, here termed African indigenous vegetables (AIVs), in the Durban metropole. Most households grow AIVs, and collect them from the wild, primarily for home consumption. Modal income from sale was approximately R30 per month per farmer, most of whom were middle-aged to elderly females, with limited education, who had been cultivating AIVs here for many years. The main constraints to greater sales were deemed to be low market demand and adverse climate. The commonest AIVs grown were pumpkin leaves, taro and amaranth. Although most farmers sold very little, there is a thriving retail trade in AIVs. Generally, retailers were females, but younger and more educated than the farmers. The majority viewed retailing as a full-time occupation. Modal income for retailers was R450 per month, but included non-AIV produce. Most of the traders thought there was insufficient market demand for AIVs.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Utopianism and educational processes in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/184756 , vital:44269 , xlink:href="https://cjee.lakeheadu.ca/article/view/866"
- Description: Recent international policy literature on Education for Sustainable Development puts forward utopian concepts of sustainable development and transformed learning as objects for educational thinking and practice. This paper, drawing on three illustrative educational investigations with youth in a South African context, critically examines how we might engage with utopian concepts such as those put forward in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. It incorporates an engagement with other related utopian concepts such as democracy and social justice, which feature strongly in post-apartheid societal reconstruction in South Africa. The paper argues that if we are to avoid valuable utopian concepts such as democracy, sustainability, and social justice from becoming doxic knowledge, a reflexive realist orientation might best guide our educational engagements with such concepts. Such an approach to utopianism would take account of contextual realities and situated learning processes, and foster a creativity of action that is constructivist in nature, but not relativist.
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- Date Issued: 2009
Eco-Schools and the quality of education in South Africa: Realising the potential
- Authors: Rosenberg, Eureta
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/370511 , vital:66349 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122759"
- Description: Eco-Schools South Africa is increasingly being used by external partners as a framework for supporting environmental education in schools. This paper shares the findings of a recent evaluation of the programme in relation to the quality of education in South African schools. Do Eco-Schools activities help to improve the conditions of teaching and learning? Or do they take teachers and students away from their core focus? Evaluation of learner and teacher work in Eco-Schools found signs of the quality problems that currently plague the schools system, and there is evidence that the programme can add to the complexity to which many teachers struggle to respond. The evaluation also found, however, that the programme has significant potential to improve conditions for teaching and learning. The paper is an opportunity to reflect on how environmental education support for schools, in general, and Eco-Schools South Africa, in particular, can detract from and strengthen teaching and learning.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Underlying mechanisms affecting institutionalisation of environmental education courses in Southern Africa
- Authors: Lupele, Justin
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/386926 , vital:68188 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122773"
- Description: This paper discusses the underlying causal mechanisms that enabled or constrained institutionalisation of environmental education in 12 institutions in eight countries in southern Africa. The study was carried out in the context of the Southern Africa Development Community Regional Environmental Education Support Programme’s Course Development Network (CDN). This paper reports on part of the author's doctoral study and draws on critical realism as the ontological lens. Data analysis was done by means of a retroductive mode of inference, as articulated by Danermark, Ekström, Jakosben and Karlsson (2002). The paper demonstrates that there are a number of underlying causal mechanisms, which may enable or constrain institutionalisation of environmental education. They include factors at play at both national and institutional level; namely, responsiveness to national and institutional needs, recognition and ownership, accreditation and certification, institutional culture and politics, short course support structure and support from colleagues. As part of the discussions of the results of the study, I have advanced some retroductive theories that suggest causal mechanisms beyond the empirical data based on the participants’ experiences and events in the CDN.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Exploring the practical adequacy of the normative framework guiding South Africa’s National Curriculum Statement
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Schudel, Ingrid J
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/294386 , vital:57217 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620701284860"
- Description: This article examines the practical adequacy of the recent defining of a normative framework for the South African National Curriculum Statement that focuses on the relationship between human rights, social justice and a healthy environment. This politically framed and socially critical normative framework has developed in response to socio‐political and socio‐ecological histories in post‐apartheid curriculum transformation processes. The article critically considers the process of working with a normative framework in the defining of environmental education teaching and learning interactions, and seeks not only to explore the policy discourse critically, but also to explore what it is about the world that makes it work in different ways. Drawing on Sayer’s perspectives on the possibilities of enabling ‘situated universalism’ as a form of normative theory, and case‐based data from a teacher professional development programme in the Makana District (where the authors live and work), the article probes the relationship between the establishment of a ‘universalising’ normative framework to guide national curriculum, and situated engagements with this framework in/as democratic process. In this process it questions whether educators should adopt the ‘norms’ as presented by society and simply universalize and implement them as prescribed by curriculum statements, or whether educators should adopt the strategies of postmodernists and reduce normative frameworks to relations of power situated in particular contexts.
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- Date Issued: 2007
Promoting sustainable development through whole school approaches: an international, intercultural teacher education research and development project
- Authors: Shallcross, Tony , Loubser, Callie , Le Roux, Cheryl , O'Donoghue, Rob B , Lupele, Justin
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433066 , vital:72929 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02607470600782427"
- Description: This paper focuses on a British Council funded Higher Education Link project involving three institutions—Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) in the UK and two South African institutions, the University of South Africa (UNISA) and Rhodes University. The link is a research and development project that has three main research strands: contextual profiling that will establish the applicability of a European teacher education project to the South African context, evaluative materials development and piloting predicated on a respect for indigenous and contextual knowledge, and impact analysis that will examine the role of multidirectional intergenerational mentoring in disseminating messages about sustainable lifestyles. The project is strongly influenced by the South African Revised National Curriculum statements pertaining to environment and an analysis of the impact that these materials have had on promoting whole school approaches to environmental education in South Africa. The link's initial purpose is to develop advanced certificate in education (ACE) course materials that will promote whole school approaches to environmental education, based on developing concepts of collaboration, pupil participation, educational process and action in schools in South Africa. Materials from the MMU‐based, European Commission funded Sustainability Education in European Primary Schools (SEEPS) Project will be adapted for use in South Africa by UNISA and Rhodes.
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- Date Issued: 2006
‘Exploring the practical adequacy of the human rights, social justice, inclusivity and healthy environment policy discourse in South Africa’s National Curriculum Statement’
- Authors: Schudel, Ingrid J , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/391180 , vital:68629 , xlink:href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504620701284860"
- Description: This article examines the practical adequacy of the recent defining of a normative framework for the South African National Curriculum Statement that focuses on the relationship between human rights, social justice and a healthy environment. This politically framed and socially critical normative framework has developed in response to socio-political and socio-ecological histories in postapartheid curriculum transformation processes. The article critically considers the process of working with a normative framework in the defining of environmental education teaching and learning interactions, and seeks not only to explore the policy discourse critically, but also to explore what it is about the world that makes it work in different ways. Drawing on Sayer’s perspectives on the possibilities of enabling ‘situated universalism’ as a form of normative theory, and case-based data from a teacher professional development programme in the Makana District (where the authors live and work), the article probes the relationship between the establishment of a ‘universalising’ normative framework to guide national curriculum, and situated engagements with this framework in/as democratic process. In this process it questions whether educators should adopt the ‘norms’ as presented by society and simply universalize and implement them as prescribed by curriculum statements, or whether educators should adopt the strategies of postmodernists and reduce normative frameworks to relations of power situated in particular contexts.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2006
Scientific evaluation in women’s participatory management: monitoring marine invertebrate refugia in the Solomon Islands
- Authors: Shankar, Aswani , Weiant, P
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/439983 , vital:73725 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.63.3.r7kgd4thktmyf7k1"
- Description: This paper summarizes the results of a women’s community-based marine protected area that has been successful in sustaining invertebrate biological resources and in promoting strong community support. We outline the project and the associated biological results, describe the processes involved in attaining a committed level of community participation, and review the lessons learned during the project’s implementation. We attribute the project’s preliminary success—improved shellfish biomass, enhanced local environmental awareness, and the reinvigoration of cultural management practices—to the following factors: 1) the high level of participatory involvement and community leadership; 2) the local perception that shell beds have recovered rapidly and the role that scientific evaluation has played in reinforcing this notion; 3) a research program that is cross-fertilizing indigenous and scientific ecological knowledge; 4) the unique marine tenure system that allows for the project’s development and the area’s policing; and 5) the tangible economic incentives created by the development project, which ultimately empowers local women. We hope that the project’s findings can be generalized to other regions of the world with operational sea-tenure regimes and that it can help to make the establishing of community-based marine protected areas (CBMPAs) across the Pacific region more effective.
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- Date Issued: 2004
Socio-economic differentiation in the trade of wildlife species for traditional medicines in the Lowveld, South Africa: Implications for resource management initiatives
- Authors: Botha, Jenny , Witkowski, Ed T F , Shackleton, Charlie M , Fairbanks, Dean H K
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183071 , vital:43909 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504500409469832"
- Description: Surveys of trade in wildlife products utilised in traditional medicine were conducted between 1997 and 1999 on the western boundary of the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Although the extent of trade and numbers of people operating in this sector were lower than other regions of South Africa, this study again highlighted the value of indigenous wildlife products to subsistence economies. Apart from cultural diversity, socioeconomic differentiation occurred at a number of levels. (i) There were socio-economic differences between the traders and vendors. (ii) Gender differences were apparent, with women earning significantly less than men and having to undergo more social challenges in their operation in the market place. (iii) Operational differences were noted between the vendors and traders, as well as between the street and pension day vendors. (iv) Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) highlighted the socio-economic differentiation at the household level, emphasizing in particular one of the most vulnerable groups, the elderly. The potential influence of this socio-economic differentiation needs to be considered during the development of Community-Based Conservation programmes, if the dual aims of conserving biodiversity and improving the lives and livelihoods of those who traditionally rely on medicinal plants are to be met.
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- Date Issued: 2004
Direct use values of secondary resources harvested from communal savannas in the Bushbuckridge lowveld, South Africa
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Shackleton, Sheona E
- Date: 2000
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182798 , vital:43875 , xlink:href="https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20000614194"
- Description: This study reports on the direct use value of secondary resources harvested by rural communities in a savanna region of South Africa. Data pertaining to the use, amount and direct use value of 11 secondary resources were presented individually, along with a final composite value. Only five resources (fuelwood, construction wood, edible fruits, edible herbs, and medicinal plants), individually accounted for more than 10% of the total value per hectare (US$ 141), and together they represented over 94% of the total value per hectare. On a per household basis, only 3 of the 11 resources contributed 10% or more to the total direct use value (US$ 386 used at home and US$ 767 traded), and together contributed greater than 71% of the total direct use value per household. Two-thirds of the value per household was traded locally with other households or regionally, rather than consumed at home. The total value per hectare compared favourably with other land uses within the region, except for capital intensive enterprises. The returns to collecting and selling secondary resources were higher than those paid for local agricultural wage labour. The extraction rates of several of the secondary resources are probably sustainable but not for the more important ones such as fuelwood, construction wood and medicinal plants.
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- Date Issued: 2000