Publication date
15/12/2021

Price (ZA)
R250.00

Book size
254 x 178 mm

Language
English

ISBNs
Paper: 978-1-928502-24-1
eBook (PDF): 978-1-928502-25-8
ePub: 978-1-928502-26-5
DOI: 10.47622/9781928502241

Teaching and Learning for Change: Education and Sustainability in South Africa

Edited by Ingrid Schudel, Zintle Songqwaru, Sirkka Tshiningayamwe and Heila Lotz-Sisitka

Like many national curricula around the world, South Africa’s curriculum is rich in environment and sustainability content. Despite this, environmental teaching and learning can be challenging for educators. This comes at a time when Sustainable Development Goal 4 via Target 4.7 requires governments to integrate Education for Sustainable Development into national education systems.

Teaching and Learning for Change is an exploration of how teachers and teacher educators engage environment and sustainability content knowledge, methods, and assessment practices – an exposition of quality education processes in support of ecological and social justice and sustainability.

The chapters evolve from a ten-year research programme led out of the DSI/NRF SARChI Chair in Global Change and Social Learning Systems working with national partners in the Fundisa for Change programme and the UNESCO Sustainability Starts with Teachers programme. They show the integration of education for sustainable development in teacher professional development and curricula in schools in South Africa. They reveal how university-based researchers, teachers and teacher educators have made theoretically and contextually reasoned choices about their lives and their teaching in response to calls for a more sustainable world in which education must play a role.

Teaching and Learning for Change will be of interest to education policymakers in government, advisors and educators in educational and environmental departments, NGOs and other institutions. It will also be of interest to teacher educators, teachers and researchers in education more generally, and environment and sustainability education specifically.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Engaging Education for Sustainable Development as Quality Education in the Fundisa for Change Programme | Ingrid Schudel, Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Zintle Songqwaru and Sirkka Tshiningayamwe

SECTION A: Environmental content knowledge in the curriculum

Strengthening Environment and Sustainability Subject Knowledge: Curriculum Challenges and Opportunities | Ingrid Schudel and Heila Lotz-Sisitka
Investigating the Nature of Biodiversity Knowledge in Natural Sciences Curriculum and Textbooks | Makwena Mmekwa and Ingrid Schudel
An Exploration of what Grade 7 Natural Sciences Teachers Know, Believe and Say about Biodiversity and the Teaching of Biodiversity | Dorelle Isaacs and Lausanne Olvitt
Supporting Student Teachers to Teach Catchment and River Management in Geography | Gavin Heath and Rob O’Donoghue
Making Sense of Climate Change in a National Curriculum | Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Caleb Mandikonza, Shanu Misser and Kgomotso Thomas
An Analysis of Environment and Sustainability Content Coverage in the Grade 12 Curriculum | Sikhulile Bonginkosi Msezane

SECTION B: Transformative pedagogies for environment and sustainability learning

Theorising Active Learning – A Historical Analysis | Ingrid Schudel
An Examination of the Nexus between Environmental Knowledge and Environmental Learning Processes | Christina Chitsiga and Ingrid Schudel
Review of a Course-supported Design Research Intervention Process for the Inclusion of Education for Sustainable Development in School Subject Disciplines | Rob O’Donoghue, Shanu Misser and Janet Snow-Macleod
Assisting Learners to Take Up Agency in Problem-Solving Activities | Therese Lambrechts, Rob O’Donoghue and Ingrid Schudel

SECTION C: Assessing environmental learning

Advancing Assessment Thinking in Education for Sustainable Development with a Focus on Significant Learning Processes | Overson Shumba, Caleb Mandikonza and Heila Lotz-Sisitka
Emergent Curriculum and Sustainability Competencies in Environmental Learning | Antonia Tholakele Mkhabela and Ingrid Schudel
Formative Assessment for Quality Environmental Learning in Natural Sciences Classrooms | Nomvuyo Mgoqi and Ingrid Schudel

SECTION D: Teacher professional development for environment and sustainability learning

Teacher Professional Development in Environment and Sustainability Education | Zintle Songqwaru and Sirkka Tshiningayamwe
Enhancing Capabilities of Life Sciences Teachers: Professional Development, Conversion Factors and Functionings in Teachers’ Professional Learning Communities | Sirkka Tshiningayamwe and Heila Lotz-Sisitka
Developing Teacher Capabilities and Valued Functionings in Professional Learning Communities: Focus on Environmental Content Knowledge in Natural Sciences | Kgomotso Thomas and Zintle Songqwaru
Teacher Contexts as Amplifiers and Filters to Environmental Pedagogical Content Knowledge within a Professional Development System | Susan Brundrit and Ingrid Schudel
A Realist Approach to Evaluating the Fundisa for Change Training Programme | Zintle Songqwaru

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