Enacting Environmental Ethics Education for Wildlife Conservation using an Afrophilic ‘Philosophy for Children’approach

Environmental Ethics Education has in recent years emerged as a critical tool for wildlife conservation research. Despite this, Environmental Ethics Education is paradoxically predominated by traditional forms of western science such as the concept of the Anthropocene which appears to exclude aspects of African life-worlds where the natural environment is considered a heritage component and is linked to onto-ethical understandings of human existence. The purpose of this study is to explore how African heritage-based knowledges and practices are understood by children who identify and understand the relevance of their totems and taboos associated with them, in relation to wildlife conservation. The study from which this paper is derived utilised formative interventionist methodology complemented by a multi-voiced decolonial approach to explore whether children-participants aged 8 to 11 years understand the purposes of their totems and associated taboos. To achieve this I used an Afrophilic Philosophy for Children pedagogical approach, which foregrounds dialogical learning and development of critical reflexive thinking skills. Emerging findings indicated that children associated their totems and connected taboos as tools for protection against environmental pollution and for minimising resource over-extraction. Findings further demonstrated improved learner agency and development of ethical reasoning among children. As participants’ respect for environmental conservation and sustainability was informed by the significance placed on their totems, I recommend the need for schools to develop generative curricula that take seriously context-based solutions to environmental problems. Future research should also consider understanding environmental conservation issues from a context-based perspective, which can inform existing heritage practices and pedagogies

Enacting Environmental Ethics Education for Wildlife Conservation using an Afrophilic ‘Philosophy for Children’approach

Environmental Ethics Education has in recent years emerged as a critical tool for wildlife conservation research. Despite this, Environmental Ethics Education is paradoxically predominated by traditional forms of western science such as the concept of the Anthropocene which appears to exclude aspects of African life-worlds where the natural environment is considered a heritage component and is linked to onto-ethical understandings of human existence. The purpose of this study is to explore how African heritage-based knowledges and practices are understood by children who identify and understand the relevance of their totems and taboos associated with them, in relation to wildlife conservation. The study from which this paper is derived utilised formative interventionist methodology complemented by a multi-voiced decolonial approach to explore whether children-participants aged 8 to 11 years understand the purposes of their totems and associated taboos. To achieve this I used an Afrophilic Philosophy for Children pedagogical approach, which foregrounds dialogical learning and development of critical reflexive thinking skills. Emerging findings indicated that children associated their totems and connected taboos as tools for protection against environmental pollution and for minimising resource over-extraction. Findings further demonstrated improved learner agency and development of ethical reasoning among children. As participants’ respect for environmental conservation and sustainability was informed by the significance placed on their totems, I recommend the need for schools to develop generative curricula that take seriously context-based solutions to environmental problems. Future research should also consider understanding environmental conservation issues from a context-based perspective, which can inform existing heritage practices and pedagogies

Intelligenza artificiale e marketing: il ruolo dei chatbot nella soddisfazione del cliente

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L'engagement d'enseignants, la variation de l'engagement d'étudiants sur une base trimestrielle et la présence de conditions d'innovation en situation d'enseigner et d'apprendre avec le numérique au collégial

La présente thèse porte sur l’aspect novateur de la situation d’enseigner et d’apprendre qui intègre le numérique, les conditions d’innovation entourant la situation d’enseigner et d’apprendre avec le numérique et les manifestations de l’engagement des enseignants et de celui des étudiants. La recherche en éducation lie l’engagement des étudiants à la persévérance et à la réussite scolaire (Christenson, Reschly, & Wylie, 2012; Mosher & McGowan, 1985), des préoccupations incontournables pour le milieu de l’éducation collégiale au Québec. Toutefois, il n’est pas rare de lire une recherche portant sur l’engagement sans y trouver une définition du concept. Appliquant la méthodologie de l’expérimentation de devis, notre recherche se penche sur deux situations d’innovation où enseignants et étudiants utilisaient des technologies numériques. L’engagement des étudiants a été étudié selon ses dimensions comportementale, affective et cognitive (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004), la variation dans le temps de leur niveau d’engagement étant plus spécifiquement analysé, et l’engagement des enseignants selon trois dimensions (absorption, vigueur et dévouement) proposées par Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá et Bakker (2002) auxquelles nous avons ajouté une dimension socioaffective plus largement comprise. Les données proviennent d’un collège de la région de Québec où sept enseignants et 358 de leurs étudiants ont participé à l’étude. L’engagement des enseignants ainsi que les conditions d’innovation ont été analysées à partir d’entretiens avec les enseignants et de notes ethnographiques collectées. Notre recherche confirme que, dans une situation novatrice en matière d’intégration du numérique, la présence de conditions d’innovation importe. Celles que nous avons analysées sont les suivantes : une vision partagée, des ressources, la compétence du personnel ainsi que l’adéquation entre les principes pédagogiques et l’environnement sociotechnique. Concernant la condition d’adéquation, l'adoption de nouveaux outils technologiques en éducation et l’adoption de nouvelles pédagogies allaient de pair. En matière d’engagement, notre étude dégage des variations relativement importantes concernant les niveaux d’engagement des étudiants en cours de session. Le niveau d’engagement des étudiants (dimension affective) a été le plus élevé, particulièrement en début de session. Du côté de l’engagement des enseignants, nos résultats permettent d’en rendre compte, toutefois, des recherches complémentaires demeurent nécessaires pour en consolider de la définition, les caractéristiques et les manifestations. Mots-clés: engagement des apprenants, engagement des enseignants, technologies numériques, innovation pédagogique, technologies de l'information et de la communication, apprentissage amélioré par la technologieThis thesis deals with the innovative aspect of the teaching and learning situation that integrates digital technologies, the conditions of innovation, and the manifestations of teacher and student engagement. Educational research links students' engagement to perseverance and academic achievement (Christenson, Reschly, & Wylie, 2012; Mosher & McGowan, 1985), an undeniable concern for the educational college community in Quebec. However, it is not uncommon to read a research about engagement without a clear definition of this concept. Applying a design-based research approach, our work focuses on two situations of innovation where teachers and students were using digital technologies. Student engagement was studied according to its behavioral, affective and cognitive dimensions (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004), the variation of their level of engagement being more specifically analyzed, and the engagement of teachers according to three dimensions (absorption, vigor and dedication) proposed by Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá and Bakker (2002) to which we added a socio-affective dimension (more widely understood). The data come from a college in the Quebec region where seven teachers and 358 of their students participated in the study. Teacher engagement and innovation conditions were analyzed on the basis of interviews with teachers and ethnographic notes collected. In an innovative situation of digital tool integration, our research confirms that the presence of innovation conditions matters. Those that were analyzed are: a shared vision, resources, staff competence and the adequacy between pedagogical principles and the sociotechnical environment. Concerning the condition of adequacy, the adoption of new technological/digital tools in education and the adoption of new pedagogies went hand in hand. In terms of engagement, our results show relatively large variations in levels of student engagement during the session. The levels of student engagement (affective dimension) were highest, especially at the beginning of the session. Regarding teacher engagement, our results make it possible to account for them, however, further research is needed to consolidate its definition, characteristics and dimensions. Keywords: learner engagement, student engagement, teacher engagement, digital technologies, educational innovation, information and communication technologies, technology-enhanced learnin

The Dialogic Nature Of Online Discourse: A Corpus Analysis Of Online Discussions

This thesis reports on an analysis of an 11-million-word corpus of online discussions in a public educational site to understand the dialogic nature of online discourse. Two observations raise concerns that information exchange, socialization and online deliberation might be compromised in online spaces. Firstly, while anyone is free to express themselves online, they may not receive replies from others nor engage in sustained conversations with others. Secondly, afforded by the hyperlinking function, anyone can also easily share sources of information online by posting URLs, contributing to the circulation of (mis)information. This thesis thus explores how internet users can engage in meaningful dialogue with each other in online spaces through particular discourse and URL-posting practices. A corpus linguistic approach comprising keyword analysis and micro-analysis is adopted to investigate how conversations are initiated and unfold within threads. Three keyword analyses are reported: (1) initiating posts, i.e., posts that receive replies; (2) independent posts, i.e., posts that do not receive any replies; and (3) the replies themselves. Based on these keyword analyses and informed by the theoretical concepts of dialogic space and intersubjectivity, linguistic features and discourse practices characterizing the two types of posts and replies are identified and explored. Similarly, URL-posting practices are also investigated to explore their role in online discourse. Findings show that users draw on different discourse practices to invite replies and sustain conversations with others, although there are times users respond to the content on the site instead of addressing others. Importantly, discourse practices that do not entertain others’ voices are found to deter others from responding or hinder their conversations, especially in the case of disagreement. In fact, disagreement provides an opportunity for users to explore different voices and achieve mutual understanding when discourse practices facilitative of intersubjectivity are utilized. Finally, although most users are positive towards URL-posting, the posting of URLs is seen to either facilitate or hamper their conversations, depending on users’ posting and discourse practices. Overall, this thesis highlights the role of various discourse practices in creating a dialogic space. A dialogic space allows multiple voices to be entertained in processes of intersubjectivity, such that users can engage with each other’s subjectivities, whether they agree or disagree. Together, these findings highlight users’ agency as enacted through language in online spaces and show that the discursive construction of online dialogic space should be one aspect of digital literacies of which internet users be made aware

Exploring aspects of Community of Inquiry (CoI) in Afrophilia learning processes for transformative education using an Afrophilic ‘Philosophy for Children’ approach: a case of Sebakwe resettlement primary schools in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe

This study focused on investigating and developing an Afrophilic orientation to a sociocultural approach to philosophy for children. The main aim was to foster a critical and generative approach to considering the heritage-based curriculum foundations of Zimbabwean primary schools, focusing on Sebakwe resettlement primary schools (the case study area). Afrophilia foundations in the study are regarded as “the discourses that are the medium of philosophical reflexion” (Rettova, 2004, p. 4) in each African society. As articulated in the study, such discourses include African proverbs, poems, stories, music, and folktales which are useful in the initiation of philosophical engagements with children in a community of inquiry approach. A community of inquiry is a framework that reflects a collaborative-dialogical approach to teaching and learning. Curriculum reviews in postcolonial Zimbabwe have revealed an unconscious misalignment of the Zimbabwean education system's philosophical underpinnings because it has continued to align itself with imperial British colonial philosophy, which contradicts the country's developmental needs (Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Education and Training [CIET], 1999, Zimbabwe Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education [MoPSE], 2014). The philosophical misalignment is an extension of the colonial history of Zimbabwe showing that vestiges of colonial rule still shape the education sector. This leaves the education system focusing mainly on abstracted concepts with continued marginalisation of local cultures, discourses, and knowledge. Consequently, it leaves Zimbabwe together with other postcolonial education systems with the task of dealing with the phenomenon of colonial continuity. One implication of these colonial continuities, is learner disinterest in learning, which affects the educational process negatively, affecting the learning of critical reflexive thinking, an issue which I have observed in the Sebakwe resettlement schools involved in this study where I have been teaching for 15 years. To address, this, the study sought to answer the following questions: What historical and contemporary barriers are affecting the promotion of a culture of learning in Zimbabwean resettlement primary schools, particularly as they relate to learners' underdevelopment of critical reflexive thinking skills? In addition, How can the Philosophy for Children Afrophilia curriculum intervention promote a culture of learning in Sebakwe resettlement primary schools that is oriented toward the development of critical reflexive thinking skills in children? In approaching the research questions, I applied postcolonial and decolonisation theory, sociocultural learning theory and curriculum theory aimed at transformative change, that is oriented towards achieving a more contextually oriented approach to teaching and learning, and a paradigm of ‘learning as connection’ (Lotz-Sisitka & Lupele, 2017; Shumba, 2017). This has been identified as a ‘missing’ discourse in mainstream educational quality discourses in southern Africa (Lotz-Sisitka & Lupele, 2017). Furthermore, to create space for curriculum development using multi-actor groups in a community of inquiry, I used decolonial research methodologies in the data generation process. The study is constituted as an interventionist case study, and I applied a four-stage process comprising document analysis, workshops, participant observations involving children between 8-11 years, and reflective interviews with parents, educators and children as instruments for data gathering. I also used process-based analytical tools developed in Philosophy of Children research to analyse the processes of critical reflexive thinking development that emerged from the Philosophy for Children pedagogy involving ten lessons which I facilitated, and videorecorded. Moreover, I used postcolonial and decolonial discourse analysis to provide the broader analytical insights that informed the interpretations of the lesson analysis data from the perspective of the research problem that I address across the research project. This PhD is produced as a PhD by publication, which involves publishing of papers, and orientation to, and interpretation of the papers. The main findings of this study are reported in articles that I prepared for publication, three of which have already been published (see Appendices A1, A4 and A5), and four which have been submitted for publication (A2, A3, A6, A7) with some already at an advanced stage of finalisation via review. The conceptual paper (A1) that served as the foundation for the publication journey revealed that, in addition to the weight of cultural technologies of domination, the curriculum is shaped by the paradox of a superficial interpretation of unhu/ubuntu educational philosophy. As a result, the curriculum becomes disconnected from the learners' real-world experiences. The second paper (A2), which focuses on why Zimbabwe needs the Philosophy for Children approach with a sociocultural medley, unveils Zimbabwe's complex decolonial curriculum reforms and their many contradictions and paradoxes. However, it also emerged that the approach used in this study empowers teachers, is relevant to the emerging constellation of practices in the Sebakwe resettlement, and influences power sharing beyond teacher-child relationships. The third paper (A3), based on children’s philosophy for children practice, defends the study’s decision to bring children’s heritage and cultural lens to bear on curriculum and pedagogical praxis. In essence, the article explores a synergy between philosophy for children and the Zimbabwean heritage-based educational curriculum, serving to enrich both. The fourth paper (A4) makes the case that philosophy for children could be a viable pedagogy for transformative education, and it provides evidence-based implementation of a context-based philosophy for children. According to this paper, the approach is effective in strengthening strong community relationships, instilling pride in local heritage, and advancing curriculum transformation. The fifth paper (A5) focusses on the approach's implications for teachers' roles, practices, and competencies. Six dimensions of teacher roles, practices, and competences surfaced, including the role of the teacher as a decoloniser and pedagogical innovator, among others. The sixth paper (A6), influenced by the previous papers' findings, focused on decolonisation and improving learning opportunities for children in the Sebakwe area using the philosophy for children approach. This paper's data depicts a ‘third space’ in which learners consolidate their cultural capital and curriculum content into their own meaning construction. The implication is that schools become neutral sites that improve learners' interdependence and inclusivity while also taking contextual realities into account. The findings of the seventh and final paper (A7) presented in this write-up advance the idea that a Philosophy for Children approach with a sociocultural medley influences an ethics of care by demonstrating how Afrophilia experiences influence a new path to wildlife conservation and sustainability. The study highlights that integrating Philosophy for Children and Afrophilia foundations of knowledge into the school curriculum promotes critical reflexive thinking skills, helps to address real-life problems and adds relevance to the curriculum. The study further shows that the integration of philosophy for children in the advancement of curriculum transformation in Zimbabwe is a successful formative interventionist approach in the resettlement schools that are characterised by a critical shortage of teaching and learning resources. In essence, the research opens an understanding that curriculum transformation and decolonisation are context-based and multi-actor processes, as showcased in the experiences of parents, teachers, education inspectors, and children in this study. Furthermore, this study posits that situating curriculum decolonization and transformation within unhu/ubuntu dialectical rationality and advancing diversity in reasoning necessitates deeper engagement with heritage-based curriculum and provides teachers with appropriate agency to modify and adapt their pedagogies in alignment with the learners' life world. According to the study, this emerged as a rational possible solution to the problem of curriculum decontextualisation. Curriculum decontextualisation as highlighted in the study via the problem of colonial continuity mentioned above, appears to be further influenced by the emphasis on examination assessment scores which seem to widen the gap between the adult and child worlds, as well as the gap between contextual realities and [curriculum] examination content. Overall, the study offers an approach that can deepen an unhu/ubuntu foundation for the heritage-based curriculum reform in Zimbabwe, and strengthen the learning of children in the resettlement schools, where the case was explored. Implications for further research are elaborated, as are possible implications for policy and practice.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Education, Education, 202