The success and value of non-formal education for sustainable development : the case of children in the Wilderness Eco-Club Programme in the Zambezi region, Southern Africa : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Environmental Management at Massey University, New Zealand

Education for sustainable development (ESD) has emerged strongly in recent years to become a key mechanism for moving towards a more sustainable future. The aim of this study is to gauge the success and value of non-formal ESD using a case study approach. Children in the Wilderness (CITW), a subsidiary organisation of ecotourism operator Wilderness Safaris, offers an extracurricular ESD programme for primary school children, and their Zambezi Region operation was selected as the case study site. A qualitative research approach was taken for this study, employing data collection methods such as interviews, focus groups, observation, and the examination of national policy documents and the CITW eco-club curriculum. The CITW eco-club programme responds to UNESCO’s (2005) characteristics for ESD, particularly regarding the establishment of relationships with the wider community, and a multi-method, learner-centred approach to teaching. While the national governments in Zambia and Zimbabwe aim to respond more strongly to UNESCO’s characteristics, they are constrained by limited human and financial capital resources. The eco-club programme, however, complements the formal sector by providing teacher training and resources, demonstrating the value of the programme in providing students with a more enriching learning experience. This study concludes that the non-formal education sector provides significant support to the formal education system, leading to improved vertical integration between international guidelines and implementation at a local level. The eco-club programme enables CITW to achieve its aim and vision by focusing on prevalent issues such as poverty, deforestation, poaching, and pollution. While the scope of the research and the limited time spent in the field did not allow for a detailed examination of the eco-club programme’s influence on proenvironmental behaviour, it became clear that some pro-environmental behaviour has occurred as a result of the programme

How do kinship (family and friends) foster carers experience their role and working relationships within the children’s workforce? (Sharing our experience, Practitioner-led research 2008-2009; PLR0809/054)

This research was undertaken in a London local authority and consisted of semi-structured interviews with five kinship foster carers approved by the local authority. The research used a qualitative approach consisting of one-off, face to face interviews with the aim of finding out how kinship foster carers experience their role and working relationships within the children’s workforce. Kinship foster carers are family and friends who look after children and young people in public care, on behalf of the local authority and within the terms of the Children Act 1989. A semi-structured interview schedule was devised to address the areas of interest, with a series of open questions and prompts. The interviews, with the participant’s permission, were digitally recorded alongside contemporaneous notes being made, and were subsequently written up to produce the dataset for the analysis. The main findings from the research include: • The carers in this study were very positive about the support they received from their supervising social workers, but were critical of the fact that children were often not provided with a consistent social worker. • Some carers in this study were dissatisfied with the level of financial remuneration. • In terms of the working relationship with education and health professionals, all participants reported positive experiences, but while this study sought to see how kinship carers were viewed as part of the children’s workforce, the carers themselves wanted to be viewed as ‘family’ and not professionals. • In relation to the possibility that relative and non-relative kinship carers experienced their role differently, there is no evidence from this brief study to suggest that this may be the case. Both relative and nonrelative carers demonstrate a warmth and commitment to ‘their’ children, reinforcing the importance of kinship care as a preferred placement option for many children

Read to Succeed

This paper outlines the interim results of a continuing collaboration between a module leader and an academic liaison librarian. They identified an opportunity to collaborate on a project aimed at the reconfiguration of an undergraduate module on a professional, Early Years teaching degree, to embed support for academic literacies

Out there and in here: design for blended scientific inquiry learning

One of the benefits of mobile technologies is to combine ‘the digital’ (e.g., data, information, photos) with ‘field’ experiences in novel ways that are contextualized by people’s current located activities. However, often cost, mobility disabilities and time exclude students from engaging in such peripatetic experiences. The Out There and In Here project, is exploring a combination of mobile and tabletop technologies in support for collaborative learning. A system is being developed for synchronous collaboration between geology students in the field and peers at an indoor location. The overarching goal of this research is to develop technologies that support people working together in a suitable manner for their locations. There are two OTIH project research threads. The first deals with disabled learner access issues: these complex issues are being reviewed in subsequent evaluations and publications. This paper will deal with issues of technology supported learning design for remote and co-located science learners. Several stakeholder evaluations and two field trials have reviewed two research questions: 1. What will enhance the learning experience for those in the field and laboratory? 2. How can learning trajectories and appropriate technologies be designed to support equitable co-located and remote learning collaboration? This paper focuses on describing the iterative linked development of technologies and scientific inquiry pedagogy. Two stages within the research project are presented. The 1st stage details several pilot studies over 3 years with 21 student participants in synchronous collaborations with traditional technology and pedagogical models. Findings revealed that this was an engaging and useful experience although issues of equity in collaboration needed further research. The 2nd stage, in this project, has been to evaluate data from over 25 stakeholders (academics, learning and technology designers) to develop pervasive ambient technological solutions supporting orchestration of mixed levels of pedagogy (i.e. abstract synthesis to specific investigation). Middleware between tabletop ‘surface’ technologies and mobile devices are being designed with Microsoft and OOKL (a mobile software company) to support these developments. Initial findings reveal issues around equity, ownership and professional identity

The Importance Of Institutional Culture At A Technical College

This is a qualitative study about the importance of institutional culture at a particular technical college in Wisconsin. It examines the administrators\u27 understanding of their institution\u27s culture, the importance they attach to the culture, and how they perceive they both manage and influence their institution\u27s culture. Bergquist and Pawlak\u27s (2008) work, Engaging the Six Cultures of the Academy, is used as the analytic framework. Key factors that emerged were the importance and role of the college\u27s mission, the importance of the college\u27s responsiveness to the community, and the necessity of administrators being purposeful in their involvement in the culture of the college. This study found that both the role of the mission and the administrator\u27s role in influencing the culture were significant. The implications of the findings are explored for those in administrative positions who should understand the importance of managing and influencing their culture at a technical college

Slavery, sympathy, and white self-representation in Dutch Bourgeois theater of 1800

Unlike the German, French, and particularly Anglo-American cases, the Dutch theatrical imaginings of colonialism, slavery, and race have been largely neglected by scholars of imperial culture. Looking at two early nineteenth-century bourgeois dramas, Stedman (1805) and Kraspoekol (1800), this article examines the complex nexus between slavery, sympathy, and the self-representation of the white middle class in the Netherlands of 1800. As a genre, bourgeois theater cultivated middle-class ideals of compassion, integrity, and benevolence in order to let spectators sympathize with poor, excluded or abused victims. This article explores the constellation of suffering slave characters in relation to the white bourgeois heroes in the plays and to their middle-class audiences. The central argument will be that bourgeois dramaturgy succeeded in conveying antislavery messages, yet primarily delineated and secured a superior white Dutch identity. Consequently, these dramas are considered as segments of the ‘Dutch cultural archive’, defined by Gloria Wekker as a large reservoir of memories, knowledge, and affects that has been crucial to the creation and continuation of white dominance in modern Dutch society