A Capability Approach: Its Potential for Transformative Education Research Focusing on Education for Sustainable Development and Gender Issues in Science Teacher Education

In this article, I use the capability approach to explore the role that the science, mathematics and technical subjects (SMTs) teacher education curriculum can play as a ‘gender conversion factor’. This comes amidst evidence that a major hindrance to the participation of girls in these disciplines is a lack of gender responsiveness in the pedagogy applied in schools. Seven teacher educators, who were purposively sampled at a Technical Teachers’ College in Zimbabwe, were the research participants. I adopted a case study design in which I used in-depth interviews, focus-group discussions and document analysis to generate data. Data was analysed deductively using predetermined themes based on an analytical tool anchored on Sen’s two, but quite distinct, aspects of freedom, that is, the opportunity aspect and the process aspect of freedom. The findings reveal that there is a limited awareness of gender issues among teacher educators, and that these issues are not being transformed into curriculum practice. All in all, it is evident that curriculum practices of SMTs teacher educators are riddled with gender blindness and so trainee teachers graduate from college without the necessary agency to deal with personal, social and environmental conversion factors that can play a role in girls converting the curriculum into functionings (beings and doings) and wider freedoms and valued beings and doings (capabilities)

Aprendizado de fronteiras em uma transformação curricular sensível ao gênero no Zimbábue: uma abordagem baseada na teoria da atividade

This paper aims to share insights of a boundary learning process in a curriculum transformation in Zimbabwe. It is based on the dialectical lenses of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). The boundary learning epistemic actions were designed/interpreted using CHAT tools of double stimulation, activity system and expansive learning. The main findings are two types of boundary learning: individual and institutional. Individual focused on questioning and confronting tensions in current individual curriculum practice. Institutional refers to collaborative relationships between hierarchical levels of the teacher education system in Zimbabwe. We point to the need for theoretical and conceptual rigor in studies on curriculum transformation, arguing for careful attention to empirical evidence of transformation/transgressing current practices in any expansive learning process. There is also need to think through the policy-practice gap, especially in curriculum development.Este artículo tiene como objetivo compartir las ideas de un proceso de aprendizaje fronterizo en una transformación curricular en Zimbabue. Se basa en las lentes dialécticas de la Teoría Histórico-Cultural de La Actividad (CHAT). Las acciones epistémicas de aprendizaje fronterizo fueron diseñadas/interpretadas utilizando herramientas de CHAT, doble estimulación, sistema de actividad y aprendizaje expansivo. Los principales hallazgos son dos tipos de aprendizaje fronterizo: individual e institucional. La individual se centró en cuestionar y confrontar las tensiones en la práctica curricular individual actual. La institucional se refiere a las relaciones de colaboración entre los niveles jerárquicos del sistema de educación de maestros en Zimbabue. Señalamos la necesidad de rigor teórico y conceptual en los estudios sobre transformación, argumentando que se debe prestar atención a la evidencia empírica de transformación/transgresión de las prácticas actuales en cualquier proceso expansivo de aprendizaje. También es necesario pensar en la brecha política-práctica, especialmente en el desarrollo curricular.Neste artigo tem-se como objetivo compartilhar informações sobre o processo de aprendizagem de fronteiras, em uma iniciativa de transformação curricular no Zimbábue. Baseia-se nas lentes dialéticas da Teoria Histórico-Cultural da Atividade (CHAT). As ações epistêmicas de aprendizagem de fronteiras foram projetadas/interpretadas usando pressupostos da CHAT de dupla estimulação, sistema de atividade e aprendizado expansivo. Os principais achados são dois tipos de aprendizagem de fronteiras: individual e institucional. A individual está concentrada em questionar e enfrentar as tensões em práticas atuais em termos de currículo individual. A institucional refere-se a relações colaborativas entre os níveis hierárquicos do sistema de ensino de professores no Zimbábue. Aponta-se para a necessidade de maior rigor teórico e conceitual em estudos de transformação curricular, argumentando a atenção cuidadosa em evidências empíricas de transformação/transgressão de práticas atuais em qualquer processo de aprendizado expansivo. Também é necessário pensar em lacunas nas políticas públicas, especialmente no desenvolvimento curricular

A capability approach: Its potential for transformative education research focusing on education for sustainable development and gender issues in science teacher education

In this article, I use the capability approach to explore the role that the science, mathematics and technical subjects (SMTs) teacher education curriculum can play as a ‘gender conversion factor’. This comes amidst evidence that a major hindrance to the participation of girls in these disciplines is a lack of gender responsiveness in the pedagogy applied in schools. Seven teacher educators, who were purposively sampled at a Technical Teachers’ College in Zimbabwe, were the research participants. I adopted a case study design in which I used in-depth interviews, focus-group discussions and document analysis to generate data. Data was analysed deductively using predetermined themes based on an analytical tool anchored on Sen’s two, but quite distinct, aspects of freedom, that is, the opportunity aspect and the process aspect of freedom. The findings reveal that there is a limited awareness of gender issues among teacher educators, and that these issues are not being transformed into curriculum practice. All in all, it is evident that curriculum practices of SMTs teacher educators are riddled with gender blindness and so trainee teachers graduate from college without the necessary agency to deal with personal, social and environmental conversion factors that can play a role in girls converting the curriculum into functionings (beings and doings) and wider freedoms and valued beings and doings (capabilities)

A capability approach

In this article, I use the capability approach to explore the role that the science, mathematics and technical subjects (SMTs) teacher education curriculum can play as a ‘gender conversion factor’. This comes amidst evidence that a major hindrance to the participation of girls in these disciplines is a lack of gender responsiveness in the pedagogy applied in schools. Seven teacher educators, who were purposively sampled at a Technical Teachers’ College in Zimbabwe, were the research participants. I adopted a case study design in which I used in-depth interviews, focus-group discussions and document analysis to generate data. Data was analysed deductively using predetermined themes based on an analytical tool anchored on Sen’s two, but quite distinct, aspects of freedom, that is, the opportunity aspect and the process aspect of freedom. The findings reveal that there is a limited awareness of gender issues among teacher educators, and that these issues are not being transformed into curriculum practice. All in all, it is evident that curriculum practices of SMTs teacher educators are riddled with gender blindness and so trainee teachers graduate from college without the necessary agency to deal with personal, social and environmental conversion factors that can play a role in girls converting the curriculum into functionings (beings and doings) and wider freedoms and valued beings and doings (capabilities)

Exploring and expanding capabilities, sustainability and gender justice in science teacher education : case studies in Zimbabwe and South Africa

The focus of this study was to explore and expand capabilities, sustainability and gender justice in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects (SMTs) in teacher education curriculum practices as a process of Education for Sustainable Development in two case studies in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The study begins by discussing gender and science education discourse, locating it within Education for Sustainable Development discourse. Through this nexus, the study was able to explore gender and sustainability responsiveness of the curriculum practices of teacher educators in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects; scrutinise underlying mechanisms that affect (promote or constrain) gender and sustainability responsive curriculum practices; and understand if and how teacher education curriculum practices consider the functionings and capabilities of females in relation to increased socio-ecological risk in a Southern African context. Influenced by a curriculum transformation commitment, an expansive learning phase was conducted to promote gender and sustainability responsive pedagogies in teacher education curriculum practices. As shown in the study, the expansive learning processes resulted in (re)conceptualising the curriculum practices (object), analysis of contradictions and developing new ways of doing work. Drawing from the sensitising concepts of dialectics, reflexivity and agency, the study worked with the three theoretical approaches of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), feminist theory and capabilities theory. The capability and feminist lenses were used in the exploration of gender and sustainability responsiveness in science teacher education curriculum practices. CHAT, through its associated methodology of Developmental Work Research, offered the opportunity for researcher and participants in this study to come together to question and analyse curriculum practices and model new ways of doing work. Case study research was used in two case studies of teacher education curriculum practices in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects, one in Zimbabwe and one in South Africa. Each case study is constituted with a networked activity system. The study used in-depth and focus group interviews and document analysis to explore gender and sustainability responsiveness in curriculum practices and to generate mirror data. Inductive and abductive modes of inference, and Critical Discourse Analysis were used to analyse data. This data was then used in Change Laboratory Workshops, where double stimulation and focus group discussions contributed to the expansive learning process. Findings from the exploration phase of the study revealed that most teacher educators in the two case studies had some basic levels of gender sensitivity, meaning that they had ability to perceive existing gender inequalities as it applies only to gender disaggregated data especially when it comes to enrolment and retention. However, there was no institutionalised pedagogic device in place in both case studies aimed at equipping future teachers with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to promote aspects of capabilities (well-being achievement, wellbeing freedom, agency achievement and agency freedom) for girls in Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects. Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects teacher educators' curriculum practices were gender neutral, but in a gendered environment. This was a pedagogical tension that was visible in both case studies. On the other hand, socio-ecological issues, in cases where they were incorporated into the curriculum, were incorporated in a gender blind or gender neutral manner. Social ecological concerns such as climate change were treated as if they were not gendered both in their impact and in their mitigation and adaptation. It emerged that causal mechanisms shaping this situation were of a socio-political nature: there exist cultural differences between students and teacher educators; patriarchal ideology and hegemony; as well as other interfering binaries such as race and class. Other curriculum related constraints, though embedded in the socio-cultural-political nexus, include: rigid and content heavy curriculum, coupled with students who come into the system with inadequate content knowledge; and philosophy informing pedagogy namely scientism, with associated instrumentalist and functionalist tenets. All these led to contradictions between pedagogical practices with those expected by the Education for Sustainable Development framework. The study contributes in-depth insight into science teacher education curriculum development. By locating the study at the nexus of gender and Science, Mathematics and Technical subjects within the Education for Sustainable Development discourse, using the ontological lenses of feminist and capabilities, it was possible to interrogate aspects of quality and relevance of the science teacher education curriculum. The study also provides insight into participatory research and learning processes especially within the context of policy and curriculum development. It provides empirical evidence of mobilising reflexivity amongst both policy makers and policy implementers towards building human agency in policy translation for a curriculum transformation that is critical for responding to contemporary socio-ecological risks.Microsoft� Word 2010Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-i

Transgressing the norm: Transformative agency in community-based learning for sustainability in southern African contexts

Environment and sustainability education processes are often oriented to change and transformation, and frequently involve the emergence of new forms of human activity. However, not much is known about how such change emerges from the learning process, or how it contributes to the development of transformative agency in community contexts. The authors of this article present four cross-case perspectives of expansive learning and transformative agency development in community-based education in southern Africa, studying communities pursuing new activities that are more socially just and sustainable. The four cases of community learning and transformative agency focus on the following activities: (1) sustainable agriculture in Lesotho; (2) seed saving and rainwater harvesting in Zimbabwe; (3) community-based irrigation scheme management in Mozambique; and (4) biodiversity conservation co-management in South Africa. The case studies all draw on cultural-historical activity theory to guide learning and change processes, especially third-generation cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), which emphasises expansive learning in collectives across interacting activity systems. CHAT researchers, such as the authors of this article, argue that expansive learning can lead to the emergence of transformative agency. The authors extend their transformative agency analysis to probe if and how expansive learning might also facilitate instances of transgressing norms – viewed here as embedded practices which need to be reframed and changed in order for sustainability to emerge

Transformative Learning for Teacher Educators: Making sense of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) policy emphasis on transformative education

This chapter addresses UNESCO’s ESD for 2030 call to push the transformative edge on education needed all over the world so that a sustainable future can be created. More specifically, it responds to the need for building educator ca-pacity for transformative and transgressive learning in a de-veloping world context where high levels of inequality persist in society as a whole, and in the education system. The con-cept of transformative, transgressive learning is examined against a backdrop of contextual realities and challenges. This is followed by a detailed discussion on how, through multi-stakeholder partnerships and networks, we are building teacher educator capacity in the Schools and Sustainability, Fundisa [Teaching] for Change and the Sustainability Starts with Teachers Action Learning programme in South and Southern Africa respectively. These initiatives may offer in-sights into transformative learning in teacher education for those seeking to enable transformative ESD learning in their programmes.This chapter addresses UNESCO’s ESD for 2030 call to push the transformative edge on education needed all over the world so that a sustainable future can be created. More specifically, it responds to the need for building educator ca-pacity for transformative and transgressive learning in a de-veloping world context where high levels of inequality persist in society as a whole, and in the education system. The con-cept of transformative, transgressive learning is examined against a backdrop of contextual realities and challenges. This is followed by a detailed discussion on how, through multi-stakeholder partnerships and networks, we are building teacher educator capacity in the Schools and Sustainability, Fundisa [Teaching] for Change and the Sustainability Starts with Teachers Action Learning programme in South and Southern Africa respectively. These initiatives may offer in-sights into transformative learning in teacher education for those seeking to enable transformative ESD learning in their programmes

Agentive learning for sustainability and equity: Communities, cooperatives and social movements as emerging foci of the learning sciences

This symposium expands the object and scope of the learning sciences by introducing communities, cooperatives and social movements as crucially important sites of learning. The sym-posium papers employ and critically interrogate cultural-historical activity theory, specifically the theory of expansive learning, and the emerging methodology of formative interven-tions as a potential framework for dealing with learning in communities, cooperatives and social movements. Expansive learning emerges as a process of revitalizing the commons, or commoning. The contributions of the symposium point toward the importance of analyzing and fostering transformative agency as a quality of learning

Expansive Learning and Transformative Agency for Equity and Sustainability: Formative Interventions in Six Continents

This double symposium brings together activity-theoretical formative intervention research conducted in six continents. The aim is to illuminate and examine the common threads, important differences, and new challenges of formative inter-vention studies to address “wicked problems” in different cul-tural, political, and economic contexts. Formative interven-tions facilitate expansive learning and systemic transfor-mation led by local stakeholders in organizations and social movements. The formative intervention methodology is based on the principles of double stimulation and ascending from the abstract to the concrete. Its most well-known appli-cation is the Change Laboratory method. Formative interven-tions generate and support expansive learning and trans-formative agency. The current global crises of climate change, poverty and deepening inequalities are giving rise to what is called fourth generation activity theory for tackling fateful challenges by building heterogenous multiactivity coa-litions. The symposium will present the theoretical and peda-gogical challenges and possibilities in Change Laboratories and other formative interventions to develop just and sus-tainable solutions to global crises

Aprendizado de fronteiras em uma transformação curricular sensível ao gênero no Zimbábue: uma abordagem baseada na teoria da atividade

This paper aims to share insights of a boundary learning process in a curriculum transformation in Zimbabwe. It is based on the dialectical lenses of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). The boundary learning epistemic actions were designed/interpreted using CHAT tools of double stimulation, activity system and expansive learning. The main findings are two types of boundary learning: individual and institutional. Individual focused on questioning and confronting tensions in current individual curriculum practice. Institutional refers to collaborative relationships between hierarchical levels of the teacher education system in Zimbabwe. We point to the need for theoretical and conceptual rigor in studies on curriculum transformation, arguing for careful attention to empirical evidence of transformation/transgressing current practices in any expansive learning process. There is also need to think through the policy-practice gap, especially in curriculum development.Este artículo tiene como objetivo compartir las ideas de un proceso de aprendizaje fronterizo en una transformación curricular en Zimbabue. Se basa en las lentes dialécticas de la Teoría Histórico-Cultural de La Actividad (CHAT). Las acciones epistémicas de aprendizaje fronterizo fueron diseñadas/interpretadas utilizando herramientas de CHAT, doble estimulación, sistema de actividad y aprendizaje expansivo. Los principales hallazgos son dos tipos de aprendizaje fronterizo: individual e institucional. La individual se centró en cuestionar y confrontar las tensiones en la práctica curricular individual actual. La institucional se refiere a las relaciones de colaboración entre los niveles jerárquicos del sistema de educación de maestros en Zimbabue. Señalamos la necesidad de rigor teórico y conceptual en los estudios sobre transformación, argumentando que se debe prestar atención a la evidencia empírica de transformación/transgresión de las prácticas actuales en cualquier proceso expansivo de aprendizaje. También es necesario pensar en la brecha política-práctica, especialmente en el desarrollo curricular.Neste artigo tem-se como objetivo compartilhar informações sobre o processo de aprendizagem de fronteiras, em uma iniciativa de transformação curricular no Zimbábue. Baseia-se nas lentes dialéticas da Teoria Histórico-Cultural da Atividade (CHAT). As ações epistêmicas de aprendizagem de fronteiras foram projetadas/interpretadas usando pressupostos da CHAT de dupla estimulação, sistema de atividade e aprendizado expansivo. Os principais achados são dois tipos de aprendizagem de fronteiras: individual e institucional. A individual está concentrada em questionar e enfrentar as tensões em práticas atuais em termos de currículo individual. A institucional refere-se a relações colaborativas entre os níveis hierárquicos do sistema de ensino de professores no Zimbábue. Aponta-se para a necessidade de maior rigor teórico e conceitual em estudos de transformação curricular, argumentando a atenção cuidadosa em evidências empíricas de transformação/transgressão de práticas atuais em qualquer processo de aprendizado expansivo. Também é necessário pensar em lacunas nas políticas públicas, especialmente no desenvolvimento curricular