Reimagining African Economies at EEASA’s 42nd Conference 

Aimed at facilitating environmental and sustainable development education in the region, the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) held its 42^nd Conference in Lusaka, Zambia in September.

The annual meeting gives ELRC students and scholars an opportunity to share their experiences around developing environmental education practices, and to learn from researchers and practitioners from across Southern Africa.

Director of the ELRC, Distinguished Professor Heila Lotz-Sistka, gave the keynote address focused on the possibility of circular African economies.

Modern, industrialised economies have grown at a great cost to the earth and its people: Depleting natural resources, producing waste, and changing the earth’s climate. African countries have an opportunity to do things differently.

And the conference, led by ELRC alumnus and research associate Dr Justin Lupele, explored how education can facilitate this under the theme: ‘Transitioning into equitable, just and sustainable economies’.

Nurturing economies for people and the planet

“As people emphasise the economy and sustainable development, we need to think more about the possibilities of circular economies,” said Professor Lotz-Sisitka to an audience of 200 attendees, including the Honourable Mike Mposha, the Zambian Minister of Green Economy and Environment, “With the industrialisation of Africa, we have an opportunity to start in a different place so that we are not reproducing the same errors.”

A circular economy goes against the idea that economic production should be linear, starting with extraction and ending at consumption. This linear economy fails to see the limits of our natural resources which are finite, and ignores the waste, pollution, and environmental harm that is produced along its path.

A circular economy emphasises a more sustainable model of production and consumption, where resources and products are shared, leased, re-used, repaired, and recycled as much as possible to reduce resource extraction, waste, and pollution.

The idea of a circular economy finds affinity with the indigenous knowledge and societies of Southern Africa, which, says Professor Lotz-Sisitka, have sustainability practices that already reflect principles of the circular economy.

In linking this economic paradigm with local ways of being and thinking, Professor Lotz-Sisitka highlighted the important contributions of late scholars Professor Soul Shava and Professor Charles Mwendabai Namafe: “They were both stalwarts of EEASA, [committed] to bringing the significance of indigenous knowledge and the validity of African ways of being and doing into EEASA scholarship and practise.”

Developing a sustainability mindset and circular economy values starts with the youth, which Professor Lotz-Sistka emphasised when remembering another two EEASA community members who sadly passed away this year: Preven Chetty and Brenda Andimignon.

“Their work was around developing [educational] practice with children, particularly eco-school practices and those which encourage resonance and connection between children and the environment,” she said.

ELRC scholars present their cutting edge research on environmental education practices 

Many ELRC scholars presented their work and research at the conference, helping to showcase learning practices that can contribute to more sustainable societies.

PhD Candidate, Ben de Souza, was awarded a place as a EEASA council member at the conference. He presented on how Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) can strengthen inclusivity in education through equipping future teachers with sustainability principles such as collaborative learning, communities of practice and whole institution approaches.

 

Doctoral scholar Maletje Mponwana presented on his experiences in mediating and facilitating learning pathways for the youth of South Africa in the area of river health monitoring. “A key focus was that mapping pathways takes collaborative effort, which serves as a valuable learning research process in its own right,” he explained.

He also participated in an interactive panel discussion in which him and ELRC PhD scholars Wandile Mvulane, Kalongo Chitengi, and Imakando Sinyama shared insights into how rivers can be co-governed in the context of SADC river commons.

Master’s candidate Maite Zeisser reflected on her research which aims to collaboratively nurture a way of teaching that is grounded in the values of her Andean heritage, advancing the concept of intercultural education as not only impacting the content of education but also the ways people teach.

Along with ELRC alumnus Dr Caleb Mandikonza (Wits University), she also led a session on a new ELRC-UNESCO project that is helping to reframe educational assessment by emphasising collaborative and holistic flourishing as the goal of learning.

Postdoctoral research fellow Dr Ludwig Chanyau showed how small scale farmers in the Eastern Cape, South Africa are finding climate solutions through co-learning and co-creating in an increasingly expanding constellation of practice made up of training institutions, government departments and NGOs.

Other presenters include Dr Wilma van Staden, who presented on the use of digital tools in agricultural learning; Associate Professor Lausanne Olvitt showed her reflections on community-engaged food gardening for Early Childhood Development; Postdoctoral researcher Dr John Bhurukeni and Associate Professor Olvitt reflected on their work as editors and reviewers for the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education (SAJEE), which is based at the ELRC; PhD candidate Lwanda Maqwelane presented her research on reskilling coal miners into the hemp industry; postdoctoral scholar Dr Sidney Muhangi explored the complexities of ensuring skills provisioning in agriculture is timely; and another postdoctoral research fellow Dr Arorisoe Sibanda discussed curriculum design in the context of ESD.

"With the industrialisation of Africa, we have an opportunity to start in a different place so that we are not reproducing the same errors."

Changing the way our economies work, to serve people and the environment, involves learning to do things in a different way. Through their grassroots educational practise and learning, ELRC scholars and EEASA members learn from diverse communities, and each other, about new (and old) ways of imagining our societies and economies.

EEASA has been a long-time partner of the ELRC, and Professor Lotz-Sisitka praised the organisation for being a stronghold of environmental education scholarship: “As a regional institution, it enables us to network across multiple countries every year, which is important for South African and Southern African scholarship. The conference always has a nice mix of academic and professional practitioners – all people who care about the world and are doing incredible work in different ways. And I think we are all able to learn from each other.”

ELRC scholars are already looking forward to next year’s EEASA conference, which will be hosted in Cape Town towards the end of the year.