INNOVATIVE APPROACHES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND INDIGENOUS

KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS

5.1 EE IN MULTICULTURAL CONTEXTS (HISTORICAL AND COLLABORATIVE

MEANING-MAKING EE PROCESSES)

Global migration patterns and the dissolution in South Africa of the

apartheid system of racial segregation have given rise to new
environments characterised by multiracial communities. This provides
opportunities for sharing histories and cultures, and for collaborative
meaning-making processes in environmental education. Most importantly,
marginalised peoples and communities are now able to share their
knowledge, experiences and practices with others in a decolonised
learning and living environment. This creates opportunities for inter-
cultural dialogue and for the valuing of different knowledge, practices and
experiences during collaborative meaning- and decision-making processes
and when taking action for a sustainable future.

African cultural values have to be affirmed in the face of globalisation,

given the need to promote a positive African identity. Practical measures
for the development of services provided by indigenous knowledge
holders and practitioners have already been applied, with a particular
focus on environmental education, but also including areas such as
agriculture, traditional medicine, indigenous languages and folklore,
underpinning the contribution of IK to the economy. The role of
indigenous knowledge in employment and wealth creation interfaces with
other knowledge systems, for example, IK is used together with modern
environmental education in biotechnology in the pharmaceutical and other
sectors to increase the rate of innovation.

5.2 EE PROCESSES IN DIVERSE SOCIAL CONTEXTS

People live in a flux of interactive environments as they constantly move
between home, community, leisure, work and/or school. In each of these
contexts, consideration of and care for the environment is essential for
future sustainability.

Environmental education processes in social contexts can be viewed as

education about the environment, in the environment, and for the
environment, as mentioned previously.

1. Education about the environment provides learners with the

knowledge to enable them to recognise the diversity of the ecosystems
(biomes) and their value.
2. Education in or through the environment enables learners to cherish
personal memories of environmental experiences (such as excursions,
 holidays, and camping and fishing trips), and in the process value the
environment as their living heritage.
3. Education for the environment helps learners develop skills, attitudes
and values that endow them with responsibility and stewardship for the
conservation, protection and sustainable use of lived environments and
local resources. It equips them with the capacity to make informed
decisions and take action for the local environment they live in.

To bring together education about, in and for the environment,

O’Donoghue (2008) proposes an active learning approach to EE involving
inquiry encounters, information seeking, reporting and action. See figure
5.1 below.

FIGURE 5.1

Education in, for and about the environment

(Source: O’Donoghue 2008)

5.3 INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE IN EE PROCESSES

There is a clear need for the recognition and protection of indigenous
knowledge systems in South Africa for cultural reasons. Two pervasive
conditions tend to prevent such recognition. The first condition is peculiar
to South Africa’s political history and stems from the suppression of
human rights based on race and culture. The knowledge institutions
created during that era and before it are still in the process of being
transformed to give expression to an African intellectual personality. The
second condition derives from accelerating globalisation, which affects all
indigenous knowledge systems the world over.

South Africa cherishes its hard-won freedom from centuries of oppression

of its indigenous people. It is within this context, that the national
liberation process was pursued with visions underpinned by core
constitutional principles and democratic values. Among these are human
dignity, the achievement of equality, the advancement of human rights
and freedoms, and the pursuit of social justice, non-racialism and non-
sexism. Notions of social justice and equality within the South African
constitutional context are not only core values and ideals; they are
accompanied by obligations to undertake positive corrective measures of
redress, generally and specifically. It is therefore necessary to identify
and enable policy instruments to give effect to provisions of the
Constitution in respect of such rights (Odora-Hoppers, 2001).

Section 185 of the Constitution requires the establishment of a

Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural,
Religious and Linguistic Communities. The relevant Act mandating the
Commission was signed into law in 2002. One of the primary objectives of
the Commission is to promote respect for the rights of cultural, religious
and linguistic communities. The Commission also has the power to
monitor, investigate, research, educate, lobby, advise and report on
issues concerning the rights of cultural, religious and linguistic
communities. Clearly, a body that promotes or advises on indigenous
knowledge systems will need to cooperate closely with the Commission.
The indigenous knowledge systems policy seeks to creatively advance the
course of IKS within the context of these economic, social and cultural
rights and freedoms.

In economic terms, globalisation implies the widening and deepening of

the international flow of trade, finance and information within a single,
integrated global market. The result of this process is the easing and
reduction of nationally determined barriers, the expansion of capital flows
and the escalation of technology transfer. The impact of globalisation on
nation states has implications for their autonomy and policymaking
capacities.

With South Africa’s re-entry into the global arena, there are both
opportunities and challenges for the management of IKS. The cultural
implications of globalisation relate to the mixture and very often the
imposition of different ideas and values to create a homogenous
worldwide culture in the global village. Important modalities in this
process are the economic interactions, mass media and other aspects of
modern information technology platforms, which, for example, tend to
accelerate the establishment of such homogenous cultural practices, as
expressed in eating, singing, dancing, speaking, writing and so forth.
An indicator of the serious effect of globalisation is the rapid attrition of
language diversity across the world. It is estimated that there are 5000 to
7000 spoken languages in existence, of which approximately 100
disappear each year. Approximately 2500 of the remaining spoken
languages are now endangered, 32 percent of these being African.
Globalisation has been singled out as the major catalyst in their
disappearance. Threatened communities around the world have
responded to the erosion of the building blocks of their cultures in various
ways. One response to this has been the growth of an international
indigenous knowledge movement that has influenced mainstream
multilateral agreements from a human rights perspective. Examples of
such agreements include the Convention on Biodiversity and the Plan of
Action agreed on at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg (Jiri et al., 2016).

Another approach has been to assert that indigenous peoples of the world
have the right to self-determination and in exercising that right, must be
recognised as the exclusive owners of their cultural and intellectual
property, for example as expounded in the Mataatua Declaration of 1993.
Both the African Renaissance and NEPAD (in their founding documents)
have identified IK as a key continental imperative. Emphasis will be
placed on the promotion of international linkages in indigenous knowledge
systems by sharing best practices and the commitment to common
objectives with partners whose interests converge with ours Odora-
Hoppers (2001).

Indigenous communities have had a long interaction and relationship with

their lived environments (the land), and their association with the land
makes it an integral part of their identity. Indigenous communities rely
heavily on the land’s natural resources for their livelihood needs and
survival. As a result, they have established a reciprocal relationship with
the lived environment in which it cares for them, and they care for it in
return. In this sense, they have a holistic view of life, where everything is
interconnected.

5.3.1 Sacred sites and taboos

The indigenous ethic of care is seen in the observance of taboos and
protection of sacred natural sites and biological species. Taboos have
played an important role in traditional African societies and their
influence is still felt in modern societies. They help regulate life, property
and sustainability. Observing these indigenous practices is important for
biodiversity and ecosystem conservation and should be included in
environmental sustainability education processes. Sacred sites and
objects include sacred forests, woodlands, groves, trees, animals and
bodies of water. Sacred sites are protected from use, which conserves
these ecosystems. Indigenous people also have taboos relating to the
timing of the harvest of wild fruit trees, the seasonal hunting of birds and
other animals, fishing, and the harvesting of medicinal plants. These
taboos are intended to protect and conserve these species from over-
exploitation.
5.3.2 Indigenous agricultural practices
Indigenous communities rely on mixed farming systems, rather than on
modern crop and/or livestock monocultures. Indigenous mixed farming
systems reduce the vulnerability that comes from a reliance on a small
number of staple crops or animal breeds. Indigenous crop systems are
characterised by multi-cropping and low chemical and energy inputs. This
makes these systems biodiverse and highly compatible with the local
environment. Indigenous farming systems simulate natural ecosystems,
making them ecologically friendly by nature. Moreover, the diversity of
crops enables indigenous communities to have a varied diet. In addition,
indigenous communities rely on a number of indigenous species and
breeds of livestock (cattle, goats, sheep, chickens, etc). These
ecologically adapted breeds provide them with a range of products,
including eggs, milk, manure, skins (leather), feathers and meat.
Education on indigenous agricultural practices can play a significant role in
promoting sustainable agriculture and in ensuring local food security and
food sovereignty.

5.4 SUSTAINABILITY COMPETENCIES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

There is growing universal acceptance of the need for education and
learning systems to be relevant, holistic, inclusive, just and supportive of
sustainable development. Against the background of increasing global
environmental risks and uncertainty, and new technologies that influence
our behaviour, performance and production, there is an emerging
argument that education curricula and learning environments in the
current era require a focus on developed competencies rather than
acquired skills, and that technology should serve to facilitate learning
processes rather than being the actual focus of learning. Competencies
are the knowledge, behaviours, attitudes and even skills that a person
has developed to do something successfully or efficiently. The ability to
solve environmental issues would be a competency. Skills, on the other
hand, are learned abilities that are applied to achieve something. In
dealing with environmental issues, one would have to maintain certain
skills to perform well and act environmentally friendly and sustainably to
preserve natural resources. However, environmental competencies are
those things that a student will be more capable of doing after completing
an environmental learning activity. Competencies are therefore
capabilities developed by the learner. Quality curricula should enable
learners to develop competencies for meeting challenges and taking up
opportunities in the rapidly changing 21st century. Some of these
competencies are given in table 5.1 below.

Many of these competencies overlap and interlock – in other words,

aspects of one support aspects of another.

Table 5.1

21st-century sustainability competencies

Sustainability competency Brief description

Systems thinking The ability to recognise and
understand relationships – to think
of how systems are embedded
within different domains and
different scales, and to deal with
uncertainty
Future thinking/anticipatory The ability to understand and
thinking evaluate multiple futures – to
create own visions for the future, to
(lifelong learning) apply the precautionary principle,
to assess the consequences of
actions and to deal with risks and
changes; learning-to-learn skills,
openness and commitment to
lifelong and life-wide learning
Global thinking The ability to think as world
citizens; careful consideration of
previous approaches and the
perspectives of others; acting
ethically and collaboratively to
contribute to local, regional and/or
global development; the ability to
work collaboratively and to seek
opportunities for collaboration
Values thinking The ability to understand and
reflect on the norms and values
that underlie one’s actions and to
negotiate sustainability values,
principles, goals, and targets
Strategic thinking The ability to collectively develop
and
 implement actions that further
sustainability at the local level and
further afield
Critical thinking The ability to question norms,
practices and opinions, to reflect on
one’s own values, perceptions and
actions, to take a position, and to
understand the perspectives of
other stakeholders; the capacity for
active investigative thinking and
inquiry; the ability to access,
analyse interpret, apply and
synthesise information; the ability
to examine, interpret and evaluate
evidence, and ask relevant
questions; the ability to integrate
ideas from different disciplines or
spheres into a coherent whole and
communicate that integration to
others
Integrated problem-solving The overarching ability to apply
different problem-solving
frameworks to complex
sustainability problems and develop
viable solution options – integrating
the previously mentioned
competencies
Communication The ability to express thoughts
clearly and persuasively both orally
and in writing, to articulate
opinions, communicate coherent
instructions, and motivate others
through speech; the ability to
communicate in the learner’s
mother tongue and in other
languages
Literacy Understanding the economic and
political forces that affect societies
and 21st-century interdisciplinary
themes; global awareness;
financial, economic, business and
entrepreneurial literacy; civic
literacy and health literacy,
including health and wellness
awareness
Collaboration The ability to learn from others, to
understand the needs, perspectives
and actions of others, to deal with
conflicts in a group, and to facilitate
collaborative and participatory
problem-solving; the ability to
engage in networked collaborations
either locally or at a distance
Personal reflection The ability to reflect on one’s own
role in the global system and to
continually evaluate and further
motivate one’s sustainability
actions; capacity for leadership,
resourcefulness, self-control,

empathy, ethics, integrity,

flexibility, adaptability, initiative,
and self-direction;

inventive thinking, risk-taking,

reflection,

productivity, accountability,
fulfilment of one’s responsibilities
as a worker and as a citizen;
teamwork and time management
Social and cross-cultural The ability to foster interdisciplinary
competencies cooperation and the global
exchange of ideas; ability to
counter discrimination based on
origin, gender or age; the ability to
understand and communicate with
others; respect and tolerance; the
ability to listen attentively to
others; a capacity for flexibility and
negotiation; global competence;
the ability to cooperate with
contributors in interdisciplinary and
intercultural teams; the ability to
interact effectively with others
(knowing when it is important to
listen and when to speak, and how
to conduct oneself in a professional
manner); the ability to work
effectively in diverse teams
(respecting cultural differences and
 collaborating with people from a
wide range of social and cultural
backgrounds); awareness of and
appreciation for differences
between individuals and
communities; a capacity for
openness to different ideas and
values; social skills; emotional
resilience; empathy
Self-direction, responsibility, A good work ethic, professionalism,
responsibility (application of
accountability intelligence,

creativity and knowledge for a

common

good); metacognition – self-

directed learning; planning; goal-
setting; monitoring one’s own
progress; adaptability; the ability to
set learning goals, and plan and
monitor your own learning; the
ability to assess progress and take
action with results; self-efficacy
Initiative The ability to develop (create) new
socio-economic possibilities and
practices and provide solutions to
complex problems
Entrepreneurial competency The ability to ‘think on your feet’, to
observe and evaluate opportunities
and ideas that may be new;
autonomy; the ability to think
unconventionally, to imagine new
scenarios and question conventional
wisdom
Resilience Flexibility, adaptability and self-
reliance
Knowledge of the disciplines The ability to acquire academic and
applied knowledge; the ability to
(STEM) connect knowledge and skills,
learning and competence, inert and
active learning, codified and tacit
knowledge, and creative and
adaptive learning; a balance
between education in technical and
 natural science subjects, and
culture and humanities; mastery of
major schools of thought, including
science, mathematics, technology,
engineering and history
Information and communication The ability to make sense of and
master (use) digital communication
technologies (ICT) and technologies
Civic and digital citizenship Civic literacy and the ability to
participate productively and
responsibly online and in virtual
communities; the ability to assess
the reliability and quality of
information found on the internet
and to use it responsibly
The competences above can be grouped under the four pillars of
education defined by Delors et al (1996). They are: learning to
know, learning to do, learning to be and learning to live together,
and are summarised in table 5.2 below.
Table 5.2
Summary of 21st -century competencies and skills aligned to the pillars of
education (adapted from Scott, 2015)

Pillars of education