1. ESD and the destabilization of techno-centric
neoclassical education tendencies in school and
community learning contexts in central and
Midwestern Uganda
Paper presented at the
5th African RCE Conference -
by
Daniel J Babikwa (PhD.)
Director, DSCPE
NEMA – Uganda
Email: dbabikwa@nemaug.org

2. Food for thought
• “Only when the last tree has been cut down;
• Only when the last river has been poisoned;
• Only when the last fish has been caught;
• Only then you will find that money cannot be eaten”
Proverb, American Indian

3. School children from Kalungu - Masaka

4. Outline
• Geographical location;
• The context;
• Regional educational response to the context (The LVCEEP project);
• Contextualizing ESD principles (groundwork for reorienting education);
• The power of methods and methodology (in school and community);
• The importance of educator education and training;
• The greening initiatives;
• The value of school and community interface;
• Community-based ESD initiatives
• Outcomes and impacts on schools and communities
• Lessons learnt and their implications
• Challenges and limitations

5. Map of Uganda showing
the Different Regions and
project LOCATIONS
Project Masaka and Kyenjojo Districts

6. The context
• Naturally good environment (often described as gifted
by nature an pearl of Africa)
• Running an economy which is largely natural resource
based;
• Debilitating damage on ecosystems (Over 50% of
indigenous fish species and forests in the Lake Victoria
catchment depleted)
• Operating in an economic and development
atmosphere that is deeply neoliberal
• Increasing levels of social and economic differentiation
• The continued dominance of the education sector by
techno-centric neoclassical tendencies and its effects

7. Regional educational response to the
context (The LVCEEP project);
• Launching of the Lake Victoria Catchment
Environmental Education Project (LVCEEP) in
2005 covering the entire catchment i.e. the
five countries of the region Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda;
• In Uganda the focus was on two districts of
Masaka and Kyenjojo in Central and the mid-
western part of the country

8. Cont.
• The purpose was to empower riparian
communities to actively participate in
environmental conservation to save the Lake
catchment,
• Anchored in the broader UNDESD goals and
principles

9. Goal
• To secure the restoration of the ecological
integrity and sustainability of the Lake Victoria
catchment for the benefit of its inhabitants
and biological diversity

10. Project activities
• Project start up activities
• Core team formation and orientation
• Reorientation of teachers and school
inspectors
• Inter school and community visits
• ESD competitions and ESD day celebrations for
schools and communities
• Greening initiatives

11. Contextualizing ESD principles (groundwork for
reorienting education);
• Deconstructing the disempowering techno-
centric neoclassical educator mindsets –
empowering educators to educate others
• Transcending traditional pedagogy by drawing
on andragogical principles and facets of
critical pedagodagy to demystify the role of
the traditional teacher (turning teachers into
facilitators and catalysts for the learning
process)

12. The power of methods and methodology (in
school and community);
• Innovative learning and teaching approaches –
active participatory methods of learning and
teaching
• Adoption of the whole school approach and
its positive attributes
• Use of study circles and peer groups
• Inter school/community visits
• Use of school environment as a laboratory for
teaching and learning

13. The importance of educator education
and training
• Incorporation of continuous educator education and training
to ensure technical sustainability of the project
• Focused on ESD methodology (whole school approach,
greening initiatives and others), content and psycho-social
grounding necessary for nurturing ESD educators
• Emphasis on learner-centred action learning as a central
strategy for undermining the traditional teacher tendencies in
the teachers – resulting into the desired transformative
outcomes,
• Use of socially relevant themes and materials made learning
relevant and enjoyable and the learners/teachers confident
•

14. The greening initiatives;
• Greening activities were used as one of the
strategies for mainstreaming ESD in the school
programmes and activities,
• Aware that ESD is not only about environment
such initiatives strategically focussed on the 3
pillars of SD (environment, economy and
society)

15. Environmental pillar greening
initiatives
• Restoration of degraded school ecosystems,
waste management, general cleaning, soil
conservation, tree nursery development and
woodlot establishment, energy saving and
sustainable resource management and
utilisation among others

16. Degraded school compound under
restoration

17. Reusing plastic bottles for drip irrigation as a
climate change adaptation strategy

18. Greening initiatives to address the
economic pillar
• promoted kitchen gardens in schools,
• energy saving cooking stoves,
• handcrafts,
• bee keeping,
• fish farming
• Making low cost energy saving stoves

19. Fruit and vegetable gardens

20. Children’s projects

21. Greening initiatives and the social pillar
• A deliberate policy of turning schools into visitor
centres as one of the avenues for integrating ESD
in the education system was pursued
• the interface between the school and outside
community became a reality
• Communities visited schools to learn but through
this, schools also continuously learnt from the
expert knowledge of community
members/visitors

22. Cont.
• With schools becoming visitor centers,
children were taught to work as tour guides
which boosted their confidence and built their
social interaction skills,
• Teachers also learnt that children could
become educators

23. The value of school and community
interface;
• The programme was designed to develop a
strong linkage between the community and
the schools to promote linkages that would
ensure the sustainability, permanence,
ownership and mutual support for the ESD
transformation,
• Reduction in school community conflicts,
• Increased support for school projects and
other initiatives

24. Community school interactions

25. Community-based ESD initiatives
• Community Groups
• Exchange Visits
• Community ESD projects targeting the three pillars of
sustainability (Conservation activities, Agricultural
production and productivity, improved goat rearing,
poultry and piggery skills, commercial handicraft
making,

26. Pineapple production in Kyenjojo

27. Improved local poultry and goat
keeping

28. Increased economic literacy – graduating
from piglets to a cow!

29. Evidence on increased community economic
literacy
• “… we discovered that we had been involved in growing crops all our lives but our
livelihoods were not getting any better. Despite our fulltime engagement in
agriculture we were always buying food which meant we could not guarantee our
own food security. In addition we were working longer hours in the wetland to
drain the water so that we could grow crops. The crops we grew we were not even
be assured of harvesting because they often flooded with the slightest amount of
rain! When we intensified the efforts the wetland became drier and yielded less,
our wells where we used to draw water also dried up! But the training by LVCEEP
opened our eyes. When we pulled out of swamp the papyrus and other reeds
regenerated and the wells were also restored. Instead of destroying the reeds I use
them as raw materials together with Bark Cloth banana fibre and others for craft
making. I have established a craft shop in Masaka town and I have also established
an outlet at the National theatre in Kampala. On a weekly basis I invest a capital of
one hundred fifty thousand shillings in materials and I get a gross income of four
hundred fifty thousand shillings a week. This is far beyond what I ever earned from
crop farming albeit the destruction we caused to the environment. The change has
enabled us to get more time to rest and do other things. My family is no longer as
bothered about when the rains will start or stop because our survival is no longer
intertwined with weather conditions” Source: Field notes – Gayaza Masaka
Municipality group.

30. Outcomes and impacts on schools and
communities
• The Action Learning pedagogy on its part
made the learning process an enjoyable
practical social activity, dynamic and
enriching.
• It unlocked the potentials of the teachers to
think and act innovatively, teach in a practical
way subjects which have for long been
considered entirely theoretical

31. Teacher testimonies on teaching
• “… we teach mathematics in maize gardens, calculating seeds and holes,
and in compounds calculating areas of degraded compound, to be
restored. In Geography and Agriculture, we teach the characteristics of soil
erosion in the gardens, not only identifying the problem but also learning
how to control it, using contours practically developed by the pupils
guided by us the their teachers. Social studies and English have been
taught on the road, and in trading centres, learning road signs, how to use
the road and understanding the types of business”.
• “One day I was pleasantly surprised, I was coming from Masaka and when
I reached our trading centre, I found one of the teachers with her P. 4 class
in the trading centre teaching road signs and how to use the road. I never
expected this much as I was the one challenging teachers to become
innovative. This showed me that our efforts were not in vain, change had
come and was taking root” -

32. Lessons learnt and their implications
• Effective implementation of ESD in schools and
communities lies with the critical role played by
action learning and teaching methods not only to
deliver content, but also to stimulate and sustain
learners desire to learn;
• This implies a deliberate shift from the traditional
teacher centred and classroom based teaching
and learning methods and methodologies, to
engage learners in practical challenging learning
situations geared towards direct problem solving.

33. Cont.
• The issue is always not the amount of information or
depth of content given to learners, but the manner in
which the content is packaged and delivered;
• Educator mastery of the skill of playing the necessary
catalytic role to empower learners to become self-
directed as opposed to the traditional content/teacher-
driven learning processes is key
• The greening initiative presents itself as an effective
‘eco-ideological’ tool that demystifies the dominant
traditional techno-centric environmental management
processes which alienate society from playing its role
of environmental stewardship

34. Cont.
• Practice preceding or going side by side with theory has
revolutionized the implementation of ESD activities
• Implying that changing attitudes, behaviours and mind-sets require
more learner-centred hands on teaching and learning processes
than information packed one way ‘traditional propounding’
• Issue-based localised curricula is crucial for achieving positive ESD
results
• Relevance of learning sustains interest and commitment to ESD
activities
• Programme flexibility encourages innovation and sense of freedom
in choice making
• Mentoring of ESD champions is key to success
• Commitment to ESD principles works as an antidote to the effects
of neoclassical education practices that are both disempowering
and

35. Challenges and limitations
• The transfer of ESD literate teachers and replacement
with new ones with no idea about ESD
• Fear of change at times bordering on pessimism
• Wrong mentality that ESD means more financial inputs
on part of the schools
• The deeply entrenched exam oriented thinking
• Apparent awareness of the limitation but not taking
bold steps
• Absence of a national ESD policy to those who believe
in policy guidance before taking action
• The disempowered ‘powerful’

36. Last word
“A negative attitude is like a flat tyre, you can
only move on when you have changed it”

37. Thank you