Sustainability Starts with Teachers

Change Project Orientation
5 Sessions
Developing an ESD Change Project
Some ESD Change Project Examples
Change Project Pathway to Bring About ESD Innovation
Completing the Parts of the ESD Change Project
Change Project Guidelines and Review
Learning Action 1: ESD Policy, Context and Competences Review
5 Sessions
Learning Action 1: A Case Story to Introduce ESD
Develop a common understanding of ‘Sustainable Development’ and ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD).
Review of the Vision and Mission statement of your institution and Sustainable Development Goal Number 4
Review of other relevant documents guiding the work of educators in your TE/TVET Institution
Assignment: Change Project Part 1 – Review of context, policy and institutional vision and mission
Learning Action 2: Sustainable Development Goals and Critical Issues
5 Sessions
Learning Action 2: A Case Story
Environment and Sustainability Knowledge: integrating society-economy-environment
The Sustainable Development Goals and sustainability challenges in Africa
Responses to Sustainability Issues and Concerns
Assignment: Change Project Part 2 – Exploring site “matters of concern”
Learning Action 3: Transformative Learning and Learning Environments
5 Sessions
Learning Action 3: A Case Story
Aspects to consider in ESD teaching and learning processes
Transformative pedagogies for ESD teaching
Transformative social learning and transforming learning environments
Assignment: Change Project Part 3 – Transformative learning and transforming learning environments
Learning Action 4: Design and Try out Assessment of Significant Learning in ESD
5 Sessions
Learning Action 4: A Case Story
Exploring your experience of assessment in the context of ESD assessment innovations
Additional guidance for designing assessments in ESD
Examples of alternative assessments
Assignment: Change Project Part 4 – Assessment of significant learning
Learning Action 5: Monitoring, Evaluation and Scaling for Impact
5 Sessions
Learning Action 5: A Case Story
Monitoring your change project in a community of practice
Evaluating the Change Project for value creation
Scaling the Change Project for Impact
Assignment: Change Project Part 5 – Monitoring and evaluating the ESD Change Project, and scaling for impact
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Learning Action 5: A Case Story

Sustainability Starts with Teachers Learning Action 5: Monitoring, Evaluation and Scaling for Impact Learning Action 5: A Case Story

Teacher Education / TVET Change Projects are self-defined institutional change initiatives. They include curriculum innovations, pedagogical innovations and whole-institution innovations. Importantly, all Change Projects must be orientated towards sustainability, and to relevant policy in participating countries. Change Projects in teacher education can focus on teaching practice improvements, assessment, integration of culture and knowledge into curriculum, community engagement, and science and technology innovations for sustainability.

The Sustainability Starts with Teachers is an action learning progamme centred around a contextually defined ESD Change Project. During this course, you will be developing an ESD Change Project within your institution relevant to your context. The Change Project will be implemented with your colleagues in a community of practice. The monitoring and evaluation should therefore also be done collaboratively with your colleagues.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this learning action, you will have:

  • Undertaken an evaluation of the Change Project work, in order to identify what needs to be done next.
  • Identified the value being created by the Change Project.
  • Planned how to scale for Change Project /ESD impact.

In this last Learning Action, we still follow the work of the five teacher educators as they make decisions about monitoring their ESD Change Project, and finding the value created by the project. Also using the work of the teacher educators, this Learning Action will help you understand how to scale impact of your ESD Change Project

Click here to open and read the Case Story.

As the UNESCO/Rhodes University Sustainability Starts with Teachers Programme is a UNESCO ESD Agenda 2030 linked programme, we hope that, as representative of your organisation, you will develop a carefully constituted, creative, and collaboratively grounded monitoring process for the Change Project so that you will be able to report on it in a final regional workshop, as well as share plans for scaling with your colleagues and others in your institution and network. A policy meeting will be held later in the year and your Change Projects will be reported on there.

It will be important for you to report regularly on the progress being made with the Change Project, and to stay in communication with the course coordinators and the ESD Regional Reference Group for ongoing support. You may also work closely with the Ministry of Education and with the leadership of your institution, who are aware of your participation in the Sustainability Starts with Teachers programme. Continue to work closely with colleagues in your Community of Practice on your Change Project!

To help you monitor and evaluate your Change Project, consider the following steps:

  • Step 1

    Consolidate the community of practice that you will work with in your Teacher Education institution on the Change Project.

  • Step 2

    Develop a clear understanding of the Change Project that you will be working on with your colleagues from the starting date of the course for a period of six to eight months, after which the final workshop of the programme will be held (April 2021).

  • Step 3

    Use the Change Project Guidelines and Assignment Tasks, and the reflections at the end of each of the Learning Action texts to develop a clear Plan of Action for your Change Project.

  • Step 4

    Now consider the time allocation recommendations that were made for each of the phases of the Change Project, and develop a ‘projected progress map’ with each step of the Change Project marked out clearly. This progress mapping tool can help you to stay on track.

  • Step 5

    Set a reflective monitoring meeting schedule for two weeks before each deliverable (phase) of the Change Project, and for two weeks after each deliverable. In this way, you will be able to (a) prepare together for the next deliverable, and (b) reflect on the previous deliverable in your monitoring framework.

Figure 1 Change Project Monitoring Sheet(Learning Action 5 has a copy for you to fill in)

Work through Learning Action 5’s Course Materials and focus on Monitoring and Evaluating your work among the Change Project Pathway.

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