De Angelis, Romina; (2020) Social, transformative and sustainable learning: a study of a Jamaican school and community. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Preview

Text Social, transformative and sustainable learning - a study of a Jamaican school and community- PhD thesis.pdf - Accepted Version Download (7MB) | Preview

Abstract

Jamaica faces several environmental threats, related to socio-economic inequalities, as a result of its sustainable development path. The latter stems from the island’s relationships with broader international policies as a Global South country. Within this context, the role of sustainable learning can be crucial to address environmental and societal challenges. At the same time, current literature on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) emphasizes the need to (i) explore the contributions of local sustainable learning models to the global ESD policy framework, and (ii) link local contributions to national and international contexts. Critical scholarship on ESD advises to consider diverse sustainable learning practices from developing countries, in order to shape ESD theories and practices in inclusive and participatory terms. Akin to the international discourse, studies on ESD in Jamaica highlight the need to bridge disconnects that exist between sustainable learning in schools and in communities. Hence, this study contributes to addressing existing gaps within ESD globally and in Jamaica, through the exploration of social, transformative and sustainable learning in a Jamaican rural school and community. I employed two main theoretical approaches in this research. Namely, transformative learning theories that draw on Mezirow, Sterling, Bateson and Freire guided the investigation of sustainable learning practices in the studied school and community. Secondly, I combined social learning with transformative learning theories to analyse the relationships among learners, teachers, community members, stakeholders and sustainable learning. Based on an ethnographic exploration of research participants’ meanings and practices, as well as content analysis of policy documents, findings show the predominance of issues around learning, values and leadership within sustainable learning. Additionally, local attitudes of resistance towards transformation among learners coexist with the role of local civil society organisations (CSOs), leadership and counter-culture values, which contribute to more transformative approaches to sustainable learning. The exploration of the relationships between local issues and broader policies and structural arrangements at the national and international levels uncovered a variety of disconnects. Therefore, understanding local sustainable learning experiences, combined with their interrelations with the broader ESD context, reveals insights to envision more effective sustainable learning approaches within ESD in Jamaica and abroad.

Download activity - last month

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as CSVJSONXML

Archive Staff Only

View Item