WESSA Annual Review 2020

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH

OUR PHILOSOPHY

Our educational or pedagogical approach in addition to the above philosophy, is based on an array of five well known and overarching practices namely the constructivist, enquiry-based, collaborative, integrative and reflective approaches , as shown in the diagram below. These are skills-based approaches we employ through our many school and outdoor activities, through workshops, interactions and engagements with teachers and learners participating in our projects and programmes.

The philosophy of the WESSA Schools programme has always been informed and underpinned by the understanding of the environment as a multi-dimensional concept as depicted by the diagram below:

Democracy

Align projects to relevant local and global agendas

These contribute to the development of the 21st century skills which are critical for us to achieve through our programmes. The WESSA Schools Programme has shown great flexibility and adaptation during the national lockdown period and beyond, responding innovatively by developing a COVID19 project implementation strategy. The approach was aimed at responding to three key priority areas as determined by the Department of Basic Education i.e. curriculum support, school readiness in terms of health and safety and food security. We are grateful to all our funders for being flexible to adapt to the project implementation which made it possible to respond with this strategy. The schools in our funded projects, in rural, peri-urban and urban areas, have responded very well, as well as government officials who appreciated the support to schools in dealing with the pandemic.

Mobilising public/private participation in addressing socio-economic issues – mitigating impacts on ecological infrastructure and human life

Peace

Development

Support teaching and learning in schools and communities through action learning

Empowering Youth and developing skills to become enviropreneurs in sustaining livelihoods

Conservation

Skills education

Lesson plan support

Assessment tools

Engaged, competent and well-informed citizens

Web of life

Continued journey of quality education

ENVIRONMENT - The foundation of our work

The WESSA School Programme’s approach is based on our understanding that the environment is multidimensional and consists of four key dimensions that are interconnected with one another . These four dimensions are the biophysical, social, political and economic . Hence the analogy of the spider web in the centre of the diagram showing that every part of the web is connected to every other part, making the web both complex and powerful. If any part is weakened or disconnected, the overall value and strength of the web is severely compromised. The environment from this perspective, the web of life, forms the foundation or basis of all the work we do in our offering of Environmental Education through the WESSA Schools Programme across South Africa. Thus, linking the environment with education, responding to our mandate and aligning with our strapline “People Caring for the Earth”. This perspective makes it possible for us to respond

to the relevance, impact and sustainability issues associated with the active learning framework and project-based learning approach of our projects and programmes. Not only do we use this framework in our projects through teaching and active learning processes in schools, but also with stakeholders and funders as a marketing, evaluation and information tool to explain the fundamental underpinning and rationale for our work. This contextual framework also reflects our understanding of working with people in schools and communities from diverse perspectives across South Africa. Through our various programmes we highlight or focus on an environmental issue in a particular context and theme related to the natural environment such as water, biodiversity, energy, waste, climate change, etc. and develop an education programme to highlight the interconnections between the different dimensions as mentioned above.

Tippy taps

Life long, practical skills

Safe water points

Health and wellbeing

Sanitation plan

Food gardens

Awareness points

Response to local and global social, economic and environmental challenges

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Annual Review 2019-2020

Annual Review 2019-2020

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