During the Fundisa for Change three-day Strategic Dialogue and Stakeholder Engagement Meeting, the Rhodes Team presented the Fundisa for Change Online Learning platform during the session Commission 2: Strengthening the National System of Engagement for ESD, Climate Action, and Environmental Learning in South Africa in Teacher Education. Dr Wilma van Staden presented the Online Learning Platform supported by Prof. Heila Lotz-Sisitka. Prof. Shafika Isaacs (Johannesburg University) chaired the session and Prof. Chris Reddy from the University of Stellenbosch offered Chair Support. The complete programme is available in Appendix A.Dr Wilma van Staden navigated through the Online Learning Platform with the meeting attendees (Figure 1). She then presented them with the following questions:
- What should these online courses look like to allow us to use them for teacher pre-service and in-service training?
- How can you use this platform in your context and what needs changing?
- How can we do this together?
- Who can pilot and report on the courses?
- How can the Fundisa for Change Online Learning Platform be utilized to strengthen the National System of Engagement for ESD, Climate Action, and Environmental Learning in South Africa in Teacher Education?
We received valuable and clear feedback. The group provided insight into what the course framework should look like to allow us to use it for teacher pre-service and in-service training. We discussed specifically what type of back-end mechanisms should be in place for the platform to work for different types of teacher educators, such as subject advisors, lecturers and other teacher educators. The group agreed that the platform should be designed in such a way that the teacher educators and the teachers they train can use the platform without depending on the Fundisa for Change’s team for any assistance. Therefore, the platform should be designed in such a way that the student should be able to do the course, accumulate a portfolio and then submit the portfolio to his or her teacher trainer.
Various subject advisors and university lecturers from Rhodes University, the University of KwaZulu Natal and the University of the Free State expressed interest in piloting the proposed courses. For more information on this engagement, go to Fundisa for Change website’s Conference page. https://fundisaforchange.co.za/strategic-dialogue/.