Chapter 1 Introduction
1.4 Thesis chapters outlined
Chapter 1 – The seeds of the thesis are introduced in terms of my long held interest in the relationship between education and development in the Pacific and the potential for ESD to be a vehicle in which students, as future leaders, can explore Global South notions of SD. The thesis problem is then explained with reference to the literature. The aim of the research is made clear by listing the questions that this thesis will explore.
Chapter 2 - The chapter reviews the ever changing relationship between education and development. Firstly, it looks at the key role education has played in supporting
development strategies focused on modernisation and, more recently, neoliberalism. The chapter then turns to consider how alternative and post-development challenges to development theory have led to major theoretical rethinks of the purpose of education. Next, the chapter introduces SD as an increasingly popular approach to development. Its role as a tool to justify continued economic growth in the face of concerns about the environment is discussed and contrasted. The potential for SD to incorporate hopeful post-development, culturally embedded ‘alternatives to development’ and alternative development strategies is proposed. Finally, the chapter details the emergence of ESD, as a new learning area in schools, promoted by UNESCO in response to this growing
importance of SD.
Chapter 3 – This research uses a case study approach to rethink education in the context of ESD on Mangaia in the Cook Islands. It is therefore important to review the forces shaping education in the Pacific, with a particular focus on the Cook Islands itself. With this in mind, the chapter begins by reviewing the rethinking education movement in the Pacific. Dissatisfaction, by Pacific educationalists, academics and researchers with the results of mainstream development and education, has increased interest in alternative development and education strategies based on a Pacific worldview.
The history of the Cook Islands education system is reviewed in the context of changing development patterns over time. The discussion occurs in the context of renewed
government and development partner attempts to forge ahead with western development models underpinned by neoliberalism, clashing with initiatives to rethink education in the context of indigeneity in the Pacific.
Education as Sustainable Development (EasSD) is described and contrasted to Education ‘about’ and Education ‘for’ approaches to ESD. The potential advantages of adopting a culturally responsive EasSD in the context of emerging hopeful post-development settings are then debated.
Chapter 4 - The methodology employed in the research is described in the context of the diversity and contestability of thought that has emerged around SD and ESD, further highlighted by Mangaian worldviews contrasting with western development thinking. The difficulties I faced in researching in a culture that is not my own are described. The strategies employed to overcome these limitations are explained, including the role a Mangaian version of talanoa4 played in obtaining credible information. Descriptions of the
method employed, explain how it was possible to capture the diversity of Mangaian opinion5 on what SD on Mangaia might entail, along with views on what the purpose of
ESD at Mangaia School should be. The type and number of interviews employed are explained in the context of obtaining findings that reflect Mangaians real views on SD and ESD; views that emerge from the oppositional complexity of SD (L. Smith, 1999). Finally, the limitations of the research are described.
Chapter 5 – An introduction to Mangaia and its origins are described against the background of the Cook Islands as a country. The educational, political, social and
economic history of Mangaia is then described as a background to present day Mangaia. A particular focus of the chapter is the ever evolving interdependent relationship between education and development.
Chapter 6 – Mainstream western inspired development is described through a review of the government influenced Mangaia Island Administration Plan (2009a, 2010) and its relation to the objectives of the Cook Islands National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP) (Government of the Cook Islands, 2007a). Based on a collation of interviews and group discussion, a co-constructed description of oraanga Mangaia (life on Mangaia), the cultural essence of SD on Mangaia is provided. Both the complementary and contrasting foci of oraanga Mangaia and western development thinking are revealed. Mangaian current,
4 Described in detail in chapter four.
5 Views that span technocentric to ecocentric ideas are ground in a Mangaian worldview but often include
and hoped for, economic initiatives focussed on agriculture, tourism and small business are described.
Development risk on Mangaia is described in terms of the actual and potential future impact of economic development on the local environment and social norms on Mangaia. Mangaians desire for self-determination is revealed in the context of the type of
development they desire.
Chapter 7 – The chapter begins by canvassing parents and students’ views on what they believe education on Mangaia should entail. These views are compared against what the current curriculum contributes to ESD. They are then discussed in terms of what a transformative EasSD curriculum might necessarily need offer.
A place-based Mangaian EasSD curriculum is proposed, as firstly a way forward to educate students towards an understanding of the culturally and contextual uniqueness of Mangaian SD, as described in chapter 6. How a Mangaian EasSD curriculum might also provide students with sound understandings and action competence6 on issues of sustainability at
global levels is described. This is of increasing importance, given the concern around the impact of climate change, reducing biodiversity, habitat destruction and pollution on the biosphere.
A strengths based implementation of EasSD is explained as a way of building on existing teacher and community knowledge about Mangaian SD. The need for students to be provided the space and time to understand, and become action competent in, Mangaian SD is debated. The suggestion is made that this may be in the form of a dedicated class linked to internationally recognised qualifications at secondary level. The six key benefits of a
6 Action competence, in terms of sustainability is learning about environmental issues so that students can
plan, and take informed action on those issues. Six aspects that support the development of student action competence have been identified through research in New Zealand schools. These are:
x Experience; x Reflection; x Knowledge;
x Visions for a sustainable future; x Action taking for sustainability; and
place-based Mangaian EasSD for students as future citizens and community leaders are explained.
Chapter 8 – The chapter starts by outlining the need for a transformative Mangaian EasSD pedagogy to explore the uniqueness of Mangaian SD and complement the place-based EasSD framework described in chapter 8. Based on extensive discussion with Mangaian
educationalists, a pedagogical framework that incorporates Gegeo and Watson-Gegeo’s
(2001) ideas on the need for Pacific peoples to draw on their own indigenous praxis and epistemology, to address their own development challenges, is proposed. The framework aligns to Sterling’s (2001) concept of an Education ‘as’ Sustainable Development that emphatically rejects Education ‘about’ or ‘for’ SD approaches. In addition, a descriptions of how the framework is able to consider all SD knowledge and ideas, spanning ecocentricism right through to technocentricism and across different worldviews (Carter, 2004; Hacking, 1992), on Mangaia, is provided. The strength of the framework in providing a thinking space where western hegemony can be eliminated and the romanticisation of culture avoided is revealed. The potential for a strength-based implementation of a place-based Mangaian EasSD curriculum and pedagogy is described.
Chapter 9 - The chapter starts by outlining the key barriers to the successful implementation of a place-based Mangaian EasSD; a key obstacle being the need to challenge the pervasiveness of the current western thinking that influences curriculum decisions. The very real practical barriers to implementation at the classroom level are also described and possible solutions proposed.
The chapter them moves onto a wider discussion about how the key educational
stakeholders might play their part in the realisation of an EasSD curriculum on Mangaia and across the wider Global South. In the school, stakeholders include teachers, senior leaders and students in schools. In the community, stakeholders are identified as parents, community leaders, including village leaders (kavana and ui rangatira on Mangaia) and community knowledge people (ta’unga on Mangaia). External stakeholders are variously described as the governments’ of countries in the Global South, in particular Ministries of Education, along with the various aid partners (both bilateral and multilateral) and the many NGOs that exist both within and outside countries. The Chapter finishes by looking at the implications for EasSD implementation right across the Global South.
Chapter 10 – The chapter begins by putting the findings from the case on Mangaia into the context of SD and ESD across the wider Global South. Conceptions of SD in the Global South, from its western origins as an invention justifying continued economic growth (Escobar, 2000; Sachs, 2013), to new multidimensional understandings of what SD might entail, are explored. Concepts that consider a dynamic mix of indigenous thinking and culture, context relevant western knowledge and useful technology (Breidlid, 2013; Kawagley & Barnhardt, 1998; Maiava, 2001; Manteaw, 2012; O'Meara, 1990; Regenvanu, 2009).
Drawing on the findings of this study, the case is made for a culturally responsive and contextually relevant, locally adaptable EasSD curriculum and pedagogy in the Global South. An EasSD that encourages students to use a critical pedagogy to explore the diversity of SD thinking, considering viewpoints that range from ecocentricism to technocentricism and span different worldviews. An EasSD that is able to empower students by preparing them to build their communities’ and their own vision of SD.
Chapter 11 - The chapter opens by outlining the contribution this study makes to the knowledge about SD and ESD on Mangaia, the Cook Islands and more generally, conceptions of SD and models of ESD in the many communities (indigenous and otherwise) across the Global South. The implications of the findings on further research are discussed. Some concluding remarks, about how a place-based Mangaian EasSD is useful in helping Mangaians to conceptualise their own culturally and contextually centred vision for SD on Mangaia, are made in the context of empowering students, as future citizens and leaders, to achieve a Mangaian vision for SD and support Mangaian aspirations for self-determination.