Social learning for sustainability in an Informal educational context. A systemic case study analysis

Author(s):

M. Ángeles Murga-Menoyo(presenting / submitting)Ángela Espinosa Jon Walker

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

30 SES 12 A, ESE in Non- and Informal Contexts

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-26

09:00-10:30

Room:

NM-A105

Chair:

Jutta Nikel

Contribution

According to Espinosa and Walker (2011, p. 249) three main factors occur currently: a) the problems that the humanity is facing are extremely serious and will worsen in the next decades; b) the cause of many of these problems is the paradigm that we use to analyze them and the way in which we understand the world and its purpose; c) it is necessary, and it has already emerged, a new paradigm, the complex thinking, which allows us to face efficiently such an urgent situation. This new paradigm is completely in line with the concept of sustainability and provides suitable methodologies to advance towards sustainable development.

The research presented in this work is defined in the theoretical and methodological framework of complex thinking. It consists in a case study in the environment of informal education. It focuses on the learning process towards sustainability that Colne Valley (Kirklees, West Yorkshire, UK) is going through thank to the different transition initiatives that are being implemented in the area. This type of education does not take place in a systematic or intentionally planed way; it emerges from the system. This research contains a pilot assessment of the indirect educational effects of three good practices related to the Transition movement, which are located in small towns near the city of Huddersfield (5500 people). The three are of recent implementation and in the last years have invigorated the valley: Green Valley Grocery (a Community Shop in Slaithwaite), The Handmade Bakery (a bread factory in Slaithwaite), and The Paddock Farm (a permaculture center in Marsden). In all three cases, the promoters are active members of MASTT (Marsden and Slaithwaite Transition Town), one of the official initiatives of the Transition Netwok (https://www.transitionnetwork.org), an international network for efficient change towards sustainability.

Like every initiative affiliated to the network, the three good practices studied have the purpose of building self-sufficient communities prepared to face a local sustainable development, endogenous generated, and contribute with it to global sustainability. This type of process brings with it unavoidably a change in the attitudes, values and lifestyles. A social learning takes place, which moves the community forward towards sustainability. The corresponding educational achievements are derived, directly or indirectly, from the implementation of such good practices.

By placing the objective of the study in the field of informal education, we recognize the benefits that for a transforming change of the educational model has having a critical mass of social innovators promoting actions that result in an informal education with aims at sustainable development of all the population. Entrepreneurs that adopt among the different existing frameworks the one that looks for a deep change in the sociocultural model, transforming it into another completely different to the current one. A model that considers cornerstone the subordination of the economy to the necessities of humans, in the sense that has been defended for decades by a potent line of alternative economic thinking (Schumacher, 1973; Sen, 1999; Elizalde, 2003; Gasper 2004; Smith & Max-Neef 2011). And to disseminate and consolidate this new approach, the education has to play a very important role in the international board, as a tool for change. An education renewed in its approaches and its procedures; that reaches all the citizenship, both in formal and informal environments. And an education oriented to the social transformation, with evaluation as a tool to achieve it.

The research has, additionally to its own objectives, the additional merit of using the methodology Viable System Model for the evaluation of informal education achievements. In the context of education, this model has been applied only on few occasions and in formal education contexts (Espinosa & Jackson, 2002; Espinosa, 1997).

Method

In this research an hermeneutics methodology has been used, and a methodological tool based in the general theory of systems and organizational cybernetics, the Viable System Model (VSM), a metalanguage proposed initially by Beer (1979; 1981; 1985; 1994), with his following developments in the field of second order cybernetics (Espejo, 1999; Jackson, 2001; Leonard, 2008; Espinosa, Harnden, & Walker, 2008; among others). The application of the model to the analysis of the initiatives has allowed to know the dynamic structure of the intern communication which consolidates the organizational identity, a process directly linked to the organizational learning and, simultaneously, transpire the principles and values of such identity to the near environment, providers and customers. Both communication processes have an educational nature, of value acquisition, which, even if it is of informal nature –diffuse process- , can be evaluated through achievement proof. The object of study and the objectives defined in the research did not require the implementation of the VSM in all its complexity. For this reason, the methodology of Auto-transformation (Espinosa & Walker, 2013) has been adapted in its initial phases of suitability analysis and communication structure. The implemented procedure follows these steps: a) Analyze the organizational identity, applying the tool CATWOE (Customers, Actors, Transformation, Wordview, Owners, Environment); b) identify the levels of recursivity (primary and secondary activities) and model the analyzed organization; c) focus the attention on the level corresponding to the research objectives and evaluate the community learning derived from the ethos and the organizational dynamic through the perceptions of the implied subjects. The following techniques have been used for the evaluation: content analysis of the corresponding Manifests; semi-structured interview to the leaders; survey to the members of the cooperative, providers and customers; participant observation of the annual assembly of the Community Shop. And, as tools, the following: card of content analysis (categories of analysis of the documents); script for the interview, Ad-hoc questionnaire (Likert model with 5 levels), and systematic observation card. The sample for the research has intentional character and is representative of every category of the studied population. In the case of the documents, all the documents published have been subject to analysis with the objective of identifying the values, principles and organizational goals explicitly recognized.

Expected Outcomes

The cybernetic analysis of the four initiatives has shown that they have a horizontal organization structure in which the communication flows in a flexible and fluid manner. And important elements of self-organization and cooperation have been identified. In this type of communication, very fluid and very pertinent for the learning of values and attitudes, the education is produced as an emerging process inseparable from the everyday activities, and resulting from them. The analysis of the data shows that the initiatives contribute to the holistic promotion of the corresponding communities and generate community tissue. And that from these processes emerge educational achievements and results; in a natural manner, asystemic, but in total coherence with the community goals and values proposed. It is a type of education that complements other possible educational modalities –formal and nonformal education- and at the same time provides a social structure with the necessary critical threshold for the progressive implementation of a sustainability culture. At the same time, the data shows that the community itself finances, provides the natural products (fruits, vegetables, fish, etc..) and also acquires them for own consumption. The triple role –stockholder, provider, customer- that is present in many of its members is being perceived by them as a motor for inner change towards sustainability and as a true contribution, although modest and of slow implementation, towards the endogenous development and local sustainability. And, at the same time, they notice that their acts have a global effect, in two ways: avoiding the pernicious effects of the current model of production-consumption and offering a sample of the viability of these types of initiatives.They are an example of the importance of informal education for the achievement of sustainability. The example studied provides criteria for the intentional design of emergent social structures which are self-organized and sustainable.

References

Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Beer, S. (1979). The heart of enterprise. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Beer, S. (1981). Brain of the firm. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Beer, S. (1985). Diagnosing the system for organizations. Chichester: John Wiley &Sons. Beer S (1994). Beyond Dispute: the invention of Team Syntegrity. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK. Cross, J. (2010) Informal Learning. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer/John Wiley and Sons Eraut, M. (2004). Informal learning in the workplace. Studies in Continuing Education 26 (2) pages 247-273. doi: 10.1080/158037042000225245 Espejo, R. (1999): “Aspects of identity, cohesion, citizenship and performance in recursive organizations”, Kybernetes, vol. 28 (6/7), pp.640 – 658 Espinosa, A. (1997). A monitoring system for the social development program in Colombia. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 10(4):459-472. Espinosa, A., Harnden, R. & Walker, J. (2008). A Complexity Approach to Sustainability: Stafford Beer revisited, European Journal of Operational Research, 187, pp. 636–651. Espinosa, A. & Jackson, M. C. (2002). A systemic look at educational development programs: two perspectives on a recent Colombian experience Kybernetes 11/2002; 31(9/10):1324-1335. Espinosa, A. & Walker, J. (2013). Complexity Management in Practice: A VSM Intervention in an Irish Eco-Community. European Journal of Operational Research. Volume 225(1); 118- 129. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2012.09.015 Espinosa, A. & Walker, J. (2011). A Complexity Approach to Sustainability Theory and Application. London: Imperial College Press. Gasper, D. (2004). The Ethics of Development. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Jackson, M.C. (2001). Critical Systems Thinking and Practice, European Journal of Operational Research, 128, pp. 233–244. Jeffs, T. and Smith, M. K. (2005). Informal Education. Conversation, democracy and learning, Ticknall: Education Now. Leonard, A. (2008). Integrating Sustainability Practices Using the Viable Systems Model, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 25, pp. 643–654. Schumacher, E.F. (1973). Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. New York: Harper and Row Sennett, R. (2012). Together. The rituals, pleasures and politics of cooperation. London: Allen Lane Sen, A.K. (1999). Development as Freedom. UK: Oxford University Press. Smith, P.B. & Max-Neef, M. A. (2011). Economics unmasked: From power and greed to compassion and the common good. UK: Green Books. Watkins, K.E. & Marsick, V.J. (1992) Towards a theory of informal and incidental learning in organizations International Journal of Lifelong Education, 11(4), pages 287-300 DOI: 10.1080/0260137920110403

Author Information

M. Ángeles Murga-Menoyo (presenting / submitting)

UNED

UNESCO Chair on Education for Sustainable Development

Madrid

Ángela Espinosa

University of Hull, UK

Jon Walker

The Green Valley Grocer, UK

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