While the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) resulted in many successful pilot projects Charles Hopkins (2015) notes a spread of these projects making scaling of educational projects a crucial component of the Global Action Program (GAP) (UNESCO, 2014a, 2014b). Arguably, the GAP will shape the practice, policy and research of ESD in coming years. Hence there is according to Fischer et al. (Fischer et al., 2015) a need for research on the scaling processes within the GAP. Such research could contribute to the GAP based on reviews of available evidence and thus inform and substantiate decisions on educational projects and their scaling. I argue that an example of such evidence can be found by studying the projects developed and scaled in Southern Africa during the last 25 years. Accordingly, studying research at Rhodes University (SA) provides the opportunity to gain knowledge about scaling of ESE-projects in multiple different circumstances and over a extended period of time. In this paper I study how ESE-projects at Rhodes University used virtual models and simulations as opportunities to test the scaling of projects “in reality”. These kind of simulations provide a middle step between theory and practice where the outcomes of scaling of projects to different contexts can be explored without the larger investments and potential risks that practical implementation infers. As Tim Ingold (Ingold, 2011) notes humans often take over from where non-humans have left off and thus I will, drawing on Jane Bennet´s (2010) concept non-human actants, study the role of non-humans (e. g. animals, plants, soil, land, machines and tools) in the process of scaling ESE-projects. The combination of the virtual reality of models and simulations and the material reality of animals, plants and machines points to the possibility of studying reality and the REAL as existing in many forms, equally as REAL. I will use, following Glenn Bowen (2009) and Gregory Owen (2014), a combination of document analysis and interviews as a means of triangulation.

Bennet, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: a political ecology of things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method. Qualitative Research Journal. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Fischer, D., Aubrecht, E. L., Brück, M., Ditges, L., Gathen, L., Jahns, M., … Wellmann, C. (2015). UN Global Action Programme and Education for Sustainable Development: A Critical Appraisal of the Evidence Base. Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education. De Gruyter Open. Hopkins, C. (2015). Beyond the Decade: The Global Action Program for Education for Sustainable Development. Applied Environmental Education & Communication. Philadelphia: Routledge. Ingold, T. (2011). Being Alive: Essays on movement, knowledge and description. New York: Routledge. Owen, G. T. (2014). Qualitative Methods in Higher Education Policy Analysis: Using Interviews and Document Analysis. The Qualitative Report. Fort Lauderdale: The Qualitative Report. UNESCO. (2014a). Global Action Programme on ESD. Retrieved January 8, 2016, from http://en.unesco.org/gap UNESCO. (2014b). UNESCO Roadmap for Implementing the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development. Paris. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002305/230514e.pdf