Learning Experiences of a Participatory Approach to Educating for Sustainable Development in a South African Higher Education Institution Yielding Social Learning Indicators

A principle of sustainable development is that environmental matters are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens. The UN has identified a gap between innovative teaching and learning methods and a participatory approach at institutions of higher education (IHE) to support interdisciplinary action. This paper shares the learning experiences of pre-service teacher students who took part in a participatory approach to educating for sustainable development in a South African IHE. A survey research design was used to collect the data from a large group (n = 376) of students over one semester. A qualitative research approach used the compulsory module's teaching and learning tasks as intervention. Narratives were completed in groups upon completion of the module. This research established that when including a participatory approach in teaching and learning in an education for sustainable development (ESD) module at a South African IHE social learning indicators (learning, critical thinking, problem solving and dealing with conflict) emerged and students used their different perspectives when reasoning to participate collaboratively to work toward resolving environmental issues. The significance of this paper is that social learning indicators have been identified in multidisciplinary pre-service teaching and learning in a developing country when using a participatory approach in a higher education ESD module.