Alon.Serper@nmmu.ac.za 

Earth Stewardship Science Pedagogic Practices at Ontologically Transforming

and Empowering African Students

Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute

My latest writings on education

• www.nmmu.academia.edu/AlonSerper

• www.connect.nmmu.ac.za/Blogs/Developing,-Problematizing-and-Testing-An-Applied

The Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute

The institute is a research and educational environment which seeks toconsilient practical and theoretical interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding that can sustain and improve the prosperity of the planet and the wellbeing and quality of life of its inhabitants, both humans and non-humans

and change, reverse and qualitatively transform the damage done to the continent and planet by history and humankind.

The Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute ContThe institute stands on four pillars:

1.scientific understanding of symbiotic, complex Earth-Life systems,

2. psychological, sociological, anthropological, ethical, and moral understanding of the human condition, 3. historical, ontological and philosophical analysis and understanding of humanity, the world and the planet 4. economic, political, and legal understanding of human society, in particular the dominant globalized economy of neo-liberalism,

with its well-oil propaganda and indoctrination machine and political influence on the state and ideologies and educational and political practices.

Pedagogic aimsWe seek to create an environment where the young people of South Africa can develop the necessary competence to become autonomous critical thinkers and active and constructive citizens of both the planet and a participative democracy of and for all in dignity, humanity, justice, wellbeing, empowerment, fulfilment and equality

Powerful, dignified, humanised and equal, participative citizens

who possess and embody the skills, knowhow, will and intention to

actively construct and transform these planet and democracy and their future and present in them

and resist attempts at indoctrinating them,

and their shifts into passivity, indifference and dehumanisation.

Pedagogic aims ContOur aim is to develop a clearer picture among students

of the connections between science and technology, economics, and historic and

current practices of dehumanisation, oppression, indoctrination, domination and exploitation.

All of which needs to be critically engaged with and analysed through trans-disciplinary enquiry, hands-on practices and exercises and dialogue and dialectical co-enquiry for qualitative transformation, students’ obtaining and exercising their autonomy, prosperity and wellbeing and improved and sustained future.

Our theory of educationEducation is an active ontological, epistemological and socio-cognitive practice and process of

Studying and understanding oneself and one’s world and life and to how to improve one’s life, human life and the world in which one lives

Not accepting and internalising constructs, ideas and meanings without scrutiny, engagement and deep analysis

Identifying, learning, forming, internalising and mastering attaining the right skills, tools, means, knowhow , conditions, and customs to

Study and engage with the world in which one lives

identify and understand, take care of, protect and develop oneself and one’s autonomy, interests, intentions, wellbeing, personal security, and future.

learn how to engage in productive relationships with other people and themselves in order to protect the shared human and ecological interests and needs to experience wellbeing, fulfilment and prosperity as citizens of the participative democracy of and for all in humanity, dignity, equality, humanity, wellbeing, fulfilment and empowerment and the planet

What education entailsThis learning of ontological socio-cognitive skills entails

developing, internalising and mastering the abilities of

critically reflecting on, analysing and re-evaluating one’s life, the world in which he or she lives in, his or her ontological being in and with the world and the linguistic constructs he or she is exposed to, uses and engages with and

identifying the meanings and implications of constructing wellbeing, good life and future, success, and a world in which one can lead such life and the basic concepts which appear in our discourse and life

It means learning to form alliances with other people on creating a world in which the vast majority of humanity can lead such a life for itself

It means learning and mastering the skills to work and dialogue with other people on complementing, validating, testing, developing and transforming these critical reflections, and working out such a world and testable public and accounts (theories) of how to do this

THE THEORY OF WHAT EDUCATION IS NOTAs a dialectician I need to establish what education is not for us in order to concretely deliver our understanding of it and fully convey to you what it is for us and define our meaning of education also by what it is not for us.

Education is not learning to satisfy the political, national, ideological and historical interests and intentions of others.

It is not to passively absorb and memorise prescribed input, ideas, explanations and positions and demonstrate this absorption and even understanding of it as this turns people into pawns in the service of other people, multinational corporations and cartels, ideologies, values and practices.

It is not to passively heed and yield to and accept obediently what you are told or read

This is indoctrination and dehumanisation of human beings

Education must set indoctrination as its nemesis in order to assume, establish and fulfil itself. It must move away from indoctrination and the two must be interrelated dialectically and be studied, enquired into and understood so that education can distance itself from indoctrination and reverse and transform it as an undesired anti-thesis shifted to its intended thesis.

Present day educationEducation at this present age is morphing into indoctrination

The students are little more than retrieving and transmitting machines of programmed information and prescribed syllabus and theories (explanations) of the world, humanity and their future at exam time. This is the focus and modus operandi of an education that is imposed by the present age of success, ratings, and the survival, wellbeing, prosperity of educators, institutions, students, politicians and education being determined by the passing rates of exams.

The meanings and ratings of success is being determined by the passing rates of exams and exam-results of internalising imposed curriculum and not by the ontological transformation of students into more fulfilled, confident and autonomous beings who can go out to the world and construct a fulfilling and productive future for themselves and explain how to do so using scholarly, testable, public theories

Students are provided fixated constructs (like “common law” in law) and theories of personality, psychology, philosophy are that they receive and internalise and submit and recalled at examinations without critical engagement in accordance with their relevance to thw world in which he/she lives and his/her advancement and development and the advancement and devel;opment of the world, society and life in which he/she lives. Students are not being trained to critically engage with information and reconstruct and transform it to suit their needs, interests and their construction of their future and the future of the planet and to construct their own theories of what they do, how they do it , and why.

Linguistic constructs are discussed without critical engagement as if their meaning is clear, accepted and integrated part of discourse.

European, English and American are considered superior and better ways of achieving success than African. Still they are foreign and external and imposed in the name of and for success and improving the lives of disadvantaged Africans.

Changing Present day education Rather than being assessed according to their retrieval of

prescribed information, the assessment needs to be according to their ontological transformation as and into more autonomous, critical, engaging, questioning and interrelating human agents

Human agents who can heuristically enquire into themselves, their world, the planet, their lives and future and develop their own explanations of how to improve in practice their lives and the prosperity of the planet.

The assessment must follow, engage with and re-evaluate their development, mastering and internalising ─ over time, in different contexts and through exercises, activities, actions and practices - of the skills, knowhow and conducts to do so and become so. The ontological becoming is in action and learning to act, and resist being passive, subservient and dehumanised and indoctrinated by others.

Ontology and ontological becoming is an autonomous activity that is supported, encouraged and helped rather than passively done and acted upon

This is our theory, values and belief systems

Still ─ How do we implement them as praxes - what do we do about and with them in practice and action?

IPHAKADE PROGRAMMEThe Iphakade, the flagship programme of the institute

It means - Observe the present and consider the past to ponder the future

It aims at ontologically transforming Africa from being

a neglected part of the planet that is discarded from global models,

as is presently often the case due to lack of observational data and intellectual capital.

into An important part of the planet

and its global models

Issues• How do we enable disadvantaged African students to gain and internalise the confidence and skills to construct, develop, test and convey their own testable and validated theories (accounts, explanations) of how to improve the quality of life of human beings and Africans and to stop being passive recipients of theories of Africa, what is best for Africa, humanity and the world

Issue We want to close the historical gap and have Africans with degrees, qualifications, professional training, in the elite

We tell children that their way to succeed is study hard, get degrees and qualification, go to university, study hard We standardise the degrees and institutionalised education with the rest of the world, most importantly with the lead countries, Europe and the U.S.

So we focus on that

We separate this from ontological explorations

Who am I? Why am I? What makes me me? Where do I live? What makes up where I live? How have I become who I am?

What do I want? Am I happy with what I receive and do where I am going? Where am I?

Am I happy where I am? What can be done and I do to be happier where I am?

ProblemThe students refrain from combining their ontology (their life and being in and with the world), their emotions, desires and personal experiences, their knowledge, history and psychology as disadvantaged African students with the need to construct and convey scholarly public, testable accounts of what this ontology means and how to transform being disadvantaged into world being constructors of theories of how to transform being disadvantaged to being empowered and active in transformation of ontology and worldThey separate this ontology from the practice of constructing and conveying theories (public accounts and explanations) that work out a way of changing and transforming this ontology and creating a better world and life for the disadvantaged students turned theorists and ask peers to critically engage with these accounts, test them and develop themThey see the ontological and epistemological act of constructing theories of the world and how to improve human quality of life, the world and its prosperity as an external, outside and alien, or foreign, thing that is not embodied within their ontology or embodied, built-in, within their cognition They have problems creating and conveying their own theories of the world and Africa to be added to and transform the existing body of knowledge They prefer, or it is preferred for them, to passively receive, internalise and submit external theories that were constructed by scholar theories that they bare taught in class and asked to read for exams

Construction of strong, public and testable theories must be made part of human cognition and the ontology of being human

AnswersWe need to convey to the African students the message that every person in the world, as part of the/his/her ontology of being a person in the world, should be able to form his or her own ideas and theories (explanations, public accounts) of the world in which he or she lives and to contribute to the public knowledge of the world and to the issue how to improve it and the quality of life of its inhabitants from his or her ontological enquiries, engagement with theories and ideas and co-enquiring with other people

And not be passive followers and implementers of Western, Eurocentric and American suggestions as for what is good for Africa and Africans, how to solve the problems of Africa, and how to improve the prosperity of the planet.

Which means not being a complete person

A complete person should and must be able to convey to the world his/her theories of how to improve his/her life and the world in which humanity lives, based on his/her understanding, critical engagement with the world, the practice and phenomenon of living in it, and various theories (explanations) of it by other people who study and live it

We, who have been trained in the art of scholarship, what is a strong theory, need to work with them on strengthening their theories of the world in which they live and study and engage with by very gently asking questions, and asking them to formulate [more and more] questions

We need to serve as the intentionality of the theories which is an audience that is not the constructors of the theories, that seeks to understand the theory, make use of it and engage with it. As such we ask for elaborations, focusing on the strength of the theory as something for other people to critically and scholarly engage with and adapt in and for their own learning about the world, and on presenting it as public theory for others to critically engage with, test and refute (Popper) and add to.

We need to communicate to African students their moral duty as human beings and citizens of the planet and world to convey to the world their theories of what is Africa, what is their ontology and experiences, learning and embodied knowledge and lives as the inhabitants of Africa, what the future of Africa needs to be, how to solve problems and transform them.

If not them then who? Foreigners who do not know and live the situations, realities and their the subtleties? Those foreigners can ask questions and seek information as external observers and critical engagers and open the Africans to ideas and possibilities they have not entertained as they were part of the realities and the words theorised.

How

We need to provide spaces and opportunities for the internalisation of the scholarly skills of

• critical thinking, debunking, deconstruction and reconstruction of ideas and constructs,

• formulation of questions that can open up enquiries and co-enquiring and lead to series of more questions and more answers

• Critical reflection and enquiries into on defining events, embodied knowledge, views and experiences and the ideas, thinking and reading of others

• Dialogue with others that complement and push forward the ideas of individuals into stronger explanations

• Providing and receiving social validation• How to engage and not alienate other people

• We need to draw on their ontology, personal experiences, passion, anger, frustration, hope and eagerness and enable them to embody these in their construction of public, scholarly, testable,, theories of the world and continent for others to critically engage with

How• We very gently and carefully use constructive tension and combine emotionally charged events with the construction of scholarly, well-argued, theories (public accounts of phenomena, actions, life, world and events) that could be tested and refuted (Popper’s method of validating theories),

• The tension is used by dialectically holding contradictions together, making sense of the contradictions and working out how to use the tension constructively for the use of a strong theory, or public account, building up and releasing tension very carefully and gently

How• We need to enable the students to realise that the

constructs we use in our discourse are linguistic entities that could and should be debunked and deconstructed and reconstructed and redefined, and that everything we use is a linguistic construct with history, emotions, experiences, ontology, psychology and economics that could be revised by people and made better for people to live in in the present and future.

This is done• according to critical reflection and co-enquiries on and into

their meanings, • reading extensively on the constructs, • discussing the reading with peers• formulating questions that open up and encourage doubt,

enquiries and dialectical dialogue • critical engagement with people‘s theories ideas, • enabling, holding, fusing and making sense of and engaging with

contradictory ideas, • critical reflection on one’s personal experiences and

knowledge, the ideas of others, the comments of others, reading, discussions of reading

• critically engaging with contradictory ideas,

• This will enable the students to be free, autonomous and critical agents, to resist indoctrination and passivity and to construct and convey their ideas, accounts (theories) and ontologies and embodied knowledge in the form of testable public theories of the world and Africa, first to their peers and then to the world

We engage

• What does this linguistic construct and idea mean?

• what constructed it as what it is (history)?

• Is this construct best for the wellbeing, lives and quality of life of those living this construct today?

• What could be better for the people who live this construct?

• How do we reconstruct and improve on this construct?

Spaces – where it is taking placeSo far I am using my research teaching and work moodle site to engage researchers, students and staff  athttp://learn.nmmu.ac.za/course/view.php?id=1413  websites like http://connect.nmmu.ac.za/Blogs/Developing,-Problematizing-and-Testing-An-Applied.aspx http://mysite.nmmu.ac.za/aserper/ All social media

We are working on electronic online spaces for the Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute to use on students mobile phones etc

ExampleMarch 2015

•Students’ see offense in and protest against the commemoration of John Cecile Rhodes, a colonialist who was instrumental in the development of British imperial policies in Southern Africa, expanding British control and misplacing Africans from their homes, with statues and the name of a leading south African university. Emotions and tension run high. Why not use this constructively for the ontological reflection.

•It becomes a good pass time to protest, carry out provocative acts, occupy administrative buildings and make demands . Emotions fire up.

•However, there is the dialectical contradiction that they live in colonialist constructs – the Berlin conference, nation states of many ethnicities, tribes, languages, clans, etc., political borders that were determined and established by their colonialists.

•And yet they attack the symbols, made of bronze, of historical and political events, ideologies and actions that led to them living the life that they live where they live it.

•This can lead to interesting discussions of colonialism, and where do we move forward.•The discussion is brought to induce critical thinking, constructive co-enqurires, and clear arguments of individuals’ explanation and ideas.

•We use the discussion to enable the students to construct, develop, test and convey their own testable scholarly public theories (accounts) of their world, ontology and psychology. It is using a lever that can lead the most passive student into action and engagement and construct his or her own accounts of the world and life.

Aim

• The aim is to engage African students in thinking, critical engagement with ideas, reading and dialogue that draw on current events and seek to construct novel possibilities, test and develop them.

• The aim is also to co-construct, test and develop scholarly, public and testable, theories with and for peers in a dialectical dialogue that aims to convey and engage with embodied knowledge, understanding, research and explanations of the world, human lives and living in the world and improve and transform theories, actions and the world

ExampleWe address the studentsAs emotions run high over the Rhodes, the status and name, let us think of the colonialist constructs that we live in and where do we move to.

We tell the students

•you use the linguistic terms South Africa, Southern Africa, Zimbabwe , Africa, colonialism, pan Africanism, Rhodes, the British empire, the Boers.

•What do these terms mean? Aren’t you using colonialist constructs by referring to Africa, South Africa, your identity and where you live?

•Tension is held between the resistance and the strong feeling against colonialism and the European powers and the thought that the very constructs used, lived by and define the identity of those protesting are colonialist constructs.

So there is contradiction that the propositional logic and method of validation of Either Or and If…then must choose the most suitable explanation and reject the contradictory and alternative statements

However within the dialectical logic the contradictions are held together in order to find solutions and construct accounts or theories as for how to move things forward, release the tension and find and the most suitable solution which is…

•You say, I am a proud African in 2015. Still, I am living in a continent and a country that politically and historically are a European construct (the Berlin conference). What do I feel about it? How do I live with this tension? What do I about it? How do I move forward and construct a future that enables me to constructively release this tension and live a good, fulfilling, productive and meaningful life as me, my community and the people I care about? What are the attempts to move away from the Berlin conference. Please write an/your account of this issue for your peers to engage with.

•  •  

Action

The aim is to think, critically engage with and analyse information , and co-enquire with other people on information and the construction, testing, evaluation and development of new ideas and explanations

• What is Africa?• What is Africa to me?• What is South Africa?• What is South Africa to me?• Where is Africa? What do I see as Africa? Where is

Africa to me? What does make Africa what it is to me? sub-Sahara, from the Sahara onwards, from the Suez Canal and the red sea onwards, between the Atlantic and the Indian oceans, why is that?

• When were the constructs “Africa” and “Sub-Africa” put together, by whom?, what are those words mean? Why? What was there before?

• Are they the best constructs for today's world and the flourishing of those who live in these constructs?

• What are the best constructs for the inhabitant of the constructs?

• What are the alternatives to the "Africa" and "South Africa" constructs

•  

Aim

• These seem to be very innocent and straightforward questions. The aim is to show that everything, every innocent linguistic construct, is laden with complexity, tension, debates, history, politics, anthropology, psychology, emotions, human experiences and emotions, present and future direction.

•  There are• history, politics, geography, geo-sciences,

linguistics, languages anthropology, psychology, sociology, science, etc

How is it done• This is done trans-disciplinarily and combine

ideas from history, politics, geography, geo-sciences, linguistics, economics, languages, anthropology, psychology, sociology, science, etc.

•  • Reading lists are offered by the participants to

carry out these enquiries.  Reading groups are led by the participants, facilitated by a facilitator who is most interested in those issues and who offers the reading material. Individuals collaborate and co-enquire together, and continuously reflect on what is happening in the reading group and how to make it most effective epistemologically, educationally and ontologically.

• Discussion of the questions. How are they for the discussion of what kind of ‘world and society we want to live in and create

• Further questions – what questions

• Students take on the discussion. The institute focuses on providing the students with confidence and skills to be active constructors of ideas and theories and move away from passivity, self-doubt, lack of confidence and insecurity.

Implementation

• The students question each other and refute each other’s ideas. They learn to do this in a scholarly and constructive manner that leads to attempts to respond to constructive challenges criticism and critiques in a manner that adds to the argument and strengthen the ideas. The process of social validation is reflected on by the students within an enquiry into how to make the social validation of most benefit to the construction and constructors of the theories.

Questions in the like of• How does the theory explains Africa, being Africans, what is needed to strengthen Africa and make it a better place for its inhabitants and the world/planet? How do personal experiences and critical reflections can be constructed and transformed into public testable accounts that can account for explanations?

Constructive Dialectical Tension• How do we create and sustain a constructive dialectical

tension that leads to critical reflection and engagement, testing and social validation and being focus on working on how to improve the quality of theories, epistemological, educational and ontological development and improving the quality of human life in and with the world whilst ensuring a constructive intellectual enquiry and ambience that enables the students to learn and develop?

• Being used to the propositional logic, people are used to eliminate tension in the construction of theories and knowledge. As soon as there is tension, ways are sought to eliminate it.

• The tension should be engaged with, explored and used heuristically.

• How is it to be used constructively to empower participants, their development and participation, a heuristic enquiry and epistemological, ontological and educational development and as a lever for learning, enquiry, development and dialerctical transformation?

Learning

• The students learn to construct accounts of the past, present and future of Africa, South Africa and how to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants

• They learn to test and develop their accounts within a social validation of their peers and to enable the social validation of the theories of their peers.

We show an example of deconstructing and reconstructing a linguistic construct that is

continuously used in our discourseI have a position as an editor in a publication houseI am using it to critically engage and explore linguistic constructs that are used again and again and became part of a discourse that continuously used in our everyday engagement

I am starting with the linguistic construct “transformation”, that is continuously used in South Africa, extend it to “qualitative transformation” and submit a call for papers for a book on “Qualitative Transformation: Meaning and Evaluation”.

A book of qualitative transformationIn my call I say that

Politicians, managers and administrators frequently talk of "transformation…What does “qualitative transformation” mean? How can we evaluate it? We need to explore “qualitative transformation” from different perspectives, research disciplines, and contexts. In this book, different authors from different disciplines and countries explore the meaning of “qualitative transformation.” Each author explains and evaluates “qualitative transformation” in terms of their own area of research and presents their own theories, evidence-based analysis, literature reviews, and methods. Each contribution will display situations, practices and lives in different countries and contexts and the values and commitments of different practitioners struggling to make a difference to humanity, their community and country, and the future of the world. This will be of value for readers who are interested in defining, debating and understanding “qualitative transformation” and to carry out their own research and practice in evaluating and bringing about qualitative transformation.

 

Evaluation and AssessmentThe progress of the students is evaluated according to

the quality of their transformation over time as self-confident and confident, committed, secure, fulfilled, independent, challenging, engaging, attentive, transforming and creative human beings and knowledge constructors and conveyors.

Evaluation and Assessment contWe compare the students’ achievements, performances, mastering of skills and knowledge with their past performances, socio-cognitive abilities and psychological wellbeing and look for learning and imply advancing from one point to another in terms of knowledge

which we take to be, skills, confidence, wellbeing, quality of life, progress and fulfilment

We look at the way they participate in discussions, form, shape and test creative ideas and contribute to the creativity, prosperity, fulfilment and learning of others.

We look at their active engagement and movement away from passivity and submissiveness and from being indoctrinated and dehumanised

into something (an object) that

others want them to be and to possess, dominate and exploit.

Evaluation and Assessment

We look at the process of their ontologically becoming critical thinkers, enquiring and challenging agents and constructors of knowledge.

We look at their confidence and ability to question and challenge ideas, positions and explanations.

We look at their confidence and ability to construct, clarify and test ideas, positions and explanations of different topics and subjects, the world, the planet, human existence and humanity and ecological and human phenomena.

We look at their way of doing this,

Evaluation and AssessmentWe look at whether it enables the opening up and transformation of other people, and knowledge, ideas and understanding,

or whether it is confrontational, and out-weights and shuts down and oppresses the ideas and creativity of others, and of ideas, knowledge and explanations, thereby preventing and hindering qualitative transformation.

We also look at the evolution of their ideas, awareness of the world, human and ecological events, transdisciplinary theories, and robust stewardship of our commons

over time and of themselves

as knowing and constructors of knowledge, understanding and explanations and accounts of the world, themselves, the planet, and humanity

This is a work in Progress

Findings• The dialectical tension needs to worked out by testing, reflection in and on practice and action

• Some people engage more

• Others are alienated by the dialectical tension

• I need to do the applied dialectics on the dialectics and the dialectical tension that will transform alienation and too much tension (counterproductive tension) to engagement and constructive tension