Building capacity for green, just and sustainable futures – a new knowledge field requiring transformative research methodology
AbstractEducation has contributed to a society-wide awareness of environmental issues, and we areincreasingly confronted with the need for new ways to generate energy, save water andreduce pollution. Thus new forms of work are emerging and government, employers andeducators need to know what 'green' skills South Africa needs and has. This creates a newdemand for 'green skills' research. We propose that this new knowledge field – like someother educational fields – requires a transformative approach to research methodology. Inconducting reviews of existing research, we found that a transformative approach requires areframing of key concepts commonly used in researching work and learning; multi-layered,mixed method studies; researching within and across diverse knowledge fields includingnon-traditional fields; and both newly configured national platforms and new conceptualframeworks to help us integrate coherently across these. Critical realism is presented as ahelpful underpinning for such conceptual frameworks, and implications for howuniversities prepare educational researchers are flagged.