This course is designed for foundation phase educators who want to improve sustainability practices in their classroom. It delves into promoting healthy soil, different types of soil, and how teachers can use the topic of Soil Fertility to address socio-ecological challenges in the classroom and ensure classroom uptake of real-world issues of concern.

The course takes a holistic approach, combining natural and social sciences, technology, indigenous wisdom, and daily practices. It promotes critical understanding of both the societal and environmental realms. It is designed specifically to inspire indigenous wisdom and community engagement among teachers, and it prompts practical, curriculum-aligned initiatives for students. The goal is to instill in teachers a deep sense of pride, curiosity, and appreciation for the richness and significance of African heritage. This, in turn, lays the groundwork for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and transformative classroom learning experiences.

Course Structure

The short course is structured as follows:

  • Introduction to a new sustainability-oriented topic that encourages alternative ways of being and seeing in the world. A short quiz follows each introduction to help you to establish whether you are grasping the essence of each topic.
  • Video and reading material which builds on indigenous knowledges and cultural practices to reflect from past, to present and future in local contexts while exploring important foundational concepts in the Life Skills curriculum.
  • Practical classroom activities that explore and expand on the indigenous knowledges and cultural practices introduced above.
  • A final assessment task and quiz to be completed and submitted online, evaluating your understanding and application of the course material.

Course Assessment

In this course, you will be required to finish both a quiz and an assessment task. Ensure that you submit your assessment task online. If you belong to a tutor group, please remember to additionally forward a copy of your assessment task to your course facilitator.

How to get around:

Below is a breakdown of this course and your progress. Click ‘expand’ to see each unit. You can click on each of these links to access the different pages (sessions) or use the “Next session” or “Previous session” to move through the module.

To start, click “Healthy Living: Soil Fertility” below.

Once you have completed a session, click the green “Mark Complete” button before moving on to the next session, and you’ll see your progress bar reflect your movement.

If you ever get lost, there is a menu on your left, another when you hover over your name in the top right corner (this will appear once you start a unit), and you can find your way to the ‘Home’ page by clicking on the Fundisa for Change logo in the top left corner.

The course and materials were designed and developed by Rob O’Donoghue, Ingrid Schudel and Wilma van Staden. Artwork was created by D Design.