Public defence: Brita Phuthi

This doctoral thesis examines structural racism as major barrier to sustainability, and studies how this phenomenon is addressed in global education policy on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and the pedagogical practices of ten teacher educators in South Africa.

The study draws from and contributes to the field of Critical Sustainability Education (CSE) research and scholarly debates on education’s role towards social transformation. The overall theoretical framework of the thesis is grounded in critical theory, drawing on concepts that emphasise material, epistemological and emotional dimensions of structural racism and whiteness in education and society.

The thesis is a PhD by publication, consisting of a synopsis and three research articles:

• Article 1 analyses the pedagogical approaches of the teacher educators to critically examine structural racism, and how they relate this work to transformative learning and ESD. The analysis highlights the teacher educators’ critical approaches, and their use of pedagogies of discomfort - and love - in their work to educate justice-oriented teachers.
• Article 2 is a co-authored publication and draws on critical policy analysis to study how UNESCO’s Roadmap for the ESD for 2030 framework addresses structural racism and associated structural causes to unsustainability. The main finding is that the publication fails to mention racism, thereby silencing and disregarding it as an issue that ESD must address. It further argues that the Roadmap’s engagement with structural inequalities is limited and individualised and that the narrative of the document is anthropocentric.
• Article 3 draws on the interview data, including follow-up group interviews, and connect this to global policy initiatives. The paper focuses on barriers to social transformation, as shared by the critical teacher educators, extending to pedagogical strategies and measures needed to overcome these barriers up to and beyond 2030. The analysis identifies neoliberalism – closely tied to racism – as a major barrier, and highlights strategies to challenge its dominance through critical pedagogy. 

The findings across the three articles are presented and discussed in the synopsis – organized into three sections. First, the implications of the present absence of structural racism within ESD. Second, pedagogical approaches to critically examine structural racism, highlighting emotions (discomfort and love) as a resource. The final part discusses how education can be reimagined or rediscovered to contribute to fundamental transformations based on equality and just sustainability - building on Freire’s concept of critical hope.