RCE Capacity Development and ESD

RCE capacity development as a process…. Work in RCE together to produce a framework has allowed participants to share and clarify what each is working on as equal partners, allowing the development of a shared vision which is both integrating and real, producing an identity as a unit and carrying this forward in projects to develop a widening community of practice, this being an open mechanism of capacity building for re-orientation to sustainability

Elaboration on student participation… Open access produces a multi-disciplinary ethos where students become equal partners gaining experience and expanding their learning. Students documenting the process and reflecting stories back widens understanding and capacity in RCE Here tracking and improvement systems are a useful critical mechanism for growing capacity and working with people in an area and on real issues is important for positive impact Open work together with evidence is important for transparency and accountability. Participation is rewarded with publication credits, published and accumulated on RCE reporting portal documenting RCEs over time and proving useful for tracking of change.

Working with stories to build capacity… Stories can be useful as enquiry-based resources for a vision of participation to open up new directions and ESD. Case records and booklets written out of experience were useful here. These were also used to scaffold and support new participants and those orientating to ESD Attempts to define indicators are tough and not yet convincing so ESD best practice is not yet clear Still having this conversation should remain on the engagement agenda for capacity development

More on practice producing capacity Having a plan is ok but often we have to focus on what we can do It is real life and extending to social and economic and producing freedoms Footprints reduced with handprints through practical engagement produces learning that is inspired by eachother and is both creative and practical as an example of co-engagement in positive change. A capacity is build from awareness in action like planting trees and extending to addressing climate change in practical ways

Extensions as capacity is produced Agreed problem-identification by members can be done to produce a baseline for elevated and clarified levels of engagement in change-practices Here lasting projections seem to be enhanced by involvement, depth of recording, developing content narratives and work with data and indicators Extending to policies and regulations (both self and external) is important, enabling the emergence of self-advocacy that is important opening new and creative ways of doing things

On retaining an open vision … Taking capacity to scale is difficult to contemplate Differing people have differing learning pathways to open up sustainability possibilities and their developing story of change one participant stared with music and another with labels on products, for example. Starting points differ and capacity is emergent in ways in which a group grows to know and do things together

With some qualifiers…….. Face-to-face is critical as is time but these can be scarce. Diversity of opinion on priorities can be challenge as there are many and contesting visions on what is important and how things should be done Open partnering can be disruptive in a partnership where people come and go Additional work, roles and responsibilities are onerous in busy lives Volunteer partnering can be particularly loose leading to uneven reporting and breaks in continuity and engagement Oh that funding does not always seem to raise its ugly but balance- producing and challenging visage to seemingly limit what is possible but We in RCE have capacity to live and work together in hope and in positive determination to use and produce capacity as we learn to live in more sustainable ways, together