ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses prevalent environment and sustainability issues and risks in Africa and particularly in the southern African region. The role of higher education institutions in mainstreaming these environmental and sustainability concerns in African universities is emphasized. This chapter explores the transfactual theory, i.e. assumption that there is a link between the positions of university educators, their practices and effective/ineffective achievement of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) mainstreaming in universities. The chapter draws on Archer’s morphogenetic approach and Bhaskar’s position-practice system as frameworks to explore and analyze the above. It focuses on an International Training Programme (ITP) on ESD in Higher Education, initiated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in phase two of the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African (MESA) University Partnership programme as a broader case context, with the University of Botswana as a specific case. The chapter argues and shows that the position-practice system of university educators before, during and after their participation in change-oriented professional development training programmes on ESD, has significant influence on the mainstreaming of ESD into universities and beyond. This case study has revealed that in addition to individual and corporate changes in positions and practices influencing ESD mainstreaming positively, there is evidence of national and regional social-ecological influence. The chapter also provides a framework for guiding analysis of other cases, from which it will then be possible to see if the assumption guiding the programme (or the transfactual theory) is consistent across a wider range of contexts and cases.
