Emerging Eco-Pedagogical Practices

Abstract

The paper explores how eco-pedagogical practices are emerging within a semi-rural primary school context in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, and how these practices can be understood through the lens of the Scholarship of Engagement (SoE). Rather than introducing a predefined intervention, the study reflects on existing school- and community-based activities related to food growing, water use, and ecological learning, examining how these practices are experienced, interpreted, and extended through engagement. The inquiry is situated within a broader international, multilateral research collaboration focused on climate resilience, Indigenous knowledge systems, and community-based learning. Within this wider ecosystem, the study represents an early-phase, context-specific exploration that contributes to a growing body of relational, practice-based knowledge. Methodologically, the work is informed by Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and Participatory Action Learning and Action Research (PALAR), with the university team working alongside educators, and community members as facilitators and co-learners. Engagement processes were organised through Action Learning Sets and a Key Advisory Set, enabling iterative reflection on practice through participatory visual, narrative, and curriculum-linked activities. Findings from this initial phase suggest that the school is functioning as an emerging eco- social anchor, where everyday practices of care, learning, and community interaction intersect. Learners, educators, and community members contribute to these practices in ways that support intergenerational knowledge exchange and locally grounded ecological awareness. The paper offers a reflective, empirically informed account of how eco-pedagogical practices can be recognised, supported, and conceptually framed within everyday schooling and community contexts. It contributes to ongoing discussions on engaged scholarship by illustrating how knowledge isco-constructed through practice, and how early-stage engagement processes can inform the development of contextually grounded eco-pedagogical approaches within broader collaborative learning systems.