Mainstreaming Education for Sustainable Development in Botswana: A Case Study Research of Teacher Education Institutions

Sammanfattning: The present paper is a case study research that explores how different teacher education institutions in Botswana have worked towards the infusion of Education for Sustainable Development pedagogy and content in the curriculums of pre-service teachers. The main purpose of the research was to understand what elements promoted or inhibited the development of ESD change project by educational institutions. Combing the theory of change, the theory of human capability, the theory of social learning and the theory of transformative learning, a theory-based evaluative tool was developed and used to analysis data obtained through a variety of data sources. The results indicate that there are a number of crucial elements that enable a successful implementation of ESD in teacher education institutions in Botswana, namely: the educators’ ability to foster transformational pedagogies in the classroom, and their capacity to understand the different approaches that are inherent to the concept of ESD, their capacity to strategically plan for change and the wider institutional context for this implementation. Importantly, this research also provides some cues as to how the further implementation of ESD can be guided in teacher training.