Transformative Learning for Global Change? Reflections on the Wascal Master Programme in Climate Change and Education in the Gambia

Abstract

African universities could be appropriate settings to start a process of creative rethinking about alternative economic and climate-friendly development pathways that lead to socially inclusive growth and the alleviation of poverty. Education, capacity building, and a transformative learning agenda have come into academic and political focus. This chapter begins with a brief conceptual overview of the current research and work streams on climate change communication and education, followed by an introduction to climate change activities in The Gambia that sets the stage for an empirical examination of a master programme training West African students in ‘Climate Change and Education’ at the University of The Gambia. The findings illustrate practical challenges, students’ backgrounds and motivations, contestations over the curriculum, as well as the university’s restricted bargaining power due to its dependency on a single foreign donor. While embracing inter- and transdisciplinarity, the transformative learning agenda called for by European scholars has not yet been taken up.