Examining the zone of proximal development in learning and development for climate mitigation

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates a horticultural community's approaches to developing new farming practices to mitigate climate change induced food insecurity. Drawing on the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) from cultural-historical activity theory, the paper illustrates how the strong cultural and historical attachment to existing practices plays as significant a role as the intractability and unpredictability of the changing rainfalls in mediating community members' investment in new practices. The study suggests that what is perceived as 'safe,' materially and socially, is playing a central role in setting the boundary of their ZPD.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Chris Riedy, the sponsors of the lead researcher’s doctoral and post-doctoral studies and the research participants. We also acknowledge the support and insightful advice on the earlier version of the paper from our colleague Nick Hopwood, and the extensive and helpful feedback from the peer reviewers. We also acknowledge the funding support from the Australian Government Research Training Programme and the STEM Education Futures Research Centre at the University of Technology Sydney.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data supporting this article are available upon request from the corresponding author. Due to privacy issues, the data may not be made public to protect the identity of the research participants.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Interview transcripts have been translated from Shona to English.

2. Engestrom and Sanino (2021) have proposed a “fourth” generation CHAT (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10749039.2020.1806328) which acknowledges the possible limitations of the earlier versions of CHAT to resolve wicked problems. Because climate change is undeniably a wicked problem imbued with uncertainties and conflicting interests from a wide range of stakeholders, the current study may well benefit from examination from the additional lens of the fourth generation CHAT.

3. To protect the identity of research participants, all names used in this article are pseudo names.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by funding by the Australian Government Research Training Programme and the STEM Education Futures Research Centre at the University of Technology Sydney.