Exploring civic learning and sustainability competencies in school community projects using variation theory

Abstract

This study examines patterns of systems, normative, and strategic thinking competencies for sustainability education within the South African Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) Youth Citizen Action Programme (YCAP) evident in learners’ engagement with varied real-world social contexts. The study responds to increasing calls for educational approaches that focus on sustainability and move beyond abstract knowledge transmission towards experiential learning rooted in communities. Drawing on variation theory and Wiek et al.’s [1] framework for sustainability education, the study explores how learners demonstrate sustainability competencies through guided, community-based learning by completing school community projects. A qualitative research design was adopted, anchored in a social constructivist epistemological orientation. The dataset comprised 31 purposively selected YCAP projects constructed between 2021 and 2024 by primary- and secondary-school learner teams across several South African provinces. The projects documented learners’ processes of identifying community problems, designing, and implementing interventions, and reflecting on social impact. Thematic analysis, guided by an inductive coding process and deductive interpretation, was adopted to analyze the projects as socially produced texts, reflecting learners’ interactions with peers, mentors, communities, and the YCAP toolkit, which demonstrate competencies for sustainability, namely systems, normative, and strategic thinking. Four key themes emerged from the analysis, namely systems thinking for understanding interconnected problems, problem-solving competency through solution design, learning through real-world civic action, and civic responsibility and learner agency. For example, while some learner teams addressed food insecurity by creating community vegetable gardens, others responded to gender-based violence through awareness campaigns and collaboration with local stakeholders, illustrating how learners applied systems, normative, and strategic thinking in response to different community challenges. At both primary and secondary school levels, the projects demonstrated learners’ ability to identify interconnected social challenges, develop contextually relevant interventions, critically evaluate their experiences, and engage as active participants within their communities. The study contributes to sustainability education scholarship by demonstrating how civic learning environments rooted in communities can function as pedagogical spaces where school learners express sustainability competencies. By applying variation theory to school community projects, the study provides insight into how systems, normative, and strategic thinking emerge through engagement with varied real-world contexts. The study shows that sustainability education can extend beyond the classroom through school community projects that engage learners with real social problems. Their educational value, however, depends on carefully designed opportunities for variation, reflection, collaboration, and critical evaluation rather than participation alone.