Projects members from South Africa in ToT session © Wits University
Building Capacity for Education for Sustainable Development
As part of the Erasmus+ project Sub-Saharan Africa Teacher Leadership for ESD (SSATL-ESD), a comprehensive Training of Trainers (ToT) programme has been organised to prepare institutional facilitators in implementing and scaling the Sustainability Starts with Teacher Leaders (SSTL) Online Course. The institutional facilitators refer to staff members in the partner universities who were trained through the Training of Trainers course in the first phase and will facilitate the online course on ESD Leadership for the peers in their institutions.
The Training of Trainers programme is aimed at strengthening the capacity of higher education institutions to embed Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) through leadership, collaboration, and institutional change initiatives in teacher education.
The course content has been developed jointly by Rhodes University and the Copperbelt University. The University of Namibia and Heidelberg University of Education organised the training bringing together forty teacher-trainers from the institutional partners of the project. Members from the following universities: University of Namibia and Namibia University of Science and Technology in Namibia, The Catholic University of Malawi and the University of Malawi in Malawi, University of Zambia and the Copperbelt University in Zambia, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Kenyatta University in Kenya, University of Witwatersrand and Rhodes University in South Africa attended the course.
The capacity building in the project followed a cascade learning approach combining individual learning, institutional collaboration, and international peer exchange.
In the first phase, each of the participating universities (see above) nominated four to five staff members working on ESD to further develop knowledge and skills on online moderation of ESD leadership course. In the following phase, which begins in May 2026, these trainers will support 40 participants from their institutions, guide them through the online course on ESD leadership, and co-develop change-oriented ESD initiatives within their institutions. This will build a cohort of 45 trainers and approximately 400 ESD leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Precourse workshop participants
The capacity building programme, organised over three months from November 2025 to March 2026 on Rhodes University’s Learn Dash system, enhanced the capacity of teacher trainers on ESD leadership and management of the online learning course and introduced the participants to the implementation of Change projects. Dr. Manoah Muchanga, a participant of the course from the University of Zambia, had this to say,
“I developed skills together with three other participants in delivering an online course and will take the teaching methods to our students, teacher educators, and lecturers in general at the University of Zambia and other colleges of education affiliated to the University of Zambia.”
Dr. Sirkka Tshiningayamwe from the University of Namibia who led the trainings, highlighted
“The course with a focus on ESD leadership in teacher education will serve as a bridge between Sub-Sahara African nations on SDG 4.7 through sharing, contextualising and fostering mutual learning on a very important topic of teacher leadership which is largely unaddressed in the field of ESD.”
On the occasion, the trainer from Heidelberg University of Education, Teresa Ruckelshauß, expressing excitement at the successful completion of Training of Trainers, highlighted that the course prepares the institutional trainers across the partner institutions for a multiplier effect and thus represents a key milestone in the SSATL-ESD project. She further highlighted that more insights about the participants’ experience will come through the evaluation of the training, which has been promptly initiated.
For more details about the course, please click here: https://course.sustainabilityteachers.org/courses/teacherleaders/
About the Sub-Saharan Africa Teacher Leadership for ESD Project
This project is led by Leuphana University and co-funded by the European Commission. The project makes an important contribution to SDG 4.7 through building capacity in teacher trainers on ESD leadership.
Should you have any further questions, please write to unescochair@leuphana.de
