Dipane Hlalele has sent the report below on the annual Sustainable Rural Learning Ecologies Colloquium held on 29-31 October 2014 at the Qwaqwa campus of the University of the Free State. This is the third time the colloquium has been held at the Qwaqwa campus.

The October 2014 colloquium attracted 95 presentations from scholars across Africa and other parts of the world including Australia. The abstracts from Keynote Speakers provided by Dipane and also featured below, point to the range, variety, and depth of these presentations which raised fundamental questions about learning in rural areas.

I particularly liked the reflections on personal experience by Professor Mabokang Mapesela who developed the theme of turning the tide of disadvantage into an opportunity for development. Lebusa Monyooe addressed the theme of the colloquium "Sustainable Rural Learning Ecologies:Border Crossing" by relating this theme back to words of Nelson Mandella : "Seize the time to define ourselves, what we want to make of our shared destiny."

There is a paper by Dipane on "Creating Sustainable Rural Learning Ecologies in South Africa" among the documents of the PASCAL Connecting Urban and Rural Learning Network. These ideas about sustainable rural learning ecologies have very much to contribute to the work of this PASCAL Network.

Sustainable rural learning ecologies colloquium, 29-31 October 2014

Sustainable rural learning ecologies (SuRLEC) colloquium once again provided space for dissemination of research on the theme: Sustainable Rural Learning Ecologies: Border crossing with a view to traversing what more can be done in respect of sustainability in rural learning ecologies. We are of the view that even though some ground has been covered to profile rural learning ecologies as sustainable spaces that require the reciprocal assistance of social justice, resilience, sustainability and development, more research needs to be undertaken. Ninety five presentations were made by scholars from South Africa and other parts of the world, including Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Senegal, Australia, United States of America, Trinidad and Tobago.

One of the exciting moments was when a dedicated poem (attached hereto) was presented to the delegates.
The colloquium sought to unleash positive and powerful untold stories about rurality and rural education. Barter (2008) suggests the need for dialogue that leads to further conceptual understanding about rural schools and rural education, rural communities and rural learning ecologies. We envisage that the colloquium will address (but not limited to) the following subthemes:

• conceptual understanding of rural learning ecologies
• alternative epistemological and pedagogical approaches in teaching, leading, and learning are required for the benefit of rural learning ecologies
• rural schooling dynamics
• providing quality education in rural learning ecologies
• rural learning ecologies in a globalising world
• forging relationships between schools and their communities
• enhancing community development in rural learning ecologies
• border-crossing in the creation of sustainable rural learning ecologies
• rural-urban linkages

The colloquium has grown into an annual international event and was hosted for the third time at the Qwaqwa campus of the University of the Free State.

Dipane Hlalele