Envisioning as a tool for promoting long-term sustainability in work with advisory teachers in Lesotho

An overarching concern of external agencies working in an educational conte xt in developing countries is that of sustainability, that is, the degree t o which change is embedded in practice once the agency has left. As consult ants working with advisory teachers (ATs) in Lesotho our contention is that to be sustainable, change in ATs' practice should be a product of their th inking rather than an uncritical adoption of western practice. To understan d the impact of our work on sustainability we developed an approach to eval uation which we termed 'envisioning'. It is suggested that the rationale un derpinning envisioning explored in this paper will help agencies involved i n similar work. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.