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 context in developing countries is that of sustainability, that is, the degree to which change is embedded in practice once the agency has left. As consultants working with advisory teachers (ATs) in Lesotho our contention is that to be sustainable, change in ATs' practice should be a product of their thinking rather than an uncritical adoption of western practice. To understand the impact of our work on sustainability we developed an approach to evaluation which we termed ‘envisioning’. It is suggested that the rationale underpinning envisioning explored in this paper will help agencies involved in similar work.