Towards achieving Innovation through mainstreaming Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Quality Higher Education the Southern African Perspective

The purpose of this article is to establish the challenges of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) on Quality education and education for sustainable development, focusing on four universities in the Southern African SADC region. The study draws on the critical realist theory of structure, culture and agency theoretical view point to understand the implementation of sustainable development goal 4 on quality higher education. Specifically, it examines the structural, cultural and agential conditions in higher education that constrain or enable the achievement of quality higher education. This study is conducted using a qualitative research approach with an interpretive epistemological and constructivist ontological perspective. The research findings are analysed through thick descriptions and the element of voice in the text. The interpretive paradigm enabled the researchers to see, hear and understand the particular meaning making inherent in peoples’ lives within their institutions. This paper has practical implications for higher education institutions seeking to achieve quality teaching and learning for sustainable development and lifelong learning. Its findings show that higher education curriculum and pedagogy need to be reoriented to address issues of quality and lifelong learning. Our study is one of the studies in Africa to examine issues of lifelong learning, quality and education for sustainable development specifically in the Southern African Region and context of higher education. It is one of the first studies to explore the provision of higher education and addressing key targets of sustainable development goal 4 and its targets to be achieved by 2030. The study forms part of the broader theoretical and methodological debate on the use and application of the realist theory in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)