Abstract
Abstract : Since the Industrial Revolution, humankind has consumed and used the earth’s resources for its own gain, but at the expense of the earth’s biosphere (Maluleke, 2005; Govender, 2011). Such impacts did not go unnoticed within the realms of education. With the roots of Environmental Education can be traced back to the 18th century when Jean-Jacques Rousseau identified the importance of Environmental Education in that it is a learning area that focuses on the environment (Eneji et al., 2017). EE gained a significant boost in the 1960s and 1970s and gained a global platform in 1972. In 1972, Stockholm, hosted the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, from which emanated a declaration to the effect that EE should be imperative as a tool to ‘address global environmental problems’ (Eneji et al., 2017). Since the 1970s, there have been significant advances in technology: from advances in automation to the use of mobile cellular devices and computers that have become exponentially more efficient and mobile. In fact, the list of types of technologies which have been developed since the 1970s is endless (Blažek et al., 2017). They have had an impact on almost every economic sector of the globe, including the education sector (Courville, 2011). The marriage of technology and EE is a perfect tool to enhance the latter. However, the implementation of both within the schooling system is often notably slow, as in South Africa. In line with this, the state of environmental education and how technology is used for it is largely unknown within South Africa. In line with this, this study investigates the state of Environmental Education and the use of technology in Environmental Education in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase presented by Gauteng secondary schools of South Africa. For which data was collected from educators’ utilising a questionnaire survey and was analysed by means of a SWOT analysis. The study found that similar challenges are faced in the implementation of both EE and technologies such as GIS and ICTs into the school systems in South Africa as are faced in countries around the world including South Korea and Tanzania. With the largest barrier to their implementation being a lack of access to resources. However, respondents of the study have largely embraced EE and the potential it has in creating environmentally literate citizens.
M.Sc. (Environmental Management)