Abstract
M.Ed.
This study was influenced deeply by among other issues the current sociopolitical
reforms in South Africa, an overt paradigm shift in education and educational practices, growing concern for the environment and the need to empower teachers with environmental education knowledge, action competencies and skills through participation in curriculum development activities at both local and national level. The main aim was to uncover barriers towards the meaningful involvement and subsequent participation of teachers in environmental education curriculum development processes. This was done by determining teachers' perceptions about involvement in environmental education
curriculum development processes. The literature review in this study revealed that teachers have been passive recipients and implementers of externally developed curricula both in South Africa and world-wide. No significant open-ended strategies have been formulated to involve teachers in curriculum development. The use of both the
questionnaire and group interviews for this study proved to be very useful for providing insights into teachers' perceptions about the issue of curriculum development and their involvement in such processes. Several obstacles towards successful environmental education curriculum development and the subsequent involvement of teachers have been highlighted. The findings and recommendations of this research are expected to help elevate teachers' interest and awareness on issues of curriculum development for
environmental education and to enable them to realise the need to engage in
collaborative participatory curriculum initiatives. Based on the findings of this study, it can be argued that networking among environmental educators from various schools at local, provincial and national level, as well as with other informal environmental education providers should be encouraged by establishing appropriate policy and structural support systems in the Department of Education and Training. An appropriate model which highlights this idea, has therefore been developed.