Abstract
M.Ed.
This thesis follows the Grade 7-9 teachers at the three Middle schools at the Temba District of Bojanala East Region in the North West Province about their lesson planning to include an Environmental Education focus. Environmental learning principle of the NCS (R-9) has been used to trace teachers’ understanding, knowledge and skills about the “environment”, as well as to check their level of compliance with the NCS as a prescribed policy for their teaching practices.
The use of the NCS as an Outcomes- Based Education and Training approach in teaching assisted me to get a clear indication of the situation that prevailed at the schools that were sampled with regard to the recontextualisation of environmental learning.
The study acknowledged that the situation at schools was found to have been entrenched and influenced by the past socio-historical, socio-political, the cultural and traditional realities that have infiltrated into the curriculum approaches and hindered the existence of opportunities for best Environmental Education practices.
Teachers on the ground level were found to not have sufficient knowledge of what Environmental Education is all about. It was found that they lacked the basic background information about the environment itself. They are faced with situations where classes are overcrowded, with no community involvement in school activities. Added to these challenges is the reluctance on the part of the national and local education bodies to provide teachers with the necessary support. Teachers are as a result, not coping with these appalling circumstances surrounding them and proper Environmental learning thus becomes a thing they are unable to deal with.
This study recommended that teachers’ skills be harnessed for effective and progressive teaching. The Department of Education was urged to take a step to initiate a collaborative change in attitude of both the school communities and the government by providing the necessary support to teachers, as well as to allocate to schools budgets and resources to assist them to cope with the demands brought about by the new policies they are supposed to implement.
The implementation of the recommendations of this thesis will bring about systematic change in attitude and behaviour, with simultaneous social change in values, as well as direct management from national and local bodies.