A growing body of research has emphasised the social processes by which teachers – who are curriculum policy implementing agents – are trained and supported on how to practically implement policies in the classroom. Yet, little attention has been paid to the factors that influence teachers’ interpretation of curriculum policy and how their understanding of policy implementation influences the ways in which they respond to policies. Some research has already been done on the implementation of curriculum policies in schools, with findings centred largely on the disjuncture between policy and practice. Research has also established that much of what teachers are doing in the classroom does not reflect policy. Although teachers have opportunities to enhance the implementation of policy, there are also factors that negatively influence their implementation of educational policy. This is basically because of the gap between the policy makers and the implementing agents. The lack of a shared understanding between these two stakeholders’ results in a perception of policy as a set of strict rules and procedures meant to be followed by teachers. This study aims to develop an understanding of what influences teachers in their attempts to implement the curriculum policy on environmental education in the classroom. The study further aims to gain an understanding, from the practitioners’ perspectives, of how policy implementation challenges their habitual patterns of teaching and schooling and whether, to them, this implementation seems to threaten the conventional disciplinary curricular structures of fixed timetables and depending on textbooks, and leaves little room for outdoor or hands-on activities. The focus on teachers is motivated by the fact that they are the primary curriculum implementers in schools and as such, are expected to play a significant role in implementing the curriculum according to policy. This study advocates an interdisciplinary approach to implementing environmental education policy in teaching and learning in the Natural Sciences. This entails environmental education becoming part of the curriculum, and being taught as a cross-curricula component. In this context, environmental education will form part of teaching and learning in every learning area of the curriculum for the General Education and Training band of the South African education system. What this means for teachers is that they have to integrate environmental concepts or topics within their respective learning areas, and that they have to follow a learner-centred approach that allows learners the opportunity to become active participants, responsible for their own learning. This implies that, for learners to develop knowledge, skills, and correct attitudes regarding the environment, teachers have to use available, local teaching materials or resources. As the classroom becomes free from traditional teaching styles, learners become active and take responsibility for their own learning. They discuss and share ideas with one another, and the teacher becomes the facilitator of the teaching and learning process. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

With the dawning of a new era in South African politics in 1994 it became evident that education was going to be re-organised along with other government structures in South Africa. I begin the study by reviewing this curriculum change in South Africa that has taken place since 1995. This involved the development Curriculum 2005 (C2005) and the subsequent revision of C2005, which is now the National Curriculum Statement (NCS). This curriculum introduced an environmental focus into all the Learning Areas, which gave teachers a mandate not only to teach about environmental concepts and issues (such as biodiversity) at schools but to also address them in the communities outside the schools. This study considers biodiversity issues as biodiversity is a new focus in South African policy more broadly, and particularly in the Natural Science Learning Area. Our school has received vegetable and indigenous plant gardens from the South African National Biodiversity Institute, which provides a rich new resource for teaching about biodiversity, particularly in the Natural Sciences. My interest in the study was to investigate how schools (teachers) can use school gardens in the recontextualisation of the National Curriculum Statements focusing on the Natural Science Learning Area in Grade 7 at my school. I used Bernstein’s (1990) concepts of delocation, relocation, ideological transformation and selective appropriation and Cornbleth’s (1990) theory of curriculum contextualization to understand and interpret the recontextualisation process in the four lessons studied. In this research I was involved in the planning of the lessons with the Grade 7 Natural Science teacher. I taught one lesson as a demonstration and then observed while the teacher taught the other three lessons. I conducted this study as an action research case study. I used focus group interviews, classroom observations, document analysis and interviews as methods of data collection. The study found that the use of school gardens for teaching biodiversity can help with the recontextualisation of NCS in schools, and for the teaching of biodiversity, but that there is a need to understand and address various recontextualisation issues if this is to be done effectively. The study revealed that use of the school gardens for learning about biodiversity in the NS Learning Area is influenced by teachers’ knowledge, experience, teaching styles and available resources, as well as management issues and the complexity of the NCS discourse itself. The study also revealed that socio-cultural and structural factors (e.g. language and class size) also affect how biodiversity is taught in schools, and thus how the recontextualisation of the NCS takes place. The study concludes by making recommendations for taking this work forward in the context of our school as it addresses the gap that exists between policy and practice.

This is a study on the nature of learning, particularly the emergence of active learning processes in the case of an environmental education teacher professional development programme – the Eastern Cape Border-Kei cohort of the 2008 Schools and Sustainability Course. This was a part-time, one-year course supporting teachers to qualify, strengthen and deepen opportunities for environmental learning in the South African curriculum. An active learning framework (O’Donoghue, 2001) promoting teaching and learning with information, enquiry, action and reporting/reflection dimensions was integrated into the Schools and Sustainability course design to support these environmental learning opportunities. In this study, the notion of active learning is elaborated as a situated, action-oriented, deliberative and co-engaged approach to teaching and learning, and related to Bhaskar’s (1993) notion of transformative praxis. The study used a nested case study design, considering the case of six Foundation Phase teachers in six primary schools within the Border-Kei Schools and Sustainability cohort. Interviews, observations (of workshops and lesson plan implementation in classrooms) and document review of teacher portfolios (detailing course activities, lesson plans, learners’ work and learning and teaching support materials) were used to generate the bulk of the data. A critical realist theory underpinning the methodology enables a view of agency as emergent from social structures and mechanisms as elaborated in Archer’s (1998b) model of morphogenesis and Bhaskar’s (1993) model of four-planar being. The critical realist methodology also enables a view of emergent active learning processes as open-ended, responsive to particular potential, but dependent on contingencies (such as learning and teaching support materials, tools and methodologies). The analysis of emergent active learning processes focuses particularly on Bhaskar’s (1993) ontological-axiological chain (MELD schema) as a tool for analysing change. The MELD schema highlights1M ontological questions of what is (with emphasis on structures and generative mechanisms) and what could be (real, but non-actualised possibilities). It enables reflection on what mediating and interactive agential processes either reproduce what is or have the potential to transform what is to what could be (2E). Thirdly, the MELD schema enables reflection on what should be – this is the 3L “axiological moment” (Bhaskar, 1993: 9) where questions of values and ethics in relation to the holistic whole are raised. Finally, the schema raises questions (4D) of what can be, with ontologically grounded, context-sensitive and expressively veracious considerations. The study describes the agency of course tutors, teachers and learners involved in the Schools and Sustainability course, as emergent from a social-ecological context of poverty and inequality, and from an education system with a dual transformative and progressive intent (Taylor, 1999). It uses a spiral approach to cluster-based teacher professional development (Janse van Rensburg & Mhoney, 2000) focusing on the development of autonomous (Bernstein, 1990) and reflexive teachers. With teachers well-disposed and qualified to fill a variety of roles in the classroom, these generative structures and mechanisms had the power to drive active learning processes with potential for manifestation as transformative praxis. Through the analysis of the active learning processes emergent from this context, the study shows that the manifestation of transformative praxis was contingent on relational situated learning, value-based reflexive deliberations, and an action-orientation with an emphasis on an iterative relationship between learning and doing. These findings enable a reframing of an interest in action in response to environmental issue and risk, to an interest in the processes that led up to that action. This provides a nuanced vision of active learning that does not judge an educational process by its outcome. Instead, it can be judged by the depth of the insights into absences (2E), the ability to guide moral deliberations on totality (3L), and by the degree of reality congruence (1M) in the lead up to the development of transformative agency (4D). The study also has a methodological interest. It contributes to educational and social science research in that it applies dialectical critical realist philosophy to a concrete context of active learning enquiry in environmental education. It reports on the value of the onto-axiolgical chain in describing a diachronic, emergent and open-ended process; in providing ontological grounding for analysis (1M); in understanding relationality in situated learing processes (2E); in focusing on value-based reflexive learning (3L) and in understanding transformative learning as “tensed socio-spatialising process” (Bhaskar, 1993: 160) where society is emergent from a stratified ontology, and agency and change are open-ended and flexible processes not wholly determined by the social structures from which they emerge (4D). Considering the knowledge interests defined in the 2011 South African Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education (South Africa. Department of Higher Education and Training, 2011) and the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) which were implemented in South Africa from 2012 (in a phased approach), the study concludes with recommendations for exploring environmental learning in the CAPS. The study proposes working with a knowledge-focused curriculum focusing on the exploration and deepening of foundational environmental concepts, developing relational situated learning processes for meaningful local application of knowledge, supporting transformative praxis through the “unity of theory and practice in practice” (Bhaskar, 1993: 9), and implementing a spiral approach to cluster-based teacher professional development.

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which grade 10 Thohoyandou secondary teachers’ integrated Environmental Education (EE) themes in Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) subjects and to suggest teaching approaches that can be used in the integration of EE themes. The theoretical framework was drawn from four key learning theories: place-based learning, social constructivism, outdoor experiential learning and connectivism. A qualitative research approach was employed as the researcher sought in-depth understanding of teachers’ perceptions to- wards the integration of EE themes in their subjects. The study population comprised teachers integrating EE themes in grade 10 subjects. Convenient purposive sampling was used to select five (n=5) schools and ten (n=10) teachers as participants in this single case study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews using a re- searcher-designed interview guide, document analysis and non-participatory observation. Content analysis was used to analyse data obtained. Results indicated that all teachers in this study were qualified to teach the subject and the grades they were teaching. Qualifications ranged from a secondary teaching diploma to the Masters in Education. However, no teacher had received prior training to integrate EE themes in their subjects. Teachers possessed knowledge and could apply some of the theories foregrounding EE in their subjects. Challenges faced by teachers in integrating EE themes in their subjects were lack of resources, overcrowded classes and poor learner involvement and understanding. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

Abstract in English, Zulu and Afrikaans / Environmental Education (EE) has been integrated into the school curriculum for many years. According to this study, integration has to be followed by implementation, therefore the process of implementation is successful when integration has been successfully carried out. This study aimed to understand how teachers meet the curriculum needs of learners in order to implement effective teaching and learning of EE and for learners to gain adequate knowledge of EE. The methodology employed by this study was a qualitative research method and a multiple case study design. The theories employed to guide this study were social learning theory and social constructivism theory. This study employed a purposive sampling technique and three secondary schools were sampled for observations, three Natural Science (NS) teachers in grade 8 classes were sampled for interviews and 24 learners were sampled for focus groups in grade 8 NS classes. The findings of this study reveal that there is a lack of knowledge regarding caring for the environment, of which there is a contradiction between EE guidelines and policies provided by the Department of Education (DoE) and the teaching practices of teachers. Although education is perceived to be an essential tool in the conservation of nature through the development of information, aptitudes, qualities and critical thinking by the general population, it does not seem to have a large impact. In this study the aim was to understand how learners and teachers perceive the environment. This study implicates that there is an important role for other stakeholder’s involvement. Thus far, it was recommended by this study for EE curriculum to be revisited and emphasises the importance of thorough teacher training in regards to the integration. The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers and learners in three selected secondary schools in the UGU education district perceive the integration of EE in classrooms. / I- Environmental Education (EE) ihlanganiswe nekharikhulamu yesikole eminyakeni edlule. Ngokwalolu cwaningo, ukuhlanganiswa kumele kulandelwe ngokusetshenziswa, ngakho- ke, inqubo yokusebenzisa iyaphumelela lapho kuhlanganiswa kwenziwa ngempumelelo. Lolu cwaningo luhlose ukuqonda ukuthi othisha bahlangabezana kanjani nezidingo zekharikhulamu zabafundi ukuze babe nokufundisa nokufunda okusebenzayo kwe-EE nokuthi umfundi athole ulwazi olwanele lwe-EE. Indlela esetshenziswe yilolu cwaningo yayiyindlela yokucwaninga eyejwayelekile, ukwakhiwa kwamacala amaningi okufundwa Kanye nemibono esetshenziselwe ukuqondisa lolu cwaningo kwakuyithiyori yokufunda ukuqondisa lolu cwaningo kwakuyithiyori yokufunda ngokuhlalisana komqondo kanye nomqondo wokuqina kwezenhlalo. Lolu cwaningo lusebenzise inqubo yokuhlampula enenhloso kwathi izikole ezintathu zenziwa amasampula ukuze kubhekwe zona, othisha abathathu be- Natural Science (NS) emabangeni e- 8 bavunyelwa ukuxoxisana nomcwaningi kwathi abafundi abangama- 24 batholakaliselwa ukugxila emakilasini e-NS ebangeni le- 8. Ukutholwa kwalolu cwaningo kuveze ukuthi kunokuntuleka kolwazi mayelana nokunakekela imvelo okukhona kuyo ukungqubuzana phakathi kwemihlahlandlela ye-EE nezinqubomgomo ezinikezwe nguMnyango Wezemfundo (DoE) nemikhuba yokufundisa yabothisha. Yize imfundo ibonwa njengethuluzi elibalulekile kulondolozo lwendalo ngokuthuthukiswa kolwazi, amandla, izimfanelo nokucabanga okubucayi kweningi labantu kodwa akubonakali kunje, ngale ndlela sakwazi ukuqonda ukuthi abafundi nothisha bayayibona imvelo. Lolu cwaningo lugcizelela ukuthi kunendima ebalulekile yokuzibandakanya kwabanye ababambiqhaza. Kuze kube manje, kuyahlongozwa yilolu cwaningo ukuthi ikharikhulamu ye-EE iphinde iphindwe futhi ukugcizelela ukubaluleka kokuqeqeshwa okuphelele kothisha madondana nokuhlanganiswa. Inhloso yalolu cwaningo bekukuthola ukuthi othisha kanye nabafundi ezikoleni ezintathu ezikhethiwe esikhungweni sezemfundo sase Ugu babona kanjani ukuhlanganiswa kwe-EE emakilasini. / Omgewingsopvoeding (EE) is jare gelede by die skoolkurrikulum geintergeer. Volgens hierdie studie moet integrasie gevolg word deur implementering, daarom is de implementeringsproses suksesvol wanneer intagrasie suksesvol uitgevoer is. Hierdie studie het ten doel om te verstaan hoe onderwysers voldoen aan die kurrikulumbehoeftes van leeders voldoen om effektiewe onderrig en leer van EE te implementeer en om leeder voldoende kennis van EE te verwerf. Die metodologie wat by hierdie studie gebruik is, was ‘n kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetode, meervoudige gevallestudie- ontwerp en die teoriee wat gebruik is om hierdie studie te lei, was sosiale leerteorie en sosiale konstruktivisme teorie. Hierdie studie het ‘n doelgerigte steekproefnemingstegniek gebruik en drie sekondere skole is gemonster vir waarnemings, drie onderwysers in Natural Science (NS) in grad 8-klasse is geneem vir onderhoude en 24 leerders is gemonster vir fokusgroepe in grad 8-klasse. Die bevindinge van hierdie studie het aan die lig gebring dat daar ‘n gebrek aan kennis is met betrekking tot die versoging van die omgewing, en daar is ‘n teenstrydigheid tussen die EE- riglyne en –beleide wat deur die Departement van Onderwys (DvO) en die onderwyspraktyke van onderwysers aangebeid word. Alhoewel onderwys beskou word as ‘n noodsaaklike instrument in die bewaring van die natuur deur die ontwikkeling van inligting, aanleg, kwaliteite en kritiese denke deur die algemene bevolking, maar dit lyk nie meer so nie, kon ons op hierdie manier vestaan hoe leerders en onderwysers sien die omgewing waar. Hierdie studie impliseer dat die betrokeenheid van ander belanghebbendes ‘n belangrike rol speel. Tot dusver is deur hierdie studie aanbeveel dat die EE-kurrikulum herbesoek moet word en dit beklemtoon die belangrikheid van deeglike onderwyseropleiding met betrekking tot die integrasie. Die doel van hierdie studie was om te ondersoek hoe onderwysers en leerders in drie geselekteerde hoerskole in the UGU-onderwysdrik die integrasie van EE in die klaskamers waarneem. / Adult Basic Education (ABET) / M. Ed. (Environmental Education)

Morero oa thuto e ne e le ho hlahloba hore na hobaneng matichere a maemo a phahameng a hokahanya kapa a sa kopanye thuto ea tikoloho ho ruteng le ho ithuteng. Sepheo sa thuto ena e ne e le tsebo ea mosuoe mabapi le thuto ea tikoloho, maano a ho a sebelisa, liphephetso le menyetla e fumanoeng ha ba tlameha ho kopanya thuto ea tikoloho. Boithuto bo amohetse mokhoa oa ho etsa lipatlisiso oa boleng, thuto ea linyeoe le paradigm ea lipatlisiso. Lintlha tsa boleng li ile tsa bokelloa ho sebelisoa lipuisano le boithuto ba lithuto. Matichere a mararo a nkile karolo thutong ena. Pseudonyms e ne e sebelisoa ho sireletsa boitsebiso ba bona. Mokhoa oa typology o sebelisitsoe ho sekaseka metheo ea data lipotsong tsa lipatlisiso, lihlooho, sebopeho sa mohopolo, tlhahlobo ea lingoliloeng le boiphihlelo ba motho oa mofuputsi. Lintlha tsohle tse bokelletsoeng, li ile tsa hlahlojoa le ho hlalosoa e le nyeoe e le ‘ngoe. Phuputso e senotse hore thuto ea tikoloho ha e kopantsoe ka katleho, matichere a hokahanyang le tse sa kopaneng li bile le mathata le hore matichere ha a na tsebo e lekaneng mabapi le ho kopanngoa ha thuto ea tikoloho. Ka hona, ho khothalletsoa hore sekolo mmoho le matichere ba hlahise mananeo a thuto a tikoloho ka bophara le ho fan aka maikutlo a mekhoa e ka sebelisoang ho ntlafatsa maano a bona a ho ruta ho kopanya thuto ea tikoholo ka nepo. / Injongo yesifundo yayikukuphonononga ukuba kutheni kwaye kutheni ootitshala benqanaba eliphakamileyo bedibanisa okanye bengadibanisi imfundo yendalo ekufundiseni nasekufundeni. Ugxininiso kolu phando lwalukwimfundo katitshala malunga nemfundo yendalo esingqongileyo, iindlela zokufundisa ezisetyenzisiweyo, imiceli mngeni kunye namathuba afunyanwa xa kufuneka edibanise imfundo yendalo. Uphononongo lwamkele indlela yophando esemgangathweni, uyilo lwamatyala kunye nepharadigm yophando. Idatha yolwazi yaqokelelwa kusetyenziswa udliwanondlebe kunye nokujonga izifundo. Ngootitshala abathathu abathathe inxaxheba kolu phando. I-pseudonyms yasetyenziswa ukukhusela ubuqu babo. Indlela yokuchwetheza isetyenziselwe ukuhlalutya iziseko zedata kwimibuzo yophando, imixholo, isikhokelo sekhonkco, uphononongo loncwadi kunye namava obuqu omphandi. Yonke idatha eqokelelweyo, yahlalutywa kwaye itolikwa njengecala elinye. Olu phando luveze ukuba imfundo yendalo esingqongileyo ayihlangananga kakuhle, ootitshala abadibanisa kunye nabangazidibanisi nemiceli mngeni kwaye ootitshala abanalwazi lwaneleyo malunga nokudityaniswa kwemfundo yendalo esingqongileyo. K ngoko kucetyiswa ukuba isikolo kunye nabafundisi-ntsapo bazise iinkqubo zokufunda zokusingqongileyo kwaye bacebise ngeendlela ezinokuthi zisetyenziselwe ukuphucula izisetyenziselwe ukuphucula izicwangiso zabo zokufundisa ukulungiselela ukudityaniswa kwemfundo yendalo esingqongileyo ngempumelelo. / The aim of the study was to explore how and why senior phase teachers are capable or incapable of integrating environmental education in teaching and learning. The focus of this study was on teacher’s knowledge about environmental education, instructional strategies used and challenges and opportunities experienced when they have to integrate environmental education. The study adopted a qualitative research method, case study design and an interpretative research paradigm. Qualitative data was collected using interviews and lesson observations. Three teachers participated in this study. Pseudonyms were used to protect their identities. A typology approach was utilised to analyse data based on the research questions, themes, conceptual framework, literature review and the personal experience of the researcher. All data collected was analysed and interpreted as a single case using. The study revealed that environmental education is not integrated effectively, teachers who integrate and those that do not integrate encountered challenges and that teachers have inadequate knowledge about the integration of environmental education. Therefore, it is recommended that the school together with teachers introduce continuous environmental education programmes and suggests approaches that can be used to improve their instructional strategies to enable the intergration of environmental education effectively. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Environmental Education)