The combined potential of two crucial factors in 1993, which afforded the promotion of socially just and ecologically sustainable ways of living, led to the instigation of this research project. The first was the imminence og our first democratic election; the second was the possible introduction of environmental education into formal education. In the light of these momentous shifts, it became apparent to me that teachers would have to radically transform their practices in order to play their part in transforming society from the dark days of apartheid into one of equity and harmony. The implications of these factors precipitated the falling into place of the rationale for my research: teachers had to look for professional development experiences which could facilitate the creation of alternative ways of thinking and doing. As a result, I approached a group of biology and geography teachers on the Cape Flats and, after protracted discussions, we decided to examine the potential of the urban environment for the teaching of ecology from the perspective of socially just and environmentally sustainable living. Out of this decision was born this study, which aimed at examining whether this process could, as a means to professional development, be a 'moment' in our journey to becoming transformative intellectuals. From this aim, the central research question emerged: Can emancipatory action research play a role in empowering teachers to become transformative intellectuals? The study consisted of five stages: - exploring the problem by reviewing the literature on the research problem; - the semi-structured interviews; - five workshops; - the 'sensing the urban environment' fieldtrip; and, - the various evaluation sessions. What we achieved during this research project, firstly, was a better understanding of our practices, which led us to seeing our roles as teachers differently and altered our pedagogical approaches. Secondly, this process developed the belief within ourselves that we, as teachers, can and should make a difference to the educational world in which we live. Lastly, this process laid the foundation for continued collaborative action by the participants. This process taught us that educational transformation is difficult and painful, and that present educational structures are not conducive to change. Nonetheless, in the historical context of this research, emancipatory action research was successful in giving us a consciousness-raising experience and closed the rhetoric-reality gap as we engaged in praxis (the practitioners developing and implementing their own curriculum). If we, as transformative intellectuals, are to engage in intellectual labour in the future, we are not only going to need to change our way of thinking and doing but will have to create an enabling infrastructure to realise this as well. We will, in addition, have to change the structures of the institutions in which we work in order to practise as transformative intellectuals.

This study explores children's valuations of their experiences at an environmental education field centre in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Patterns and tendencies in these valuations are described and discussed in relation to theoretical issues, the results of studies in other contexts and contextual factors which may have influenced valuations. The primary aim is to inform programme development at the field centre studied, but findings could also be useful for field centres in general and could contribute to the debate about environmental education at field centres. The open-ended worksheet, a regular programme activity, used as a data source is discussed and recommendations made regarding its potential use in evaluation and research. Examples are described to illustrate ways in which some preliminary findings of the study had been implemented at the field centre. The need for further research at the field centre is stressed.

D.Ed. (Environmental Education) / The urgency of the issues concerning man's relationship to the natural environment is confirmed by the large-scale publicity given these issues in the media. This has resulted in a general public awareness of environmental issues, which is presently reflected by numerous efforts to further stimulate positive interest in conservation, responsible utilisation of natural resources as well as sustainable living. Environmental education is the component of education that informs and makes people aware of their immediate environments. Although the principles and guidelines are set according to international standards, this issue should urgently and visibly be instilled in the South African society in order for it to become part of the life-style, value system, social system and education of South Africans in order to develop and promote environmentally literate individuals. During the past 12 years a process of transformation affected all spheres of South African society, including education and training. An outcomes-based curriculum (Curriculum 2005) has already seen many changes and at present a National Curriculum Statement is in place. It is important for learners to acquire environmental literacy (knowledge, skills, attitudes and values), as without concerted efforts at life-long learning for sustainability, South Africa will not be able to become a competitive power in the world, but will face problems regarding sustainable utilisation of natural resources. This in turn can be to the detriment of ensuring sustainability for future generations. It is generally accepted that the next generation of decision makers should be better equipped to not only face environmental issues and problems, but through the process of education, future generations should appreciate their environment and utilise and manage it responsibly in order to enable them to provide solutions with a systematic ecological view of sustainability. In order to ensure success in this regard, educators in all school phases will need to accept the responsibility of applying the principles of environmental education and aspects regarding the environment as indicated in the learning outcomes and assessment standards of the National Curriculum Statement. In order for this to be successfully implemented, student educators should be thoroughly trained to present environmental education in schools. This does not only imply a broadening of educators' knowledge base, but especially the establishment and improvement of their own level of environmental literacy. Only then will educators be in a position to realise the principles as indicated in the White Paper on environmental education. With the environment or aspects of the environment described in the learning outcomes and/or assessment standards of the National Curriculum Statement, it is clear that environmental education will re-emphasise classic educational principles aimed at encouraging positive learner attitudes towards the environment. These attitudes can be defined in terms such as responsibility, concern, inclination towards conservation and sustainability, and awareness and respect for creation. It is clear that some basic aspects of environmental literacy should be investigated in teacher training programmes. A cognitive component has long been accepted as a prerequisite for the existence of any particular attitude while a personal value system is also important...

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This study explores the possible influence of twenty children on their 'parents', with a view to better understanding the potential 'multiplier effect' of children regarding environmental responsibility. The criteria employed to study the potential influence included certain of the environmental activities learnt by the children during an Environmental Education programme. The programme was undertaken by the researcher with a Std 4 class from Ryneveld Primêreskool in Graaff-Reinet. An action research approach was adopted and results were analysed qualitatively. Due to the short duration and exploratory nature of the project, these results should be viewed as tentative. Proposals are made for increasing the impact of Environmental Education programmes in peri-urban township communities, and recommendations are put forward to help facilitate related studies in the future.

Population dynamics is a South African secondary school biology syllabus topic which deals specifically with ecology or concepts within the realm of ecology. It is currently taught in a way which largely emphasises the teaching and learning of facts and concepts, often out of any context to which students can relate. While it is important to convey scientific concepts, it is just as important to address social and political issues regarding overpopulation and the environment. This research involved the administration of a questionnaire to Std 10 biology teachers in the Department of Education and Training (DET), which sought to obtain information about various aspects of teachers' teaching of population dynamics. These included their feelings toward the teaching of the specific sections of the population dynamics syllabus, and their knowledge and views of environmental issues and human population expansion. The findings of the research suggest that population dynamics is an important topic for students to learn about. The traditional teacher-centred approach to teaching is used by the teachers in the research sample. The sections considered by the teachers to be most important for learning were also considered the most interesting and the easiest to teach. The majority of the teachers in the research sample recognised that human population growth is a global and local problem and that South Africa cannot sustain its present population growth. The teachers in the sample show a diversity of opinions about sustainable development, and have a limited understanding of the links between population, poverty and consumption. Important information gained from the research will be significant in the development of a teaching and learning module on population dynamics that reflects the aims and purpose of environmental education.

This narrative study reviews the development of Share-Net, an informal resource materials network, located within the developing environmental education activities of the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa. Historical shaping factors within the Society are discussed and changing views on conservation, environmental education and research are described. Rather than the research process being a utilitarian and outside endeavour for clarifying and monitoring, the research orientation of this study is one of grounded activity within and integrally part of processes of change. Within a developing story of resource materials and workshops, themes are traced and emergent tensions are critically reviewed. Teacher workshops from 1981 until 1995 are analysed and developing orientations are described. Within this review changes are evident from an orientation of 'us' informing 'them' to joint, collaborative endeavours within the development and use of resource materials. The study reviews and illuminates the Share-Net project around questions of project orientation and management and this is done through the narration of case studies. Principles and patterns emerging within these are examined to guide future resource development projects. Popularist notions of networking and structural functionalist notions of social change are also examined. Grand, modernist strategies designed to cause change in others are questioned and the role of small-scale nodes of resource material activity cooperating within an open network are clarified as useful alternatives. Local resourcing centres such as these have proved useful in supporting teachers in the development, use and adaptation of resource materials. The study also examines income and expenditure of the Share-Net project since 1988 to review economic sustainability. A case is made for sustaining the project conceptually and financially through the sales of products and services rather than through external donor sources. Finally the study raises questions and challenges within the project and proposes guiding frameworks for future review, in action, as the story continues.

Educational transformation and curriculum reform within the new South African Outcomes Based Education (OBE) system has introduced new roles for teachers, and a focus on environmental learning within each learning area. In an OBE system, teachers are required to mediate learning, develop learning programmes, and use a range of different learning support materials. This study aimed to explore how one teacher in an Eastern Cape school used environmental learning support materials to mediate learning within an OBE curriculum framework. Over the past ten years a number of environmental educators and researchers have been participating in curriculum policy development and curriculum implementation research. This has led to the incorporation of an environmental focus within different learning areas in Curriculum 2005. The focus on environment in the curriculum was strengthened by the introduction of the National Environmental Education Project in the General Education and Training (NEEP-GET) band in 2001. I am employed as a provincial co-coordinator within this project (for the Eastern Cape province), and one of my tasks is to work with service providers (who provide learning support materials) and teachers (who use these materials) to ensure improved environmental learning within the OBE curriculum. A qualitative and empirical case study was conducted in which I observed one teacher in a multi-grade class (with grade 6 and 7 learners) using learning support materials to achieve learning outcomes in three different lessons. The study employed a range of data collection methods such as questionnaires, interviews, field notes, video recording, and document analysis, photographs and journal entries. I compiled a contextual profile of the school and classroom and undertook two 'layers' of data analysis to report the findings of the study. This research indicates that theories of learning and associated teaching methods influence learning interactions, and the use of learning support material in the class. The study also highlighted emerging issues in the use of environmental learning support materials, which relate to planning; access to materials; over-use of materials; and the relationship between learning support materials and teaching methods.

The role played by Schoemansdal Environmental Education Centre (SEEC) in the development of environmental awareness to its neighbouring schools has been established, described and explored. Schoemansdal's role was evaluated in relation to what other environmental education centers around the world are doing as strategies of developing environmental awareness to their neighbouring schools and communities. Schoemansdal Environmental Education Centre acted as a case study and its findings are supplemented by valuable data from seventeen schools, which were selected in the Zoutpansberg West Circuit by the researcher. The sole aim was to enhance information gathered at Schoemansdal EEC with regard to its role of making the neighbouring schools aware of environmental issues. Although the research question has been adequately explored, the study does not claim to be exhaustive and without limitations. The recommendations made by the study, based on the findings will be of value to environmental officers, environmental educationists, teachers and education policy makers involved with EE implementation in formal education. / Educational Studies / M. Ed.(Environmental Education)

Thesis (MEd)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Environmental deterioration is increasing, thereby compelling greater human concern for the earth's natural resources. A necessary response might be the establishment of an environmental ethic through the development of effective goal-orientated projects which can support the old adage or phrase saying, prevention is better than cure. Formal education can play an important role in the development of a critical consciousness amongst learners. However, this endeavour requires adjustments in teaching methods and techniques. My study - which focuses on the establishment of an environmental ethic within learners and the community, by starting an environmental club - is an attempt to respond to this challenge. Action-research, a research method which responds to the positive impulses of environmental education, was a research method used in this study to reflect critically on the quality of the environment in which we are living. Initially my study concentrated on learners and members from a historically disadvantaged community. Critical reflection on the first phase of my project revealed that the position adopted by me as a research-worker, was positivistic. A lack of perseverance in performing the grass-root actions, especially where it concerned me as researcher during the first phase, caused my efforts to establish an environmental club to fail. The opportunity to work with learners who really attempted to establish a better environment through involvement in simple projects, was implemented with greater enthusiasm in the second phase of the project. Although the predominant socio-economic conditions in the community involved in the project affected the environmental projects, this study serves as a case study which can give direction to similar studies conducted in the future. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Toenemende omgewingsagteruitgang noodsaak 'n groter menslike besorgdheid met betrekking tot natuurlike hulpbronne. Die daarstelling van 'n omgewingsetiek deur die ontwikkeling van doelgerigte projekte wat die ou gesegde voorsorg voorkom nasorg kan ondersteun, is nodig. Formele onderwys kan in dié opsig 'n belangrike rol speel in die ontwikkeling van 'n kritiese ingesteldheid by leerders, maar hierdie strewe verg aanpassings in onderrigmetodes en -tegnieke. My navorsing, wat op die daarstelling van 'n omgewingsetiek by leerders en die gemeenskap deur die stigting van 'n omgewingsklub fokus, is 'n poging om op hierdie uitdaging te reageer. Aksie-navorsing, 'n navorsingsmetode wat meer as net gehoor gee aan die positiewe impulse van omgewingsopvoeding, is as 'n navorsingsmetode gebruik waardeur daar gepoog is om op 'n kritiese manier te besin oor die kwaliteit van die omgewing waarin ons ons bevind. In my studie is daar gekonsentreer op leerders vanuit 'n histories agtergeblewe gemeenskap. 'n Kritiese terugskouing op die eerste fase van die projek, het die allesoorheersende posisie van my as navorser ten opsigte van die uitvoering van die navorsingsprojek aangedui. Hierdie posisie kan as positivisties beskryf word. 'n Gebrek aan deursettingsvermoë, veral van die kant van my as navorser in die uitvoering van voetsooiaksies, het veroorsaak dat my poging tot die daarstelling van 'n omgewingsklub met die eerste fase, grootliks gefaal het. Die geleentheid om met leerders te werk wat werklik 'n poging aangewend het om 'n beter omgewing daar te stel deur betrokkenheid in eenvoudige projekte, is met groter entoesiasme in die tweede fase van die projek ontvang. Alhoewel die heersende sosio-ekonomiese omstandighede van die gemeenskap waarbinne die projek ontplooi het, 'n uitwerking op die omgewingsaksies gehad het, dien hierdie navorsing ook as 'n rigtinggewende maatstafvir soortgelyke navorsing in die toekoms.