Environmental education (EE) as an approach to all education is needed to be incorporated in all the subjects of the school curriculum. In Namibia, there are Ministerial documents that support the incorporation of education About, In/ Through and For the environment within the curriculum. Even though there are documents that support this, EE continues to suffer barriers that hinder its effective incorporation into the curriculum. The findings reveal that EE in Namibia is incorporated into the traditional environmental subject homes only. The barriers that prevent the incorporation of EE into the Namibian broad curriculum for secondary schools are, amongst others, the lack of adequate teacher education programmes and the lack of interdepartmental collaboration at school level. These barriers and many others have been identified and discussed in detail in this investigation. Measures are recommended to ensure effective incorporation of EE in the Namibian broad curriculum for secondary schools. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Environmental Education)

The study explores the incorporation of Environmental Education (EE) for sustainability in the Namibian Colleges of Education. The thrust is held in this study because of the view that the incorporation of EE promotes sustainable development. Cross-curricular teaching is the preferred model for the incorporation of EE in the Namibian Colleges of Education because it brings all teacher educators to contribute to the teaching of environmental education themes just as sustainable development requires all players to incorporate its principles in core operations of institutions. The study explores the global environment crisis, the environmental degradation in Africa in general and Namibia in particular. Education is seen as an instrument that could be used to address the environmental problems that affect the ability of the ecosystem to regulate climate, to provide resources and to support natural and human life in the broader environment. The study presented the EE goals such as the ecological foundation, the conceptual awareness: issues and values, investigation and evaluation as well as the environmental action, training and application. The study explores theoretical perspectives for the incorporation of EE, theories of modern environmentalism and theories of sustainability as well as policies that were undertaken in Namibia to incorporate EE in the Namibian Colleges of Education. The methodology of research is both quantitative and qualitative and is rooted in the classical and grounded theory approaches to research. The documentation of data and the questionnaire were used as techniques and tools to collect both direct and indirect data. It emerged from the findings of the study that the ecological foundation and the conceptual awareness subgoals are part of EE teaching while the investigation and evaluation as well as the environmental action, training and application subgoals are not part of EE teaching in the Namibian Colleges of Education. The findings of the study reveal that teacher educators in the Namibian Colleges of Education have a variety of understandings and perceptions about the incorporation of EE in the Namibian Colleges of Education. The findings also show that the barriers that affect the incorporation of EE in the Namibian Colleges of Education are institutional, dispositional and situational. The recommendations of the study support the clarification of the concept of cross-curricular teaching in light of the emerging paradigm of sustainable development. They also promote the re-orientation of the administration, the curriculum and teacher educator attitudes in the Namibian Colleges of Education. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)

This study was carried out to investigate the strategies used by teachers to foster environmental learning in the Namibian Life Science curriculum in four schools in Swakopmund, Erongo Education Region. This study is a qualitative case study. I used semi-structured interviews, observation and document analysis as instruments to collect data. Two schools were selected to participate in the case study. Research participants included four teachers (two teachers from each school) of which two teachers are teaching at each school. The study was contextualised through a review of policy changes in Namibian education, which focus on learner-centred education. The study identified six strategies used by teachers to foster environmental learning in the Life Sciences curriculum. These are planning; working with information; practical, excursions and clubs; involving the learners; using visual aids and teaching materials; and choosing topics with a local focus. Through a consideration of the different strategies used by teachers, in relation to the learner-centred nature of the educational reform project in Namibia the study provides insight into the way in which teachers view learner-centred education. The study also illuminates how strategies used by teachers reflect learner-centred education principles and it outlines a number of tensions emerging in the fostering of environmental learning in learner-centred ways. The study identifies further support required by teachers, and makes recommendations which will further enhance the strategies used by teachers to foster the environmental learning focus in Life Sciences, and also enhance learner-centred teaching in Life Science.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how mother tongue instruction influences the learner performance in the acquisition of reading and comprehension skills of Khoekhoegowab speaking learners in Grade 2 in comparison with foreign medium of instruction. (p. 1)

The main goal of this study was to investigate how grade 9 learners make sense of prior everyday knowledge and practical learning through exploring tooth decay problems in their local context. The study was conducted at a deep rural Junior Secondary School situated in Onangalo Village, Tsandi constituency in Omusati political region, northern part of Namibia. My research was triggered by the transformation in the Namibian curriculum, which now recognizes a need to contextualize science and make it relevant to the learners’ everyday life experiences. An interpretivist paradigm informed this study. Within this paradigm, a qualitative case study approach was employed. The unit of analysis was the various activities undertaken by my grade 9 learners with a view to make meaning of prior everyday knowledge and practical investigations in chemistry. A variety of data generating techniques were used in this study, namely, brainstorming and discussion sessions, questionnaires, practical activities with worksheets and semi-structured interviews. A video recorder was used to capture events throughout. Analytical categories emerged as a result of a coding system called pawing. From the analytical categories, analytical statements were formulated. The generated data was validated by a critical friend who was a Life Science teacher at the same school at which I did this study. Further validation was done through learners watching the video recordings and through focus group interviews. Methodological triangulation was also used to validate the data. The study revealed that the use of learners’ prior everyday knowledge and experiences in teaching and learning promoted active learners’ participation and enhanced meaning making. Thus, the study recommends the adoption of well-structured science lessons which take into consideration learners’ prior everyday knowledge. The study recommends that these science lessons be used in conjunction with practical activities to promote active learner engagement and conceptual development. Despite the benefits of integrating learners’ prior everyday knowledge during teaching and learning, the study however also revealed some challenges such as limited time and difficulties of English language proficiency amongst learners.

HIV and AIDS are still among the world's most significant public health challenges. Education is widely regarded as an effective response to the pandemic - a “social vaccine” that can increase young people’s awareness of the dangers of HIV infection and thus decrease their vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. Integrating HIV and AIDS awareness across the school curriculum is therefore one of the strategies being implemented to educate learners about the pandemic. There are challenges; however, related to the central goal of integrating HIV and AIDS education and also to the form – in particular, the pedagogical practices - that this might best take. This qualitative case study research investigated teachers’ perspectives, experiences, and levels of preparedness with regard to integrating HIV and AIDS information in the main carrier subjects, mathematics and geography, in some junior secondary schools in Namibia. The study situates debates on curriculum integration and draws on Fogarty’s (1999) models of curriculum integration as a conceptual and analytic tool to examine the nature, form and content of integration. It includes a questionnaire on curriculum integration completed by 53 teachers as well as a component consisting of observations and interviews with four teachers from two schools. The results reveal patterns that also emerge in earlier studies on curriculum integration. This approach is already widely recognized as challenging and problematic in the context of general education. However, this and other studies show that when HIV and AIDS are brought into the arena, additional factors come into play and further complicate the process, because of the sensitivity of this topic. In addition, the task of integrating HIV and AIDS education has been added to an already overcrowded curriculum. Teachers have not been provided with adequate (or any) training with concrete examples that might facilitate their efforts to integrate HIV and AIDS information into subjects like the ones under scrutiny in this study. The picture that emerges from examining the evidence on HIV and AIDS integration against Fogarty’s (1991) 10 models of curriculum integration is one in which teaching practices are ad hoc, opportunistic and haphazard right across the sample. The choice of integration models for implementation of the HIV and AIDS component in these subjects has been largely left to the opportunity, ability and personal inclinations of individual teachers. The results point to a range of responses, with many teachers not teaching HIV and AIDS at all or some hesitantly experimenting with different approaches; all to limited effect in realizing the intended national goals of this curriculum project. The overall pattern also reveals a degree of frustration among the teachers in the sample, who acknowledged and were concerned at the enormity of the HIV and AIDS challenge facing the country. They recognised the motive behind the policy to have the education system play an important role in response to the HIV challenge, but felt frustrated with the social, personal and practical difficulties of actually implementing the policy within the context of poor (or no) training, knowledge, and support.

The thesis deals with the theoretic concept of Contextual Pedagogy and its application in the context of a disempowered and marginalized society, the Ju/'hoansi ("Bushmen") of Nyae Nyae in North Eastern Namibia. Contextual Pedagogy derives from the notion of Contextual Theology and is thus initially based on a pedagogical analysis of the KAI ROS-Document, whereby its sociopolitical content and its inherent methodology are being transferred into a context of pedagogy. Referring to theoretical concepts of Critical Theory and Liberation Pedagogy, Conditional Fields are being identified in a first analysis which determine and explain the pedagogical situation in a colonial context of Apartheid South Africa. During a three-year qualitative field research, central aspects of Contextual Pedagogy are being applied within the framework of the development of a post-colonial and community-based school programme in Nyae Nyae, the Village Schools Project. This school programme comprises a curriculum for a teacher training course as well as a curriculum for Grade 1-3 learners in five selected villages of Nyae Nyae, and is based on the dynamic processes between the communities, the Student Teachers and the author as their Teacher Trainer and Village Schools Co-ordinator. A further theoretical evaluation and reflexion of the field research gives rise to a pedagogical superstructure of Contextual Pedagogy, which also investigates the notions of power, empowerment and over-empowerment within a context of development work. By doing so, the previous Conditional Fields of pedagogic work within a theoretical framework of Contextual Pedagogy become extended in relevance for a pedagogical context of a post-colonial society with special reference to marginalized subjects. In conclusion, the finalization of the research project and its subsequent handing-over process to the Namibian government analyzes the paralyzing effects of an excessive bureaucracy, and the resurgence of conservative and colonial thought in the young and fragile democracy of Namibia. / Educational Studies / D.Ed.(Didactics)

Eksamineringspraktyke in skole in Namibie is die fokuspunt van hierdie studie. 'n Historiese ondersoek is ingestel na die bree, algemene eksamenstelsels van die verlede. Op grond van die tekortkominge en gebreke van die Kaaplandse Onderwysdepartement-eksamenstelsel, is die noodsaaklikheid en wenslikheid van die herbeplanning en verbetering van die eksamenstelsel uitgelig. Daar is gefokus op die HIGHERIINl'ERNATIONAL GENERAL CERTIFICATE OF SECONDARY EDUCATION-eksamenstelsel, ten einde vas te stel of algemene erkende opvoedkundige beginsels, prosedures en werkswyses tot op datum in die eksamenstelsel vergestalt is. 'n Uitvloeisel van die bevindings in hierdie studie is dat die huidige eksamenstelsel tekortkominge weerspieel, maar dat die historiese beperkinge oorbrug kan word Die afleiding word gemaak dat alle onderwysbelanghebbendes moet saamwerk aan verbeteringstrategiee ten opsigte van die huidige eksamenstelsel. Die hoop word uitgespreek dat die hele eksamenstelsel so spoedig moontlik, maar na deeglike beplanning, volledig sal verinheems. / Examination practices in schools in Namibia is the focal point of this study. An historical research has been done into the general examination systems of the past On account of the shortcomings and constraints of the Cape Education Deparbnent examination system, the necessity and desirability of the restructuring and betterment of the examination system is highlighted. The emphasis is put on the HIGHER/ INI'ERNATIONAL GENERAL CERTIFICATE OF SECONDARY EDUCATION to determine whether generally accepted educational principles, procedures and methods have been embodied in the examination system. The present Namibian examination system is still insufficient. However, much can be done to overcome the historical constraints. The conclusion was reached that each and every stakeholder should work together to devise strategies for the betterment of the examination system. The author trusts that the whole examination system will, as soon as possible but after thorough planning, become totally indigenous. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Historiese Opvoedkunde)

It is widely accepted that in order for education to serve the people effectively, the school curriculum should be localised. In Namibia a high rate of failure, unemployment and a low standard of life, especially among the black section of the population, is attributed to the foreign education which the people receive. This study attempts to shed some light on the nature of school curriculum. From a comparative study of attempts of Africanisation of the school curriculum in three African countries, some universal strategies can be distilled. A short survey is given of the school curriculum in Namibia and the history of its development. Finally, on the basis of the distilled strategies, some guidelines are drawn concerning Africanisation of the school curriculum in Namibia. These guidelines could be used to make the school curriculum in Namibia more relevant / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Comparative Education)

The thesis deals with the theoretic concept of Contextual Pedagogy and its application in the context of a disempowered and marginalized society, the Ju/'hoansi ("Bushmen") of Nyae Nyae in North Eastern Namibia. Contextual Pedagogy derives from the notion of Contextual Theology and is thus initially based on a pedagogical analysis of the KAI ROS-Document, whereby its sociopolitical content and its inherent methodology are being transferred into a context of pedagogy. Referring to theoretical concepts of Critical Theory and Liberation Pedagogy, Conditional Fields are being identified in a first analysis which determine and explain the pedagogical situation in a colonial context of Apartheid South Africa. During a three-year qualitative field research, central aspects of Contextual Pedagogy are being applied within the framework of the development of a post-colonial and community-based school programme in Nyae Nyae, the Village Schools Project. This school programme comprises a curriculum for a teacher training course as well as a curriculum for Grade 1-3 learners in five selected villages of Nyae Nyae, and is based on the dynamic processes between the communities, the Student Teachers and the author as their Teacher Trainer and Village Schools Co-ordinator. A further theoretical evaluation and reflexion of the field research gives rise to a pedagogical superstructure of Contextual Pedagogy, which also investigates the notions of power, empowerment and over-empowerment within a context of development work. By doing so, the previous Conditional Fields of pedagogic work within a theoretical framework of Contextual Pedagogy become extended in relevance for a pedagogical context of a post-colonial society with special reference to marginalized subjects. In conclusion, the finalization of the research project and its subsequent handing-over process to the Namibian government analyzes the paralyzing effects of an excessive bureaucracy, and the resurgence of conservative and colonial thought in the young and fragile democracy of Namibia. / Educational Studies / D.Ed.(Didactics)