Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-111). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-113). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-113). Also available in print.

Thesis (M. Ed. (Education))--Rhodes University, 2006. / Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Environmental Education).

In March 1997 an indigenous knowledge story was included by the Schools Water Action Project (SWAP)partners in a resource pack for Water Week educational activities. This research developed as the result of an interaction between myself and some of the schools while we investigated water quality within Howick in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands. An interest in understanding the role of indigenous knowledge in/for environmental education developed. Some of the teachers and students involved in the water audit were requested to share their views on the role of indigenous knowledge in/for environmental education. From here the study broadened to also include interviews with elderly community members and environmental educators involved in materials development processes. This post-positivistic case study documents the views of a small sample of interviewees using the SWAP story entitled Sweet Water as a spring board towards a better understanding of indigenous knowledge within the school context, with a particular aim to inform educational materials development processes. The study displayed that a link which exists between indigenous knowledge and environmental education needs to be brought to the fore. This is likely to happen with the blurring of boundaries between home and school as learning contexts, a process which student interviewees emphasised, along with the need for respecting values that award respect to the environment. Elderly community members were of the view that they have a role to play in addressing educational problems such as interpersonal and intercultural respect. However, the study also raised several issues around the complexities surrounding indigenous knowledge processes, including its appropriation, commodification and reification.

This participatory action research study involved a group of teachers in transforming school grounds into interpretation resources. Approached from a critical perspective, it challenged the conventional top-down approaches to interpretation resources and materials development. Through a teacher-centred approach, a school-based ‘botanic garden’ and ‘arboretum’ were developed at Samaj and Kenya High respectively. Teachers were further actively engaged in developing a variety of interpretive materials that might engage learners in socially critical environmental education processes at the transformed sites. A process in which educators from five non-formal education organisations shared their skills and knowledge on environmental interpretation with teachers preceded the development of interpretation resources and materials. Drawing on Latour (1999), I have applied the notion of mobilising interpretive capital when describing this process. Interpretive capital within the non-formal education sector was mobilised and made available through social interactions between teachers and non-formal educators. This occurred during workshops, organisational visits and critical reviews of a sample of interpretive materials. I provide insights into how the interpretive capital was mobilised and later drawn on by teachers during the development processes in their schools. This study argues that mobilising interpretive capital with teachers through partnerships can enhance the transformation of school grounds to foster environmental learning. It shows how attempts to find solutions with teachers were made in response to pedagogical and curriculum tensions that arise around the implementation of environmental education processes in their schools. To provide orientation in environmental education processes in schools, analyses of socially critical environmental education processes and a review of theoretical perspectives on interpretation as an environmental education process are presented. I have viewed interpretation and environmental education as reciprocally necessary aspects for enabling the development of critical environmental literacy and action competence. To explain this view, the notion of environmental interpretation and education processes has been applied and presented in this study. Finally, practical outcomes of the study on transformation of school grounds, improved education practice, enhanced professional competencies amongst teachers, new interpretive materials in schools and the establishment of partnerships are examined.

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