Integrating Environmental Education in the Life Sciences curriculum in the Vhembe District, Limpopo

Abstract

The mandate from the government is for schools to integrate Environment Education (EE) in all subjects. However, some Life Sciences teachers in the Vhembe District still fail to integrate EE into their lessons. This qualitative case study, hence, investigated how Life Sciences teachers in Vhembe District of Limpopo Province are supported by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to integrate EE into their lessons. The purpose of this study was to develop guidelines to enhance the support given by DBE, to Life Sciences teachers, in their attempts to integrate EE into their lessons. Studies have been conducted about factors that inhibit the integration of EE in school subjects. However, little has been written about how the DBE supports teachers to integrate EE in their lessons. This study contributes knowledge to this gap. This study was based on interpretivism, followed a qualitative approach and a phenomenological case study design. Three schools in Vhembe District in Limpopo Province were conveniently selected and one Life Sciences teacher was purposively selected from each school to get rich-information about the research topic. One subject advisor was also purposely selected as a participant from the Vhembe District under, Mutshindudi circuit. Data were collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with the teachers and the subject advisor. Before the interviews, the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document, pacesetter and textbooks were first analysed. Findings from the CAPS document analysis show support for teachers towards integrating EE in Life Sciences, although, the pacesetter does not provide such support. The teachers, however, do not take advantage of the offered support from the documents because they do not read these curriculum documents. Further, the findings reveal that the subject advisor was not doing enough to support the teachers as the limited support that the teachers received was only reactive. This study also found that lack of training for teachers and the subject advisor, lack of understanding of EE and lack of resources were still challenges in the integration of EE in the research context. This study recommends that there should be a more proactive support for to integrate EE into their lessons so as to produce environmentally informed learners. Thus, the DBE must take responsibility of providing teachers with necessary trainings and resources for EE to support them to integrate it into the lessons.