An exploration of the intended, enacted and achieved environmental education curriculum within the Social Studies teacher education programme at a Nigerian university.

Abstract

The global environmental crises relating to issues such as climate change and environmental degradation has become a thing of great concern to all nations of the world. In response to the impeding environmental challenges the Nigerian Government established the Federal Environmental Protection Agency that developed the National Policy on Environment Education. This Federal Environment Protection National Agency is responsible for provision of policies and guidelines for the management of the Nigerian environment and for ensuring that the Nigerian population is environmentally literate. However, despite the policy intervention to safeguard the environment and natural resources as well as the Nigerian population’s high levels of literacy they are oblivious of the National Policy on Environmental Education goals and continue to degrade the environment. Consequently, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency identified inadequate environmental literacy as the factors responsible for Nigerian citizens degrading the environment. The National Policy on Environment Education identified teachers of Social Sciences as key role players to promote environmental literacy among learners at schools and the communities within which they work. It is worth noting that the level of environmental knowledge acquired by the teachers will determine what and how they will teach. Therefore, for teachers to effectively play their roles of raising the level of awareness of the Nigerian population about demonstrating environmentally friendly behaviour, the need to acquire adequate knowledge about and understanding of environmental issues cannot be underscored enough. In other words, the teachers have very important roles to play in raising citizens that would take informed decisions aimed at achieving the sustainability of the human environment and its resources for present and future uses. This qualitative study employs a case study research design within the interpretative paradigm in a bid to explore the intended, enacted and achieved Environmental Education Curriculum within the Social Studies Teacher Education Programme. The study draws on Remillard and Heck’s (2014) model of the curriculum policy, design, and enactment system for its theoretical framework. The study was carried out at AA University in Nigeria and seeks to establish how the Pre-service Social Studies teachers are trained to teach EE in schools. Six Social Studies lecturers and twenty- vii four pre-service Social Studies teachers were purposively selected for the study. The data generation was done through document analysis of two policy documents (the National Policy on Environment and AA University’s SS curriculum/lecture pack) to ascertain the level of alignment between both; other data generation instruments are open-ended questionnaire, individual interviews, focus group interviews and classroom observation, while the data generated from the responses of the participants was analyzed through content analysis. Findings from the study revealed that there is constructive alignment and convergence between the NPEE and the AA University’s Social Studies curriculum in terms of the need being attended to by both policy documents, the targeted audience, the goals of both curricula and the content area covered by both curricula. Furthermore, findings revealed a divergence between the intended SS curriculum and the enacted curriculum due to the fact that chalk and talk/lecture method was predominantly used rather than constructive teaching strategies advocated for the training of the PSSSTs as contained in the SS curriculum. In view of the divergence observed between the intended SS curriculum and the enacted curriculum, it becomes difficult to achieve what was advocated in the SS curriculum/lecture pack used for training the PSSSTs. Additionally, findings revealed that the learning of EE is enhanced by the availability of resources to the SS lecturers, as well as the knowledge of the benefits derivable from EE on the part of the PSSSTs while the learning of EE is constrained by use of inappropriate teaching strategies by the SS lecturers, lack of adequate EE content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) on the part of the SS lecturers, insufficient EE content in the SS programme, insufficient financial resources as well as inadequate respect for the environment demonstrated by the PSSSTs. The study therefore recommends the use of appropriate teaching strategies (constructive approach) to train the PSSSTs, a review of the SS curriculum to include sufficient EE content, improvement in SS lecturers’ EE content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and the provision of sufficient financial resources.