How teachers integrate environmental education into the curriculum.

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to determine how teachers integrate environmental education into the curriculum. In achieving this, the research set out to document answers to the following critical research questions: • What are the different ways in which teachers integrate environmental education into the curriculum? • How do teachers explain their particular strategies for integration? • To what extent does the resources context influence the ways in which teachers integrate environmental education into the curriculum? A survey was carried out in schools from the North Durban and South Durban Regions of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, who attended a workshop at the Durban environmental education centre. A questionnaire was administered to all the teachers who attended the workshop, followed by observations and a semi-structured post observation interview was held with a select sample of the teachers. All focused on documenting curriculum integration strategies with regard environmental education. The literature review revealed some strategies to integrate environmental education into the curriculum and highlighted some of the problems associated with the integration of environmental education into the curriculum. Data obtained, revealed that teachers are integrating environmental education into the curriculum using a variety of strategies and topics. The availability of resources does affect the extent to which environmental aspects are included, but this does not appear to be the only limitation to integrate environmental education into the curriculum.