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With the growing international interest in education for sustainable development (ESD) after the Rio Summit in 1992, secondary school geography in many countries has developed in depth and breadth to address contemporary sustainability issues confronting humanity in the 21st _{century. The International Charter of Geographical}

Education published in 1992, recognises that:

Geographical education contributes to environmental education by ensuring that individuals become aware of the impact of their own behaviour and that of their societies, have access to accurate information and skills to enable them to make environmentally sound decisions, and develop an environmental ethic to guide their actions. (IGU cited in Houtsonen, 2004, p. 147)

This statement reflects geography educators‘ full commitment to environmental education. The statement also suggests that school geography should not focus only on development of the necessary skills and values, but also on action competences that can empower learners to address environmental issues. It would therefore seem that geography, at least in its discourses, has been moving along with developments in education in general and environmental education, in particular. Exemplary evidence of geography‘s commitment to EE is the appearance of a journal, International

Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, which has since 1992 been

providing a forum for debates and information sharing on the special contribution of geography to environmental education.

In describing the linkages between secondary school geography and environmental education, Tilbury (1997) argues that geographical concepts such as sustainable development, exploitation, stewardship and responsibility, dependence and interdependence, urbanisation and industrialisation are integral to environmental education. She further reiterates the position of the International Charter on

Geography Education, endorsed by the International Geographical Union (IGU) in

1992, arguing that because school geography studies interactions between physical and human environments, it contributes to learners‘ understanding of processes affecting the environment and stimulates their interest in environmental management and protection.

The interdisciplinary nature of school geography is also seen by the international geography education community as a distinctive feature that puts the subject in a unique position to contribute to environmental education in its broad version of ESD (IGU, 2007). The holistic approach emphasised in both geography and EE provides learners with an understanding of the biophysical, social, political and economic systems ―that are part of the human-environment tension…between exploiting and sustaining the environment‖ (Bednarz 2006, p. 239). This claim is endorsed by the following IGU proclamation:

Nearly all the ―action themes‖ highlighted in the UNDESD, including environment, water, rural development, sustainable consumption, sustainable tourism, . . . climate change, disaster reduction, biodiversity, and the market economy, have a geographical dimension. The declaration proposes that the paradigm of sustainable development should be integrated into the teaching of Geography at all levels and in all regions of the world. (IGU, 2007, p.243) This statement, consistent with previous IGU declarations, shows how the international community of geography educators reconceptualises the subject knowledge, on an official global level, in response to changes in environmental education. The IGU sees the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Development (UNDESD) as an opportunity to strengthen ongoing initiatives to re-orient geography towards sustainable development.

The question of how environmental education principles are infused into geography curriculum materials and classroom practice has been of interest to geography

educators in a number of countries (Reinfriend, 2004; Tracana, Ferreira, Ferreira & Carvalho, 2008). The findings of an international survey, conducted by Naish (2004), suggest that in many countries environmental education reforms have influenced developments in school geography content and pedagogy. For example, Reinfriend (2004) notes from the work of Kross that in Switzerland the perception of space in school geography has shifted from the anthropogenic view of the earth as a place of human struggle for survival and profit making, to the ecocentric view of the earth as a space for living and environmental conservation. This may suggest that, consistent with the changing conceptions of sustainable development (see Section 3.2.2), the subject has adopted a broad view of sustainability, integrating economic with environmental needs. With regard to pedagogy Reinfriend further notes, the interest of geography educators in Switzerland has shifted from behaviourist to social constructivist approaches.

Further exploration of the changes in secondary school geography in a number of national contexts reveals that some changes have occurred in the last two decades, following environmental education pedagogic innovations at the levels of policy documents, particularly in the UK, USA, Australia, and Hong Kong (Rawling 2001; Bednarz 2006; Cotton, 2006; McKeown, 2006; Yeung, 2009). These innovations reflect a growing interest on the part of geographers in the adoption of issues-based and problem-solving approaches that expose learners to the analysis of controversial environmental issues (Cotton, 2006; Yeung, 2009). However, there is little published research, especially in the region of southern Africa, showing how the introduction of environmental education is shaping geography at the level of classroom practice. The only exception that I am aware of is a study reported in South Africa by Wilmot and Norton (2004), which described how geography teachers facilitated active learning to promote an understanding of local environmental issues relating to plastic waste legislation. My study will therefore make a further contribution to the literature on how geography in the region has been adapting to curriculum reforms introduced through environmental education.