The importance of environmental education lies in what it aims to achieve. Environmental education is aimed at helping individuals develop knowledge and awareness of the environment to develop positive attitudes towards the environment and skills to take responsible action (Sanera, 1998; UNESCO- UNEP, 1976, 1978).
The participants of the study viewed the teaching of environmental education in the primary school positively. They also pointed out that the primary school age (6 – 13 years) is the appropriate age for developing knowledge and skills about the environment. It can be said that their thinking is based on the fact that their survival is dependent on the environment, therefore survival strategies should start to be developed at a very young age. These results support studies on teachers regarding the importance of teaching environmental education in four European countries, which were Cyprus, Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland (Lindermann-Matthies et al., 2009). In the study carried in the four countries, it proposed that it is important to teach biodiversity (a component of environmental education) at the primary school level because they are at a suitable age range of awareness development (Lindermann-Matthies et al., 2009). It is argued that the time between grades one and five are the appropriate
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ages for children to develop affective, emotional and concern for living things (Chawla, 1998).
The analysis of the teachers’ responses revealed that they had different perceptions concerning why they think it is important. These perceptions could be categorized into two categories, namely development of knowledge, skills and
attitudes and developing role models. Each category was characterized by
different sub-categories.
In the category of development of knowledge, skills and attitudes the teachers focused on the understanding of the environment, developing positive attitudes towards the environment and developing problem solving skills. These three significances of learning environmental education are in line with the aims of environmental education as established in the official documents developed in international forums concerning environmental education, and also in line with the aims of teaching environmental education in Tanzania (MoEVT, 2007). They are also interwoven with the three components of environmental education, namely education about, in and for the environment, which focus on knowledge, skills and attitudes, as mentioned earlier. These results are also confirmed by teacher surveys done in Wisconsin province in the USA and in Europe (Lane, et al., 1994; Lindemann-Mathies, et al., 2009).
In the sub-category of understanding the environment, the teachers thought that it was important to teach environmental education in primary schools because it would help the pupils develop knowledge which will enable them understand the environment. The teachers suggested that that it should be taught as early as possible in the primary school so that the foundation for an understanding of the importance of the environment can be established at an early age. This kind of thinking is expected in the Tanzanian context because from the time the children are very young they start to learn the things around them and how to perform different tasks. Therefore, these teachers assume that helping the children develop environmental knowledge from the time they are in primary school will enhance their understanding and awareness of the environment and also on the factors that contribute to environmental degradation and the problems resulting from them. In a similar way, they also pointed out that since the livelihood of the people is dependent on the quality of the environment and natural resources, it is important that they are taught environmental education. The dependence on the environment for one’s livelihood is typical in Southern African countries (Lotz- Sisitka, 2004). So the emphasis on understanding the environment is based on utilitarian purposes. This is evident in a study done in the United Kingdom, where one of the respondents was concerned with the need to value all the things in the environment because some may be useful and also some are becoming scarce (Lindemann-Mathies et al., 2009). It is also assumed that a person who has an understanding of something is likely to value it and develop positive attitudes towards it particularly if the knowledge is gained through real life experiences, although that may always not be the case.
On the aspect of helping the learners develop problem solving skills, some teachers pointed out that the learning of environmental education will not only enable learners to understand the environment but also develop skills to solve the problems in their environment. The development of skills involves doing
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because skills are developed when learners actively participate in activities where they can be applied (Kolstø, 2005). Although the teaching of environmental education involves hands on activities, the situation prevailing in Tanzanian primary schools does not provide the opportunity for teachers to do so. Most of the teaching in primary schools is characterized by the transmission of knowledge. Therefore, although the teachers emphasized that the learners will develop problem-solving skills, it may be difficult if the learners do not learn by doing. Teachers in the study assumed that if pupils obtain the knowledge and are told how to solve different problems in their environment, they might develop skills to solve environmental problems.
The development of positive attitudes is another important aspect mentioned by the teachers. Teachers believe that environmental education should aim at helping individuals be responsible citizens who act responsibly towards their environment (Chatzfotiou, 2006; Simmons, 2005). On the one hand, attitudes can be considered as part of environmental education and also as an aim of environmental education (Simmons, 2005). As part of environmental education, it emphasizes the role of attitudes in shaping the environment. On the other hand, attitudes are considered as the goal or aim of environmental education, so it involves helping individuals develop positive attitudes towards the environment by acting responsibly towards the environment. The teachers in this study in fact talked about attitudes as a goal of environmental education. It is suggested that attitudes should be developed through experiences and practical application and not through the transmission of knowledge methods like lectures (Kolstø, 2005). This suggests that pupils should be exposed to real life situations in learning environmental education. The development of attitudes therefore focuses on education for the environment. But when the teachers were describing what they perceive as environmental education, most of them talked about environmental education as education about the environment. Few teachers talked about environmental education as education for the environment. Chatzfotiou (2006) suggests that sometimes it is assumed that when teachers consider environmental education as education about the environment, education
for the environment is implied.
Development of role models was another significant aspect of teaching environmental education which the teachers mentioned. In the category of role models, the teachers focused on the dissemination of knowledge and developing
responsible citizens among the learners. The teachers argued that when the
pupils are taught environmental education, they will communicate what they learn to the other people at home and in the community through their actions. These are the expectations of many teachers. In the study by Lindhe (1999), many teachers believed that when pupils finish school they would teach their parents. Although it is assumed that children feel powerless in effecting changes in the environment, studies have shown that children can influence their parents and even the community into adopting environmentally friendly practices learnt in school. For example, in 1992 a group of twelve pupils in grades 3 to 6, from a school in Björköby village on the west coast of Finland as part of their “Greenkids” school project sensitized their community on the use of environmentally harmless products. They succeeded in making the community of that village be interested in their environment and thought of ways in which
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they could preserve nature through the use of more friendly products and make their environment beautiful (Palmberg, 1996). In a similar way, Paterson (2009) also says that when students are motivated to care for something, that motivation spreads to other areas in school and at home. Therefore, the findings of the study confirm that when pupils learn environmental education in school, they can be role models both at home and in the community. However, it all depends on the culture, beliefs, values, and in general the people’s way of life, of a particular society. Sometimes it is referred to as “place-based education” (Nordstrӧm, 2006). Therefore, if the cultural practices are different from what was taught in school, then the children will not be able to change their practices. For example, if the people have the cultural practice of bathing in the river after a funeral to cleanse themselves, it would be difficult to change their practices even if they are told that they will pollute the water (Oral tradition).
However, some studies have shown that there is little evidence that people can apply knowledge gained in one context to solve problems they encounter in others. It is for this reason that pupils may show that they have learnt school knowledge by reproducing it correctly in examinations but failing to apply it in everyday life situations outside school (Solomon, 1983) or as McClaren and Hammond (2005) say, in many cases learners fail to apply the knowledge and skills learnt in school in out-of-school contexts. This was evident in a survey done in Tanzania to find out if primary school leavers practiced what they learnt in school as environmental education when involved in agricultural activities. The results show that they did not, because they were influenced by people in the community to adopt practices which were not environmentally friendly despite the fact that they learnt proper agricultural practices in school (Makundi, 2000).
Despite the fact that the teachers strongly felt it important to teach environmental education in the primary schools, they were concerned with the way environmental education has been included in the different subjects. While some teachers said that it was integrated into their subjects, others said that it was not integrated into the subjects. This indicates that some teachers were aware of the presence of environmental education in the subjects they teach while some were not. Alternatively, it could mean that teachers do not have a clear understanding of what environmental education is, as Lindhe (1999) found out in her study of primary and secondary school teachers in Tanzania. In her study, some of the teachers said that there are no environmental education topics in the subjects which they taught: when looking at their syllabi there were environmental components included. Similar findings were evident in a study in England to find out if teachers were aware of the existence of environmental education in the National Curriculum. The study revealed that most teachers were not aware of the presence of environmental education in the National Curriculum. The teachers said that they did not know any environmental education in the curriculum (Chatzfotiou, 2006). Similarly, in a study carried out in four European countries, teachers said that they were not aware of a policy that enhances the teaching of biodiversity in primary schools (Lindemann- Matthies et al., 2009). This shows that if there are no policy guidelines, then the teaching of environmental education will not be implemented. These studies show that the integration approach has been a challenge to teachers in
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implementing environmental education as an integrated component in the school subjects (Chilumba, 2006; Hwang, 2009) because they are not aware of its presence in the various subjects.
Given that there are different approaches to the integration of environmental education into the curriculum, I would like to suggest that the success of this will only come about when curriculum developers state clearly what environmental content is to be integrated into the different topics in the syllabus and teachers are trained how to integrate it into their teaching. But it seems the curriculum developers also find it difficult to know what environmental education content to include in the subject content. Therefore, they leave it to the teachers to decide on what they would include as environmental education. Confirming the issue of lack of clarity on how environmental education is integrated into the curriculum, Makundi (2003) a curriculum developer, expressed her concern by saying that environmental education elements in the school curriculum are not stated explicitly, but are only implied. So it depends on the understanding and orientation of the teacher who translates the curriculum. Given this situation, environmental education is taught in some subjects only and not in all the subjects as directed in the Education and Training Policy. The critical issue here is that curriculum developers need to indicate the environmental education content which is integrated into all the subjects clearly so that teachers know exactly what they are required to teach.