The fifth theme focused on the teachers’ suggestions on how the teaching of environmental education can be improved. From the data analysis, two core categories could be identified. These categories included suggestions on training
needs and on teaching and learning materials needs.
In the category of training needs, the teachers’ suggestions could be put into two sub-categories, namely pre- service training and further training.
In the sub-category of pre-service training, many of the teachers suggested that if they are supposed to teach environmental education, they should be taught the content and the methodology of teaching it in their pre-service training, just as they are taught the other subjects which they teach. Most of them did not receive any training during pre-service. Teachers have the responsibility to help learners develop the knowledge and skills needed to enable them to understand the complex environmental issues and problems facing society and also how to address them (Hungerford, 2010). As teachers they are also expected to help the pupils understand the relations between socio-economic development and development of the environment (UNESCO, 1978). If this is what is expected of teachers, and they are not trained in environmental education, it seems that they are being asked to do things beyond their capacity. Similarly, Chatzfotiou (2006) expresses her concern about teachers’ lack of training by saying that since many teachers did not receive any training in environmental education, it is difficult to see how they can teach environmental education effectively when they do not know why, where and how it came into being, and I would add when they do not know what to teach. As a result, the teaching of environmental education should be taught in pre-service training in terms of content and teaching methods so that teachers can teach it effectively.
Apart from pre-service training in environmental education, teachers also suggested that they should go for further training to upgrade their knowledge. This is important because it is argued that quality teaching depends much on the quality of the teachers. Therefore, environmental education teachers need to have the necessary and relevant environmentally related content knowledge and skills (May, 2000). This suggests that teachers should be provided with the opportunity to undergo further training through training programs, seminars and workshops in environmental education. On this aspect, teachers in Hong Kong revealed moderate to strong needs for in-service training in order to accomplish the environmental education goals set in the curriculum guidelines (Chi-kin Lee 1996). Referring to the teaching of education for sustainable development, Esa (2010) emphasizes that teachers should be trained in how to integrate it into their teaching to enhance their content and pedagogical knowledge for successful integration into their teaching. This also applies to environmental education. On teaching and learning materials needs, the teachers focused on the need for textbooks and teaching guidelines. The teachers concerns mirror the situation that exists in schools. There is high dependency on books as the core teaching and learning materials. As a result, the lack of textbooks and even teachers guides make teachers the major source of knowledge (Komba & Nkumbi, 2008).
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This has implications for quality education because it will depend on the quality of the teacher.
The resource provision which is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training is confined to the provision of subject syllabi, text books and teacher’s guides for the traditional subjects. Similar findings have been found in Hong Kong in the teaching of environmental education, where the Department of Education’s support for teachers is limited to the provision and dissemination of guidelines for teaching environmental education and a few in- service training activities for a few teachers (Chi-kin Lee, 1996).
The teachers’ concern about need for textbooks is genuine because primary schools have no books on environmental education. Even the subject textbooks are not enough. Although one of the objectives of the Primary Education Development Plan was to ensure that each pupil had his/her own book by the year 2006, the aim has not been realized, as a study by Baganda (2008) in Mbeya district revealed that the national book ratio was 1:2. But in the regions and districts it was higher and it differed between subjects. For example in mathematics, the book ratio was 1:8, while in science it was 1: 12. This situation is not very different from the situation in the schools where I conducted the study. In the English class, the pupil-book ratio was 1:10 and in science was 1:12.
Although the teachers suggest that there is need for text-books, these would only be useful if the content addresses the pupils’ contexts, and also if teachers know how to use them both in class and for individual assignments. For example, the environmental content that may be included in the textbooks can be relevant to just a few areas. Experience has shown that textbook illustrations, for example, mostly show life situations in urban areas. This can be irrelevant to children from rural areas who have not been to towns and most of the time work with their parents on the farm or looking after the animals (Mtana & Kavishe, 2004). Apart from the need for textbooks, teachers talked about the need for teaching guidelines. They considered them to be useful in helping them understand what to teach and how to teach. The teachers seem to connect this to the modules which are used in teacher training colleges. The modules comprise a combination of pupils’ textbook and teacher’s guide and follow the structure of the syllabus. They are very prescriptive because they instruct the teacher what to teach and how to teach.
Although teachers’ guides may be very useful, sometimes they do not leave room for teacher innovation. Another thing is that teachers can rely on them as the only source of teaching materials. However, if teacher’s guides are written in a way that will guide the teachers to develop learning tasks that will help learners carry our investigations, think critically in their environment, while integrating the subject content, then they can indeed be useful.
To sum up, the results of the study suggest that there is a gap between what the policy statements and the curriculum expects to be taught in primary schools with regard to environmental education, and what is actually being done in schools. Although some of the teachers try to integrate environmental education into the subjects they teach, most them are still not clear on how to link the
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subject content with environmental education content. The critical issues are that the syllabi of most subjects are not clear on what is to be integrated as environmental education into the subject content. Also, the teachers’ knowledge base in environmental education is not broad. As a result, some teachers believe that environmental education is not related to their subjects, so they do not teach it in their subjects. Similar findings have been found in a study in the state of Wisconsin, where teachers claimed that they do not teach environmental education in their subjects because it is unrelated to the disciplines that they teach (Lane et al., 1994). This suggests that if teachers have a broad knowledge base in environmental education, they would not find it difficult to relate environmental education to what they teach.