School environmental education programmes and their application to local communities' socio-economic development and conservation issues (South Africa and Tanzania)

Ph.D.This study investigated the nature of collaboration between three institutions: the school, NGO and community (local leaders and members) in enabling sustainable development in regard to the creation of livelihoods and conservation. Two school-based environmental education programmes in South Africa and Tanzania were used to investigate the nature and issues of collaboration involving the tripartite institutions. Adopting pragmatic and critical paradigms, a mixed model approach formed the framework within which the study was conducted. A mixed model emphasising qualitative methods was appropriate and proved useful enabling insightful investigations. The study found that the nature of collaboration between the tripartite institutions was superfluous. Inspired by their traditional roles and modernistic competitive practices, most institutions preferred independent or singularist approaches and weaker inter-relationships to openness and closer working partnerships for survival. The resultant deliberate negation of developing local capacities promoted the traditional independent relational status quo, which assured little or no innovative approaches to conservation and livelihood creation. The isolated and independent institutional activity implementation approaches led to institutions copying each other as opposed to learning from each other innovatively as enunciated in communities of practice. The position thus contributed in stifling the efforts that could drive sustainable development activities in local communities through the institutions. It also impeded the development of familiarity between, and among the institutions further discouraging meaningful collaboration. Local institutions thus isolated themselves from each other making themselves vulnerable to external forces that further derailed their efforts to contribute towards education, conservation and the creation of livelihoods in local contexts. It is recommended that NGOs involved in education and environmental activities, and the government departments of education in particular assist educators to establish forums and nurture them to attain functional capacities. This is one way of encouraging continuous professional development and growth. Learners must be exposed to as many active learning opportunities as possible, which include activities in the community as part of their formal education requirements and assessment for their final grades. Furthermore, more innovative approaches are required in introducing curriculum changes to educators and involving them to co-interpret such changes with the developers to fit respective contexts and to meaningfully contribute in implementing the envisaged changes. NGOs should invest material and financial resources in school and community programmes during implementation to illuminate deeper socio-economic, cultural and political community issues that influence community development and well-being as a core activity. Indeed conventional education and community development programmes should be integrated in design, budgets, and capacity-building objectives and implementation plans to effectively demonstrate natural community or societal systemic functions essential for nurturing sustainable communities. In conclusion, it is recommended that a critical review of such knowledge claims as "poverty causes environmental degradation" and some of the models that are popularly used in most environmental education activities which relate to human-nature interactions be exposed to learners and community development workers as a way of enabling them to engage with such knowledge claims and realities. The continuing reliance on such false science does not promote a practical understanding, practice, or foster self-sustaining communities for the current generation and posterity