Chapter 6 Conclusions, recommendations and further research
6.3 Conclusions
The interview survey of 16 field workers and eight management staff, at WESSA's four environmental education centres in KwaZulu-Natal, resulted in several significant findings.
o WESSA supports field workers by providing a number of ongoing, in-house training opportunities, some of which are compulsory. These expose field workers to environmental information resources which can be used during the preparation and the conducting of environmental courses. An issue that emerged during the survey was that the majority of field workers (63%) was not aware of training opportunities other than those offered through WESSA. This may have implications on the diversity of environmental information resources that field workers are exposed to.
o WESSA publications, particularly those of Share-Net, dominate the environmental information resources used during the in-house training, and consequently the preparation and conducting of environmental courses by field workers. With WESSA being actively involved in the production of regular publications and Share-Net, a project of WESSA, publishing numerous resources, this was not considered unusual. However, field workers did not appear to make use of any other "external"
environmental information resources. This may be due to lack of knowledge thereof or field workers not requiring information resources additional to those published through WESSA.
o Booklets, books and colleagues are considered valuable information resources by field workers. Booklets dominated the environmental information resources used by field workers during course preparation and the conducting of courses. Books and colleagues dominated as the environmental information resources most frequently used when preparing for unusual courses. However, although the instrument revealed that field workers recognised their colleagues as potential environmental information resources, they did not appear to be exploiting them as information resources, since only seven field workers mentioned using colleagues as resources during the preparation of environmental courses.
o There is a recognised lack of environmental information. Seven field workers (44%) commented on this and gave examples of areas which were lacking. These included information on specific ecosystems such as mangroves and sandy shores, waste and recycling, electricity and energy and outcomes-based education. In addition, management staff identified soil, the taking of environmental action and community issues as areas lacking information.
o With the "environment" becoming more embracing and including political, social, economic and biophysical elements, the implications are that environmental education needs to be broader in approach, so as to achieve education for sustainable living and development, with minimum impact on the ecological environment (Shongwe 1997:53). In addition, for the first time in South Africa's history, all teachers will have to deal with the "environment" in a cross-curricular and integrated style. The infusion of environmental education in Curriculum 2005 marks a shift from the past, when it was marginalised. For many teachers this is a new challenge and one for which they are not prepared. The provincial education departments are not able, and in some cases lack the capacity, to conduct relevant and "hands-on" training courses. In terms of environmental information resources and field workers at environmental education centres, this could result in an increase in cross-curricular courses and, possibly, an increase in the demand by field workers for additional environmental information resources to assist in the preparation and conducting of these courses.
o The in-house magazines of WESSA, African wildlife and EnviroKids, keep field workers up-to-date with the latest environmental information resources. These publications also assist in keeping some of the field workers up-to-date with the latest national and global environmental issues. Other ways of keeping up-to-date (in'· terms of environmental information resources) are through interacting with colleagues, receiving printed updates from Share-Net and Head Office and reading magazines and newspapers. To supplement their knowledge/awareness of environmental issues, field workers make use of newspapers, magazines and colleagues.
o Centre libraries are used primarily for the preparation of courses and for personal interest. Although the majority of field workers have their own collections of resources, these are mainly used because these collections are readily accessible.
This would indicate that the libraries are adequately stocked in terms of their resources.
o Half the field workers felt that the collective knowledge and experience of people who work at the centres was a strength. Management staff, on the other hand, felt that the available information resources was the major strength of the centres. In terms of weaknesses of the centres, field workers mentioned a lack of up-to-date information on national and global issues, a high turn-over of staff, and limited or no access to the Internet. Management staff made mention of the lack of interaction between field workers and other environmental education practitioners.
o The results from the interviews indicated the presence of a large number of environmental information resources to support field workers at the four environmental education centres under study. These resources ranged from printed media such as booklets and magazines through to people. However, not all these resources are available to field workers, as many ofthem (particularly "non-WESSA"
environmental information resources) are scattered throughout the four centres. In addition, there is no comprehensive database of all these existing resources and this contributes to their "unavailability".
o In terms of adequacy, there appears to be differing opinions, with some field workers commenting on the lack of detailed information within the resources that are presently being used, while others feel that the resources are adequate. It would seem that "adequacy" or "inadequacy", "availability" or "unavailability" is, to a large extent, linked to individual field workers and how they utilise and/or adapt existing environmental information resources to which they have access.