Chapter 5: Trends in Postgraduate Environmental Education Research
6.2 Summary of findings 142
6.2.1 Trends in postgraduate EE research in South African higher education institutions
6.2.1.2 Selective research foci 144
A second trend found from the analysis in this study was that postgraduate research in these two institutions tended to focus on selected sectors of education and ignored others.
Most of the studies focused on the schooling sector, with very few focusing on the other sectors (including higher education, service provider, civil society, government, continuing education, and especially non-formal education). For example, of the total of 46 studies on Environmental Education from these institutions, eight (35%) focused on schooling at RU and nine (39%) at UJ focused on schooling. These studies were mainly concerned with the development and or evaluation of Environmental Education curriculum, programmes and resources, and the problems teachers were experiencing in integrating Environmental Education into Curriculum 2005. This is understandable as research during this period may have focused on responding to government initiatives such as the National Environmental Education Project for General Education and Training (NEEP-GET) (see Chapter 2), which advocated for course development for formal and non-formal education production of resource materials by government departments and NGOs amongst others.
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A predominant focus on schooling and a neglect of other sectors means that researchers understood Environmental Education as a process that has to be taught mainly to learners at school level but not through non-formal education. As much as this trend is good for school children‘s education on environmental issues, it is still problematic in the sense that the issues of marginalization that brought about problems in various environmental dimensions (Homer-Dixon, 1994; O‘Donoghue, 1995) were not addressed by research. In other words, issues that led to some people regarding the environment as none of their concern remain unchanged, and many may still be habouring the same views about the environment and their responsibility towards it. There were no studies that could encourage participation and ownership with regards to environmental issues. Such neglect of other sectors may therefore perpetuate and in fact contribute to the increase in environmental problems in this country.
With research in the two institutions focusing more on the schooling sector, one would expect that the studies would include/involve the different role players within this sector, including teachers/educators, learners and parents more explicitly. One of the trends identified in this study however was that this was not the case in most studies. Teachers were the most visible (nine or 39% at UJ, including principals and eight or 35% at RU), with some studies working with them in developing environmental education programs and resources, while some were trying to understand the challenges the they go through while integrating Environmental Education in their curricula. Very few of the studies involved learners and parents. For example, of the total of 46 studies on environmental education from both RU and UJ, only five (four at UJ and one at RU) included learners as participants or informants, while only one at RU included parents and none at UJ. This
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may imply that their role in addressing the environmental problems in those areas where their schools are located was less explored or considered.
The problem about this trend again is that learners would only acquire Environmental Education knowledge in the same way they learn all other subjects at school, with no particular skills that would empower them to address their practical problems such as poverty and joblessness which were brought about by resource capture and ecological marginalization (Homer-Dixon, 1994). Parents, as well did not learn or explore how they could be involved in their children‘s Environmental Education in a way that would ensure sustainable knowledge, skills, values and positive attitudes towards the environment. The implication of focusing on educators only in this sector would, in a way, also develop a misconception that environment is the concern of educators and that their responsibility as ―experts‖ in the field would be to transmit knowledge of the environment to learners (and parents). No knowledge was produced which would guide these role players in the schooling sector to be involved in taking action and addressing problems in various environmental dimensions as identified by O‘Donoghue, (1995).
As discussed in Chapter 2, O‘Donoghue (1995) has developed a notion of environment as multidimensional, including biophysical, social, economic and political dimensions. One of the positive aspects of postgraduate Environmental Education research at the two institutions during the period 1995 to 2004 is that it showed some indications of the understanding of how the environmental dimensions are related. This understanding was shown, for example, by focusing research on a combination of these dimensions, including the biophysical or ecological, social, economic and political environmental
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dimensions. For example, one study focused on Environmental literacy of workers (social dimension) as a factor in sustainable forest management (biophysical dimension).
There was, however, limited research whose purpose was directly on the identification of causes and/or control for environmental problems in these dimensions. This was more so for studies that focused on the economic (jobs, development, etc.) and political dimensions (environmental decision making and policy). An explanation for this trend might be the fact that, as stated above, most of the studies focused on the schooling sector. Furthermore, there was limited focus on problems such as poverty, homelessness, unemployment and unhealthy living conditions. As such, most of the studies that were not about schooling focused on ‗green‘ rather than on ‗brown‘ environmental issues (Carruthers, 2006). This means that research did not produce knowledge for alternative ways of addressing environmental problems which the poor communities experience.
There is therefore a high possibility that, in order to make ends meet, these communities would still resort to misuse and/or overuse of environmental resources such as water, soil and forests, for which they do not have to pay. This would then result in increasing land degradation and deteriorating environmental quality as indicated in the state of the environment reports (see Chapter 1).