The development of environmental education resource materials for junior primary education through teacher participation : the case of the We Care Primary project

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The We Care Primary project is a participatory materials development research project,grounded through a socio-historical location of the research question in the assumptions andideals of the critical inquiry paradigm and socially critical environmental education. Thisresearch represents an atlemptto clarifY the assumptions and orientations of socially criticalenvironmental education as a possible 'tangible alternative' to modernist models ofenvironmental education and educational change in a South African context.Through this project environmental education materials development emerged as a reflexive andresponsive process of change in which I was able to work with teachers with in local contextsto develop resource materials which may contribute to the development of quality education andthe transformation of the junior primary school phase. The emerging central thesis of this reportis an ongoing questioning of the notion of participation, and a realisation of the complexities ofestablishing conditions for authentic participation in materials development, curriculumdevelopment and research contexts,Phase one of this research report describes a journey of inquiry toward socially criticalenvironmental education. This phase portrays a growing understanding of environmentaleducation and is focused on the development of a participatory orientation to materialsdevelopment. Phase two of this research journey illustrates a critical and reflexive stance to the'weaknesses' identified in the first phase of the project. The interdependence of curriculumdevelopment, materials development and in service teacher education is explored. This phaseof the research is presented as a journey with in socially critical environmental education andreflects ongoing praxis and engagement with in the assumptions of critical theory and sociallycritical environmental education. In phase two and three, the development of a criticallyreflexive stance to the assumptions guiding this study is described, and a shift in possibleresearch orientations is highlighted. Further possibilities for research journeys beyond sociallycritical environmental education are presented in phase three through a tentative critique of thefirst two phases of this research project.This research report offers a brief insight into some of the complexities of change in the formaleducation sector. It demonstrates that confronting the challenges and complexities of change inrealistic and meaningful ways is possibly one of the most daunting realities facing SouthAfricans as we begin to respond to the many legacies of apartheid ideologies, modernisation, ahistory of mis-education and poor education, decades of social separation and increasing socioecologicaldegradation and risk.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University