Teacher Educators’ Perceptions of Environmental Education As a Crosscutting Issue and Their Participation in Its Teaching at Kitwe and Mansa Colleges of Education

Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate the respondents’ perceptions of Environmental Education (EE) and participation in its teaching at Kitwe and Mansa Colleges of Education in Zambia. The study used both qualitative and quantitative research approaches which also included questionnaires, observations and focus group discussions as research instruments. Content analysis was used to ascertain teacher educators’ participation in EE. A sample comprised thirty-three purposively selected college teacher educators. The data collected was analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings revealed that respondents’ views of EE were associated with creation of awareness about the environment and narrowly viewed EE in terms of nature conservation. The majority (73%) of the respondents stated that EE was wrongly included in the curriculum. The study further revealed that EE was only taught as topics or subtopics in Science Education (SE), Social, Spiritual and Moral Education (SSME) and Technology Studies (TS) and not as a crosscutting discipline across the curriculum; and that teacher educators essentially adopted teacher-centred methods in teaching EE, concentrating on imparting book-based knowledge. Moreover, no mechanism existed to compel them to integrate EE in lessons taught making the crosscutting approach ineffective in implementing it. The majority of the respondents had neither received pre-service nor in-service training in EE and if they had received such training, it was irrelevant to the work they were doing. The study concluded that EE should not end at the creation of awareness about the environment but should be linked to knowledge, skills and attitudes required to demand for an action for the environment. The recommendations made were that the curriculum should be reviewed and EE topics or content also be incorporated in all study areas. In addition, the Ministry of Education (MoE) through Teacher Education and Specialised Services (TESS) should formulate a policy framework to guide EE teaching in Primary Colleges of Education. In fact, the EE should formulate or contribute questions toward final examinations and the Ministry of Education (MoE) should procure EE teaching resources. Additionally, teacher educators should use extra curricular activities as learning space for EE. Lastly, colleges should appoint EE Coordinators to spearhead the EE implementation. There is an urgent need to train or reorient teacher educators in the two colleges on how they could strengthen the grounding in EE. When such training is concluded well, it should now cover all the Zambian Colleges of Education.