A Posthumanist Approach to Environmental Education in South Africa: Implications for Teachers, Teacher Development, and Teacher Training Programs

Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

Y

18

Environmental Education; Foreign Countries; National Curriculum; Ethics; Teaching Methods; Guidelines; Teacher Education; Faculty Development; Ethnography; Place Based Education; Elementary School Students

Canada; South Africa

10.1080/13664530.2017.1327883

1366-4530

As we enter the sixth great mass extinction event, an event that points to humanity's exploitative attitude towards nature, posthumanist ethics offers a different way of engaging with the world, a way which has clear and extensive implications for the way environmental education is taught in South African schools. However, given the official curriculum and assessment practices currently in use in South Africa, can a posthumanist approach to environmental education actually work within the current educational framework of discrete discipline/subject areas and specializations? The paper diffractively engages with the Department of Basic Education "National Curriculum Statement: Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement: Foundation Phase Grades R-3: Life Skills" for South Africa (the phase where environmental education is most likely to take place), and superpositions this text with a research study on environmental education undertaken in Canada and key posthumanist notions as they relate to environmental education. The paper concludes with a section on the implications for teachers, teacher development, and teacher training programs (not solely in South Africa) of using such an approach in the teaching of environmental studies.

As Provided

58

2017

EJ1162143