- Title
- A morphogenetic study of ESD inclusion in Namibia’s Senior Primary English curriculum: a case study of the Khomas Region
- Creator
- Malua, Anelly Ndapewa
- ThesisAdvisor
- Olvitt, Lausanne Laura
- Subject
- Sustanable development -- Study and teaching -- Namibia
- Subject
- Environmental education -- Namibia
- Subject
- English language -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- Namibia
- Subject
- Schools -- Namibia -- Curricula
- Subject
- Social change
- Date
- 2020
- Type
- text
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MEd
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142865
- Identifier
- vital:38124
- Description
- Education policies are designed to structure and direct the content and process of the education that citizens receive. This includes the advancement of the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) policy in formal school curricula. If effectively implemented, ESD can be a significant educational intervention in southern African countries’ development trajectories. ESD incorporates the environmental, social and economic pillars of Sustainable Development and it has the potential to curb issues such as poverty reduction, climate change, biodiversity loss and unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. This qualitative case study investigated factors that have historically shaped, and currently shape, the emergence of ESD implementation in the Senior Primary English curriculum in the Khomas Region of Namibia. As a critical realist enquiry, the study sought to go beyond interpretations of the empirical to identify causal mechanisms in the domains of ‘the actual’ and ‘the real’. The study was guided by Margaret Archer’s theory of Morphogenesis / Morphostasis and her methodological tool of ‘analytical dualism’. The case record consisted of educational documents, teacher questionnaires and semistructured interviews. The morphogenetic approach highlighted how the implementation of ESD through the Senior Primary English curriculum from 1990 to 2018 was conditioned by the interplay of social and cultural structures and mechanisms and human agency, particularly teachers’ agency. The study revealed that although ESD implementation has emerged in the Senior Primary English curriculum, its emergence is not synchronous with the structural and agential entities. The findings point to a policy-structure mismatch which has relevance for policy makers, practitioners and other ESD stakeholders. The significance of this study is that it stands to fill a research gap regarding ESD implementation in Namibia’s Senior Primary English curriculum. The study makes recommendations for tangible ways to strengthen ESD practice in Senior Primary English teaching in Namibia such as increasing professional development opportunities to orientate teachers to ESD, strengthening networks that can build teacher agency in relation to ESD, and promoting a theme-based approach to ESD practice in English Language teaching.
- Format
- 204 pages, pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Education
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Malua, Anelly Ndapewa
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | MALUA-MED-TR20-163.pdf | 6 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |