ABSTRACT

Smooth implementation of environmental education at public schools in South Africa is hindered by various factors. Consequently, teachers have been unsuccessful or have had only partial success in implementing environmental education in their classrooms to conscientise learners about the environment and the harmful impact of littering. The purpose of this research was to indicate how teachers could mitigate the hindrances to effective environmental education teaching and learning in their respective schools. By employing progressive environmental action research activities through participatory spirals of action research cycles, learners could be conscientised to littering. This research is underpinned by critical theory and an applied cooperative paradigm. Fourteen learners referred to as co-researchers or participants in this research were randomly selected from seven classes. Participants’ observations were used as a research instrument to collect data. Thereafter, a coding process and analysis were conducted. The results of the study show that progressive environmental action research activities were successfully implemented in the conscientisation of learners to littering and that these interventions mitigated some of the environmental education barriers experienced by teachers at schools. This led the authors to conclude that if progressive environmental action research activities are conducted through the participatory action research approach, this can empower teachers to mitigate factors hindering environmental education implementation and subsequently raise learners’ awareness of littering.

摘要

南非公立学校环境教育的顺利实施受到多种因素的阻碍。因此，教师在课堂上实施环境教育以使学生了解环境和乱扔垃圾的有害影响方面没有成功或仅取得部分成功。本研究的目的是说明教师如何减轻在各自学校进行有效环境教育教学和学习的障碍。通过行动研究循环的参与式螺旋采用渐进的环境行动研究活动，学习者可以自觉地乱扔垃圾。这项研究以批判理论和应用合作范式为基础。从 7 个班级中随机选择 14 名被称为本研究的共同研究人员或参与者的学习者。参与者的观察被用作收集数据的研究工具。此后，进行了编码过程和分析。研究结果表明，进步的环境行动研究活动在学习者对乱扔垃圾的认识方面成功实施，这些干预措施减轻了学校教师所遇到的一些环境教育障碍。这导致作者得出结论，如果通过参与式行动研究方法进行渐进式环境行动研究活动，这可以使教师能够减轻阻碍环境教育实施的因素，从而提高学习者对乱扔垃圾的认识。