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Deliberations on a Changing Curriculum Landscape and Emergent Environmental and Sustainability Education Practices in South Africa

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Abstract

This chapter describes Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) in South Africa against the backdrop of a changing educational system. It discusses changing educational imperatives in post-apartheid South Africa and how these have been interpreted and applied in three curriculum revisions in South Africa since 1994: Curriculum 2005, the Revised National Curriculum Statements and the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement. The narrative also examines a changing picture of teacher professional development in South Africa highlighting how constructivist and social realist understandings of education, development and learning have entered the discourse and influenced practice in South Africa. The chapter concludes with highlighting how a relational approach to learning, as evident in ESE practices in South Africa, can help to avoid a pendulum swing between the dichotomies of competing discourses.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Learning Research Centre, Department of Education, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

    Ingrid Schudel

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  1. Ingrid Schudel
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Correspondence to Ingrid Schudel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Learning Resource Centre (ELRC), Education Department, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

    Heila Lotz-Sisitka

  2. School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Copperbelt University, Kitwe, Zambia

    Overson Shumba

  3. Chief of Party: USAID, Strengthening Educational Performance Up (STEP-UP), Lusaka, Zambia

    Justin Lupele

  4. Faculty of Education, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

    Di Wilmot

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Schudel, I. (2017). Deliberations on a Changing Curriculum Landscape and Emergent Environmental and Sustainability Education Practices in South Africa. In: Lotz-Sisitka, H., Shumba, O., Lupele, J., Wilmot, D. (eds) Schooling for Sustainable Development in Africa. Schooling for Sustainable Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45989-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45989-9_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-45987-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-45989-9

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