Geography teachers’ interpretation of a curriculum reform initiative: the case of the Lesotho Environmental Education Support Project (LEESP)

Abstract

This article addresses how teachers in a specific developing world context interpreted a curriculum reform initiative. It is located within a broader interpretive study that investigated the integration of Environmental Education into the formal education system of Lesotho with particular reference to secondary school geography. More specifically the focus was on a Danish donor-funded project, known as the Lesotho Environmental Education Support Project (LEESP). Driven by a sustainable development imperative, the project was intended to assist Lesotho with the implementation of local action for Agenda 21 by introducing environmental education into the formal education system. It is widely accepted that teachers play an important role in implementing curriculum change. Using a previous framework, we generate insights for understanding how teachers’ epistemologies interact with contextual factors to impede the process of curriculum sense-making. Furthermore, guided by the notion of curriculum as a contextualised social process, we present the findings on the contextual/structural factors enabling or constraining implementation of the LEESP curriculum policy intentions as perceived by the teachers.

Keywords: action-competency, curriculum reform, donor-funded projects, environmental education, learner-centred pedagogy, school geography