Integration of environmental education into geography lessons: is there change in school geography following the LEESP intervention?

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a study that explored the level of knowledge integration in secondary school geography content at the micro-level of classroom practice with a view to identifying any possible change in the subject following an environmental education project-oriented curriculum reform in Lesotho. The study adopted a case study approach involving 11 teachers, teaching geography in five secondary/high schools located in different parts of the country. The analysis focused on integration of environmental issues, interdisciplinary relations and inter-discursive relations as analytical categories derived from Bernstein's theoretical concept of classification. The findings illustrate that while there is a high level of knowledge integration with respect to environmental issues, the power of geography disciplinary knowledge undermined the idea of integrating relevant content from other school subjects and everyday knowledge of the learners. It is argued that unless there is change in structures influencing teachers' work, little will be achieved in school subjects such as geography in terms of making them more contextually relevant.