Abstract
This research explores sustainable environmental management indicators in South African primary schools. Of key interest is the comparison of a township, farm and urban primary school that identify indicators that promote education for sustainable development in schools that implement an environmental management system. Data are drawn from one-on-one interviews, focus group interviews, observations and document analysis from 35 participants in three schools. A comparison of the three schools was done by content and thematic analysis of a within-case analysis. Data from the township school revealed that socioeconomic factors and organisational structure promote education for sustainable development. The farm school data revealed that health promotion can be managed within an environmental management system within a hierarchical school structure. The urban school data revealed that an economic inducement brings a school to realise that it can reduce its carbon footprint, gain financially and utilize its resources with innovation. A case is made that the four pillars of sustainable development (environment, society, economy, and governance) endorse education for sustainable development. Furthermore, the objectives of environmental education ought to remain nested in an environmental management system to ensure that the global goal of quality education is achieved.
Highlights
Education that promotes lifelong learning plays a vital role in influencing positive change in society and in the environment through school governance
For the purpose of this study, inductive inference was used when dealing with the within-case analysis of three cases in this study to establish how environmental learning is integrated in the township, farm and urban primary schools to promote education for sustainable development and to identify indicators of the environmental management system implemented at the three schools
Our teacher ... she would pick up flowers and give us examples... tell us what should we do for the plants to grow.”), English, Sepedi and Life Skills as subjects where the environment is a focus, the reinforcement to save water and electricity and to maintain hygiene has moved beyond the classroom, indicating that learners have been exposed to education for sustainable development
Summary
Education that promotes lifelong learning plays a vital role in influencing positive change in society and in the environment through school governance. The main aim of the project was to introduce, implement and monitor an environmental management system in primary schools that is specific to an African primary school context [6], and to have a practical trans-curricular approach to educating for sustainable development that would be an integral and integrated part of a school’s management and curriculum activities [7]. In this way transformative governance towards integrated school sustainable management of natural resources can address the sustainable development goals [8,9] in a developing country
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