An Analysis Of The Policy Coverage And Examination Of Environmental-Impact Topics

Southern African Journal of Environmental Education,Vol. 33, 2017
2017 Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa DOI 10.4314/sajee.v.33i1.4
An Analysis of the Policy Coverage and
Examination of Environmental-impact Topics
Sikhulile Bonginkosi Msezane, College of Education, University of South Africa
Abstract
Environmental education and education for sustainability are educational responses to negative environmental
impacts both locally and globally. In South Africa, the schooling sector has experienced several shifts in the
curriculum since 1994, with implications for the coverage, teaching and examination of environmental-
impact topics in subjects such as Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Life Orientation, Agricultural Sciences,
and Geography.The aim of the research reported here was to investigate the coverage and examination of
environmental-impact topics in the Further Education andTraining (FET) Phase of the South African school
curriculum. Data sources were the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) documents and
examination papers. In analysing the coverage and examination of environmental-impact topics, thematic
content analysis was used.The findings indicate that there is unequal coverage of environmental-impact topics
in the curriculum, despite the CAPS indicating that environmental content should feature in all subjects.
The present paper shows that Life Sciences has the widest coverage and that Geography examination papers
sometimes exceed the policy allocation.Agricultural Sciences has the least coverage.The study also found that
there is general,but not complete,alignment between policy and examination papers.The study concluded that
there is too little focus in the FET curriculum on environmental education and warns that this will constrain
the development of a pro-environmental culture among learners.This has relevance for curriculum and policy
developers in responding to societal and environmental issues.
Keywords: Environmental education, education for sustainable development, environmental-
impact topics, curriculum.
Introduction
Among the biggest challenges facing humans today are environmental pollution, land
degradation and global warming.Sitarz (1994) noted that the increase in the world’s population
and in consumption, particularly in the industrialised countries, had stimulated economic
growth but also worsened negative environmental impacts. Erdogan, Bahar, Ozel, Erdas and
Usak (2012:3259) blame ‘science and technology, industrialisation, changes in life habits and
routines’ for environmental pollution and the destruction of nature.The nations of the world
now recognise that the exploitation of the Earth’s resources has degraded the environment and
generated unmanageable amounts of waste and pollution.They agree that there is an urgent
need to address environmental threats and their consequences for the future of humankind.

40 Southern African Journal of Environmental Education |VOLUME 33 (DECEMBER 2017)
ISSN 2411-5959 | DOI 10.4314/sajee.v.33i1.4
The United Nations declared the period from 2005 to 2014 to be the Decade of Education
for Sustainable Development. This was followed in September 2015 by the adoption of the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,which includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) (UN, 2016). South Africa is a signatory to these goals and needs to play its part
in achieving them.
One way to do this is by means of educating young people on environmental-impact topics.
Kyburz-Graber (2013) argues that education is essential in solving environmental problems.She
states that environmental education was launched in many countries towards the latter part of
the 1960s as a new demand in education systems in response to the growing fears about the
degradation of the environment.
This paper examines the South African school curriculum, and, specifically, the inclusion
of ‘environmental-impact topics’, that is, topics that cover negative effects on people or the
environment.These may encompass rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, global
warming, the depletion of ozone in the atmosphere, deforestation, and improper waste disposal
(see, for example, Rockström et al., 2009).
One of the studies conducted in South Africa on the incorporation of environmental
education in the curriculum (Togo, Zhou & Khan, 2015) noted that issues such as climate
change are well covered in policy documents such as the 1995 White Paper on Education and
Training (Ministry of Education, 1995), yet not much has been achieved in translating this into
curriculum and teaching. According to the Department of Basic Education (DBE, 2016), the
national curriculum aims to ensure that learners acquire and use knowledge and skills in ways
that change their lives for the better. We would argue that this implies that the curriculum
should promote knowledge in local contexts by integrating environmental education in all
subjects taught in the school system.To fulfil this obligation, the curriculum must encourage
respect for human rights, inclusivity, and environmental and social justice.
It is important that environmental-impact topics be sufficiently covered not only in
curriculum documents, but also in examinations in order to instil the values of sustainable
development in the minds, attitudes and behaviour of the youth (Hill,Alan &Woodland, 2006).
Fundisa for Change (2013) highlights that many national curricula, such as South Africa’s
CAPS, are rich in environment and sustainability content where the subjects address aspects
of sustainability. However, it is also necessary to analyse coverage in examinations. Birdsall
(2013) argues that the infusion of environmental concepts into learning areas will be negatively
impacted and the goal of education for sustainability will be compromised if there is low
coverage of environmental themes in examinations.
In the interest of sustainable development and the alleviation of environmental problems,
this research therefore aims at analysing environmental-impact topics in South Africa’s FET
curriculum and how they are examined.The FET curriculum forms the focus of this study
because it is the final stage of schooling, at the end of which learners write the Grade 12 exit-
level examinations that determine whether they can progress to tertiary education.The study
investigates CAPS documents as well as examination papers set between 2012 and 2015 for the
Grade 12 exit examinations.The policy documents and past examination question papers were
sourced from the DBE’s website (2016).

RESEARCH PAPER 41
An Analysis of the Policy Coverage and Examination of Environmental-impactTopics
The analysis is based on three subjects: Life Sciences, Geography and Agricultural Sciences.
These subjects were selected after initial data analysis of all 11 core subjects taught in Grade 12,
which indicated that only three subjects showed environmental-impact topics coverage in both
the policy and in the exit-level examinations.These subjects were then purposefully sampled for
further analysis in this study.The paper adopts Margaret Archer’s ideas as proposed in her work,
Realist Social Theory (RST):The morphogenetic approach (1995), in order to evaluate the depth of
the concept of environmental education in the selected subjects.
Environmental education and the school curriculum
While it may be widely accepted that environmental education has to be accommodated in the
goals and structural organisation of schools,Stevenson (2007) notes that the critical enquiry and
action orientation inherent in environmental education create a challenging task for schools.
This challenge is at the root of the purpose of this paper.
Has educational change kept pace with developments in the global environment? There is
a need for education to make people aware of their influence on nature and the consequent
effects on their quality of life. Erdogan et al. (2012) argue that the increase in environmental
problems and issues has resulted in global conferences and events focusing on a sustainable
environment as well as in environmental-impact topics starting to be incorporated in school
curricula. For example, environmental-impact topics are mandated in the current school
policy in Serbia, which envisages that environmental education should be implemented
through curricular, extra-curricular and after-school activities. According to Stanišić and
Maksić (2014), environmental-education topics in the Serbian curriculum include the living
and non-living aspects of nature and the impact of human activities on the environment.
Hill et al. (2006) pointed out that environmental education should not just blindly reproduce
the current realities of living with nature, but should allow people to explore alternate realities,
enable them to critically evaluate these realities, and help them to make informed decisions as
to what the appropriate interaction with nature should be in their local context. On this aspect,
Lotz-Sisitka (2013) remarks that environmental education curriculum research has been shaped
and influenced by post-structuralism and critical realism.
The present study is an attempt to develop a better understanding of the way in which
environmental education is incorporated, or not incorporated, in the South African FET
curriculum,and is being approached from a related theoretical framework,which is outlined next.
Theoretical Framework
This paper adopts Archer’s (1995) Realist Social Theory (RST) as a meta-theoretical
framework.This explanatory theory seeks to understand the operations of social programmes
by evaluating their operational successes and failures for various interest groups functioning
in a particular context (De Souza, 2013). De Souza (2013) describes RST as a social theory
focusing on how individuals and society are related and how the interactions between them
might bring about or hinder change in the social context of interest. Young (2008) and
Creswell (2011) explain that knowledge is socially produced and that it is dependent on social

ISSN 2411-5959 | DOI 10.4314/sajee.v.33i1.4
interests and the related dynamics of power as individuals seek understanding of the world
in which they live and work. For example, students would interact with society by applying
knowledge they have learnt in school through environmental education, and teachers would
interpret the content of the curriculum they ought to teach in relation to their understanding
of their work context, as reflected in examination papers.
Archer (1995) explains that the work on RST has generally been directed at explaining
society and its transformation or reproduction. In order to describe and explain the
mechanisms of the workings of a society, social realists have adopted certain terminology.
Such terminology includes ‘structure’,‘culture’,‘agency’ and ‘relations’ (De Souza, 2013). In
this paper,‘structure’ refers to prevailing institutional structural conditions that can produce
a particular outcome, such as the curriculum as it is actually taught. ‘Culture’ refers to
dominant ideas or prevailing cultural conditions that can affect an individual’s perception of
what can or cannot be done in a social context, such as including certain forms of knowledge
in a curriculum or excluding them from the curriculum. ‘Agency’ is related to beliefs and
reasons that people use to justify actions they take, or do not take, such as policymakers and
curriculum writers choosing what knowledge to include in the curriculum, and how to do
so.The possible interaction of individuals with policy documents and examinations may result
in a change of behaviour towards the environment. Extensive coverage of environmental-
impact topics in the curriculum may shape a new culture of responding proactively to
environmental issues.
The social reality that this paper deals with is the global environmental crisis as evident
in such phenomena as depletion of the ozone layer, rising levels of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere, global warming, deforestation, and improper waste disposal.The development of a
curriculum to respond to this reality should involve teachers and the development of resources
such as books, journals, worksheets, and water or soil test kits (Schulze, 2014). From a realist
perspective, the learner is actively learning through experiences in relation to the environment
created by the curriculum and by teachers (Schulze, 2014).
The curriculum, as a structure, is influenced and created in a particular cultural setting by
curriculum writers exercising agency in certain ways, either enabled or constrained by the
curriculum and the policy environment surrounding it. Curriculum writers need to consider
not just what environmental issues and topics are included or excluded. They also need to
consider how to encourage and enable the teaching of critical thinking, as well as connections
between learners’ own views and those of environmentalists, thus encouraging learning and
changes in knowledge about, and changes in behaviour towards, the environment.
Research Design and Methodology
Data was selected from the Grade 12 CAPS documents, teacher and learner support materials,
and examination question papers in order to analyse the proportion of environmental-impact
topics in the curriculum based on the structure of policy documents and examinations between
2012 and 2015.This period was chosen because it followed the introduction of CAPS to the
FET band of schooling.

RESEARCH PAPER 43
Sampling strategies and population
The sampling method was purposive.An initial analysis of all 11 core Grade 12 subjects revealed
that environmental-impact topics occurred in both the policy documents and examination
question papers for only three subjects: Life Sciences, Geography and Agricultural Sciences.
These subjects were therefore selected.The questions papers were analysed for alignment with
what the policy projected in terms of the proportion of coverage of environmental-impact
topics.Three subject policy documents and 12 past examination questions papers (2012–2015)
were analysed across the three subjects.In each subject,both Paper 1 and Paper 2 were analysed.
The following environmental issues, derived from Dreyer and Loubser (2014), were
used to select data from the documents analysed: ozone depletion, global warming, energy
consumption, acid rain, air pollution, marine pollution, mineral-resource depletion, soil
destruction, soil erosion, desertification, biodiversity reduction, extinction of plants and animals,
nuclear reactors and waste disposal, human health and diseases, world hunger, land use, solid-
waste disposal, hazardous chemicals, habitat destruction, invasive species, water quality, and
wildlife management. An environmental-impact topic was defined as any section, word or
phrase having the characteristics of one of these environmental issues.
Data-analysis technique
The Grade 12 CAPS documents and examination papers were analysed to determine the
extent of inclusion of environmental-impact topics.The data analysis used focused and indexical
transcription in the compilation of the data. Hartas (2010) indicates that focused transcription
is helpful when a researcher is interested in recording the ways in which a given discourse
was produced. Indexical transcription involves creating an index of the points at which key
occurrences are found within the data. Descriptive and analytical coding (Richards, 2005) were
also used.This can be seen inTables 1 and 2 and also Figures 1 and 2.
Results
We begin the results of the document analysis by showing the breadth of content coverage, and
then comparing breadth coverage in the different subjects.
Life Sciences requires learners to focus on biodiversity, to understand life-support systems
and processes, to master basic ecological principles, and to learn about environmental impacts
(Fundisa for Change, 2013). The analysis of the examination papers for Life Sciences (see
Table 1) showed that questions were asked on threats to biodiversity. Themes included: the
culling of elephants that are damaging vegetation and threatening the human population
in the Kruger National Park; spillage of toxic minerals such as copper, thereby causing land
degradation; carbon monoxide emissions in the atmosphere; alien-plant invasion; the negative
effects of crops; excessive fertilisation of soil; and food wastage (DBE, 2016).
Geography requires learners to understand climate change and changing weather patterns,
sustainable-development principles and practices, urbanisation and land-use management and
sustainability, the management of natural resources, including water, and solutions that will
result in the production of less carbon energy (DBE, 2016). As shown in Table 2, Geography

ISSN 2411-5959 | DOI 10.4314/sajee.v.33i1.4
Table 1. Life Sciences Grade 12 results (2012 to 2015)
Policy
document
(1)
Environmental-
impact topics
found
Time
allocation
Examination papers Environmental-impact
topics found
CAPS Life
Sciences
(http://www.
education.
gov.za/:
visited
August 2016)
(Revision of
Grade 11 topics)
Human impact on
the environment
(p. 51)
Current crisis for
human survival
(p. 51)
Problems to be
solved within the
next generation
(p. 51)
2.5 weeks 2012 (DBE Life
Sciences Grade 12 final
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
visited August 2016)
2012:Threats to
biodiversity,culling of
elephants that are damaging
the Kruger National Park,
and current crisis for
human survival
2013 (DBE Life
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
2013: Carbon monoxide
emissions, spillage of toxic
minerals such as copper,
and invasion by alien
plants in the environment
2014 (DBE Life
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
2014: Global warming
and negative effects on
crops
2015 (DBE Life
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
2015: Illegal killing
of wildlife, excessive
fertilisation of soil, and
food wastage
Table 2. Geography Grade 12 results (2012 to 2015)
Policy
document
(2)
Environmental-
impact topics
found
Time
allocation
Examination papers Environmental-impact
topics found
CAPS
Geography
(http://www.
education.
gov.za/:
visited
August 2016)
Climate change
and changing
weather patterns,
and sustainable-
development
principles and
practices (p. 41)
Urbanisation
and land-use
management
and sustainability,
management of
natural resources,
including water,
and solutions
for low carbon
energy production
(pp. 8, 9 and 45)
Not stated 2012 (DBE Geography
Grade 12 final
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
2012: Impact of climate
change, loss of biodiversity,
land degradation, drought,
river pollution and air
pollution
2013 (DBE Geography
Grade 12 final
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
2013: Health hazards
caused by mines, poverty,
the negative impact of
human activities on
wildlife, and food security
2014 (DBE Geography
Grade 12 final
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
2014: Effects of berg
winds on veld fires,
and negative effects of
overpopulation in urban
areas
2015 (DBE Geography
Grade 12 final
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
viewed August 2016)
2015:Water pollution
in theVaal River, the
environmental impact
of cyclones, the high
levels of pollution of the
outskirts of towns, soil
erosion, and overstocking

RESEARCH PAPER 45
examinations included questions on such aspects as: the negative impact of climate change; loss
of biodiversity; drought; river pollution; the effects of berg winds on veld fires; land degradation
and health hazards caused by mines; the negative effects of overpopulation in urban areas; and
effective farm management of riverbanks (DBE, 2016). Geography also examines poverty, the
negative impact of human activities on wildlife, food security, the effects of soil erosion, the
impact of cyclones, pollution, and the effects of overstocking of rivers and dams (DBE, 2016).
In Agricultural Sciences, learners are required to develop an awareness of the management
and care of the environment and natural resources, as well as the humane treatment of
animals, through the application of science and related technology (DBE, 2016). Agricultural
Sciences also encourages learners to be informed and responsible citizens in the production of
agricultural commodities, in caring for the environment, and in addressing social-justice issues
(DBE, 2016).Table 3 shows that Agricultural Sciences examinations were limited to the effects
of alien plants on the environment, the threats from climate change, and the effects on natural
resources of overstocking with livestock.
Table 3. Agricultural Sciences Grade 12 results (2012 to 2015)
Policy
document
(3)
Environmental-
impact topics
found
Time
allocation
Examination papers Environmental-
impact topics found
CAPS
Agricultural
Sciences
(http://www.
education.
gov.za/:
viewed
August 2016)
The management
and care of the
environment and
natural resources,
as well as the
humane treatment
of animals, through
the application of
science and related
technology (p. 13)
Being informed and
responsible citizens
in the production
of agricultural
commodities, in
caring for the
environment, and
in addressing social-
justice issues (p. 13)
Not stated 2012 (DBE
Agricultural Sciences
Grade 12 final
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
2012:Threats from
climate change (heat
stress in pigs) and
adverse environmental
conditions
2013 (DBE
Grade 12 final
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
2013: Effects of high
temperature on animals
2014 (DBE
Grade 12 final
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
2014: Farm
management
2015 (DBE
Grade 12 final
paper: http://www.
education.gov.za/:
2015:The greenhouse
effect and the risk to
the environment of
genetically modified
plants
Breadth of content coverage
‘Breadth of content coverage’in this paper refers to the number of environmental-impact topics
found in the CAPS documents as well as in Grade 12 examination question papers for the
subjects, Life Sciences, Geography and Agricultural Sciences, from 2012 to 2015 (seeTable 4).

ISSN 2411-5959 | DOI 10.4314/sajee.v.33i1.4
Table 4. CAPS document content coverage within three subjects in Grade 12
CAPS documents
Life Sciences Geography
Agricultural
Sciences
Total number of curriculum topics 12 31 41
Total number of environmental-impact topics 1 3 1
Tuition time allocation for all the topics in the
curriculum
28 weeks 27 weeks 29 weeks
Time allocation for environmental-impact topics 2.5 weeks 2 weeks 1 week
Percentage time allocation for environmental-
impact topics
9% 7% 3%
Mark allocation for environmental-impact topics 25 marks out
of 300
Not disclosed Not disclosed
Percentage coverage in the examination of
environmental-impact topics
8% Not disclosed Not disclosed
Table 4 shows that the subject policy documents contain only one environmental-impact
topic in the Life Sciences, namely human impact on the environment and the sections thereof.
Three topics appear in the Geography policy documents: the effects of soil erosion on people
and the environment, the impact of coal mining, and the effects on the environment of using
conventional energy. Only one relevant topic appeared in the Agricultural Sciences policy
document, namely the effects of extensive farming on the environment.
Table 4 and Figure 1 show the extent (proportion) of coverage of environmental-impact
topics in the CAPS documents for the three subjects selected for analysis. From Figure 1,
it can be seen that Agricultural Sciences has the lowest coverage of environmental-impact
topics, followed by Geography, and then Life Sciences, which has the largest proportion of
environmental-impact topics. The proportion of environmental-impact topics in the CAPS
documents varies.Of the three subjects analysed,Agricultural Sciences had the least coverage of
environmental topics in terms of both time and content.
Figure 1. Percentage coverage of environmental-impact topics in three subjects
10
8
6
4
2
0
Life Science Agricultural Sciences
Geography

RESEARCH PAPER 47
Proportion of content coverage in examinations
‘Content coverage’, here, refers to the proportion according to which environmental-
impact topics in the CAPS curriculum are included in Grade 12 exit examinations in
South Africa. In order to ascertain the depth of environmental themes in examinations
papers from 2012 to 2015, percentages are compared against all other aspects covered in
the examination paper using marks allocated for environmental-impact topics (as defined
earlier).
Tables 5 and 6 and Figure 2 provide information on the comparison and depth of
environmental-impact topics in the three subjects investigated. Figure 2 shows that
Agricultural Sciences had the lowest percentage coverage in the examinations, in line with
the CAPS document analysis above. Figure 2 also shows that Geography had the largest
coverage of environmental-impact topics in 2012, 2014 and 2015. In 2013, Life Sciences
recorded the largest coverage when compared with the other two subjects. It should be
noted that, although Agricultural Sciences had few environmental-impact topics included,
the number increased over the four years investigated. In contrast, the proportional coverage
of environmental-impact topics in Life Sciences and Geography decreased from 2012.
Figure 2. Percentage coverage of environmental-impact topics in examination papers
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
2012 2014
2013 2015
Life Science Geography Agricultural Sciences
Table 5. Proportion of environmental-impact topics in examination papers (Life Sciences)
Year
Life Sciences
2012 2013 2014 2015
Marks allocated out of 300 31 33 19 23
Percentage coverage 10% 11% 6% 8%
Average percentage coverage 9%

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Table 6. Proportion of environmental-impact topics in examination papers (Geography and
Agricultural Sciences)
Year
Geography Agricultural Sciences
2012 2013 2014 2015 2012 2013 2014 2015
Marks allocated out of 300 52 30 40 23 4 6 5 16
Percentage coverage 17% 10% 13% 8% 1% 2% 2% 5%
Average percentage coverage 12% 3%
Discussion
The data shows the coverage and proportional coverage of environmental-impact topics for
the three subjects in the CAPS document. The number of environmental-impact topics is
compared with the total number of topics covered in the subject. In Life Sciences, only one
environmental-impact topic is included in the Grade 12 subject policy document out of a total
of 12 topics.Within this one environmental-impact topic, there are sub-topics covering human
impact on the environment, the current crisis regarding human survival, and problems to be
solved within the next generation. However, only 2.5 weeks out of 28 weeks are allocated for
environmental-impact topics, which accounts for 9% of the time allocated to tuition.
In Geography and Agricultural Sciences, a total of 31 and 41 topics, respectively, are to be
found, with three of these being environmental-impact topics in Geography, but only one
being an environmental-impact topic in Agricultural Sciences. Environmental-impact topics
constitute 7% and 3% in terms of time allocated for tuition purposes in Geography and
Agricultural Sciences, respectively. The CAPS requirement for coverage of environmental-
impact topics in Life Sciences, Geography and Agricultural Sciences is 9%, 7% and 3% of
tuition time, respectively.These represent a low level of coverage of environmental education
in the respective subject curricula, which is likely to constrain the development of a more
pro-environmental culture among school learners.
The question that can now be asked is: To what extent are environmental-impact topics
given attention in examinations?
The CAPS documents do not mention the Geography and Agricultural Sciences mark
allocations for the actual final examination paper in Grade 12. However, the Life Sciences
document indicates an average of 25 marks in a paper marked out of 300 (8%). Thus the
Life Sciences policy document assists the examiners in knowing the specific proportion of
environmental-impact topics that needs to be covered in the examinations. From this analysis,
it is clear that Life Sciences is the subject where the most emphasis is placed on environmental-
impact topics. If teachers and learners know there will be a summative assessment at the end of
the year with questions on environmental-impact topics, they are likely to place emphasis on
teaching and learning with regard to these topics.This may also lead to teachers and learners
developing cultural values pertaining to the sustainable use of natural resources, as well as
to the cascading of good environmental behaviour to communities. RST as a social theory

RESEARCH PAPER 49
focuses on how individuals and society are related and how the interactions between them
might bring about or hinder change in the social context of interest. Upon learning about
environmental-impact topics, learners may be better able to become agents of change in
relation to environmental sustainability.
The CAPS curriculum documents require 9% of the content of Life Sciences to
be covered through the teaching of environmental-impact topics, and the results show
that Life Sciences Grade 12 examinations indeed complied with the policy documents.
Table 6 shows that Geography exceeded the 7% stipulated in the CAPS curriculum as
shown in Table 4, with an average of 12% coverage in the Grade 12 examinations. The
increased coverage of environmental-impact topics in the curriculum may well encourage
teachers to continue teaching these topics, as they make up a significant percentage of
the examinations at the end of the year. In Agricultural Sciences, there was an average of
3% allocated on the timetable, which is the same percentage as prescribed in the CAPS
curriculum document.
The study found that the coverage of environmental-impact topics sometimes drops
below the requirements of the policy documents. In Geography, for instance, there was a
9% drop in the marks allocated to environmental topics in the examinations between 2012
and 2015.This reduction of coverage in the examinations can have a negative effect on the
way learners and teachers approach environmental content in the subject and could feasibly
affect how they regard an environmental culture in the school as well as in society. Culture,
according to RST, symbolises dominant ideas or prevailing cultural conditions that can
affect an individual’s perception of what can or cannot and should or should not be done in
a social context.Where there is no alignment between policy coverage of environmental-
impact topics with actual proportional coverage in the examinations, this may result in
teachers being reluctant to emphasise such topics.
This paper argues that if teachers are going to be agents of change within school
structures who act to change conversations and perceptions about environmental problems,
they need to be supported by curricula that actively address environmental-impact topics
consistently through the years. Consistency in the proportional coverage of environmental-
impact topics in the curriculum, and alignment of the policy with actual practice in the
examinations, would encourage pro-environment teaching practices, thereby enabling
change in the culture of teaching environmental-impact topics. In the social realist analysis,
the extent of the coverage of these topics in the examination papers may change the
ways in which both teachers and learners focus on environmental-impact topics in their
teaching and learning, both within and outside the classroom. A consistent presence of
environmental-impact topics in the curriculum, and alignment in documents used by
teachers and learners (such as past examination papers and textbooks) could encourage
learners to act in order to address environmental issues.
In addition, teacher development is important. John, Mei and Guang (2013) suggest
that, in order to successfully introduce a curriculum innovation such as environmental
education, teachers need to be carefully and systematically prepared for, and guided during,
such changes. For example, they could conduct impact research to support, monitor and

ISSN 2411-5959 | DOI 10.4314/sajee.v.33i1.4
evaluate the changes. Furthermore, there is a need for research and development projects
to examine issues such as organisational capacity and curriculum integration. It is on this
latter aspect that this study has aimed to make a contribution.
Conclusion
The results show that environmental-impact topics are indeed covered in South Africa’s Grade
12 CAPS curriculum, but to varying degrees.The level of coverage of environmental-impact
topics in the examination question papers also fluctuates, sometimes to levels below those
stipulated in the CAPS documents. The variable coverage of environmental-impact topics
in the examinations may have a negative effect on the way teachers address the topics in the
classroom.This is based on the observation that teachers tend to focus on topics they regard as
important in order to prepare learners for the end-of-year examinations.This paper argues that
there can be more coverage of environmental-impact topics in some subjects, because there is
much more in the policy compared with what is being offered with regard to examinations.
It is recommended that further studies be conducted to analyse the impact of environmental-
impact topics in the curriculum, as well as to evaluate the extent to which the actual content
that learners are exposed to is adequate in changing patterns of behaviour with respect to
environmental issues. Furthermore, studies can be conducted to evaluate the actual practices
of key agents such as teachers and other curriculum implementers.The final recommendation
is that policy developers should ensure that coverage of environmental issues in textbooks and
summative assessments are aligned with the policy documents.
Notes on the Contributor
Sikhulile Bonginkosi Msezane is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in Environmental
Education at the University of South Africa. He is a lecturer in the College of Education at the
University of South Africa.
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