Browsing by Author "Chilungo Jana, Doreen Amina"
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- ItemExploring place-based education in geography teaching and learning as a means to re-engage students in Malawi(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-04) Chilungo Jana, Doreen Amina; Ontong, Krystle; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Curriculum Studies.ENGLISH SUMMARY : The government challenges teachers to expand outcomes from the educational resources it provides for equal access for all citizens. However, there is a growing consensus that universal policies, such as externally mandated curricula are less effective in mitigating contextual challenges. Persistent disengagement of students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, has been reported in various educational systems, including Malawi‟s, despite the governments‟ policies to address inequalities. Teachers, unaided, fail to make abstract concepts accessible to their students and to achieve predetermined outcomes within the curricular mandates. For example, Geography requires that students be given the opportunity to explore their classwork in their own local places through field trips. However, teachers complying with curricular stipulations lack the time to familiarise students with their environments geographically. Students realise that their needs are not being met, fail to own their education, and hence disengage. There is, however, a body of literature that advocates place-based education as being instrumental in promoting a connection between classroom concepts with the resources from communities that students come from. This study focussed on a sample of Geography teachers in Malawian schools. The investigator sought to explore how Geography teachers could operationalise place-based education to re-engage their students to make Geography contents more accessible to all students in Malawi. This investigation assumed a qualitative interpretive paradigm that employed a multiple case study design. Three secondary school Geography teachers were interviewed using semi-structured questions and collaboratively analysed the Geography syllabus. A constant comparative method was chosen as a means of analysing the data to come up with holistic findings. The findings reveal perceived gaps in the stipulated curriculum that could be contributing to students‟ disengagement. Teachers struggle to keep language simple and straightforward for all students. They have to create different points of departure from what the syllabus mandates. Consequently, teachers fail to complete their assigned workload within a given time. In addition, data reveal that the overload experienced with the syllabus leads to rote learning for the sake of completing the syllabus. On the other hand, scholars point out that with place-based education it is possible to make the curriculum more meaningful for students within the confines of the stipulated syllabus. Place-based education regards the resources that are available in the students‟ own community as assets in introducing abstract class content. Drawing on this, an exploration of place based education for the teaching of Geography is suggested to support teachers to rethink their roles in re-engaging their students. The need for in-service professional development is also recommended to boost teachers‟ capacity to liberate their students from unnecessary rote learning or memorisation.