Viewpoint: Curriculum Development for the Kids in Parks Programme

Abstract

As the curricula for environmental education programmes need to change continuously to reflect our constantly changing understandings of the environment and of environmental issues, clear and specific guidelines are required to assist in this process. This viewpoint paper reviews various resources that suggest what environmental education curricula should contain, as well as some strategies proposed to implement these in practice. Any curriculum design process normally seeks to identify processes that should feature in environmental education curricula, but environmental education curricula are often also ‘context-bound’, as they are dependent on and are situated in various environmental contexts – as in the case of this study of the majority of the biodiverse national parks managed by the South African National Parks (SANParks). Thus there is a tension between general aspects of curriculum and situated aspects of curriculum; and there is also a need to determine which of these in particular could assist with recurriculation of the Kids in Parks Programme offered at various national parks in South Africa. If implemented, these generic guidelines, together with their context sensitivity (as each national park is different), could serve as a core framework for all Kids in Parks programmes and be adapted for each park context. ‘Curriculum’ in this viewpoint paper does not mean ‘school curriculum’, but rather those guiding principles, concepts and approaches that guide teaching and learning with regard to the Kids in Parks Programme.