Challenges And Opportunities Of Incorporating And Teaching Environmental Education In Adult Literacy Curriculum In Kisau Division, Makueni County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

This research was carried out to investigate the challenges and opportunities of incorporating and teaching Environmental Education in adult literacy curriculum in Kisau Division in Mbooni-East District. The study was extended to the entire Makueni County to acquire comprehensive data regarding general administrative and management practices of the curriculum. A total of 100 adult education learners, 18 adult literacy teachers, 10 Division Adult Education Supervisors, and 3 District Adult Education Officers, participated in the research. The adult teachers were purposively sampled. The learners sample was obtained through stratified random sampling. The Division Adult Education Supervisors and the District Adult Education Officers were purposively sampled. Primary data were obtained through use of questionnaires and an interview schedule. The primary data were subjected to statistical analysis by the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).The significance level (p) was set at equal or less than 0.05 (p≤0.05). Secondary data were obtained from content analysis of four subjects; Agriculture, Science, Social Studies and Homecare & Craft contained in the Adult Basic Education & Training (ABET) II and III syllabi. This was done against a pre-constructed content analysis guide. Results obtained showed that the adult literacy syllabi ABET II and ABET III were rich in EE content. EE content was incorporated using a multi-disciplinary approach. It was found that Science had the highest level of EE content incorporation with content infusion of 63.8 % in ABET II and 58.1 % in ABET III. Homecare & Craft had the least content infusion with 20 % in ABET II and 16.7 % in ABET III. An investigation on the relationship between literacy teachers attitudes on environment and their teaching of EE established a lack of correlation (rho=0.354, p=0.150).The opportunities and challenges that exist in the attempt to incorporate and teach EE in adult literacy curriculum were established. The opportunities significant to EE were; a substantial enrolment of learners. The learners were involved in agricultural activities hence much interaction with natural environment. Learners had high level of environmental awareness. Teachers were found to have a relatively good academic and professional background. The teachers possessed positive attitudes on local environmental issues. Sound environmental related development projects which can be used to deliver EE, and involvement of many stakeholders who can assist in the implementation of the EE agenda were also opportunities. The challenges were; the unbalanced gender representation in learners and teachers with the female gender dominating, the use of less effective methodologies in teaching EE concepts, and the shortage of full-time curriculum implementation team. Recommendations and suggestions for further research were provided