The arts and community involvement were used to demonstrate a culturally relevant approach to environmental education.The authors of this study demonstrated how an Arts in Education (AiE) approach could be used to enhance learning about environmental issues in the context of students’ own cultural heritage. The students, in this case, attended a rural primary school in the Kgalagari region of Botswana. While most of the students were of BaKgalagari heritage, the teachers were not. The school’s culture or teaching and learning reflected a Eurocentric curriculum which was not consistent with the students’ ethnic background. The authors, in developing an alternative approach for the BaKalagari students, used the UNESCO Roadmap to Art Education as a guide which calls for the inclusion of traditional cultural learning.
The aim of this study was to explore how engaging students in a more culturally-relevant curriculum (referred to as “the model project”) could enhance their understanding of local environmental issues. The model project, under the direction of the authors, was delivered as participant observation workshops for the teachers over seven periods of 45 minutes each.
A culturally relevant folk tale with an environmental theme was used to introduce the project. Community elders were invited to tell this and other stories to the BaKgalagari Standard 4 children. Related lessons conducted by the authors offered the teachers exemplary activities incorporating story-telling, dramatizing and visual art – all embedded within the learners’ contexts and with a focus on environmental appreciation.
This study demonstrated how the arts and community involvement can be used to establish a learning environment which is culturally relevant to the children involved and enhances their understanding and appreciation of the local natural environment.
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