Journal Article Review
The purpose of the article by Msezane is to outline the insights of grade 12 learners regarding the incorporation of environmental economics via ecological learning into the South African syllabus and evaluation policy report. The problem tackled in the study concerns the students’ effective understanding of the perceptions of environmental education (EE).[1] This matters because advocating for environmental reform demands learners to take part in the ideological and vital inquiry. There has been a propagation of strategies and political rhetoric across the globe from the period of the new millennium, which underscores the significance of reasonable and sustainable advancement devoid of the depletion of natural resources.[2] Environmental education has a crucial function in making sure that communities are well-informed of the facets of sustainable growth, for instance, poverty mitigation, development of the economy, and marginal outlays and gains of safeguarding natural resources. Environmental education is evident in support of nature study in learning institutions and conservation movement. Most significantly, with respect to caring for natural resources for the sake of future cohorts, guaranteeing sustainable utilization, and upholding the treasured environment, learning has an imperative role to play.
The objectives of environmental education, which also shape the background of the research by Msezane, entail the important roles of evaluating the environment, the creation of moral policies regarding environmental concerns, and taking part aggressively in improving the environment. Moreover, environmental education is interested not just in restoration to minimize exploitation of the environment but as well in the prevention of social inequalities in the practice of rebuilding. The inequities hail from monopoly industrialists who hold back the socio-economic development of the people through the application of natural resources meagerly for monetary benefits. Studies affirm that a major conception of environmental education is Education for Sustainable Development that is deemed a vital aspect for the alteration of mind-sets and conduct. Education for Sustainable Development is crucial to make people support strategies geared toward guiding communities in a more sustainable and fiscal way. In this regard, learning institutions, educators, and other stakeholders may realize sustainable environmental objectives via environmental education.[3] Considerably, one of the goals of the United Nations is to guarantee comprehensive and quality learning for everyone while supporting lifelong erudition that acts as a section of the viewpoint of research. Having a quality education forms the basis of the betterment of the lives of people with the aim of attaining sustainable growth.
Realist Social Theory addresses the perception of arrangement, agency, pre-existing formations, culture, position-process systems, and methods that influence the growth of the economy and the well-being of the community. In the study, Msezane gathered data through focus group interviews with 10 students who were resolutely chosen from a class of eighty learners. The interviewees were both male and female students from seventeen to nineteen years old. Focus group interviews form a way of comprehending the manner in which individuals perceive or mull over a service, concern, or product.[4] After planning the interview guide with learners who were not to offer the ultimate data, Msezane prepared several questions and sought the answers from the participants in the study. The interviewees received questions regarding their views of environmental education incorporation in line with the progression laid down in the interview guide. A notebook and cell phones were used to record the reactions of the students after which analysis of the information collected from the focus groups followed. A qualitative research approach was employed to delineate the viewpoints of youth regarding appropriate use of limited natural resources while an inductive analysis technique was employed to deduce the information provided by the participants.
The results of the study disclosed that although the youth have learned the ideals of environmental education that comprise of natural resource economics, which is a cross-curricular subject, others do not value the significance of effective application of natural resources in lessening poverty and enhancing the interests of future cohorts. Many of the young people feel that environmental concerns like air and water pollution, land degradation, and inappropriate dumping of solid waste may be reduced through practices that might be carried out outside the class. Nonetheless, some interviewees realized that the government has to offer monetary backing for programs that encourage the sustainability of natural resources in learning institutions (Msezane, 2017). The function of environmental education in learning institutions and community entails sustainable utilization of natural resources.
The researcher’s main conclusion is that the execution of environmental education in learning institutions gainsays the perception, arrangement, and communication of knowledge hence usually creating problems for learners, in addition to educators anchored in their economic backdrop. The youth are convinced that government agencies ought to offer fiscal support in practices linked to environmental economics in schools to ensure that the socio-economic situation of the people is successfully enhanced through education. The study by Msezane is significant as it has established that participants have excellent understanding of the insinuations of environmental education incorporation and the behavioral transformations that arise from discovering the factors of natural resource economics in learning institutions.
Bibliography
Griffin, Ronald. “The Origins and Ideals of Water Resource Economics in the United States.” Annu. Rev. Resour. Econ. 4, no. 1 (2012): 353-377.
List, John, and Michael Price. “The Use of Field Experiments in Environmental and Resource Economics.” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 10, no. 2 (2016): 206-225.
Msezane, Sikhulile. “Perceptions of Youth about the Integration of Natural Resource Economics through Environmental Education in Schools: A Realist Social Perspective.” Environmental Economics 8, no. 3 (2017): 70-75.
Nelson, Jon, and Peter Kennedy. “The Use (and Abuse) of Meta-Analysis in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics: An Assessment.” Environmental and resource economics 42, no. 3 (2009): 345-377.
[1]. Sikhulile Msezane, “Perceptions of Youth about the Integration of Natural Resource Economics through Environmental Education in Schools: A Realist Social Perspective,” Environmental Economics 8, no. 3 (2017): 70-75.
[2]. Jon Nelson, and Peter Kennedy, “The Use (and Abuse) of Meta-Analysis in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics: An Assessment,” Environmental and resource economics 42, no. 3 (2009): 345-377.
[3]. John List, and Michael Price, “The Use of Field Experiments in Environmental and Resource Economics,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 10, no. 2 (2016): 206-225.
[4]. Ronald Griffin, “The Origins and Ideals of Water Resource Economics in the United States,” Annu. Rev. Resour. Econ. 4, no. 1 (2012): 353-377.