Exploring Environmental Education Content through Education for Sustainable Development Lenses. A Case of Malawi Senior Primary School Religious Education Curriculum

The United Nations environmental education agenda calls all bodies of knowledge to engage students by instilling environmental consciousness and actively involve them through transformative classroom practices. Therefore, all curricula are expected to integrate considerable and relevant environmental content that is linked to Education for Sustainable Development through classroom practice. This qualitative article is part of a larger study that investigated the adequacy of environmental education content and the suggested pedagogical approaches in the Malawi senior primary school Religious Education curriculum. This was in an effort to seek deeper understanding on the adequacy of ecological and environmental content and how the content is pedagogically made accessible to learners. The investigation involved analyzing Religious Education curriculum documents and recommended textbooks with respect to ecological and environmental content, including the suggested pedagogical approaches. The study revealed the limited coverage of ecological and environmental issues especially the Bible Knowledge curricular that focus more on conservation and less on sustainability and ecological justice. Furthermore, the study revealed a dominance of transmission mode, with a focus on knowledge transmission rather than critical thinking or problem-posing with practical engagement of students. Among some of the propositions were the need for review of RE curriculum, focusing on adequacy of ecological and environmental content with the transformative pedagogical approaches and this in response to the UN urgent call on ecological and environmental education.