IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jousus/v18y2024i1p56-76.html

The Emergence of Education for Sustainable Development in Namibia’s Senior Primary English Language Curriculum: A Morphogenetic Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Anelly Malua

    (Anelly Malua, Rhodes University, Grahamstown-Makhanda, South Africa.)

  • Lausanne Olvitt

    (Lausanne Olvitt, Environmental Learning Research Centre, Rhodes University, Grahamstown-Makhanda, South Africa. E-mail: L.Olvitt@ru.ac.za)

Abstract

Senior Primary English Language Teaching is an important site for implementing Namibia’s Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development (EE/ESD) Policy. Language Teaching lends itself to ESD pedagogies and can be responsive to sustainability-oriented content. This article summarizes a qualitative case study of ESD implementation through the Senior Primary English Language curriculum between 1990 and 2018. Data included documents, a questionnaire with 43 Senior Primary English Language teachers in the Khomas Region of Namibia and in-depth interviews with 12 teachers. Framed by Margaret Archer’s social realist theory of Morphogenesis, the study’s findings point to a policy–practice disjuncture of relevance to policy makers, teacher educators and other ESD partners. The article recommends building English Language teachers’ agency for ESD implementation in Namibia by strengthening the EE/ESD foci in pre- and in-service teacher programmes, expanding and strengthening networks and school cluster subject groups, and prioritizing making environmental content knowledge more accessible through textbooks and other teaching resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Anelly Malua & Lausanne Olvitt, 2024. "The Emergence of Education for Sustainable Development in Namibia’s Senior Primary English Language Curriculum: A Morphogenetic Case Study," Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, , vol. 18(1), pages 56-76, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jousus:v:18:y:2024:i:1:p:56-76
    DOI: 10.1177/09734082241282891
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09734082241282891
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09734082241282891?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    2. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    3. Mariana Chudnovsky & Diana Martínez Medina & Agustín Filippo, 2026. "Parity in Public Administration as a Moving Target: The Role of Women Policy Agencies in Mexico," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(1), pages 60-76, February.
    4. Schlör, Holger & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "The FEW-Nexus city index – Measuring urban resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 382-392.
    5. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-02019073, HAL.
    6. Samed Yasin Öztürk & Gonca Yangın Ekşi, 2025. "Fostering Intercultural Competence through Telecollaboration on SDGs: A Multinational Study With Student Teachers," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(4), pages 21582440251, November.
    7. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.
    8. Ibrahim Ari & Muammer Koc, 2018. "Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development: Understanding the Interrelations between Public Investment and Sovereign Debt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, October.
    9. R. Ebrahimi & S. Choobchian & H. Farhadian & I. Goli & E. Farmandeh & H. Azadi, 2022. "Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    10. Lampros Lamprinidis, 2025. "Socially Responsible Public Procurement and the Social Economy: European and Global Institutional Approaches," Journal of Public Policy and Administration, IPRJB, vol. 10(1), pages 46-62.
    11. Benjamin Nölting & Bettina König & Anne B. Zimmermann & Antonietta Di Giulio & Martina Schäfer & Flurina Schneider, 2022. "Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic: an opportunity to reflect on sustainability research," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 11-27, December.
    12. Nakakawa, Frances & Mugisha, Johnny & Kaaya, Archileo N. & Tumwesigye, Nazarius M. & Hennessey, Martina, 2024. "Nutrition education effects on food and nutrition security for women living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    13. Rashmi Jaipal, 2017. "Psychology at the Crossroads," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 29(2), pages 125-159, September.
    14. Bárbara Galleli & Elder Semprebon & Joyce Aparecida Ramos dos Santos & Noah Emanuel Brito Teles & Mateus Santos de Freitas-Martins & Raquel Teodoro da Silva Onevetch, 2021. "Institutional Pressures, Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19: How Are Organisations Engaging?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    15. Anna Napiórkowska & Piotr Zaborek & Marzanna Katarzyna Witek-Hajduk & Anna Grudecka, 2025. "Individual Cultural Values and Charitable Crowdfunding: Driving Social Sustainability Through Consumer Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-26, June.
    16. Oleksandr Melnychenko, 2025. "Artificial Intelligence in Regulating Production Volumes for Sustainable Development: Qualitative and Quantitative Aspects," Virtual Economics, The London Academy of Science and Business, vol. 8(1), pages 40-57, March.
    17. Sagarika Dey & Priyanka Devi, 2019. "Impact of TVET on Labour Market Outcomes and Women’s Empowerment in Rural Areas: A Case Study from Cachar District, Assam," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 13(3), pages 357-371, December.
    18. Rostami-Tabar, Bahman & Ali, Mohammad M. & Hong, Tao & Hyndman, Rob J. & Porter, Michael D. & Syntetos, Aris, 2022. "Forecasting for social good," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1245-1257.
    19. Maria Sassi, 2020. "A SEM Approach to the Direct and Indirect Links between WaSH Services and Access to Food in Countries in Protracted Crises: The Case of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal State, South Sudan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-13, November.
    20. Seebacher, Moritz, 2023. "Pathways to progress: The complementarity of bicycles and road infrastructure for girls’ education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jousus:v:18:y:2024:i:1:p:56-76. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.