CHARACTERIZATION OF CURRICULUM LEADERSHIP BY SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOL LEADERS AND TEACHERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Integrating environmental education into the school curriculum in South Africa remains a concern. Various curriculum and instructional design factors affecting environmental education have been explored. However, the role of curriculum leadership in environmental education is not well understood despite research that shows that curriculum leadership is a critical challenge facing the education system in general. Poor curriculum leadership has been shown to contribute to ineffective curriculum implementation and poor quality of education. In the current research, we used qualitative research methods to determine the characterization of curriculum leadership by teachers and school leaders involved in environmental education as a preliminary effort to understand the challenges facing environmental education. We used distributed leadership as a theoretical framework for the research. The findings show that some environmental education teachers, school managers, and environmental education subject advisors do not understand the concept of curriculum leadership. Participants' understanding of curriculum leadership was associated with socio-political dynamics rather than educational principles. We conclude that the poor understanding of curriculum leadership and its role may lead to ineffective integration of environmental education in the South African school curriculum. Keywords: curriculum leadership, distributed leadership, environmental education, school leaders and teachers