ECOCRITICAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN LITERATURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN BOTSWANA

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Daniel Koketso

Abstract

“Conservation” is currently a buzz word the world over because of environmental crises affecting climate, wildlife, forests, oceans, and many human societies. Recently in Botswana, there were reports that more than 90 elephants were slaughtered by poachers as a result of disarming the Botswana wildlife rangers. This study is based on Anne Fine’s play The Play of Goggle Eyes which is one of the set texts for the Junior Secondary School English syllabus in Botswana. The study draws from the Revised National Policy on Education (Botswana Government, 1994) that introduced environmental education into the Botswana education system.  The paper argues, using ecocriticism theory, that the play can be used to teach environmental conservation through the teaching of the English language as a subject. The paper also posits that the demands and or the aspirations of Botswana’s education system falls short of achieving its intended purpose because the teaching of environmental issues is left to the discretion of an individual teacher who may emphasise more on the “social constructivism” and “social linguistic determinism” of the text. Finally, the paper proposes classroom activities which, if foregrounded in the teaching of the text, would attribute a more experiential character to literature for instruction purposes. The paper concludes that Junior Certificate English Syllabus should be repackaged to make environmental education through literature more proactive rather than leave this vital aspect of humanity to individual teacher’s inclinations. Teachers of English too, should be empowered at colleges of education to think, see, and read the environment in every text they deal with beyond the idea of nature as a metaphor, or just a locale within which characters relate with one another.

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