Creating a conducive learning environment for DCE

Findings have revealed that the transmission of DCE is hampered by a number of challenges. Among these challenges is the lack of a favourable learning environment for DCE. Mhlauli (2011) affirms that some challenges attributed to the implementation of Social Studies in Africa include the lack of instructional material, definitional problems and lack of trained and experienced teachers. It is however surprising that some of these problems were picked by earlier research and they still persist. For instance, Merryfield (1986) unveiled that the implementation of Social Studies curriculum in a number of African countries is faced with problems such as lack of instructional material.

The participants in my study made an outcry about the lack of instructional material suitable for DCE and that this condition does not create a conducive learning environment for DCE. This is confirmed by Oats (2009:56) who conducted a study on the challenges of teaching citizenship education at senior secondary school level in Botswana. The findings of the study maintained that schools have an acute shortage of instructional material suitable for citizenship education and that this condition works against the curriculum goal of effective citizenship education transmission.

DCE by nature requires learners to have resources at their disposal so that they can interact with them in their process of knowledge generation. This means that lack of resources becomes a hindrance in that learners have no material to interact with before they can make meaningful conclusions on diverse issues before them during instructional time. The study has revealed that colleges have lack of material ranging from conventional materials like audio, audio-visual, textbooks, functional and fast internet facilities. These materials are available in miserably limited state in the two (2) colleges and this state of affairs hampers learners’ liberal exploration of issues. Another issue noted by Asimeng-Boahene (2000) is that where instructional materials

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are available they are usually limited in scope and are content related as opposed to activity- based to be suitable for DCE.

The problem of shortage of instructional material which is becoming a day-to-day talk in most schools and colleges in Botswana needs an urgent attention. Adeyemi, Boikhutso and Moffat (2003) purport that the condition needs to be addressed if Social Studies is to achieve its goal of preparing effective citizens. Probably, this is because citizenship education draws content matter from diverse disciplines with various issues ranging from political, social and economic, local, familial, communal, regional, continental to global. For that reason teacher training colleges need to have an avalanche of material to support all various content areas.

While it might be true that colleges have a shortage of educational material, this study blames colleges of education for the shortage of instructional material for DCE. I argue that these are teacher training colleges at which trainees are taught about material development for instructional purposes. These are colleges at which teachers are trained by well educated lecturers on how to be creative and innovation in time of need. These are colleges where trainees are prepared to fit into any duty station in Botswana and apply themselves fully. Trainees are equipped to find themselves in a place with limited recourses and generate resources to facilitate effective learning and teaching. It is therefore surprising for teacher training colleges to have a shortage of recourses when lecturers and student-teachers could join hands and generate material suitable for DCE.

There is also need for colleges to create space for themselves in which to offer DCE in a less expensive way. DCE deserves outdoor teaching approaches which colleges could fully adopt and utilise. Botswana has a lot of natural and man-made features which could be taken advantage of. Additionally, there are several social and cultural groupings, government departments, parastatal organisations, non-governmental organisations, which could be visited to provide the needed data in a practical form. At these institutions colleges could also organise short-term placements for their students, however short to gain practical experiences on the ground. This goes in harmony with the principles of Education for Kagisano (1977:10) that the implementation of democracy in education has implications for the stakeholders, teachers and the curriculum. The

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education policy advocates for the involvement and voice of all stakeholders such as the community, parents, professionals, corporate world and students into education matters for the effectual build-up of well rounded, sound, accountable and responsible citizenry.

Based on the findings of this study it can also be argued that the two colleges on the sample do not fully apply themselves regarding material development to support DCE. I argue that a lot of avenues are available which colleges have not tapped into before conclusions can be made on lack of resources. For instance, colleges could solicit printed material from organizations and institutions that relate with DCE content. This includes material hand-outs from parliament, councils, political parties, non-governmental organizations, and so on. In most cases these organizations will not even sell the material. Additionally, they could explore the possibility of developing a bank of resources. This could be done by downloading from the internet information that they could either directly use or modify for use in their transmission of DCE content. This should not be a problem since both colleges have access to internet where they could retrieve information.