An Ecocritical Assessment of Environmental Representation in Burundi's Secondary School English Curriculum

Abstract

This study examined the place that the English curriculum of the Secondary school in Burundi reserves to the teaching of the values of nature conservation, environment protection and climate change to educate learners about the importance of environment to advance humanity. It identified key environmental issues that should constitute the English curricula from the Middle School to the Upper Secondary to impart learners’ significant knowledge on the preservation of nature and environment to fight against natural disasters and climate change. The collection of data consisted in a selection of themes on environment and the related reading texts suggested in the English textbooks designed for the four “tracks” under study. These tracks were: Sciences Track, Languages Track, Pedagogical Track and the Middle school that was regarded too as an additional Track to the study. Only themes that discuss nature conservation, environmental issues and climate change where they selected to constitute the essential data for analysis. In the end, the study remarked that contents related to environmental issues have been neglected while designing the contents. Only 16.4% of the contents discuss matters related to nature and environment. They are profoundly lacunar and limited to empower learners with significant ethical knowledge about the protection and advancement of nature and environment. Even the environmental themes provided in the textbooks treat superficial issues that give little knowledge about the contemporary acute natural threats. However, the study noted that a new technical vocabulary emerges from the themes to upgrade learners’ communicative competences in English. In the end, the study establishes a list of topical subjects that should be integrated into the English curriculum to update pedagogical contents to reach a sustainable environmental education.