Strengthening education for sustainable development through curriculum coherence in Geography teacher education in eSwatini

Abstract

Background: Teacher education holds the key to developing education for sustainable development (ESD) concepts in future teachers who, in turn, work with learners. However, research in southern Africa has shown that the integration of ESD in teacher education is weak. Specifically, there is a gap in understanding how sustainability knowledge coheres within the teacher education curriculum across specific national and institutional contexts.
Aim: The study examined how ESD is represented and how it can be strengthened through curriculum coherence in Geography teacher education.
Setting: The study focused on undergraduate and postgraduate Geography teacher education curriculum at a university in eSwatini.
Methods: A qualitative analysis of curriculum documents was undertaken for four course outlines, guided by Rata’s Curriculum Design Coherence Model. The analysis examined the conceptual organisation, progression and alignment between content, pedagogy and assessment.
Results: The findings showed that while disciplinary concepts and inquiry-based pedagogies provide entry points for ESD, sustainability is weakly integrated. Conceptual progression across course levels is inconsistent. Assessment practices are weakly aligned with pedagogical intentions. As a result, ESD is insufficiently developed as a coherent strand of teacher knowledge.
Conclusion: The main limitation is not the absence of ESD content, but weak curriculum coherence. Strengthening conceptual sequencing and aligning pedagogy with assessment are, therefore, necessary to support cumulative sustainability learning.
Contribution: The study proffers a coherence-based perspective of Geography teacher education, demonstrating that effective ESD integration depends less on the addition of sustainability content and more on the deliberate organisation and sequencing of disciplinary knowledge. This perspective offers a practical approach for improving ESD integration in teacher education programmes.