Abstract

MOREENG, Boitumelo; NHLAPO, Mzamane  and  MALEBESE, Motsélisi Lilian. Fostering an integrated tourism education curriculum in Lesotho: A community participation approach. Journal of Education [online]. 2020, n.79, pp.80-94. ISSN 2520-9868.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i79a06.

In this paper we report on ways of fostering an integrated tourism curriculum by employing a community participation approach. As a vocational subject, tourism is intended to provide learners with practical and entrepreneurial skills. However, tourism is taught largely as a theory-based subject, and this is not in accordance with the demands of an integrated curriculum that aims to strengthen survival skills and self-reliance. We used a community participation approach to show how much cultural wealth learners and their communities can bring to the learning environment, and the value that this might hold for enhancing their academic performance and empowering them with vital life skills. We employed participatory action research as the methodology to generate our data, and content analysis to analyse and interpret it. We found that the tourism curriculum could be fostered through the learners' improved understanding of tourism as a vocational subject, collaboration among the stakeholders, and if resources were available and were used properly.

Keywords : integrated curriculum; tourism; community participation; participatory action research.

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