HENRY Thesis Revised Final Sent
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Community radio and museum outreach: a case study of community radio practices to inform the environment and sustainability programmes of Livingstone Museum. A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION (Environmental Education) of RHODES UNIVERSITY By Muloongo Arthanitius Henry Supervisors: Prof. Rob O’Donoghue Prof. Heila Lotz-Sisitka February 2010 ABSTRACT This is a qualitative study whose purpose was to investigate the community radio education practices and the museum outreach education activities with a view to understanding how a museum-radio partnership may be used to engage the Livingstone community in environment and sustainability learning. Environment and sustainability issues require a community approach in order to bring about sustained responses to environmental challenges. As such, the study worked with social learning ideas of engaging the community in environment and sustainability learning. The data was generated mainly from face-to-face semi-structured interviews involving three community radio stations, Radio Listener Clubs and museum experts. The data generated was then presented to a strategy workshop involving the Livingstone Museum and Radio Musi-o- tunya staff. Arising from this workshop, recommendations were made about the possibility of the museum working in partnership with the radio to engage the community in environmental education. The study has shown that much of the museum environmental education activities have been confined to exhibitions and lectures within the museum building, which has affected the number of people being serviced by the museum. These education activities are arranged such that museum expert-led knowledge is presented to the audience with minimal community engagement on the environmental learning content. The study has also shown that community radio programming provides opportunities for community-led social learning which the Livingstone Museum could make use of to engage the community in environmental learning. Community radio programming allows community participation through Radio Listener Clubs, in identification and presentation of local environmental issues. This makes it a suitable tool to address locally relevant environmental issues, by the local community. Environmental issues are different from one place to another. Therefore environmental education approaches that bring issues into the museum may fail to address the different environmental education issues in different community context. i The study concludes by recommending that Livingstone Museum should explore the use of community radio so that their expert knowledge and that of the radio producers could be used to shape environmental education programmes to go beyond awareness-raising. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to convey my sincere thanks to management at the three community radio stations – Chikuni Community Radio, Dzimwe Community Radio and Radio Musi-o-tunya - that allowed me to study their radio education practices. Specifically I wish to thank Fr Andrew Lesniara s.j, The Director at Chikuni Community Radio, Ms Hilda Jambo Phiri, Director at Dzimwe Community Radio, and Sr. Immaculata Nawa Sililo, The Director at Radio Musi-o-tunya for the support they gave me during this study. In addition I thank all the radio personnel and the Radio Listener Clubs that gave their time to participate in the study. I also wish to thank Mr Richard Trewby, Mr Godfrey Chitalu and Mr Francis Phiri for permission to associate this research with one of their programmes, Our Family , and for the support during the data generation process. I thank Mr Flexon Mizinga and Mr Vincent Katanekwa and the National Museums Board of Zambia (NMB) for the support towards the completion of this study. Sincere thanks go to my supervisors Prof. Rob O’Donoghue and Prof. Heila Lotz-Sisitka for the guidance and support during the study, and special thanks to Karen Ellery for her encouragement and support. I also acknowledge their extra effort in organising funding for my studies from Murray and Roberts, SADC and Rhodes University. This happened at a time when I had no idea how to continue with my studies without funding. Thank you so much. Many thanks to my family, Rachael, Emelias, Bessy, Miyoba and especially Choolwe who could not be with me at the time he needed me most. My Sister Emelda and brothers, Owen and Dominic who always believed in me and what I am capable of doing, I thank you so much. Lastly, I wish to thank colleagues in the Rhodes University Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit who found time to challenge, advise and encourage me during the study. Your contributions are highly appreciated. iii CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... III CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCION TO THE STUDY ............................................................................................ 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 LOCATION OF STUDY SITES ................................................................................................................ 1 1.3 INTRODUCTION TO LIVINGSTONE MUSEUM .................................................................................. 2 1.4 THE HISTORY AND CONTEXT OF RADIO MUSI-O-TUNYA ............................................................ 3 1.5 INTRODUCTION TO DZIMWE COMMUNITY RADIO STATION. ..................................................... 5 1.6 INTRODUCTION TO CHIKUNI COMMUNITY RADIO ....................................................................... 6 1.7 THE RESEARCH FOCUS ......................................................................................................................... 7 1.8 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIVES ....................................................................................... 8 1.9 MY ROLE AND THE RESEARCH INTEREST ....................................................................................... 8 1.10 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS .................................................................................................................. 9 1.11 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................ 11 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................ 12 HISTORY AND CONTEXT OF LIVINGSTONE MUSEUM EDUCATION, AND COMMUNITY RADIO PRACTICES ...................................................................................... 12 2.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 HISTORY AND CONTEXT OF LIVINGSTONE MUSEUM AND ITS EDUCATION PROGRAMMES 12 2.3 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ............................ 14 2.4 WIDER SHIFTS TOWARDS SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL PARADIGMS IN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA ................................................................................................ 15 2.4.1 Environment and sustainability issues are socio-ecological issues ...................................................... 15 2.4.2 Environmental education beyond awareness-raising ........................................................................... 16 2.5 MUSEUM EDUCATION......................................................................................................................... 19 2.5.1 Strategies of museum education .......................................................................................................... 21 2.6 STRATEGIES OF RADIO’S USE ........................................................................................................... 22 2.6.1 Education through radio ....................................................................................................................... 23 2.7 ENGAGING LISTENERS IN EDUCATION THROUGH RADIO ......................................................... 25 2.7.1 Interactive Radio Instruction................................................................................................................ 26 2.7.2 Radio farm forums and Radio Listener Clubs (RLC) .......................................................................... 27 2.8 SOCIAL LEARNING .............................................................................................................................. 29 2.8.1 Radio listening as a social process ....................................................................................................... 32 2.9 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................ 33 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................ 35 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................. 35 3.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................