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Education and Heritage: Teaching the Tourism

Curriculum from a Community Sustainability

Perspective in South Africa’s Rural
and Township Schools

Sibiya Thandeka
Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary, Budapest
thandumuntu@yahoo.com

Tourism is one elective subject in South Africa’s school curriculum. Through Tour-
ism, learners learn about the activities, services and industries that deliver a travel
experience to individuals or groups. The subject is also charged with studying the
expectations and behaviour of tourists and tourism’s economic, social, and envi-
ronmental impact on South Africa, which relates to sustainable and responsible
tourism. Teaching the Tourism as a subject appears to be a valuable and practi-
cal platform for schools, teachers, and other relevant stakeholders to contribute
meaningfully and innovatively to sustainable development, policy framework, local
community involvement and participation and in supporting and promoting local
tourism as a platform to support social cohesion and economic development, as per
the vision, mission, and objectives of the World Heritage Tourism. This paper aims
to explore the schools’ roles in forging a partnership and relationship with local
communities in the generation and preservation of knowledge about local heritage
sites located, near schools. It further explores the implementation of a tourism cur-
riculum in this regard, emphasising on the interplay between education, heritage,
and sustainable community development. The study is premised in the Commu-
nity-Based Education, Cultural Heritage Education and Sustainable Development
Theories. Through surveys, reviews of existing literature and analysis of case stud-
ies, this paper highlights the benefits and challenges of such educational initiatives
and proposes strategies for effective curriculum delivery. The results suggest that
teachers regard Tourism as a bridge that connects schools and communities and
an approach to transform how heritage sites are perceived, particularly in rural and
township communities.
Keywords: Tourism, heritage, community, sustainability, education, teachers
https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-417-0.89-100

Introduction they are expected to pass on to their students. Agency
Education plays an important role in giving a voice is defined as the ability to operate autonomously in
and agency to students and transforming commu- determining social constrains of social structure and
nities. Teachers are at the centre of this process, and temporal-relational contexts. Agency is a key element
they are believed to be the custodians of agency, which in influencing change (Pantić, 2015; 2017). This paper

Proceedings of the 7th UNESCO UNITWIN Conference | 89