Page 95 - World Heritage and Tourism Innovation

Sibiya Thandeka Education and Heritage

knowledge at the early developmental stages of tour- a community-based aspect and vision is essential in
ism in the United Kingdom. Based on this approach, empowering poor communities, and in South Africa,
scholars believe that curriculum developers and plan- rural communities are often marginalised and pover-
ners have managed to incorporate multiple ideas, ished, which makes this approach even more relevant.
skills, and methodologies to inform the teaching of
the subject. Tribe (2000a; 2000b; 2000c; 2002) argue Problem Statement
that this brought a significant maturity of tourism as Even though the curriculum addresses the topic of
an academic subject, and emerging vocational subject, heritage multiple times in the distinct phases of its im-
focusing on the economy and business. According plementation, there are still gaps that exist in the way
to this literature, the approach to teaching Tourism, in which the Tourism pedagogy is perceived. Often,
should be viewed as a tool to capacitate and empower it is regarded as a classroom-bound subject instead
students to think critically, and being able to study dis- of a platform for connecting schools and communi-
ciplines from a cross and inter-discipline perspective ties and bringing about community transformation.
and being able to transcend the different parts that Jamal et al. (2011) describe tourism as a social and cul-
contribute to the totality of the subject or discipline. tural phenomenon. This perspective is aligned with
For this reason, this study argues for the practical in- the move that higher education institutions institut-
clusion of local heritage as extended knowledge in the ed after the Bologna Process should re-invest in the
formal curriculum by teachers and relevant stakehold- tourism curriculum from a pedagogy renewal view.
ers as one of the routes to achieve sustainability within It is in the interest of this investigation to view ped-
the teaching of Tourism as a subject in South African agogy as a platform that designates local heritage as
schools. This is necessitated by the justifications high- a strength of communities, particularly after the de-
lighted in the subsequent sections of this article. mise of apartheid. The curriculum should not only
be a means to accumulate grades but also a spring-
Justification and Background board to facilitate social values, such as peace, social
Post-1994 South Africa’s objective of the tourism sub- cohesion, non-sexism, non-racialism, and democracy
jects is to empower the students with practical skills (Muller, 2020). The term sustainability is used without
and knowledge needed to pursue careers in the tour- necessarily understanding what sustainable education
ism sector, while instilling an understanding of the is. Youness (2017) argues that sustainability means en-
rights and responsibilities associated with tourism for hancing jobs and improving the economy. South Afri-
both tourists and tourism practitioners. This study ca has a diverse population, which also means diverse
argues that incorporating tourism education from an economic sources. Still, the curriculum seemingly has
indigenous heritage perspective can assist students not yet been exploited to the level at which it can be
recognise the significance of the heritage passed down applied to tap into the different economic sources,
by their ancestors and encourage them to engage in such as local heritage, to provide local economies with
conservation efforts for the benefit of future genera- sustainable living and heritage preservation.
tions. However, owing to the general lack of access to
resources and challenges faced by teachers in terms of Research Questions
curriculum flexibility, in rural and township schools 1. How can schools implement the Tourism curric-
(Tapala et al., 2021), the tourism curriculum is not yet ulum in a way that contributes to heritage preser-
fully maximised as a platform to assist preserve in- vation and sustainable tourism in rural areas and
digenous knowledge that natives had been denied to, townships?
during colonial and apartheid South Africa. Further- RQ 1.1 Does valorising the tourism curriculum
more, the subject also empowers citizens to develop encourage stakeholder engagement in
sustainable livelihoods from their heritage. Accord- preserving local heritage in rural and
ing to Mtapurı and Giampiccoli (2020), tourism with township communities?

Proceedings of the 7th UNESCO UNITWIN Conference | 91