Baseline assessment and pedagogical approaches for sustainable mining education through professional learning communities

The wanton environmental destruction driven by unregulated mineral extraction in Ghana and other parts of Africa has become an environmental catastrophe that jeopardises the attainment of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goal targets and Africa’s Agenda beyond 2063. Addressing this crisis requires urgent, systemic change, and education is an indispensable manner. This paper reports on a study conducted at the University of Education, Winneba through Professional Learning Community sessions for schools in selected mining areas. Drawing on baseline assessments, classroom observations, interview protocols, and video recordings involving seventy pre-service teachers from two science education classes and twenty in-service teachers, the study assessed the current state of sustainable mining education in participating institutions and proposed evidence-based pedagogical approaches for teaching sustainable mining practices for good stewardship. Findings reveal significant gaps in teacher preparedness, curriculum coherence, and community-connected pedagogy. At the same time, inquiry-based, place-based, and case-study approaches show demonstrable promise in generating engagement and conceptual understanding amongst both pre-service and in-service teachers. The paper concludes with a set of practical, scalable pedagogical recommendations for educators, curriculum designers, and policymakers in Ghana and comparable developing-country contexts.

Keywords: education for sustainable development, environmental stewardship, Ghana, pedagogical approaches, professional learning communities, sustainable mining education