Background
Lesotho is a developing country in Southern Africa, totally enclosed by South Africa. Formal education in Lesotho starts with early childhood care and development, followed by seven years of basic primary education, then secondary education and tertiary education. Secondary education is divided into three years of junior secondary and two years of senior secondary. Learners start primary education at an age of six and write the Primary School Leaving Examination in their seventh year; this serves as an entry requirement into junior secondary education. There is Junior Certificate examination in third year of junior secondary, which determines entry into senior secondary that ends with Cambridge Overseas School Certificate examination which is a requirement for entry into tertiary education.
In Lesotho, the national Curriculum and Assessment Policy document has placed geography, sciences and technical subjects under the scientific and technological learning area; the schools, however, categorise geography in the social sciences given that geography, history and development studies teachers are in the department of social sciences. Geography is taught in Lesotho primary schools as part of social studies. It is then taught as a fully-fledged subject at secondary education even though it is not a compulsory subject; hence not all schools offer geography. While some schools offer geography at junior secondary, others offer it at senior secondary, and some at both levels. While the curriculum for junior secondary is developed in Lesotho, the curriculum for senior secondary is developed by the University of Cambridge. Both curricula have physical geography and human geography spheres. This study focused on secondary level geography teachers in schools that offer geography at both junior and senior secondary to investigate their information needs and information-seeking behaviour in order to guide the design and implementation of their information service.
The following factors and findings triggered the study on secondary level geography teachers in Lesotho:
Teaching and learning are associated with handling of information (Karunarathna 2008).
Teachers have been found to be active, experienced and critical users of information (Taylor 1991: 219).
Lesotho teachers have limited access to information and information communication and technology resources (Moloi et al. 2008).
Lesotho teachers have roles and responsibilities such as preparing learners for employment (Boaduo 2005) as well as counselling roles owing to an increasing number of orphans in schools because of HIV/AIDS (Nyabanyaba 2009). These all require pertinent information.
Most secondary level geography teachers in Lesotho graduate from the National University of Lesotho with a BSc.Ed., BAEd. or B.Ed. The BSc.Ed. teachers study mostly physical geography, while the rest study mostly human geography. This creates a disparity in knowledge content regarding these two major geographical spheres, which they have to teach in schools.
Little attention is given to geography teachers' in-service training compared to teachers of other compulsory subjects such as English, Mathematics and Science.
The researcher has experience and knowledge of teaching geography in Lesotho, hence it was easier to study secondary level geography teachers compared to teachers of other subjects.
In most of the newly opened government schools, geography is offered at Junior Certificate level. Previously, some of the schools were phasing out geography by offering subjects such as development studies, business education, etc. It was felt that geography as a subject could be threatened by the new subjects, including the introduction of environmental education in schools. It is envisaged that the provision of more information on geography may increase appreciation of this subject.
The need for an appropriate information service for geography teachers in Lesotho.
Limited research literature on information behaviour studies with regard to teachers (Mundt et al. 2006). A dearth of such studies is evident in Africa.