Climate Change Awareness and Education

1. Climate Change Awareness and Education Paul Carr Supervisors TCD/ UCD: Dr. Conor Buggy, Dr. Gayle McGlynn Supervisor DUCE: Dr. EmilianaMwita Additional Researcher: YunwenBao

2. Research Aims & Objectives • 5 year climate change awareness and education project. • Stage 1: Student and Lecturers in teacher trainer college (DUCE) - 2014 • Stage 2: Students and teachers in a DUCE affiliated secondary school - 2015 • Aim: • Identify the current level of understanding of climate change • Identify the strengths and weaknesses of current climate change education • Objective: • Inform the creation of a future education package for DUCE students on CC • Can be used as ‘pre-implementation’ data and compared with ‘post-implementation’ data in future. • May be relevant in other sub-Saharan African countries

3. Research Question • What is the level of awareness of climate change among secondary school students in a developing nation urban school? Sub Questions: • What are students’ current misconceptions about climate change? • What are students’ personal views and attitudes towards climate change? • How/ Where do students currently get information about climate change? • How is climate change taught in the classroom?

4. Participants’ Profile

6. Climate Change Knowledge   Cutting down trees causes climate change – 90% correct Students identified correctly the effects of climate change on weather (85%), flooding and droughts (73%) and the spread of disease (74%) Climate means average weather – 30% correct Damage to the ozone layer causes climate change – 90% incorrect Burning fossil fuels causes climate change – 45% correct   

7. Attitudes towards Climate Change (%)

8. Sources of Climate Change Information (n=276)

9. Teacher Interviews • Personal views on climate change education and teaching • All agreed teaching about climate change is crucial in schools. • Syllabus and teaching materials are inadequate and outdated. “The content, especially in ordinary level, is very shallow.” • Some Geography teachers do not teach about climate change, despite the topic being part of the syllabus “No, I don’t teach about climate change… Nowadays there is no topic of climate change (in geography)… It depends if the teacher is educated on the topic if they will teach it.” • Lesson development, teaching methods, books and additional materials that teachers use varied widely and is very teacher centric. “I never depend on the syllabus to guide the content of the class. I depend on my own knowledge”

10. Conclusions & Recommendations • Strengths: Regionally relevant, non-scientific knowledge – Extreme weather, deforestation, industry, spread of disease • Weaknesses: Scientific knowledge – GHGs, acid rain, ozone layer, climate & weather, fossil fuels • Gender? • Positive outlook with sense of agency • Context of Tanzanian education system – capacity, attendance, materials, teacher training, language • Context of a broader system of information dissemination in urban environment • “what it is that each individual has reason to value” (Unterhalter, 2005, p28)