Assessment of environmental education and knowledge of climate change mitigation

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING NHA TRANG UNIVERSITY ___________________________ SWALEH ALI ABOUD ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION: A

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

NHA TRANG UNIVERSITY _

SWALEH ALI ABOUD

ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE

OF CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION: A CASE STUDY OF KENYAN

COASTAL COMMUNITIES AND ECOSYSTEM

MASTER THESIS

KHANH HOA – 2018

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

NHA TRANG UNIVERSITY _

SWALEH ALI ABOUD

ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE

OF CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION: A CASE STUDY OF KENYAN COASTAL

COMMUNITIES AND ECOSYSTEM

Decision on establishing the

PROF NGO DANG NGHIA

Faculty of Graduate Studies:

Ms HOANG HA GIANG

UNDERTAKING

I declare that the thesis entitled Assessment of Environmental Education and

Knowledge of Climate Change Mitigation: A Case of Kenyan Coastal Communities and Ecosystem is my original work The work has not been presented elsewhere for

assessment until the time this thesis is submitted

14th June 2018

Swaleh Ali Aboud

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am first grateful to almighty God and his messenger Mohammad (PBUH) My sincere gratitude and profound regard to my supervisors, Prof Curtis M Jolly and Dr Fatuma Daud for their interest, guidance, encouragement, valuable suggestions and constructive discussions at every stage of this study I extend my gratitude to the NORHED program, lecturers and Nha Trang University fraternity for offering me the opportunity and humble time for the completion of my master’s degree I am further thankful to my parents, family and wife, Maryam Abubakar for their great support both spiritual and financial towards the completion of this report and the program Lastly to my friends, classmates and everybody who have contributed to this work without failing to mention

my classmate John Kannah and my Vietnamese friend Van Pham known as Mia I would have not completed this without your contributions God bless you all

14th June 2018

Swaleh Ali Aboud

TABLE OF CONTENTS

UNDERTAKING iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

LIST OF ABREVIATIONS viii

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS ix

LIST OF EQUATIONS x

LIST OF TABLES xi

LIST OF FIGURES xii

LIST OF GRAPHS xiii

LIST OF APPENDICES xiv

ABSTRACT xv

CHAPTER ONE 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background Information 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem 3

1.3 Rationale of the Study 4

1.4 Significance of the Study 5

1.5 Research Objective 5

1.6 Research Questions 6

1.7 Research Hypothesis 6

CHAPTER TWO 7

LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Impact and Vulnerability of Kenya Coast to Climate Change 7

2.2 Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change in Kenyan coastal zones 8

2.3 Public Climate Change Awareness and Perception 10

2.5 Climate Change Education in Kenya’s School Curriculum 12

2.6 Why climate change Sensitization in Kenyan coastal communities? 14

2.7 Climate Change Knowledge Gaps 15

2.9 Conceptual Framework 17

CHAPTER THREE 20

MATERIALS AND METHODS 20

3.1 Study areas 20

3.2 Data Collection 21

3.2.1 Climate Change knowledge and Perception 21

3.2.2 Climate change subject in the Education Curriculum 22

3.3 Sampling Approach 23

3.4 Data Analysis 24

CHAPTER FOUR 25

RESULTS 25

4.1 Socio-Demographic Information 25

4.2 School Curriculum/Syllabus 27

4.3 Climate Change Awareness and Knowledge 27

4.3.1 Climate change awareness 27

4.3.2 Climate change knowledge of causes, impacts and mitigation measures 28

4.4 Transmission of climate change information from teachers to students to parents 33

4.5 Perception on Climate Change 33

CHAPTER FIVE 37

5.1 Discussion 37

CHAPTER SIX 41

6.2 Recommendations 42

6.2.1 Recommendations for Curriculum developers 42

6.2.2 Recommendations for Policy makers 42

6.2.3 Recommendations for Further research 42

REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES A

LIST OF ABREVIATIONS

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization NCCF North Carolina Coastal Federation

GoK Government of Kenya

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

NCCP National Climate Change Action Plan

NGOs Non – Government Organizations

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

UNDP United Nations Development Programme United

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme

CCESD Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development

KICD Kenya Institutes of Curriculum Development

WCED World Commission on Environment and Development

SEI Stockholm Environmental Institute

WIO Western Indian Ocean

NCCRS National Climate Change Response Strategy

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS Climate Change: Changes in climate patterns outside the normal range of weather

variable

Climate Education: Approach of teaching and learning with the focus on climate

literacy, attitudes and behavioral changes towards sustainability and its application to

climate change concerns

Climate change awareness: General knowledge, understanding and the ability to

factor climate change into people’s activities

Climate change perception: Understanding and interpreting climate change

knowledge

LIST OF EQUATIONS Equation 3 1: Percentage calculation of climate change content in the curriculum 23

LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Climate-related disasters typology, trends and impacts in Kenya coastal

and student’s parents (n = 317) 33

Table 4.4: Perception on climate change knowledge and actions – values represent the

numbers of the participants who chose ‘somewhat sure, sure and definitely sure (o = 60.31, c = 40.11, df = 27, p-value = 0.0002 and  = 0.05) 35

Table 4.5: Perception on the barriers/Obstacles that’s prevents community from

acting against the negative impact of climate change (o = 43.3, c = 36.42, df = 24, p-value = 0.015 and  = 0.05) 36

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Conceptual diagram for this study 19 Figure 3.1: Map showing the sample site - red marked points with black texts (Source;

Google Earth) 21

Figure 3.2: The pictorial presentation of how the interview was conducted to students,

father and mother 24

LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 2.1: Mean long-term rates of carbon sequestration (gCm–2yr–1) Error bars indicate maximum rates of accumulation (McLeod et al 2011) 10

Graph 2.2: Source of climate change knowledge (Adapted from; (Wilson 2000) 16 Graph 4.1: Education level between respondents (n=400) 26 Graph 4.2: Livelihood activities of the respondents (n=400) 26 Graph 4.3: Climate change awareness for (a) Do you think the climate pattern is

changing? (b) How much do you know about climate change? (n = 400) 28

Graph 4.4: Climate Change knowledge responses on the causes between parents

(n=119), students (n=99), teachers (n=99) and total (n=317) 30

Graph 4.5: Climate Change knowledge responses on the impact between parents

(n=119), students (n=99), teachers (n=99) and total (n=317) 31

Graph 4.6: Climate change knowledge responses on the mitigation measures between

parents (n=119), students (n=99), teachers (n=99) and total (n=317) 32

LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix I: Research Permit A Appendix II: Survey Questionnaire B Appendix III: Detailed analysis of school curriculum F

in mothers assessed The climate change knowledge was similar between them on the causes of climate change but differed on the impact and mitigation There was low transmission of climate change information as only 21% of the students did shared information they acquired from teachers to parents Their perception on the impact of lifestyle (p – value = 0.0002   = 0.05) and barriers (p – value = 0.015   = 0.05) on climate change was significantly dependent on each other The study, in conclusion revealed that, there was a climate change knowledge gap among teachers and student with the parents in addition to secondary school curriculum It is therefore important they get updated through continuous campaign and curriculum reviewing The school curriculum should also have more of competency – based rather than knowledge – based teachings to inculcate innovative ways of dealing/coping with climate change from an early age.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Information

Climate change is currently a common headline in both the media and scientific journals whose effects have been realized worldwide Developing countries are more susceptible

to these effects than the developed countries as they have fewer resources to subsist from the continuous vulnerabilities of climate change (Nguyen et al 2015) It is with no doubt that humankind is the main contributor to climate change through industrial pollution, deforestation, and land use changes (Watson & Albritton 2001) The highly populated coastal cities (McGranahan et al 2007) are the most affected and vulnerable worldwide (Adger et al 2005) They encounter adverse consequences and other risks related to climate change (Nicholls et al 2007)

The Kenyan coast is the most vulnerable region to climate change impacts out of the five Western Indian Ocean (WIO) countries (Cinner et al 2013) It has experienced extreme events of climate change such as floods, drought, sea level rise and strong wind which is anticipated to increase in recurrence and intensity (Awuor et al 2008) The livelihood of the coastal community are also termed as ‘climate dependent’ hence vulnerable to climate change effects (Adger 1999) They depend on fisheries and its related activities with tourism being the major source of income (Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources 2016) However, their maritime dependence has been jeopardized by climate change events The projected effect of coastal flooding and coastal erosion from sea level rise affects 10000 – 86000 peopler4 with associated economic cost of $7 - $58 million yearly (SEI 2009)

One possibility for reduction of damages resulting from climate change consequences

is through climate change mitigation Coastal systems play a major role in global carbon cycle through carbon sequestration and storing known as blue carbon from the atmosphere and ocean (Howard et al 2014) Kenya has over 1,500 km of coastline, consisting of mangroves, coral reefs, sea grass, and rocky, sandy and muddy shores

Their contribution to carbon sequestration is at significantly higher rates per unit area than terrestrial forest (McLeod et al 2011) However, these habitats have been degraded, lost or converted to other land uses (SEI 2009) Among the degraded ecosystems are seagrass meadows (Aboud & Kannah 2017) and mangroves (Kridiborworn et al 2012) The degradation of these ecosystems contribute to extreme climate change events through both releasing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and reduces their potential

to sequester carbon (McLeod et al 2011) Hence, maintaining these ecosystems contributes to climate change mitigation Evidently, the general population knowledge

is minimal about it (Kahan et al 2012) This created a debate whether the public has climate change knowledge or training in understanding the association between its alleviation and their activities (Cordero et al 2008) Moreover, there may be need to sensitize the significance of these ecosystem to limit the rate of its degradation by human activities

Education has been recognized as one of the best instruments in bridging a relationship between society and their natural environment (UNESCO 2010) Environmental

education prioritizes to “build social and individual capacities and attitudes for climate

change mitigation, developing skills for adaptation and in stimulating and reinforcing understanding of and attentive to the realities of climate change” (Selby 2013) Formal

ecosystem relationship to climate change education is set in a classroom as traditional systems of passing conservation knowledge no longer exist It involves teachers, students and education curriculum Parents have a pivotal role in training of the students The parents’ education and occupation can influence understanding and students performance (Adewale 2012) The parents may also learn indirectly from classroom teaching through their involvement in the progress of their children This knowledge gained by the parents may be through executing school assignments with the children and their communication with the teacher (Auerbach 1989), practicing of the concept at home by the children and students inclination to share what they learn in school with their parents This is applicable to all climate change related subjects taught at school However, it depends on how the teacher emphasized the subject which is guided by the

extent in which the climate change topic is included in the curriculum The study, therefore, sought to find out whether environmental/climate change education is in the

mainstream teaching of schools in coastal regions and whether it contributes to the

mitigation and adaptation to climate change impacts by this community

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The main source of income for Kenyan coastal residents is from climate dependent activities such as small-scale agriculture, livestock production, tourism and fishing (Awuor et al 2008) which are prone to weather - related disasters, particularly floods, that occur almost annually (Thornton 2010) Several floods in October, 2006 from intensive precipitation affected 60000 people in addition to 30% loss of corals from coral bleaching due to an increase of temperature (Ongoma & Onyango 2014) The projected loss impact of coastal flooding from sealevel rise is at 10000 – 86000 people per year and $130- $313 million from coastal erosion and wetland loss by 2050 (SEI 2009) In addition, tropical cyclone along east Africa coast is expected to cause a 5% submerge of the coastal zone that can affect 2.5 million people by 2100 (Anyona & Rop 2016) Despite these consequences, the Coastal residents are classified as very poor and have the lowest literacy rates in Kenya (NCCF 2009) This low – literacy rate is also reflected in the low level of awareness in climate change knowledge (GoK 2010) The low level of knowledge is ascribed to poor facilities and infrastructure, lack of trained teachers, and early marriage of girls (NCCF 2009) In response to this, the government

of Kenya has integrated climate change on different development agendas such as agriculture, fisheries, tourism, infrastructure, health and education The GoK, under the knowledge management and capacity development NCCP report, has improved climate change public awareness and communication and integrated climate change in the education system (GoK 2012a) The education and awareness creation section spends

an annual cost of Kshs 7.9 billion ($7.9 million) (GoK 2010) The important thing to note is that the awareness and education programs target should be in changing the perception and behaviours of the people in response to climate change It is, therefore, important that the knowledge impartation is adapted to an existent situation and updated

to the worldwide climate change knowledge and needs at any given times The current study, therefore, focuses on the relationships between the teacher, students and parents from the coastal villages with reference to climate change education in the Kenya secondary schools’ syllabus The relationship is important in identifying and bridging the climate change knowledge gap to achieve the objectives of climate change education program among the general public It further analyzes the public perception in terms of their lifestyle, action and possible barriers that hinders their positive action against climate change concerns

1.3 Rationale of the Study

Majority of studies in this field have focused on understanding the climate change knowledge gap in the Kenyan school education system (Huho 2015 and Ndiritu et al 2016), climate change awareness and perception by local teachers (Ochieng & Koske 2013), youth (Shahadu 2012) and general public However, the understanding of climate change awareness in schools and at home are either limited or not yet studied Filling this gap, could enlighten our understanding of how each of them contribute to climate change mitigation Schools main aim is to prepare students to play an effective and productive role in the mitigation and adaptation of climate change On the other hand, families’ day – by - day livelihoods and activities can influence climate and is guided

by the extent of family’s knowledge on climate change Also, the family is connected to other social institutions and organizations such as school, market and the environment Therefore the understanding and perception of the family on issues of climate change has wide implications to the society and environment This study focuses on the curriculum, teachers, students and parents understanding and perception of climate change

1.4 Significance of the Study

Environmental education is an essential component that aids in advocating attitudes and behavioral changes in adjusting to climate change related trends The focus of climate change education is to make people lessen the effects of negative changes, adapting to change, and to promote positive change (Mckeown & Hopkins 2010) Kenyan coastal areas has experienced disastrous effects related to climate change There was also a low level of awareness of climate change knowledge (GoK 2010) These coastal areas are also dominated by the Muslim community The Muslims in this community have their own type of education system based on religious study and includes some secular education The question is whether the current education program incorporating climate change has been effective in educating and creating awareness on climate change and its mitigation This study assessed climate change perception, knowledge gap and provide solutions to minimizing the gap In addition, this study will provide insight on where the climate change education campaigns should focus more as either students, teacher or parents It will also benefit the policy makers and curriculum developers to understand the gaps in the curriculum, public understanding and knowledge of climate change and possible barriers to policy implementations

1.5 Research Objective

The general aim of this study is to examine the climate change knowledge through a chain of relationships from education curriculum, public knowledge (teachers, students and parents) and public perception on the climate change effect, action and barriers These objectives were therefore used to guide this research;

 To analyze the climate change subject in the Kenya secondary school educational curriculum

 To assess the climate change knowledge by the local people

 To determine the symmetric transmission of climate change information from teachers to students to parents

 To examine the public perception on the climate change effects, actions for mitigation and barriers to the actions

1.6 Research Questions

 Is climate change as a subject sufficiently included in the educational

curriculum?

 What do local people know about climate change?

 Is there symmetric transmission of climate change information from teachers to students to parents?

 What are the public perception on the climate change effects, actions for mitigation and barriers to the actions?

1.7 Research Hypothesis

included

teachers to students to parents

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Impact and Vulnerability of Kenya Coast to Climate Change

Coastal cities are among the most vulnerable to climate change impacts due to their location and their high dependence on weather-related sectors such as fisheries and tourism (IPCC 2007) The intensity of these impacts such as sealevel rise and coastal storm is expected to increase and further reduce the existing adaptive capacities of these areas (Kithiia 2011) Contributing factors that have made Kenyan coast vulnerable to climate change impacts include, low altitude, high temperatures and humidity levels (Awuor et al 2008) Among the experienced extreme events in this region include El Niño, sea level rise, rise of ocean temperature and flood (Awuor et al 2008) The projected events include sea level rise (17% of the Mombasa land will be submerged by 2100), tsunami (if it hits the coastline at high tides), increase in sea surface temperature, coastal storms and flooding, seashore erosion, salt water intrusion into estuaries and coral bleaching (Awuor et al 2008) Sixty percent of these occasions and exposure are concentrated in the Island division of the coastal areas (Kabede et al 2009) This impact

on the other hand affect the coastal people and their assets (Table 2.1) through damage

to transport and telecommunications infrastructure (roads, bridges and pipelines, as well

as electricity and telephone lines), destroyed the house and livestock, increased incidence of diseases and loss of human lives (Awuor et al 2008) A recent downpour

of May, 2017, caused flooding in Mombasa which resulted in loss of assets and human lives (Juney 2017) The Kenya coastal areas are considered to be most vulnerable to climate change because it is the most vulnerable among the five WIO countries The areas are geographically positioned at the most vulnerable locations Coastal communities depend on climatic related activities for their livelihood such as agriculture, tourism and fisheries Lastly, Kenya has varied management and governance system of marine ecosystems ranging from national government to community management (Cinner et al 2013) If no immediate action is taken now, climate change effects have been estimated to have an additional estimated economic

damage cost on the Kenyan coastal zones from $7 - 58 million per year to $31 – 313 million per year by 2050 (SEI 2009).

Table 2.1: Climate-related disasters typology, trends and impacts in Kenya coastal zones

El Niño 1947/61/97 After every

five years

Houses destroyed Property lost Livestock and crops lost Human lives lost

Increased incidence of disease (cholera, typhoid)

Houses destroyed Property lost Livestock and crops lost Human lives lost

Increased incidence of disease (cholera, typhoid)

Hunger/Famine Annually Every year

Loss of human lives from starvation (not quantified)

Gross malnutrition and underfeeding leading to poor economic productivity

Sea Level Rise 2050 Predicted Risk of losing Ksh.136 billion (Adapted from; (Awuor et al 2008), (Odiwuor 2015) and (Juney 2017)

2.2 Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change in Kenyan coastal zones

Adaptations to climate change is progressively receiving attention, particularly for the vulnerable areas such as coastal zones The adaptive local measures used include; insurance, migration, infrastructure design, engineering works and disaster risk management (Mangoyana et al 2012) Climate change adaptation efforts at the Kenyan coast have expanded since the event of Tsunami (Awuor et al 2008) The government

of Kenya through NCCP has incorporated climate change adaptation and mitigation measure in various ministries, departments, county government, state cooperation and other stakeholders such as NGOs (GoK 2012b) Among the adaptation measures include

“prevention, tolerance or sharing of losses, changes in land use or activities, change of

residential locations, and restoration of coastal habitats” (GoK 2010) The climate

change adaptive measures implemented include awareness programs in local schools (UNICEF 2011), collecting climate information by use of modern tools, restoration of the degraded coastal habitats, formulation of coastal zone management policy, sharing

of climate change information and initiating its application among users and vulnerable communities (Awuor et al 2008) and climate change education (GoK 2010) Kenyan government also planned to increase its capacity in climate change mitigation Among the climate change mitigations action implemented in the six counties of coastal area (Lamu, Tana River, Kilifi, Taita - Taveta, Mombasa and Kwale) are; afforestation and re-afforestation, renewable energy, energy efficiency and waste re-use and recycling (Workshop Report 2012) Vulnerable coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrass meadows, and salt marshes have a higher contribution to long term carbon sequestration than in terrestrial ecosystems (graph 2.1) Therefore their healthy existence is vital to future trends in the atmospheric carbon inventory

Graph 2.1: Mean long-term rates of carbon sequestration (gCm–2yr–1) Error bars indicate maximum rates of accumulation (McLeod et al 2011).

2.3 Public Climate Change Awareness and Perception

Climate change vulnerabilities is more in developing countries and is being triggered by human activities (Nzeadibe et al 2011) Despite the spread of climate change information, there is still low level of awareness, especially in developing countries (Godfrey et al 2009) This calls for public support and participation to address this concern (Lee et al 2015) However, there seems to be disconnect between people’s perceptions of climate change and the areas of priority In sub-Saharan Africa, the low level of awareness is attributed to the prioritization of politics, poverty and conflicts as opposed to climate change (UNDP 2007) Despite the low level of climate change knowledge, priorities are given to food insecurity and minimization of the poverty level

in Kenya (Ochieng & Koske 2013) The public considered climate change to be theoretical rather than the real event (Ochieng 2014) The low – level of climate change awareness is mainly influenced by personal experience of extreme weather events, access to information and media coverage of the issue and advocacy (Ochieng 2014) The structured questionnaires could be used for the public (UNEP 2006) in gauging the

existing knowledge Different methods have been conducted in understanding the people knowledge and perception of climate change which include face – to – face interviews on (Ung et al 2016), and semi-structured questionnaire (Ochieng & Koske 2013)

2.4 Role of Environmental Education in Creating Awareness on Climate Change

Public contribution is needed to create an effective and sustainable solution to climate change (Lorenzoni et al 2007) In many aspects of life, environmental education is considered as a key aspect of the developmental process (Tilbury et al 2002) It is therefore an essential tool in achieving the climate change sustainable solutions by influencing people’s attitudes and lifestyle In some countries such as Vietnam (Oai et

al 2015), Nigeria (Ikehi et al 2014) and Bangladesh (UNESCO 2010), climate change education has become a mandatory subject in the school curriculum Based on cross – sectional household survey data collected by Deressa et al (2009), there is a positive relationship between environmental education and its effectiveness towards climate change adaptation to climate change Also, in systematic review of the state of knowledge summarized that, lack of climate change knowledge was one of the barriers

to climate change mitigation and adaptation (Ford et al 2011) Educating people about climate change is therefore considered as an important tool in improving awareness, hence the individual can have their role to play in mitigating and adapting to climate change (Ochieng & Koske 2013) Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development (CCESD) affirmed that this approach played a central role in the understanding and relating climate change issues in addition to inculcating awareness at

a young age (UNESCO 2010)

“Learners need a basic understanding of scientific concepts with a deeper level of systems thinking, such as knowledge of the history and causes of climate change; knowledge of and ability to distinguish between certainties, uncertainties, risks and consequences of environmental degradation, disasters and climate change; knowledge

of mitigation and adaptation practices that can contribute to building resilience and sustainability; understanding of different interests that shape different responses to

climate change and ability to critically judge the validity of these interests in relation

to the public good” (Anderson 2010)

2.5 Climate Change Education in Kenya’s School Curriculum

Education (either formal or informal) has been perceived as the instrument to attain the maximum potential to address the climate change issues The framework of the education programs ought to infiltrate primary, tertiary and even adult education (Bangay & Blum 2010) In Kenya, the school curriculum offers climate change education in primary and secondary school It generally offers constrained climate change knowledge as from standard seven addressing the causes and impacts of climate change to human life (Ochieng 2014) The other climate related topics offered to students is general knowledge of their environment, weather and the differences between the weather and climate (Table 2.2) The media has been categorized as a leading avenue efficient in creating climate change awareness that covers the wider public (Ochieng & Koske 2013) Content analysis has been used to determine the level

of climate change concept included in the curriculum (Boakye 2012) Conceptual content analysis identifies the key word under research (under this study is ‘climate change’), its existence and frequency of occurrence Table 2.2 shows how climate change concept is limited in the Kenya school system from secondary schools to Secondary schools Students are only introduced to climate change concept on the causes and impacts in class 8 (grade 8) of primary school education and form 2 (grade 10) of secondary education

Table 2.2: Weather, climate and environment subjects in Kenya’s school curriculum.

Secondary

School Geography

Form 1 (grade 9) Weather Introduction to Weather Form 2 (grade 10) Climate Causes and consequences of climate change Form 4 (grade 12) Environment Selected environmental hazards, the associated

problems and measures for combating them

Social Studies

Standard 2 (grade 2)

School Environment weather experienced around the school Standard 3 (grade 3)

Weather and season Weather elements and changes Standard 7 (grade 7) Climate

Factors influencing climate and its impact to human activities

Standard 8 (grade 8) Climate identify and describe factors influencing climate

change and its impact to human activities Sources; review of Elimu network, 2017

2.6 Why climate change Sensitization in Kenyan coastal communities?

The Kenyan coastal economy mostly depends on fisheries, tourism and agriculture These cities support 8.6% of the Kenyan population which is increasing by 2.6% annually (Ongoma & Onyango 2014) The ocean is also an important component of the climate system and provides the surface temperature boundary condition for the atmosphere, absorbing over 97% of solar radiation, providing 85% of the water vapor and exchanging, absorbing and emitting of important gases (Bigg et al 2003) However, the dependence of marine ecosystem has been implicated by acidification, sea-level rise, intensification of storms, shifts in species distribution, decreased productivity and oxygen availability resulting from climate change events (Roberts et al 2017) These events have resulted to destruction of the tourist attractive sites and infrastructure (Douglas et al 2003) which is a main foreign exchange earner in these regions Climate change therefore seems to be directly tied to the livelihood of the often poor coastal populous (Douglas et al 2003) Therefore, there is need to sensitize several sectors and the public at large about the causes, impacts and implications of climate change (Ongoma & Onyango 2014) Public or individual behavioral change is one of the important goals in the climate change sensitization campaigns Thus, sensitization will aid in influencing the behavior and perceptions of people towards climate change (Ongoma & Onyango 2014) The theory of behavioral change identified key elements that can lead to attitude changes of a group or an individual (Table 2.3) Many climate change education studies have therefore focused on understanding the knowledge level and the perception of the general public (Choi et al 2010) In addition, the evident high vulnerability of the Kenyan coastal cities to climate change calls for action towards educating people on the risks involved and measures put in place to mitigate them This instills public responsibility and could go a long way towards problem solving

Table 2.3: A select list of the variables common to many behavior change (Witte 1998).

Key

Threat

A danger or a harmful event

of which people may or may not be aware

Raise awareness that the threat exists, focusing on severity and susceptibility

Fear Emotional arousal caused by

perceiving a significant and personally relevant threat

Fear can powerfully influence behavior and,

if it is channeled in the appropriate way, can motivate people to seek information, but it can also cause people to deny they are at-risk

Response

Efficacy

Perception that a recommended response will prevent the threat from happening

Provide evidence of examples that the recommended response will avert the threat

Raise individuals’ confidence that they can perform response and help ensure they can avert the threat

Subjective

Norms

What an individual thinks other people think they should do

Understand with whom individuals are likely to comply

Attitudes

An individual’s evaluation or beliefs about a recommended response

Measure existing attitudes before attempting

Provide communication that might trigger individuals to make decisions

2.7 Climate Change Knowledge Gaps

The source of knowledge is important in defining the knowledge gap Wilson (2000) categorized newspapers as the main source of knowledge for climate change education (graph 2.1) However, not all journalists update their knowledge on climate change to match the current status (Wilson 2000) Furthermore, the attitudes/behaviours are among the challenges facing climate change adaptation and mitigation This gap is manifested in three levels; individuals, interpersonal and community (Anable et al 2006) In Kenya, 44% of the population lack knowledge on climate change (Muchunku

et al 2014) The Kenya primary school curriculum covers only 0.36% of climate change concerns (Ochieng 2014) Further research is required to understand the gaps and to

provide recommendations Thus, the current study targets the understanding of the

knowledge level, needs and the attitudes of the targeted population (teachers, students

and parents)

Graph 2.2: Source of climate change knowledge (Adapted from; (Wilson 2000)

2.8 Content Analysis

Content analysis is used to find out the extent by which a specific word or content have

been included by the subject or text (Page 2004) The inferences can be made through

this type of research tool from either books, book chapter, essays, interviews,

discussions, newspaper headlines and articles, historical documents, speeches,

conversations, advertising, theater, informal conversation, or really any occurrence of

communicative language (Page 2004) In climate change, this method have been applied

to analyze the extent by which climate change coverage in pre – Tertiary science

curriculum in Ghana (Boakye 2012) and Tonga education curriculum (Tupou 2011)

This type of analysis involves text can be coded, or divided into convenient classes of

either a word, word sense, phrase, sentence, or theme and then examined its coverage

(Page 2004) Under this study, the curriculum was divided according to subjects and

each subject given one unit The number of units contained climate change concept were

taken into account for calculation (equation 3.1)

Science Journal Magazines

Others

2.9 Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework of the study is presented in figure 2.1 The framework was adopted and modified from other researches (Australian Government 2008, Gallagher

& Griffore 2013 and UNESCO 2017) to suit this study Climate change is everyone’s

problem To poise from its increasing impact, the action should come from all

individuals of the society (Varma et al 2012) Thus, the analysis of climate change knowledge should be analyzed from the divergent views on the degree of responsibility (Saugier 2010) from schools to homes In schools, Teachers’ critical roles are in delivering the information and support their students They can be termed the ‘backbone

of the society’ and the second parent of the students Their awareness level is therefore important in understanding how they influence the students On the other hand, students are a critical group of the society since their understanding, skills, attitudes and psychology are still developing They can transmit their climate change knowledge gained to parents and to the wider community in addition to the benefit of their future and sustainability Research from different countries such as Bangladesh, El Salvador, India, Indonesia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, the Philippines and Zambia have shown how students are involved in sensitization of climate change through activities such as music and drama (Anderson 2010) However, they learn a lot not only from the school but also at home from mother – tongue, skills and habits that lay the foundation of their future life This home learning process involves parents or guardian They play a role of securing basic interest of their children They are the first teacher and facilitators to their children learning They always nurture their children to live up to their expectations In climate change, their role include educating their children in understanding their world, more specific on practical aspects of life in addition to changing their own actions and behaviours towards climate change mitigation However, parents responsibilities in climate change mitigation has failed because of their low – awareness level (Cripps 2017) The relationship between teachers – student – parents is therefore an important aspect to consider (Hughes & Kwok 2007) in climate change education

The current study focused in understanding of the climate change knowledge content from the vertical relationship from education curriculum to teachers, students and parents Formal education from schools mainly target in creating awareness to students The teachers are important media in transmitting this information to students School curriculum is acting as the guidance on what is supposed to be taught in classrooms On the other hand, students practice their climate information in/at their home with their parents Parents are more concern on transferring basic human interest to their children This means that, student foundation is laid at home from learning of habits which may

be extended to include a level of awareness and responsibility towards climate change mitigation Understanding these climate change knowledge and perception relationship among teachers, parent and students and in the education curriculum is therefore important for climate change solution in both the school and home environment This can identify the gap in terms of climate change awareness, action and the future expectation to climate change solution

Figure 2.1: Conceptual diagram for this study.

Secondary School CurriculumBusiness Studies, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Agriculture, History & Government and Geography

ActionBarriers

Climate Change Knowledge

Causes

Impacts

Mitigation by marine

ecosystems

CHAPTER THREE MATERIALS AND METHODS 3.1 Study areas

The research permit was first requested from the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation – NACOSTI (Appendix I) The field study took place on September, 2017 to December, 2017 This period was chosen to target secondary school finalists that were the focus of this study The study was carried out in five towns along the Kenyan coast: Lamu, Ngomeni, Takaungu, Gazi and Shimoni (Fig 3.1) Lamu is located in the northern coast of Kenya It is one the UNESCO heritage sites which is expected to suffer from climate change consequences such as extreme weather events, sea level rise and higher temperatures (Koech 2016) Ngomeni and Takaungu are fishing villages in Kilifi County on the Northern coast of Kenya 27 km from Malindi and 50

km from Mombasa They bear record evidence of climate change events such as rising

of ocean temperature that resulted in reduction of some fish species, shifting of rainfall pattern and coral bleaching (Workshop Report 2012) In addition, Ngomeni fishing village has experienced the effects of sea level rise that submerged the former navy base (Koech 2016) Gazi is situated in the southern coast of Kenya and about 50 km from

Mombasa There are different projects that are running in this area such as ‘Mikoko

pamoja’ that aim at funding the mangrove forest conservation and community

development through the selling of carbon credits (Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute 2017) Shimoni is located about 80 km in the south of Mombasa It is one of the tourist destinations bordering Tanzania Together with Gazi they are among the fishing villages in Kwale county which are suffered from reduction of fisheries production, coral bleaching and changing of rainfall pattern (Workshop Report 2012) For each of these sites, 1 secondary school was selected for this study The sampled students were from Wiyoni secondary schools (Lamu), Ngomeni high school (Ngomeni), Takaungu secondary school (Takaungu), Shimoni secondary school (Shimoni) and Kinondoni and Msambwani secondary schools for Gazi students since there was no secondary school in Gazi

Figure 3.1: Map showing the sample site - red marked points with black texts (Source; Google

Earth)

3.2 Data Collection

The study considered both primary and secondary data sources The secondary sources consisted of school education curriculum that was requested from the secondary school library for review (GoK 2002a and GoK 2002b) On the other hand, the primary data obtained from the field survey in the named study sites Face - to - face interview was employed between the respondents and the interviewer

3.2.1 Climate Change knowledge and Perception

Close structured questionnaires adapted and modified from previous studies (Ung et al

2016, Lee et al 2015, Skeele & Okano 2014 and Semenza et al 2011) and were used to collect qualitative and quantitative information The questionnaires focused on obtaining information on the public knowledge and perception of the impact of climate

change on people’s personal lifestyles The questionnaires also focused on getting information on actions and barriers to climate change mitigation The qualitative data is useful in understanding people’s belief, ideas, behaviors and relationship to climate change (Whitmarsh 2005) On the other hand, the quantitative data included the demographic information such as age, residential period and level of education A pre-survey was done a week before the actual data collection day This helped in understanding the relevance of the questions A total of 20 questions divided into 4 parts were used (appendix II) In part A, the participants were asked about their knowledge

on climate change Under this section, they were first interviewed as to whether they think that climate pattern is changing and if they can relate the changing pattern of climate to climate change (causes, impact and mitigation) The purpose of this was to divide the interviewees into 2 groups; the aware group (know a lot or a little about climate change) and unaware group (have never heard about climate change) For majority of the questions, a 5 Likert scale as strongly agree (SA), agree (A), disagree (D), strongly disagree (SD) and do not know (DNK) was used All questions were in English and in all occasions, the interviewer was present to elaborate in case of a

language barrier

3.2.2 Climate change subject in the Education Curriculum

Content analysis was used to examine the degree to which climate change is included or represented in the school’s curriculum Climate related subjects in the curriculum that were taken into consideration in this study included Business studies, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Agriculture, History & Government and Geography (Ndiritu et al 2016) Each subject was analyzed independently looking at the units included in the syllabus and whether these units had a direct or indirect application of climate change education A directly related syllabus unit was taken as one that covered climate change

as an independent topic while in an indirectly related unit, climate change content was integrated in other themes The percentage cover of directly and indirectly related units was calculated This information was used to determine whether a subject in the curriculum was directly or indirectly educating the students on climate change risks,

adaptations and mitigation measures This method of analysis was adapted and modified from (Boakye 2012) whose focus was on climate change as the main topic in the syllabus The equation below shows how the percentages were calculated;

3.3 Sampling Approach

The study targeted 100 households (20 households = 20 students + 20 mothers + 20 fathers per study site) and 100 teachers (20 teachers per study site) Forty questionnaire sheets were distributed in each of the school by which 20 and 20 questionnaire for the students and teacher respectively

Purposive sampling was employed to individual respondents (teacher and student) in each school (Kothari 2004) Students were chosen based on their residential area Only student who lived near (7 km) the village were interviewed for ease of assessing their parents for interviewing The selected students were then followed to their homes to interview their parents with the exception of Shimoni where students were not interviewed at school due to their ongoing national examinations The approach used in this site was by visiting the houses that had finalist secondary school students to interview them with their parents The biasness of both approaches was that the students were only chosen based on whether their residential area was within the village Students residing outside were left out In each study site, two local personnel assisted in directing the interviewer to the students’ homes Since the selected fishing villages was small and contained only one secondary school for the whole village, it was easy to identify parents

or guardian of the students The assistants were selected based on their familiarity to the study area The choice of secondary school was chosen because having completed the primary level and about to finish the secondary level, and join higher learning institution, the students are learning to be more responsible and starting to make their own decisions

Percentages (Direct/Indirect) = 𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑦𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑢𝑠

𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑢𝑚 X 100

Equation 3 1: Percentage calculation of climate change content in the curriculum

Considering ethical issue, the conditions given in the research permit were well observed and the confidentiality of the data was stressed by this study All participants were assigned with a unique number that was used throughout the data analysis process During data collection process, the research introduced the purpose of the research to the participant and request for their consent to fill the questionnaire sheet Verbal consent was also requested for taking photos of the participant (Fig 3.2)

CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS

4.1 Socio-Demographic Information

The general information of the respondents is presented in table 4.1 The average age of the sample was 36.02 years with a range of 18 – 90 years The gender distribution was 52.5% and 47.5% of male and female, respectively The average residential period (21.82 years) was long for fathers (31.57 years) and least for teachers (5.92 years) as they are regularly transferred from school to school

Table 4.1: Socio – demographic characteristic of the studied population, Kenya coastal

community, 2017 (n=400)

Minimum 18 Maximum 90

2017 (graph 4.1)