Climate change awareness in a developing nations' second level education system - Tanzania

Even if stringent global emission reductions and mitigation efforts over the next few decades prove to be successful, global climate change appears to be inevitable. 'Adaptation' has therefore emerged as a key policy response to manage the impending impacts of climate change. Adaptation is particularly relevant in the context of developing nations, as climate change impacts pose a substantial threat to their continued sustainable development. Adaptive capacity is affected by many socio-economic, political, and gender-based factors, and may be enhanced by climate change awareness. Ascertaining levels of climate change knowledge in different sectors of society is therefore an important aspect of dealing with future climate change, in order to understand how best to improve climate change awareness and adaptive capacity. Elevating such awareness in society as a whole can be facilitated by focusing on the education system, and particularly by enhancing school students’ knowledge and understanding of climate change. It is essential to determine students’ conceptions (and misconceptions) of climate change, while also focusing on curricula content and on secondary school teachers’ knowledge of climate change, in order to plan and design effective instruction that builds on these concepts. The Climate Change Awareness and Education Programme (CCAEP) aims to ascertain secondary school student teachers, teachers and students’ prior knowledge of the causes and consequences of climate change, and to determine the existing status of climate-change related material on the secondary school curriculum in Tanzania with an initial focus on climate change awareness among secondary school teachers. The research outputs currently envisaged will make it possible to develop or update a climate change knowledge instrument for proposed inclusion in the school curriculum. The programme is aimed to progress between 2014 and 2017. CCAEP Stage 1 data gathering commenced in May 2014 and focused on the knowledge and awareness of trainee secondary teachers at Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE). Students at DUCE were surveyed using a questionnaire to determine climate change knowledge, awareness and emotional response to climate change. The questionnaire was adapted for Tanzania from a range of established and validated climate change awareness instruments.