Environmental awareness and Environmental Attitude of
Secondary school Teachers of Maldives: A study
Jubilee Padmanabhan Dr.Manjula P.Rao
Research Scholar Reader in Education
RIE,Mysore RIE,Mysore
Abstract:
Environmental education is one of the important areas, which is gaining prominence in the modern world. Many world wide discussions are going on regarding the solutions for environmental problems that aims at attaining sustainable development . Educating people is one of the measures to bring the needed awareness and sensitivity towards protecting the environment. The Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD, 2000), proposed the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), signaling that education and learning lie at the heart of approaches to sustainable development. It considers the year 2005-2014 as the United Nations Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD). It is emphasized that Environmental education to be introduced not only as a part of school curriculum, but also in the teacher education curriculum in order to develop necessary awareness and desirable attitude towards environment and its conservation in teachers. Considering the necessity of environmental knowledge and its application in order to protect the environment, it is time demanding to find out the awareness and attitude towards Environmental education.
The research was carried out on a group of Maldivian Secondary school teachers who are undergoing the Post graduate degree in education at RIE, Mysore, to study about their environmental awareness and environmental attitude. The findings reveal that majority of the Maldivian secondary school teachers have a moderate awareness of environmental problems, issues and other related aspects. They also have a positive attitude towards conserving the environment. The study revealed that there was a relationship between environmental awareness and environmental attitude. There was no significant difference between male and female teachers in their awareness and attitude towards environmental education. It was also found out that the environmental awareness do predict the environmental attitude of Maldivian Secondary school teachers.
INTRODUCTION:
Environment etymologically means ‘Surroundings’ which includes interactions and relationships among the natural elements- living, non living and man-made. It is the sum total of external factors, substances and conditions which influence organisms without their intrinsic part. “Environment includes water, air, land, the interrelationship which exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro organisms and property.” (Section 2(a) of the Environmental Protection Act, 1986).
Earth is a living creature, a being, an organism with its own breathing, blood stream, glands sensitivity and intelligence: we (human beings) are just a minuscule integral part of it in disturbing and destroying its equilibrium. Man and his activities are polluting the planet-physically’ mentally and morally which may bring about the destruction of our civilization, not abruptly but it may decay and slowly die. Therefore the imperative need of today is to stop the mindless war and to preserve the earth. In the changing modern social scenario there is a crisis of environmental awareness leading to negative code of behaviour towards the environment. The major challenge facing present day society is the need for developing environmental values to protect our environment. In this regard it is worthy to mention the Rio principle which states that “States shall cooperate in a spirit of global partnerships to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the earth’s ecosystems in view of the contributions to global environmental degradation. States have common but differentiated responsibilities” (Rio principle: implications of agenda 21, 1992).
Global awareness and the concept of one world have grown greatly over recent decades, especially with the revolution of the space age and worldwide communications. Awareness has emerged with a number of successive but overlapping concerns: population growth, environmental change, inequalities in development and political fragmentation and instability. Worrying increase in global environmental change (GEC) within the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere associated with a whole series of major ecological problems: ozone depletion, global warming, rising sea-levels, air pollution, soil erosion, desertification, deforestation, water shortages, toxic wastes, etc. Among the various responses to these environmental concerns has been the emergence of environmental education. Since mid-century there has also been growing global inequity in human prospects of economic development, resource use and standards of living, the more developed countries (MDCs) becoming ever richer and using evermore resources while at the other end of the scale the least developed countries (LDCs) seem unable to escape from their conditions of poverty. The growing gap between rich and poor is highlighted by the UNDP's (1990) human development index. (Clarke 2007).
“All education springs from images of the future and all education creates images of the future. Significant part of education must be seen as the process by which we enlarge, enrich and improve the individual’s image of the future.”(Alvin Toffer 1992). Thus there is a need to incorporate the education about environment in all the aspects of learning. One can ascertain that Environmental education has sprouted as pragmatic educational response to the problems and concerns of environment.
The primary aim of Environmental education is to enable mankind to understand, preserve and appreciate the complex nature of the environment. Most people recognize the urgent need for environmental education and about the course that need to be taught. The chief objective of environmental education is that individual and social groups should acquire awareness and knowledge, develop attitudes, skills and abilities to participate in solving real life environmental problems. Every mankind needs to be educated about environment.
NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:
The knowledge of environmental education is very important for everyone in this web of life. It helps to create awareness and an understanding of the evolving social and physical environment as a whole, its natural, man-made resources for development of the society. Environmental education is vitally important to find ways to avoid self- destruction. International Environmental Education Workshop, Belgrade (1975) recognized the urgent need to develop a global understanding of perspective of the ecological, economic and moral considerations.
In the present situation we can see that Environmental education is one of the subjects to be taught. It has become a compulsory subject in all classes, even in higher education. In teacher education institutions also it is gaining priority not only in the Indian context, but also throughout the world. There is a need for all teachers to be aware of the holistic nature of the natural order, including mankind, its intricately linked pattern (Eniko Salay Marzso, 1985). Learning Environmental education merely as a subject will not solve the present problems that the environment faces. It needs to reach up to ones affective as well as psychomotor domains of knowledge to protect the environment. Prahallada N.N (2005) found that there was a significant difference in the level of students environmental awareness between the two countries –Iran and India. It was found that the no. of Iranian students with high level of Environmental awareness is more than Indian students. Here it was intended to study the awareness and attitude towards Environmental Education of Maldivian teachers.
The Maldives consist of over 1000 small coral islands stretching over 764 km of the Indian Ocean west of Sri Lanka. The country is populated by roughly 180,000 people who call themselves Devehi(s) ('islanders'), and their language is Divehi, which is also the ethnographic term. These islands are grouped mostly into ring-like coral known as atoll. Seafaring explorers of past centuries fancied that the shape of this chain of atols resembled a garland, and indeed on a map it does look like this. So the Archipelago came by the name mala div (garland island, a common word in Indian languages), and the name spelt as Maladiv, not Maldive (Clarence Maloney 2000).
Maldives, being a low-lying island nation, the environment is particularly vulnerable to climate change and its associated ill-effects; particularly sea level rise. In addition to the long-term concern of inundation, the immediate effects climate change, such as the reduction in the precious freshwater aquifers beneath the islands, the increased frequency and intensity of stormy weather, the destruction of the rich coral ecosystem, the negative repercussions on the two main economics mainstays of fisheries and tourism and severe beach erosion are the major issues. Beach erosion can in fact be singled-out as being one of the priority environment issues in the Maldives. At present, nearly 50 percent of all inhabited islands and nearly 45 percent of tourist resorts are facing varying degrees of coastal erosion. The topography of the Maldives makes the country extremely susceptible to stormy and high wave occurrences. The high wave incident of 1987 flooded nearly a third of the capital Malé, as well as the country's only international airport on Hulhule'. The incident not only took the country by surprise, but it also highlighted the urgent need to develop an effective disaster preparedness framework. The strong winds and stormy weather experienced across the country in 1991, and in particular the southern-most atoll, added further clout to this point. (http://www.rrcap.unep.org/reports/soe/maldives_part4.pdf). A major pressure on the environment arises from the wastes and pollutants produced as a by-product of domestic and industrial activities. Solid waste disposal is now one of the most critical environmental issues in the Maldives. The amount and the rate of solid waste generated vary throughout the country and there is a significant difference between the amount of waste generated in Malé and that of in the atolls.
The first National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) of the country has been adopted in 2001. Recognizing the importance of healthy coral reefs to the two major industries of the Maldives, the Ministry of Fisheries, Agriculture and Marine Resources with assistance from the Bay of Bengal Programme (BOBP) initiated the Integrated Reef Resources Management programme. The Government has also initiated several measures for the protection of important habitats and threatened species. 25 marine areas, 2 islands and numerous birds and marine species have been protected. A number of marine species have also been banned for export and shark fishery has been regulated as well. In order to protect and conserve biological diversity of the country, a pilot project on the establishment and management of protected areas has been initiated with the assistance of the Government of Australia through AUSAID. Due to the increasing importance of environmental education, it has been also included in the curriculum of Maldives.
Keeping in mind these issues it was intended to find out the environmental awareness and environmental attitude of Secondary school teachers from Maldives who are doing M.Ed at RIEM(2007-2008 batch).
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
1. To study the environmental awareness and attitudes of Secondary school teachers of Maldives.
2. To study the difference in the environmental awareness and environmental attitude between males and females of secondary school teachers of Maldives.
3. To study the relationship of environmental awareness and environmental attitude of secondary school teachers of Maldives.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
1. Is there an awareness about environmental issues and problems among secondary school teachers of Maldives?
2. What kind of attitude is held by secondary school teachers of Maldives towards environment?
3. Is there a difference in the environmental awareness and environmental attitude among male and female secondary school teachers of Maldives?
4. Is there a relationship between environmental awareness and environmental attitude of secondary school teachers of Maldives?
5. Does the environmental awareness predict the environmental attitude of secondary school teachers of Maldives?
METHODOLOGY:
The study was designed to be of a survey type where in the environmental awareness and environmental attitude of secondary school teachers of Maldives were explored. The Purposive cluster sampling technique was used where in the entire group of 23 Maldivian Secondary school teachers who are undergoing their Post graduate degree course in Education were chosen as the sample. They are the Secondary school teachers and Supervisors of Maldives teaching varied subjects like; Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Fisheries science, Commerce, Mathematics, Economics and English. The data was collected in the First semester of their M.Ed before they had studied Environmental Education as a subject in M.Ed.
In order to study the environmental awareness and environmental attitude of teachers, the following tools were prepared.
Environmental awareness test: It contains 34 items which intends to measure teachers awareness on issues like conservation of natural resources, pollution, protecting wild life, over population, healthy being and on policies and conferences on environmental education. The maximum score for environmental awareness test was 34.
Environmental attitude Scale: It consists of 44 items which intends to measure their attitude towards environmental issues like; conservation and protection of environment, pollution, population explosion, various programmes to protect environment, Environmental education in the curriculum and Environmental education for a healthy well being. This scale was constructed based on Likert’s 5-point scale which ranges from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The maximum score for the environmental attitude scale was 220.
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA:
The data obtained using the above-mentioned tools were analyzed descriptively and inferentially.
Table 1 Performance of teachers in their Environmental awareness and Environmental attitude test
| No. Of teachers | Environmental awareness (%) | Environmental attitude (%) | ||||||
| 23 | High performance | Average performance | Low performance | Highly positive | Positive | Cannot predict | Positive | Highly positive |
| 4.35 | 56.52 | 39.13 | 39.13 | 56.52 | 4.35 | - | - | |
Table 2 Descriptive analysis of the data pertaining to Environmental awareness and Environmental attitude
| | N | Maximum score | Mean | Median | SD | Maximum score obtained | Minimum score obtained |
| Environmental awareness | 23 | 34 | 20.87 | 17 | 3.195 | 29 | 16 |
| Environmental attitude | 23 | 220 | 172.04 | 132 | 15.248 | 205 | 129 |
Environmental awareness:
Data obtained in the Environmental awareness test was analyzed by categorizing the scores into 3 levels as 80-100 %( High performance), 60-80 %( Average performance) and less than 60 %(Low- performance). The teachers were categorized under these levels based on their performance in Environmental awareness test. From the analysis it was found that only 1 teacher showed a high performance by scoring between 80-100%, whereas 13 teachers (56.52%) showed an average performance by scoring between 60-80%. The remaining 39.13% of teachers showed a low performance by scoring less than 60%. Since majority (56.52%) of them fall under average performance, it may be concluded that most of them had a moderate level of awareness related to environmental problems and issues. So this finding necessitates a need for Environmental education to improve the awareness level of teachers so that they can function as better environmental teacher in the schools. Vipindernagara and J.S. Dhillon (2007) have observed a significant variation in the EE awareness of secondary and elementary school teacher with the former scoring higher. This study reveals that the environmental awareness of Secondary school teachers were higher which is also similar to the Maldivian context.
Environmental attitude:
Data obtained from Environmental attitude scale was analyzed by categorizing the scores into 5 levels as; those scoring between 176-220, 132-176, 88-132, 44-88 and 0-44 as Highly positive, positive, Cannot predict, Negative and Highly negative attitude respectively. The teachers were categorized under these levels based on the scores obtained in the Environmental attitude test. From the analysis it was found that 9 teachers (39.13%) scored between 176-220 and hence they had highly positive environmental attitude. Another 13 teachers (56.52%) scored between 132-176 and hence they were having positive attitude towards environmental education. Only 1 teacher (4.35%) was in the category of cannot predict. No one was found to be scoring below 88 and hence no teachers had negative attitude towards environmental education. Since majority (56.52%) of the teachers fall under positive attitude, it may be concluded that most of the teachers had positive attitude towards environmental education. Deopuria (1984) also compared the traditional and environmental approach and found that primary students did better than middle and secondary level students and both male and female teachers showed a positive attitude towards the environmental approach to learning. Shahnawaj(1990) found out that majority of the teachers possessed positive environmental attitude and the trained and untrained teachers did not differ in their environmental awareness. Praharaj B. (1991) has found that the environmental attitude towards environmental education was higher compared to pre-service group. Gupta A. (1986) also found that most of the teachers showed a formal attitude towards environmental education. The Maldivian secondary school teachers also possess a positive attitude towards Environmental education.
Relationship between Environmental awareness and Environmental attitude among Male and Female teachers:
In order to find the relationship between environmental awareness and environmental attitude among gender, the Mann- Whitney test was used.
Table 3 Mann-Whitney test showing the relationship between Environmental awareness and environmental attitude among gender
| | Gender | N | Mean rank | Mann-Whitney-U | Wilcoxon W | Sig-2 tailed |
| Environmental awareness | Male | 12 | 12.29 | 62.5 | 128.5 | 0.828 |
| Female | 11 | 11.68 | ||||
| Total | 23 | | ||||
| Environmental attitude | Male | 12 | 11.54 | 60.5 | 138.5 | 0.735 |
| Female | 11 | 12.50 | ||||
| Total | 23 | |
From table 3 it is found that the Sig 2-tailed value for environmental awareness is 0.828 and that for environmental attitude is 0.735. Both the values were not found significant at 0.01 level and 0.05 level. Hence it may be concluded that there is no significant difference in the environmental awareness and environmental attitude between male and female Secondary school teachers of Maldives. S.Suresh and S.Kadhirvanan (2007) found out that gender does not affect the environmental awareness of college students. Shiva Kumar K and Mangala S. Patil (2007) have found that there is no significant difference between male and female students in their attitude towards environmental pollution and related issues. Vipinder and J.S. Dhillon (2007), D. Rai , Francis, Shanthi (2001) observed no significant difference was noted in the EE awareness of male and female school teachers.
Relationship between Environmental awareness and Environmental attitude:
In order to find the correlation between Environmental awareness and environmental attitude of the secondary school teachers of Maldives the Pearson-Correlation was used.
Table 4- Correlation between Environmental awareness and Environmental attitude among gender
| | Mean | SD | ‘r’ value |
| Environmental awareness | 20.87 | 3.195 | 0.521 |
| Environmental attitude | 172.04 | 15.248 |
It can be observed from table 4 that the correlation value is 0.52, which shows only a moderate correlation. Mashish (1992) reported that secondary school teachers are aware of Environmental problems and a positive relationship exist between knowledge and attitude towards environmental education. Sandaman (1974) also found a reasonable correlation between environmental awareness and environmental attitude.
Whether environmental awareness is a predictor of Environmental attitude:
Multiple regression was used in order to find out whether environmental awareness is a predictor of environmental attitude
Table 5 – Regression analysis to find out whether environmental awareness is a predictor of environmental attitude
| Multiple R | 0.52 | ANOVA | Df | Sum of squares | Mean square | F value | Sig. |
| R square | 0.271 | Regression | 1 | 1386.90 | 1386.90 | 7.812 | 0.01 |
| Adjusted R square | 0.236 | Residual | 21 | 3728.06 | 177.53 | ||
| Standard error for estimate | 13.32 | Total | 22 | 5114.96 | |
Dependent variable: Environmental attitude
Table 6 – Regression analysis to find out whether environmental awareness is a predictor of environmental attitude
| Variable | B | Std. Error | Beta | t | Sig. |
| Environmental awareness | 2.485 | 0.889 | 0.521 | 2.295 | 0.01 |
| Constant | 120.185 | 18.761 | 6.406 | 0.000 |
From table 5 and 6 it is found that the obtained R-value is 0.52, which is significant at 0.05 level. The F value is 7.812, which is significant at 0.01 level. As the t value of b coefficient of environmental awareness is significant, it may be said that there is a significant multiple correlation between environmental awareness and environmental attitude. The b coefficient is 2.485 and it can be interpreted that for every unit of increase of environmental awareness, the environmental attitude is increasing by 52 units. As the R square is 0.271, the variance explained by the environmental awareness in the criterion environmental attitude of teacher is 24.85 percent. Hence it can be inferred that the environmental awareness does predict the environmental attitude of teachers. Shiva Kumar K and Mangala S. Patil (2007) found that students with EE background has better environmental attitude. Gross etal (1979) found that by giving proper environmental awareness, the environmental attitude of students can be increased.
FINDINGS:
From the above analysis and interpretations it was found out that out of the 23 teachers, 4.35%, 56.52% and 39.13% of teachers are having high performance, average performance and low performance respectively in the environmental awareness test. Regarding the Environmental attitude test, it was found that 39.13%, 56.52% and 4.35% of Secondary school teachers of Maldives had highly positive attitude, positive attitude and cannot predict attitude respectively towards environmental education. There was no significant difference in the environmental awareness and environmental attitude between male and female Secondary school teachers of Maldives. Also, the correlation between environmental awareness and environmental attitude was 0.52, which shows only a moderate correlation. It was also found that the environmental awareness does predict the environmental attitude of teachers.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION:
It is evident from the above findings that there was a moderate awareness towards Environmental issues and problems among the secondary school teachers of Maldives. Since the teachers play a very important role in the development of a country, it is very essential for them to know about environment. They can incorporate these knowledge in their teaching so that it can help in the development of better citizens in the future. Also having a positive attitude towards environment indicates that they know the importance of protecting environment. These two aspects ie. Environmental awareness and environmental attitude are important not only for teachers but also for any common man. So teachers can do a lot towards the development of these two aspects in their students.
Since there was no significant difference between male and female secondary school teachers of Maldives towards Environmental awareness and environmental attitude, it is evident that all teachers are good at environmental education irrespective of gender. Also the Environmental awareness as a predictor of environmental attitude reveals that those who have high environmental awareness also had positive attitude towards environment. So it can be concluded that if there is increase in the awareness of environmental issues and problems, we can develop a positive attitude towards environment.
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