Climate Change Literacy among Postgraduate Students of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

The primary objective of environmental education is believed to be developing environmental literacy. The environmentally literate person is described as a person who possesses the values, attitudes and skills that enable knowledge to be converted into action. This study was aimed at assessing the level of climate change literacy among graduate students in four programmes at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. To this end, a questionnaire was developed and administered to a total of 91 students. An attempt was made to include all the major conceptual and geographical aspects of climate change literacy. Results indicate that the students who participated in the study demonstrated a ‘just above average’ performance on the whole, but clearly poor performance in some of the key areas related to the science behind climate change, past trends in rainfall and temperature and the impact of climate change on Africa. It is particularly worrisome that many of the students had inadequate or no information about the projected or actual impacts of climate change on poor countries, including those in Africa. Students’ awareness about some of the key measures proposed at the global level is also inadequate. It is therefore strongly recommended that follow-up studies be conducted to see the effects of such factors on programme syllabi, teaching approaches used, key sources of information, etc., and on students’ climate change literacy

Sustainability Issues in the Geography Curriculum for an Undergraduate Programme: The case of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

The Lucerne Declaration on Geographical Education for Sustainable Development proposes that the ‘paradigm of sustainable development’ be integrated into the teaching of geography at all levels and in all regions of the world. This study is aimed at assessing the extent to and ways in which sustainability issues have been addressed in the revised undergraduate curriculum for Geography at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. The study also attempts to critically examine the methods of delivery suggested in the curriculum. Content analysis has been used as a principal technique. Twenty (sustainability) issues have been identified for analysis from the first and second sections of the United Nations Agenda 21. Courses offered in the Department have been put under four categories: physical/environmental; social/economic; interdisciplinary/ integrative and foundational/skills. Attempt is then made to show the extent to which sustainability issues have been integrated into the first three categories of courses. Results indicate that the three pillars or building blocs of sustainable development are duly represented in the curriculum, with more courses dealing with social/economic issues. Moreover, a noticeable attempt has been made to take an integrative approach. It is, however, clearly evident that classroom-based approaches occupy proportionally more space and remain the dominant modes of delivery across the course categories

Environmental Citizenship in Primary Formal Education

The concept of Environmental Citizenship, as it has been developed in this project, calls for the development of specific awareness, attitudes, skills, behaviours and competences that need to be cultivated from early childhood for active civic participation. Primary formal education could provide opportunities for the achievement of these goals. In this chapter, we elaborate on how Environmental Citizenship, which provides the specifics of age and formal settings, could be approached and the educational strategies that could be recommended or avoided based on the existing literature. This chapter also provides an overview of the most important educational aims regarding the development of Environmental Citizenship in primary formal education. These include environmental sensitivity, a sense of justice, a basic understanding of ecological systems, necessary skills for the investigation of ecological and social phenomena, and action skills that relate to active participation in community issues. We suggest that successful educational interventions, integrated pedagogical approaches and key designing principles could promote Environmental Citizenship at primary schools. In addition, effective training and professional development programmes can equip teachers with the knowledge, values, skills and strategies necessary to implement Environmental Citizenship at this level

Ecological value orientations of prospective secondary school teachers in Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

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