IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/injoed/v102y2023ics0738059323001244.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Characterizing environmental education practices in Ethiopian primary schools

Author

Listed:
  • Gugssa, Mulugeta Awayehu

Abstract

Considering the profound roles of teachers in the formation of environmentally literate citizenry, the study analyzed how teachers view and convey environmental topics to young children. Guided by a phenomenological framework, data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 17 teachers in four primary schools of Ethiopia. The results suggest that the teachers were of the belief that the delivery of environmental content should be hands-on, place-based, and that students taking local actions. Despite the teachers favoring learner-centered and experience-based strategies, their self-reported teaching approach tended to be teacher-dominated and classroom-based. Large class size, training and capacity, and safety issues were identified as barriers to teaching environmental topics. Changes are needed if we genuinely wish to build civically engaged and capable youths who can confront the escalating environmental crises. Implications of the findings for teacher training, school practices, and further research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Gugssa, Mulugeta Awayehu, 2023. "Characterizing environmental education practices in Ethiopian primary schools," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:102:y:2023:i:c:s0738059323001244
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102848
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059323001244
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102848?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Post, David & Meng, Yi, 2018. "Does schooling foster environmental values and action? A cross-national study of priorities and behaviors," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 10-18.
    2. Maria Hedefalk & Jonas Almqvist & Malena Lidar, 2014. "Teaching for Action Competence," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(3), pages 21582440145, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paula Regina Humbelino de Melo & Péricles Vale Alves & Tatiana Souza de Camargo, 2023. "Planetary Health Initiatives in Rural Education at a Riverside School in Southern Amazonas, Brazil," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Hiran, Kamal Kant & Dadhich, Manish, 2024. "Predicting the core determinants of cloud-edge computing adoption (CECA) for sustainable development in the higher education institutions of Africa: A high order SEM-ANN analytical approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jonas Almqvist & Jane Meckbach & Marie Öhman & Mikael Quennerstedt, 2016. "How Wii Teach Physical Education and Health," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(4), pages 21582440166, December.
    2. Axel Franzen & Sebastian Mader, 2020. "Can Climate Skeptics Be Convinced? The Effect of Nature Videos on Environmental Concern," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-12, April.
    3. Farhana Borg & Niklas Gericke, 2021. "Local and Global Aspects: Teaching Social Sustainability in Swedish Preschools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Renan de Almeida Barbosa & Christoph Randler & José Vicente Lima Robaina, 2021. "Values and Environmental Knowledge of Student Participants of Climate Strikes: A Comparative Perspective between Brazil and Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-18, July.
    5. Faik Bilgili & Masreka Khan & Ashar Awan, 2023. "Is there a gender dimension of the environmental Kuznets curve? Evidence from Asian countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 2387-2418, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:102:y:2023:i:c:s0738059323001244. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-educational-development .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.