Sustaining pro-environmental behaviours in Fiji: the role of environmental education in secondary schools
Creators: name: RAMAN, Thelma
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 390306
subject: Secondary education
classificationCode: 390399
subject: Education systems not elsewhere classified
classificationCode: 410403
subject: Environmental education and extension

description: International and national documents identify human activity as a major contributor to problems threatening environmental sustainability and livelihoods, and emphasise promoting sustainable development that is holistic and incorporates environmental, economic and social development. Education is seen as a means of shaping human behaviour that is pro-environmental and achieving sustainable development goals. <br><br>

This study focussed on Fiji, an island group in the South Pacific which, like many other low lying islands, is beginning to feel the impact of climate change. The Fijian Government has developed strategies and plans to encourage citizens to participate in promoting environmental sustainability. The study investigated the factors or circumstances that enable individuals to sustain or continue adopting pro-environmental behaviours after they have left the formal school environment. It examined what occurs in the formal school environment, in particular the secondary schools, as this is the last mandated formal education. The overall aims of this research were to identify the forms of environmental education provided in Fiji secondary schools that are more effective in creating sustained pro-environmental behaviour, to analyse the role played by various stakeholders in sustaining students' pro-environmental behaviours and to appraise the appropriateness of models and strategies for sustaining students' pro-environmental behaviours.<br><br>

The interpretive research design included the collection of data from students attending a tertiary institution in Suva, Fiji and from a selection of secondary schools situated on the island of Viti Levu, where about 75% of Fiji's population lives. Data was collected from students via a questionnaire followed by focus groups and semi-structured interviews. The preliminary findings indicated that students who had experienced boarding school as part of their secondary school education had a greater propensity to sustain the forms of pro-environmental behaviours they had practiced while in school. The research focus then expanded to investigate what was happening in the boarding schools. Of the 27 schools visited, seven were boarding schools. Semi-structured interviews were held with principals and teachers in each school.<br><br>

The research found that all the study schools were experiencing similar challenges with delivering environmental education including an overcrowded curriculum, focus on assessments, lack of teacher knowledge, emphasis on theory and prominence of a teacher centred pedagogy. Overall, there is a siloed approach to environmental education, where the subject content determines the emphasis with rare, if any, attention given to the integration of environmental, economic and social components of sustainability. <br><br>

However, the research did find that students in boarding schools had the opportunity to experience a holistic approach to environmental education with the environmental, economic and social components integrated, which allowed for the development of environmental stewardship and instilling of a sense of civic responsibility. The boarding teachers acting as guardians, the boarding environment being the family and community, student involvement in the production of food and the sharing of indigenous knowledge about taking care of the physical environment provide students with regular holistic experiences which helps facilitate the sustaining of pro-environmental behaviours beyond their secondary school years. Hence, while day scholars seem to be participants in 'two worlds'; one being school where some form of environmental education is provided and the other being their home and communities where there are varying degrees of environmental education; boarding schools have allowed for the convergence of the 'two worlds' where students 'live' the objectives of environmental education and thereby continuing to practice it beyond their school years. <br><br>

An outcome of the study is a model that contextualises Jensen's (2002) Action-Oriented Knowledge Model to the Fijian context. The contextualised model is holistic and includes the role of various stakeholders in providing environmental education in Fiji. This has significance for the Fiji Government and how it incorporates environmental education into The Fiji National Curriculum Framework. It also has implications for Fiji's Green Growth Framework that was launched by the Prime Minister in June 2015.