title: Environmental Awareness, Attitudes, and Behaviour of Secondary School Students and Teachers in Tehran, Iran

authors: Hashemzadeh, Farshad

subjects: Environmental Education

abstract: Many human behaviours, including social, political, and economic actions, have an impact on the natural environment, and are responsible for causing many of the current environmental challenges and issues. This raises the importance of education, particularly environmental education (EE), as a necessary tool to equip people to address environmental issues and move towards environmental sustainability. International EE declarations such as the Tbilisi Declaration have highlighted that investigating peoples’ environmental awareness, attitudes, and behaviour towards environmental issues could inform educational approaches geared towards a more sustainable future. The research presented in this thesis explored the environmental awareness, attitudes, and behaviour of secondary school students and teachers in Tehran, Iran. The aim was to investigate the current context of EE in Iranian secondary schools.
An interpretive approach was used to explore participants’ perspectives through a mix of quantitative and qualitative data, including questionnaires, individual interviews, and focus group interviews. Data were collected in six secondary schools in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. Two populations were included: 337 secondary school students (9th grade) and 12 secondary school teachers. Two different computer software programmes (SPSS for quantitative and NVivo for qualitative data) were used for data analysis and coding. 
The findings indicated that students had reasonably high levels of understanding about environmental issues, particularly about local issues that have a greater impact on their everyday lives, such as air pollution. This highlights the important issue of context. Students also expressed positive attitudes towards the environment, but indicated low levels of agency. Many researchers have shown that both awareness and attitudes are prerequisites of pro-environmental behaviour. However, they are not necessarily sufficient for action, as confirmed in this study. In this research, particular attention therefore focused on the complexities of Iranian students’ environmental behaviour. A low level of intention to act, along with students’ reported lack of locus of control to make changes for future of the environment, seemed to influence their relative absence of pro-environmental behaviour. 
The findings also indicated that teachers’ connection with nature, their life experiences, personal interests, and teaching areas are important aspects that can contribute to effective EE in Iran. However, significant barriers to the further delivery of EE in Iranian secondary schools include a relatively low level of in-depth environmental content in the curriculum, lack of outdoor education, teacher-centred approaches to classroom learning, and time pressures for teachers. 
This research contributes to an understanding of current issues impacting on EE in Iran, providing insights into the contextual nature of the three key aspects of EE (awareness, attitudes, behaviour) for junior secondary students and teachers. This provides an important baseline from which to further develop understanding of how to improve EE programmes in the Iranian context. The research concludes that in order to address environmental problems in Iran, a substantial shift needs to occur with respect to students’ environmental attitudes, their sense of agency, and their behaviours in order to work towards more sustainable approaches to living. Teachers need to be supported to better implement EE. This includes modifying their environmental education pedagogy towards a more student-centred approach of teaching. In order to do this, the internal and external obstacles described in this thesis will need to be addressed to help Iran develop more environmentally sustainable approaches to the future.

text: Environmental Awareness, Attitudes, and Behaviour of Secondary School Students and Teachers in Tehran, Iran Many human behaviours, including social, political, and economic actions, have an impact on the natural environment, and are responsible for causing many of the current environmental challenges and issues. This raises the importance of education, particularly environmental education (EE), as a necessary tool to equip people to address environmental issues and move towards environmental sustainability. International EE declarations such as the Tbilisi Declaration have highlighted that investigating peoples’ environmental awareness, attitudes, and behaviour towards environmental issues could inform educational approaches geared towards a more sustainable future. The research presented in this thesis explored the environmental awareness, attitudes, and behaviour of secondary school students and teachers in Tehran, Iran. The aim was to investigate the current context of EE in Iranian secondary schools.
An interpretive approach was used to explore participants’ perspectives through a mix of quantitative and qualitative data, including questionnaires, individual interviews, and focus group interviews. Data were collected in six secondary schools in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. Two populations were included: 337 secondary school students (9th grade) and 12 secondary school teachers. Two different computer software programmes (SPSS for quantitative and NVivo for qualitative data) were used for data analysis and coding. 
The findings indicated that students had reasonably high levels of understanding about environmental issues, particularly about local issues that have a greater impact on their everyday lives, such as air pollution. This highlights the important issue of context. Students also expressed positive attitudes towards the environment, but indicated low levels of agency. Many researchers have shown that both awareness and attitudes are prerequisites of pro-environmental behaviour. However, they are not necessarily sufficient for action, as confirmed in this study. In this research, particular attention therefore focused on the complexities of Iranian students’ environmental behaviour. A low level of intention to act, along with students’ reported lack of locus of control to make changes for future of the environment, seemed to influence their relative absence of pro-environmental behaviour. 
The findings also indicated that teachers’ connection with nature, their life experiences, personal interests, and teaching areas are important aspects that can contribute to effective EE in Iran. However, significant barriers to the further delivery of EE in Iranian secondary schools include a relatively low level of in-depth environmental content in the curriculum, lack of outdoor education, teacher-centred approaches to classroom learning, and time pressures for teachers. 
This research contributes to an understanding of current issues impacting on EE in Iran, providing insights into the contextual nature of the three key aspects of EE (awareness, attitudes, behaviour) for junior secondary students and teachers. This provides an important baseline from which to further develop understanding of how to improve EE programmes in the Iranian context. The research concludes that in order to address environmental problems in Iran, a substantial shift needs to occur with respect to students’ environmental attitudes, their sense of agency, and their behaviours in order to work towards more sustainable approaches to living. Teachers need to be supported to better implement EE. This includes modifying their environmental education pedagogy towards a more student-centred approach of teaching. In order to do this, the internal and external obstacles described in this thesis will need to be addressed to help Iran develop more environmentally sustainable approaches to the future.

year: 2016

title: Live Television in a Digital Library

authors: Roüast, Maxime

abstract: Nowadays nearly everyone has access to digital television with a growing number of channels available for free. However due to the nature of broadcasting, this huge mass of information that reaches us is not, for the main part, organised—it is principally a succession of images and sound transmitted in a flow of data. Compare this with digital libraries which are powerful at organising a large but fixed set of documents. This project brings together these two concepts by concurrently capturing all the available live television channels, and segments them into files which are then imported into a digital video library. The system leverages off the information contained in the electronic program guide and the video recordings to generate metadata suitable for the digital library. By combining these two concepts together this way, the aim of this work is to look beyond what is currently available in the digital TV set top boxes on the market today and explore the full potential—unencumbered by commercial market constraints—to what the raw technology can provide.

text: Live Television in a Digital Library Nowadays nearly everyone has access to digital television with a growing number of channels available for free. However due to the nature of broadcasting, this huge mass of information that reaches us is not, for the main part, organised—it is principally a succession of images and sound transmitted in a flow of data. Compare this with digital libraries which are powerful at organising a large but fixed set of documents. This project brings together these two concepts by concurrently capturing all the available live television channels, and segments them into files which are then imported into a digital video library. The system leverages off the information contained in the electronic program guide and the video recordings to generate metadata suitable for the digital library. By combining these two concepts together this way, the aim of this work is to look beyond what is currently available in the digital TV set top boxes on the market today and explore the full potential—unencumbered by commercial market constraints—to what the raw technology can provide.

year: 2011

title: Comparisons of experiences at native schools of Te Arawa with today's schools: The aspirations and the realities

authors: Raureti, Ramarie

abstract: The title of this thesis is "Comparisons of Experiences at Native Schools of Te Arawa with Today's Schools: The Aspirations and the Realities". It builds on the topic of native schooling introduced in my Master of Education thesis (Raureti, 2000), yet differs to that study by comparing past Maori (indigenous people of Aotearoa-New Zealand) educational experiences of kaumatua (esteemed elders) within Native Schools, with current educational experiences of their mokopuna (grandchildren) within today's schools. This thesis also adds a new dimension to current literature by exploring past and present educational aspirations, and identifying aspects of past and present schooling that helped fulfil Maori aspirations. 
The main focus of this thesis is to converse with kaumatua and their mokopuna through a series of sequential, in-depth, semi-structured interviews as conversations, in order to explore, examine and compare past and present educational aspirations and experiences, within an indigenous Kaupapa (agenda) Maori approach, while incorporating suitable aspects of qualitative methodology. 
In carrying out the above, this thesis addresses two main questions, 1. What were the educational aspirations and experiences for a group of Te Arawa (indigenous tribe) kaumatua and their mokopuna? 2. What factors assisted or limited the realisation of those aspirations? 
From the late 1800s, many Maori people within Te Arawa have viewed education as a means of enhancing their lives, and complementing their current skills and knowledge in order to participate effectively within society. In contrast, throughout the years, governments have utilised the education system as a tool of oppression to purposefully assimilate Maori people and restrict their participation in society. In spite of oppressive structures and policies, and in line with a spirit of resistance, Maori people have continuously formulated new options to realise their aspirations. It seems that the key factor lies with the degree of Maori control and engagement (tino rangatiratanga) within the educational context. That is, the more that Maori exercised their tino rangatiratanga, the greater the degree to which their educational aspirations were realised. 
Therefore, this thesis is not merely "descriptive, telling us what we already know, yet not proposing any solutions or action that can be taken for change" (Cram, 1993, p 31); nor does it attempt to revolutionise schooling for Maori; it does however, identify and examine effective aspects of past and present schooling, as identified by a selection of Te Arawa kaumatua and their mokopuna. It is suggested that this careful intergenerational consideration of curriculum and pedagogies could inform current teaching practice, which has the potential to be useful because "many schools were aware of issues for Maori students but were unclear on how to make improvements" (Education Review Office, 2003, p 2).

text: Comparisons of experiences at native schools of Te Arawa with today's schools: The aspirations and the realities The title of this thesis is "Comparisons of Experiences at Native Schools of Te Arawa with Today's Schools: The Aspirations and the Realities". It builds on the topic of native schooling introduced in my Master of Education thesis (Raureti, 2000), yet differs to that study by comparing past Maori (indigenous people of Aotearoa-New Zealand) educational experiences of kaumatua (esteemed elders) within Native Schools, with current educational experiences of their mokopuna (grandchildren) within today's schools. This thesis also adds a new dimension to current literature by exploring past and present educational aspirations, and identifying aspects of past and present schooling that helped fulfil Maori aspirations. 
The main focus of this thesis is to converse with kaumatua and their mokopuna through a series of sequential, in-depth, semi-structured interviews as conversations, in order to explore, examine and compare past and present educational aspirations and experiences, within an indigenous Kaupapa (agenda) Maori approach, while incorporating suitable aspects of qualitative methodology. 
In carrying out the above, this thesis addresses two main questions, 1. What were the educational aspirations and experiences for a group of Te Arawa (indigenous tribe) kaumatua and their mokopuna? 2. What factors assisted or limited the realisation of those aspirations? 
From the late 1800s, many Maori people within Te Arawa have viewed education as a means of enhancing their lives, and complementing their current skills and knowledge in order to participate effectively within society. In contrast, throughout the years, governments have utilised the education system as a tool of oppression to purposefully assimilate Maori people and restrict their participation in society. In spite of oppressive structures and policies, and in line with a spirit of resistance, Maori people have continuously formulated new options to realise their aspirations. It seems that the key factor lies with the degree of Maori control and engagement (tino rangatiratanga) within the educational context. That is, the more that Maori exercised their tino rangatiratanga, the greater the degree to which their educational aspirations were realised. 
Therefore, this thesis is not merely "descriptive, telling us what we already know, yet not proposing any solutions or action that can be taken for change" (Cram, 1993, p 31); nor does it attempt to revolutionise schooling for Maori; it does however, identify and examine effective aspects of past and present schooling, as identified by a selection of Te Arawa kaumatua and their mokopuna. It is suggested that this careful intergenerational consideration of curriculum and pedagogies could inform current teaching practice, which has the potential to be useful because "many schools were aware of issues for Maori students but were unclear on how to make improvements" (Education Review Office, 2003, p 2).

year: 2006