Sociographic analysis of climate change awareness and pro-environmental behaviour of secondary school teachers and students in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined students’ and teachers’ awareness of climate change and their willingness to adopt pro-environmental behaviour in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State Nigeria, using sociographical variables. Participants were drawn from Senior Secondary 1–3 students, as well as their teachers, all from secondary schools across the rural and urban geographical divide. Sociographical factors that have considerable effects on awareness of climate change and willingness to adopt pro-environmental behaviour were ascertained using the instrument “Awareness of Climate Change and Pro-Environmental Behaviour Willingness Questionnaire (ACCPEBWQ),” made up of 44 items on a 4-point Likert type format. A sample of 312 students and 56 teachers was used for the study with descriptive, mean, t test, ANOVA statistics, and correlation techniques employed in data analysis. Gender of students shows a significant difference in awareness of climate change and willingness to embrace pro-environmental behaviour, with male students showing both higher awareness and willingness to engage in pro-environmental behaviour. For teachers, though no significant effects were established for different variables tested in the study, they had a significantly higher awareness of climate change mean scores than students. There was a high positive and significant relationship between the level of awareness of climate change and the level of willingness to adopt pro-environmental behaviour. The study calls for increased dissemination of climate change information among females and the association of climate change issues pto prevalent environmental conditions, for better comprehension by art students.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change awareness
• climate change education
• pro-environmental behaviour

Acknowledgements

The author expresses gratitude to Chinazaekpere Peace Eze-Emmanuel and Thomas Umazayi for assistance in data collection for this study. Thanks to the two anonymous reviewers’ comments, along with the Editors’ inputs, these helped improve the crude version of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.