LOCAL BODIES’ EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND ACTIONS TO RAISE ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE PREFECTURE OF LARISSA IN GREECE
Abstract
The present research aimed at documenting the educational actions and programs about climate change that have been implemented in the Prefecture of Larissa, Greece, and at investigating whether their design and implementation aligns with the principles of adult learning. It also sought to examine whether the participants of these programs have developed environmental awareness and whether they have adapted to the new conditions created by climate change. Following a qualitative methodological approach, this research conducted semi-structured interviews with local bodies’ executives and educators who plan and organize educational programs and events within the scope of climate change. According to the findings of this study, the climate change-related programs implemented in the Prefecture of Larissa were mostly organized by public institutions, had a short duration, and did not always include a practical or experiential part. Their primary purpose was to lead to a more comprehensive approach towards environmental issues and to contribute to the citizens’ and professionals’ adaptation to the changes that have occurred due to climate change. Even though the analysis of target population needs and the program evaluation are generally considered as basic steps in the process of designing adult education programs, this study revealed that local institutions departed from following the abovementioned established practices. In the cases examined, the structure of the content and the implementation of the program were determined by the organizing bodies’ knowledge and capacity. Furthermore, the educational events that offered experiential activities contributed to the participants’ better understanding of the climate change phenomenon, motivated them to become more actively engaged with this issue and led them to the occasional undertaking of initiatives that signified their possible development of environmental awareness. The process of informing, raising awareness and helping people adapt to the consequences of climate change requires time, effort, and persistence by the local institutions and by the state, who can achieve these goals by properly designing and implementing programs that meet the educational needs of the target population.
Article visualizations:
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adger, WN., Agrawala, S., Mirza, M., Conde, C., & O’Brien, K. (2007). Assessment of adaptation practices, options, constraints, and capacity. See Ref. 114, pp. 717–43.
Anderson, A. (2010). Combating climate change through quality education. Washington, DC: Brookings Global Economy and Development.
Bandounas, A. (2018). Teachers’ views, attitudes and perceptions regarding climate change and global warming: a case study: teachers of UE70 primary education in the Prefecture of Dodecanese (Postgraduate Thesis, University of the Aegean) (in Greek). Retrieved from https://hellanicus.lib.aegean.gr/handle/11610/18531
Bell, J. (2005). Doing your research project: A guide for first time (4th Edition). Researches in science education and Social sciences.
Bernard, H. R., Wutich, A., & Ryan, G. W. (2016). Analyzing qualitative data: Systematic approaches. Sage publications.
Boone, E. J., Safrit, R. D., & Jones, J. (2002). Developing programs in adult education: A conceptual programming model. Waveland Press.
Brekovic, A. (2012). Climate change and local government (Postgraduate Thesis, University of the Aegean). Retrieved from https://hellanicus.lib.aegean.gr/bitstream/handle/11610/7167/file1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Brink, J.P., & Wood, J.M. (1998). Advanced design in nursing research (2nd ed.). London: Sage publications.
Caffarella, Rosemary (1988). Program Development and Evaluation: Resource Book for Trainers. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Caffarella, R. S. (2002). Planning Programs for Adult Learners: a Practical Guide for Educators, Trainers and Staff Developers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
CEDEFOP. (2004). Competence Grid. Cedefop, Thessaloniki.
Cotter, B., & Hannan, K. (Environs Australia). (1999). Our Community Our Future: A Guide to Local Agenda 21, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, Australia.
Courau S. (1994). Les outils d’ excellence du formateur (2nd ed.) Paris: ESF.
Elias, J. L. & Merriam, S. B. 2005. Philosophical Foundations of Adult Education. Florida: Krieger Publishing Company.
European Commission. (2005). Report on demonstrable progress under the Kyoto Protocol (required under Article 5(3) of Decision 280/2004/EC concerning a mechanism for monitoring Community greenhouse gas emissions and for implementing the Kyoto Protocol) Brussels, COM (2005) 615, Brussels.
European Commission. (2007). European Environment Agency (2005b). The European environment- State and outlook 2005, Copenhagen: EEA. Retrieved from https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/state_of_environment_report_2005_1
European Commision. (2008). Regional Policy, sustainable development and climate change. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/el/information/publications/panorama-magazine/
European Commission. (2009). Climate change. Publications Europa.eu. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/environment/pubs/pdf/factsheets/climate_change.pdf
European Environmental Agency. (2016). Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2016. Retrieved from https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/climate-change-impacts-and-vulnerability-2016
Gouli, D. (2017). The Environmental Education Centers (EEC) as institutions for the introduction and implementation of innovative actions and programs: The views of the heads of operation of EEC (Postgraduate Thesis, University of Western Macedonia) (in Greek). Retrieved from https://dspace.uowm.gr/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/1820/%CE%93%CE%9A%CE%9F%CE%A5%CE%9B%CE%97%20%CE%94%CE%97%CE%9C%CE%97%CE%A4%CE%A1%CE%91.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Guest, G., MacQueen, K. M., & Namey, E. E. (2011). Applied thematic analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hopkins, C., Damlamian, J., & Ospina, G. (1996). Evolving education for sustainable development: An international perspective. Nature & Resources, 32(3), 2–11
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC. (2007). Synthesis report. In Core Writing Team, R. K. Pachauri, & A. Reisinger (Eds.), Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (104 pp.). Geneva: Switzerland: IPCC.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC. (2014). Climate change 2014: Synthesis report. In Core Writing Team, R. K. Pachauri, & L. A. Meyer (Eds.), Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (151 pp.). Geneva: Switzerland. IPCC. ISBN 978-92-9169-143-2
Jarvis, P. (1985). The Sociology of Adult and Continuing Education. London: Croom Helm.
Jarvis, P. (2004). An international dictionary of adult and continuing education. Routledge.
Karalis, Th., & Papageorgiou, I. (2012). Design, Implementation and Evaluation of Lifelong Learning Programs. Athens: INE-GSEE.
Kartalis, K., Kokkosis, Ch., Oikonomou, D., Santamouris, M., Agathangelidis, I., Polydoros, A., & Koutsopoulou, A. (2017). The Impact of Climate Change on Development. Dianeosis - Organization for Research and Analysis. Retrieved from https://www.dianeosis.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/06/climate_change10.pdf
Knowles, M. S. (1980). The modern practice of adult education. New York: Cambridge. The Adult Education Company.
Knowles, M. S., Holton III, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (1998). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development. th Houston. TX: Gulf Publishing Company.
Laissy, A. P. (2008). Regional policy, sustainable development and climate change. Retrieved from https://ketlib.lib.unipi.gr/xmlui/bitstream/handle/ket/535/mag25_en.pdf?sequence=2
Leftheriotou, P. (2014). Adult Education Programs Design in Greece: the case of General Secretariat for Lifelong Learning. (Doctoral Dissertation, Hellenic Open University) (in Greek). Available from the database of the National Archive of Doctoral Dissertations (Code 30097).
Leftheriotou, P., & Pavlis Korres, M. (2014). General Adult Education Programs by the General Secretariat of Lifelong Learning: past, present and future. In A. Kyridis (Ed.), Vulnerable Social Groups and Lifelong Learning, (pp. 151-193). Athens: Gutenberg. (In Greek).
McKeown, R., & Hopkins, C. (2010). Rethinking climate change education. Green Teacher, (89), 17.
Mitigation, C. C. (2011). IPCC special report on renewable energy sources and climate change mitigation. Renewable Energy, 20(11).
Mochizuki, Y., & Bryan, A. (2015). Climate change education in the context of education for sustainable development: Rationale and principles. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 9(1), 4-26.
Moseley, J. L., & Heaney, M. J. (1994). Needs assessment across disciplines. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 7(1), 60-79.
Nadler, L. & Nadler, Z. 1994. Designing Training Programs: The Critical Events Model. Houston: Gulf Publishing.
Pistela, Μ. (2020). In Service Science Teachers' Knowledge, Beliefs and Attitudes about Climate Change (Postgraduate Thesis, Hellenic Open University) (in Greek). Retrieved from https://apothesis.eap.gr/handle/repo/48324
Polit, F. D., & Hungler, P. B. (1999). Nursing research: Principles and methods. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Rogers, A. (2007). Teaching Adults. Open University Press.
Ross, A. (2007). Multiple identities and education for active citizenship. British Journal of Educational Studies, 55(3), 286-303.
Sauvé, L. (1996). Environmental Education and Sustainable Development: A Further Appraisal. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 1, 7-34
Sterling, S. (2008). Sustainable education - towards a deep learning response to unsustainability. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review. Vol. 6, pp. 63-68.
Thakur, K. (2012). A study of Environmental awareness among senior secondary school students of Chandigarh. International Indexed and Referred Research Journal. Vol. 4, pp.16-18.
UNESCO. (1976). Foundations of Lifelong Learning. Oxford: UNESCO Institute for Education,
UNESCO. (2003). United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (January 2005—December 2014): Framework for a Draft International Implementation Scheme. Paris: UNESCO.
UNESCO. (2005). United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014): International Implementation Scheme. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001486/148654E.pdf
UNFCCC. (2012). Momentum for Change in 2012: Momentum for Change – Change for Good. Bonn: UNFCCC Secretariat.
UNFCCC. (2016). Aggregate effect of the intended nationally determined contributions: an update. Synthesis report by the secretariat, UN Doc FCCC/CP/2016/2.
U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). (2009). Climate literacy: The essential principles of climate sciences—A guide for individuals and communities. Washington, DC: Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved from http://www.globalchange.gov/resources/educators/climate-literacy
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v8i12.4015
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2021 Bechlivani Sofia, Maria Pavlis-Korres
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright © 2015-2023. European Journal of Education Studies (ISSN 2501 - 1111) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All authors who send their manuscripts to this journal and whose articles are published on this journal retain full copyright of their articles. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
