Climate change adaptation and mitigation at individual level: knowledge and attitudes among school teachers in Kalutara district
International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment
ISSN: 1759-5908
Article publication date: 1 December 2023
Issue publication date: 29 April 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. Its impacts scatter through every stratum of society placing the marginalized clusters at the highest vulnerability and calling for action at all levels. Adaptation enhances resilience, whereas mitigation minimizes the anthropogenic forces of climate change; these are crucial initiatives for climate-resilient sustainable development. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitudes on climate change adaptation and mitigation at individual level and assess related factors.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive study is done to assess the knowledge and attitudes of school teachers in three educational zones of the Kalutara district using random cluster sampling. A self-administered questionnaire including 25 equally weighted questions to assess knowledge and 10 statements to assess attitudes was used.
Findings
The response rate was 98.8% [n = 618] and 23% of the study population had poor knowledge of climate change adaptation and mitigation at the individual level. Favorable attitudes were observed among more than 65% of participants for all the statements on climate change adaptation and mitigation. Average family income, working duration, involvement in school environmental societies and highest education qualification showed a significant positive association, whereas age and current grade had a significant negative association with good knowledge. The level of knowledge had no significant variation among male and female teachers.
Originality/value
Overall knowledge was poor among more than 20% of the teachers highlighting the need for school and community-based awareness programs to be implemented to address the issue.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to all the school principals who supported data collection; to Zonal directorate of Education and the ethics review committee of the National Institute of Health Sciences who granted us research access; to the Environmental and Occupational Health Unit of the Ministry of Health and the Climate change secretariat of the Ministry of Environment for feedback during the design phase and to Board of study in Community Medicine, Post Graduate institute of Medicine, University of Colombo for comments on our draft. Above all, the authors thank the school teachers for hosting us during their busy schedules.
Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Citation
Rupasinghe, C.S. and De Silva Weliange, S. (2024), "Climate change adaptation and mitigation at individual level: knowledge and attitudes among school teachers in Kalutara district", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 395-408. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJDRBE-02-2023-0015
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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