Abstract
Environmental education (EE) can be an effective tool for developing meaningful conservation awareness and action. EE empowers people to explore environmental issues and engage in problem solving and actions to improve their environment. The Tanzanian government mandates that EE in primary and secondary schools be integrated into a range of subjects. In practice, lack of appropriate materials and teacher training limit EE implementation in Tanzania, and textbooks written in the U.S. or Europe may be less effective teaching aids in the Tanzanian context. We discuss the importance of effective communication and the importance of evaluating the impacts of environmental education interventions on knowledge and attitudes. We describe three innovative, culturally relevant, locally designed EE programs being implemented in schools in the Tarangire Ecosystem that fulfil the Tanzanian government’s mandate while building community support for conservation efforts. We provide examples of media efforts for conservation on television and radio. Finally, we profile three case studies in the Tarangire Ecosystem that measured the impacts of: (1) a classroom education program; (2) a program that brings youth to Tarangire National Park; and (3) a conservation-themed gospel song played on the radio, and the lessons learned from the evaluations of each intervention.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ardoin NM, Bowers AW, Wyman Roth N, Holthuis N (2018) Environmental education and K-12 student outcomes: a review and analysis of research. J Environ Educ 49:1–17
Bruyere B, Nash PE, Mbogella F (2011) Predicting participation in environmental education by teachers in coastal regions of Tanzania. J Environ Educ 42:168–180
Heimlich J, Ardoin N (2008) Understanding behavior to understand behavior change: a literature review. Environ Educ Res 14:215–237
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (1970) International working meeting on environmental education in the school curriculum. UNESCO, Paris
Jacobson SK, Morales NA, Chen B, Soodeen R, Moulton MP, Jain E (2019) Love or loss: effective message framing to promote environmental conservation. Appl Environ Educ Commun 18:252–265
Kalungwizi VJ, Gjøtterud SM, Krogh E (2019) Democratic processes to overcome destructive power relations and sustain environmental education in primary schools: implications for teacher education in Tanzania. Educ Res Soc Change 8:61–76
Kalungwizi VJ, Krogh E, Gjøtterud SM, Mattee A (2020) Experiential strategies and learning in environmental education: lessons from a teacher training college in Tanzania. J Adventure Educ Outdoor Learn 20:95–110
Kellogg Foundation (2017) The step-by-step guide to evaluation: how to become savvy evaluation consumers. https://wkkf.org/resource-directory/resources/2017/11/wk-kellogg-foundation-step-by-step-guide-to-evaluation
Kidd LR, Garrard GE, Bekessy SA, Mills M, Camilleri AR, Fidler F, Fielding KS, Gordon A, Gregg EA, Kusmanoff AM, Louis W, Moon K, Robinson JA, Selinske MJ, Shanahan D, Adams VM (2019) Messaging matters: a systematic review of the conservation messaging literature. Biol Conserv 236:92–99
Knight AJ (2008) “Bats, snakes and spiders, Oh my!” How aesthetic and negativistic attitudes, and other concepts predict support for species protection. J Environ Psychol 28:94–103
Likert R (1932) A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Arch Psychol 22:55
Mariki SB, Hassan SN, Maganga SLS, Modest RB, Salehe FS (2011) Wildlife-based domestic tourism in Tanzania: experiences from northern tourist circuit. Ethiopian J Environ Stud Manage 4:1–66
McDuff M (2000) Thirty years of EE in Africa: the role of the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya. Environ Educ Res 6:383–394
Moring B (2017) Research Methods in Psychology: Evaluating a World of Information. W. W. Norton & Co, New York
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (2004) An education plan for NOAA. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC
Nisbet EK, Zelenski JM, Murphy SA (2009) The nature relatedness scale: linking individuals’ connection with nature to environmental concern and behavior. Environ Behav 41:715–740
Ocañas A, Madeli J, Danoff-Burg J (2020) Summary report: Tuwatunze Twiga song & survey. The Living Desert
Oreg S, Katz-Gerro T (2006) Predicting pro-environmental behavior cross-nationally: values, the theory of planned behavior, and value-belief-norm theory. Environ Behav 38:462–483
Patton MQ (1987) How to use qualitative methods in evaluation. Sage, Newbury Park
Rickinson M (2001) Learners and learning in environmental education: a critical review of the evidence. Environ Educ Res 7:207–320
Schönfelder ML, Bogner FW (2020) Between science education and environmental education: how science motivation relates to environmental values. Sustainability 12:1968
Schultz WP (2002) Inclusion with nature: the psychology of human-nature relations. In: Schmuck P, Schultz WP (eds) Psychology of Sustainable Development. Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp 61–78
Schultz WP (2011) Conservation means behavior. Conserv Biol 25:1080–1083
Stern PC (2005) Understanding individuals’ environmentally significant behavior. Environ Law Rep News Anal 35:10785
Stern PC, Dietz T, Black JS (1985) Support for environmental protection: the role of moral norms. Popul Environ 8:204–222
Stern PC, Dietz T, Abel T, Guagnano GA, Kalof L (1999) A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: the case of environmentalism. Hum Ecol Rev 6:81–97
Veríssimo D, Schmid C, Kimario FF, Eves HE (2018) Measuring the impact of an entertainment-education intervention to reduce demand for bushmeat. Anim Conserv 21:324–331
Acknowledgements
Wild Nature Institute’s Celebrating Africa’s Giants program was supported by The Living Desert, Sacramento Zoo, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Tulsa Zoo, Tierpark Berlin and Zoo Berlin, Zoo Miami, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, GreaterGood.org, and the Anne Innis Dagg Foundation. Lise Levy developed the Celebrating Africa’s Giants lesson plans and trained teachers. Funding for Tanzania People & Wildlife’s Youth Environmental Education Program was provided by National Geographic Society’s Big Cats Initiative and the Disney Conservation Fund. PAMS Foundation’s Living in Harmony with your Natural Surroundings program was funded by Upendo and Woodchester Trust. The Living Desert’s Juma the Giraffe education project was funded by the Anderson Children’s Foundation. Each organization also thanks the many private donors who support these education programs.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bond, M.L. et al. (2022). Education as a Tool to Live in Harmony with Nature. In: Kiffner, C., Bond, M.L., Lee, D.E. (eds) Tarangire: Human-Wildlife Coexistence in a Fragmented Ecosystem. Ecological Studies, vol 243. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93604-4_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93604-4_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-93603-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-93604-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)