An Examination of Formal, Non-formal, and Informal Environmental Stewardship Education in Tuvalu
In the Anthropocene, humans’ desire to improve their living standards has significantly threatened nature and its finite resources, prompting an urgent call to mitigate climate change and address environmental degradation. This urgency is especially important in a vulnerable country like Tuvalu, where people passionately advocate for saving it from destruction and where the concept of responsibility to future and current generations is pressing. Thorne defined environmental stewardship (ES) as “action that restores and maintains the integrity of a healthy Earth System (2017, v).” She insists that by developing ES, people are better equipped to respond to current environmental challenges, and this concept must be taught in schools to improve well-being. Despite the recognised importance of education in fostering societal and environmental well-being, there is a significant gap in integrating environmental stewardship education (ESE) within Tuvalu’s formal education systems.
This PhD research examines how formal, non-formal, and informal education contributes to ES, assessing their impact on the Tuvaluan community’s knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours. A mixed-methods research design was adopted, utilising an explanatory sequential, concurrent approach that involves two data collection phases. In the first phase, an analysis of documentary data consisting of Tuvalu Government education policy documents, frameworks, reports and curricula specific to ES, sustainability, the environment, biodiversity, climate change, and disaster risk reduction were reviewed. In the second phase, quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously using surveys, interviews, and focus groups from a variety of institutional and community groups of respondents: 389 elementary and high school students, 19 teachers, and 29 holders and recipients of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) from the Funafuti, Vaitupu, and Nukulaelae communities.
