An exploration of school learners' environmental awareness and practices at three high schools in the Johannesburg central district

Abstract

This study presents the environmental awareness and related practices among high school learners in selected schools around Johannesburg Central District. There have been drastic changes in the environment, including global warming, deforestation, natural calamities, and different types of pollutions that can cause damage to the global environment. Environmental challenges have been increasing in everyday lives. Many of these environmental challenges are rooted in the human actions (Casalo & Escario, 2018). Relatively, humans are destroying the environment because they are not aware of the impact of their action on the environment (Amrullah & Nurcahyo, 2019). If humans continue to lack awareness, the environment will keep on degrading leading to environmental stress. It is believed that environmental problems will be reduced through promotion awareness (Islamoglu et al, 2017). There should be ways to safeguard the environment and protect it from an on-going degradation. The school environment gives more emphasis on environmental awareness in a consistent way (Maleficio, 2018). It can be used to promote environmental conservation behaviour and creating environmental awareness thereby reducing further damage. The study aimed to answer the research question of better understanding the level of environmental awareness and related practices among high school learners. The two further sub-questions were based on the environmental activities that are carried out in schools which portray environmental awareness and the strategies can be adopted to improve environmental awareness and to get over the problems related to environmental problems. Data was collected from four high schools in the district that were selected through purposive sampling. High school learners’ population comprises of two phases which are part of the senior phase and the FET phase. One grade per phase was selected, grade 8 for the senior phase and grade 11 for the FET phase. The nonprobability sample methods, quota sampling and purposive sampling in particular, were applied to select learners to be interviewed. Observations were also made to collect further information on environmental awareness in schools. The researcher had to seek permission from the department of education before she collected the data. The collected data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The results had proven that most schools involve their learners in waste management. Moreover, most of the learners have knowledge on the recycling process and they can list examples of recyclable materials. However, only one school had policies in place on waste management. Most learners were involved in the energy conservation and environmental projects such as the gardening and tree planting. Environmental campaigns were also happening in schools as well as the environmental clubs though there is more to improve on the environmental clubs. The department of education was recommended to be visible in schools when they will be commemorating the environmental campaigns. Another recommendation was of increasing awareness through use of the social media. Generally, learners in grade 11 displayed greater levels of awareness and knowledge on most practices. However, most of the grade 8 leaners were having some ideas only on practices but lesser levels of awareness and knowledge. This implies that the more the learners are in high school the more the gain environmental knowledge and awareness. The significance of this study is that it helps the learners to acquire the sustainable ways of safeguarding the environment and discourage the further deterioration.