Understanding the Climate Crisis: Risk Perceptions among Public High School Faculty
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55737/qjss.699579326Keywords:
Climate Change Education, Teacher Perceptions, Risk Judgments, Curriculum IntegrationAbstract
The purpose of the current study was to identify the hazards of climate change as perceived by public secondary school teachers. The research employs a quantitative research design. The sample consisted of 119 male and 80 female secondary school teachers through a random sampling technique. The self-developed questionnaire was used to identify the hazards of climate change as perceived by the teachers. The data were analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 26. Findings reveal that there was moderately high awareness of intensified disasters like heat waves and droughts. Moreover, 20-25% of the respondents underestimated the incremental risks like land degradation and biodiversity declines. Teachers connect recurring weather events to climate shifts, but current mental models downplay cascading losses. Tailored training to communicate compounding risks and mainstream threats in the secondary curriculum can help. Periodic risk perception surveys will enable evolving monitoring. Gender and age variance exploration may reveal differentiation. Pakistan’s vulnerability spotlights teachers’ risk interpretations needing systemic uplift to catalyse youth climate literacy. Targeted interventions addressing awareness gaps regarding indirect climate impacts are recommended alongside disaster preparedness communication.
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