Educators’ Perspective towards Climate Change: A Case of Batangas

Province, Philippines

Ernesto C. Mandigma Jr, Meniano D. Ebora and Lilia A. Ricero

De La Salle University Dasmarinas, Batangas State University, Graduate School Professor

Keywords:

Educators’ Perspective, Climate Change, Mitigating Plan

Abstract:

The study aimed to determine the educators’ perspective towards climate change. It utilized descriptive method

of research to gather data from 357 educators in Batangas Province. The study used inferential and descriptive

statistics for data analysis. Majority of the respondents were 21 to 40 years old, female, married with units in

master’s degree. They strongly agreed that education sector has great role in educating the community people

with a weighted mean of 3.60. They agreed to stay tuned to local radio and television and cooperate in the

advocacy on climate change with a weighted mean of 3.61 and 3.54, respectively. There is no signiﬁcant

difference in the educators’ assessment on their responsiveness to climate change. There is a signiﬁcant

relationship between the respondents’ perception about climate change and environmental concerns. The

mitigating plan may be presented ﬁrst to the concerned authority in the Department of Education for their

review and suggestions.

1 INTRODUCTION

Everything changes except the word change. In this

modern world, it is a bare reality that most of the

changes do not always bring positivity to people but

rather they cause adversity and disturbances once in

a while. Circumstances occur beyond the control of

every individual. Hence, everyone should be adaptive

to various changes in life and learn how to be respon-

sive to all kinds of situation whether they bring harm

or favor.

Among the various changes in the usual patterns

of circumstances, climate change is one that brings

dilemma to almost all of the nations in the world. Ac-

cording to the United Nations Framework Convention

on Climate Change, climate change means a change

of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly

to human activity that alters the composition of the

global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural

climate variability observed over comparable time pe-

riods. Notwithstanding the efforts poured by different

countries to mitigate impacts of climate change, it is

an undeniable fact that the effects of this change are

detrimental to the environment and to the people’s life

as well. Several years ago, there were usual patterns

in the climate being followed by the folks to deter-

mine the natural transition of weather condition. In

the modern times, remarkable changes brought about

by the occurrences of natural disasters have become

the normal situations in most countries all over the

world.

The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable

countries to climate and disaster risks due to its ge-

ography, geographic location and poverty situation.

An international report ranked the Philippines as the

third most vulnerable country to extreme events in

2013 - the year when Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) dev-

astated the Visayan region. (http://www.nowph.org/).

As a province that is part of CALABARZON region,

Batangas is never isolated among the places which

are drastically affected by climate change. In most

cases, some of the municipalities in the province be-

long to the areas that are usually hit by natural disas-

ters brought about by changes in the climate. Coastal

areas and hilly communities are the places which of-

ten need attention in terms of risk reduction and miti-

gation planning. Depending on the types of disasters,

the impacts of such occurrences can neither be un-

derestimated nor taken for granted. Aside from the

destruction of life and properties, education sector is

one of the most affected aspects of climate change.

The occurrence of different natural disasters is in-

eviFigure but the extent of its effects could be ef-

fectively managed to lessen such losses in life and

properties. Education plays a lot in the great steps

toward risk reduction and mitigation of damage that

Mandigma Jr, E., Ebora, M. and Ricero, L.

Educators’ Perspective towards Climate Change: A Case of Batangas Province, Philippines.

DOI: 10.5220/0009867001850191

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Creative Economics, Tourism and Information Management (ICCETIM 2019) - Creativity and Innovation Developments for Global

Competitiveness and Sustainability, pages 185-191

ISBN: 978-989-758-451-0

185

people may have come across. Protection of life and

properties, prevention of possible hazards, or even

mitigation of losses and casualties requires adequate

knowledge on climate change which is commonly ac-

quired from schools. Since information dissemina-

tion is largely tasked to educators, it is quite imper-

ative that they are equipped with proper knowledge

and skills in order to perform their mission of edu-

cating their clientele and the entire community about

climate change.

The great steps in ﬁghting against the impacts of

climate change require the possession of knowledge

on how it could be strategically addressed. In doing

so, the tasks of educators are very much needed be-

ing the prime movers of such endeavor of educating

students who constitute mostly of the greatest num-

ber of community members. The educators’ duty is

to provide students with proper knowledge and tech-

niques to combat the effects of climate change. In

performing such speciﬁc functions, the educators will

need support and training in order to deliver quality

education consequently attain adequate knowledge to

respond to the climate change speciﬁcally focusing on

the aspects relative to social and political perspective

and local environment that will meet in the broader

scope of educational goals and target objectives rela-

tive to proﬁciency and skills with regard to numeracy

and literacy that will lead to employability.

Relative to the observed scenarios, the proponents

of this study deemed it necessary to conduct an in-

vestigation to determine the responsiveness of educa-

tors in Batangas Province to climate change with the

end in view of designing a mitigating plan in order

to lessen the effects of climate change in the target

locale.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Brief Review of Literature

Climate change is already having a signiﬁcant impact

on ecosystems, economies and communities. Ris-

ing average temperatures do not simply mean balmier

winters. Some regions will experience more ex-

treme heat while others may cool slightly. Flooding,

drought and intense summer heat could result. Vio-

lent storms and other extreme weather events could

also result from the increased energy stored in our

warming atmosphere. One of the most serious im-

pacts of climate change is how it will affect water

resources around the world. Water is intimately tied

to other resource and social issues such as food sup-

ply, health, industry, transportation and ecosystem in-

tegrity (davidsuzuki.org, 2014).

While children are among the most vulnerable to

climate change, they should not be considered pas-

sive or helpless victims. Children are powerful agents

of change, and studies have found that many chil-

dren can be extraordinarily resilient in the face of

signiﬁcant challenges. Providing children with em-

powering and relevant education on disasters and cli-

mate change in a child-friendly school environment

can reduce their vulnerability to risk while contribut-

ing to sustainable development for their communi-

ties. Educating girls and women is one of the best

ways of strengthening community adaptation to cli-

mate change, as shown by recent studies (unicef.org

unicef.org, 2014).

Over the longer term, it is forecast that climate

change, along with other confounding factors such as

the high poverty rate in the region, will combine to

create environmental degradation, a subsequent de-

terioration in livelihoods, and put pressure on popu-

lations to migrate. Research suggests that in all in-

stances such effects are likely to disproportionately

affect children, their well-being and care, and their

ability to participate in good quality, equiFigure edu-

cation. Disruptions to existing agricultural practices,

another secondary effect of climate change, will lead

to more widespread malnutrition because of higher

food prices (worldbank.org, 2014).

The immediate response needed entails a bet-

ter general understanding of the concept of climate

change, as well as an awareness of its impact at a

regional and local level, both of which will allow

policy-makers to better climate-proof education sys-

tems and will help school communities be better pre-

pared in the event of weather-related disasters. What

’climate-prooﬁng education’ means in practical terms

includes, for instance, reviewing existing infrastruc-

ture to ensure that it is safe should serious weather hit

and having a school disaster risk management plan in

place. For new schools, it means carrying out better

risk assessments when making decisions about school

location and selecting more suiFigure infrastructure,

designed to withstand severe weather events. At the

same time, it would also be possible to incorporate

features that are more adapted to the evolving climate

of the region, with buildings that are more energy ef-

ﬁcient, that rely on the abundant regional potential of

solar power for example, that capture rainwater for

reuse, and so on. In these ways, the physical in-

frastructure of education systems would become more

climate-resilient (worldbank.org, 2014).

While building up the resilience of education sys-

tems, it will be critical to focus on the role education

ICCETIM 2019 - International Conference on Creative Economics, Tourism Information Management

186

itself plays in adapting to climate change. Indeed, Ar-

ticle 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention

on Climate Change, called the New Delhi work pro-

gram (2002-2012), proposes that education, training

and public awareness are integral to climate change

responses. There is currently a rich and evolving de-

bate about what role education should actually play to

encourage sustainable development and combat cli-

mate change (worldbank.org, 2014).

Climate change denial is already threatening the

integrity of science education in formal and informal

education settings. In the public schools, such threats

are primarily due to laws adopted or considered at the

level of state government, policies adopted or consid-

ered at the level of the local school district, and ac-

tions adopted or considered at the level of the indi-

vidual classroom, where teachers may either deny cli-

mate change themselves or encounter pressure from

climate change deniers in the community (ncse.com,

2016).

According to UNEP.org, (2009) climate change

has long-since ceased to be a scientiﬁc curiosity, and

is no longer just one of many environmental and reg-

ulatory concerns. It is the major, overriding envi-

ronmental issue of the time, and the single greatest

challenge facing environmental regulators. It is a

growing crisis with economic, health and safety, food

production, security, and other dimensions. Shifting

weather patterns, for example, threaten food produc-

tion through increased unpredictability of precipita-

tion, rising sea levels contaminate coastal freshwater

reserves and increase the risk of catastrophic ﬂooding,

and a warming atmosphere aids the pole-ward spread

of pests and diseases once limited to the tropics.

Climate Change Mitigation refers to efforts to re-

duce or prevent emission of greenhouse gases. Miti-

gation can mean using new technologies and renew-

able energies, making older equipment more energy

efﬁcient, or changing management practices or con-

sumer behavior. UNEP takes a multifaceted approach

towards climate change mitigation in its efforts to

help countries move towards a low-carbon society

(manilastandardtoday, 2016).

Global climate change has already had observable

effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk,

ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant

and animal ranges have shifted and trees are ﬂow-

ering sooner. Effects that scientists had predicted in

the past would result from global climate change are

now occurring: loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level

rise and longer, more intense heat waves. Scientists

have high conﬁdence that global temperatures will

continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to

greenhouse gases produced by human activities (cli-

mate.nasa.gov, 2016).

2.2 Research Methods

The descriptive research design was employed that

incorporated triangulation method using a mixture

of both quantitative and qualitative method of study.

Quantitative method involved the collection of data

using ﬁeld survey and validated structured question-

naire while qualitative methods included the inter-

view and focus group discussions among the educa-

tors in Batangas Province. The incorporation of trian-

gulation method offered the various prospects of en-

hanced conﬁdence involving the result of the study

based on the gathered data. The subjects of the study

were educators referring to teachers of public sec-

ondary schools in Batangas Province and the cities

namely, Batangas City, Lipa City, Tanauan City. Pur-

posive sampling was utilized in the study in distribut-

ing the research instrument to the respondents of the

study. Krejcie and Morgan Figure was used to deter-

mine the total number of samples with 357 respon-

dents.

With regard to gathering relevant data and infor-

mation, this study utilized a self-made survey ques-

tionnaire. This main instrument served as one of

the main tools in collecting pertinent information

with the aid of interview and focus group discus-

sion. The researchers engaged themselves in several

library readings to gather the concepts of the study at

hand. The researcher prepared the questionnaire af-

ter identifying the statement of the problem. Several

books, dissertations, unpublished materials, journals,

manuscripts and other reading materials were care-

fully reviewed to gather needed insights for the study.

Actual and hands on experiences were also consid-

ered in constructing the questionnaire.

The ﬁrst part of the questionnaire focused on the

demographic proﬁle of the respondents as to age, gen-

der, educational attainment, position/designation and

length of service. The second part of the tool dealt

with the view of respondents to climate change in the

society. The third part focused on respondents’ gen-

eral perception about environmental concerns in re-

lation to climate change. The last part of the ques-

tionnaire described the effect of climate change with

regard to ﬂood, warm temperature, tropical storm and

earthquake. The initial copy of the instrument sub-

jected for constructive criticisms, recommendations,

suggestions and comments. After doing the revisions

and modiﬁcations, the self-made questionnaire was

then ready for validation.

After incorporating the corrections and reﬁnement

extended by evaluators, the ﬁnal draft of the tool was

Educators’ Perspective towards Climate Change: A Case of Batangas Province, Philippines

187

approved. The researchers were request the assistance

of concerned individuals who are knowledgeable of

the concepts of the study in validating the instrument.

Copies of the questionnaires were multiplied and dis-

tributed to some professors pertaining to the content

validation to integrate their recommendations. Pre

survey or pilot testing was conducted to check for

the credibility and comprehensiveness of the items in-

cluded consequently improve them by soliciting sug-

gestions, and further comments. After conducting the

dry run for among 20 respondents in private schools

in Batangas City, the researchers made use of Cron-

bach’s Alpha and Kuder Richardson to validate the

tool for its reliability. A statistician was consulted to

help the researchers obtain its validity using the for-

mula as one of the suggested treatments of validation.

The researchers personally distributed the ques-

tionnaire to the determined respondents. They also

sought the assistance of his colleagues in the adminis-

tration, distribution and retrieval of such instruments

among the sample educators- respondents. Further-

more, they explained and clariﬁed the indicators and

variables incorporated in the questionnaire. Weights

were assigned to the data gathered from the respon-

dents’ responses to the distributed tool. Such weights

ranged from one as the lowest and ﬁve as the high-

est value using 5 point Likert Scale in the respective

questions.

Interview was used to get the supporting data in-

cluded in the questionnaire. An interview guide was

made for this purpose. The researcher interviewed the

principals, educators which served as a built in check

for the credibility of the study. The researchers con-

ducted a focus group discussion to convene the se-

lected participants to discuss the different variables

included in the statement of the problem. The focus

group discussion was conducted to assess and vali-

date the information and data gathered. Coding was

used after the transcription of the gathered data used

analysis.

The following were the statistical tools utilized

in answering the questions in this research through

the aid of Statistical Package Service Solution (SPSS)

package: Cronbach Alpha Reliability Test and Kuder

Richardson.; frequency and percentage, weighted

mean, Pearson Product Moment of Correlation Co-

efﬁcient, ANOVA or F-Test and Z-test.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Proﬁle Variable of the Batangue

Educators

3.1.1 Age

Majority of the respondents were at the age ranging

from 21 to 30 years old and 31 to 40 years of age.

3.1.2 Gender

Most of the respondents were female. Since the teach-

ing is a novel job, most of the educators employed

were female. Male teachers comprise the least part of

the teaching job.

3.1.3 Civil Status

Most of the respondents or 59.1 percent of the respon-

dents teaching in Batangas Province were married.

This means that teachers at the middle age of their

service are already married.

3.1.4 Educational Attainment

Majority or 44.3 percent of the respondents had units

in master’s degree followed by those who were col-

lege graduate and graduate of master’s degree. There

were only few or 7.6 percent of the faculty members

had doctoral units and graduates of Doctor of Educa-

tion.

3.1.5 Length of Service

The data in Figure 5 indicate that majority of the re-

spondents were already in 5 to 9 years length of ser-

vice. It is followed by 10 to 14 years and the least

were those who were below 5 years in service.

3.1.6 Area of Specialization

It could be gleaned from the data in Figure 6 that ma-

jority of the respondents had English and Science as

their area of specialization. The least responses came

from Technology and Home Economics and other

area of specialization.

Figure 1 shows the perception of respondents to-

wards climate change in the society. From the results,

it could be noted that climate change is a global issue

which all people are undeniable responsible which got

a weighted of 3.66 interpreted as strongly agree. They

agreed that climate change is a problem but it has a

local effect in the society which obtained the lowest

ICCETIM 2019 - International Conference on Creative Economics, Tourism Information Management

188

Figure 1: Respondent’s Views about Climate Change in the

Society

score. Teachers agreed with their views about cli-

mate change in the society with the composite mean

of 3.46.

Figure 2: Perception of the Respondents about Environmen-

tal Concerns in relation to Climate Change

Figure 2 manifests the perception of the respon-

dents about environmental concerns in relation to cli-

mate change. Education sector has great roles to play

in educating the minds of community people which

got the highest weighted mean of 3.60 and interpreted

as strongly agree. On the other hand, teachers agreed

that the nature of one’s work is more signiﬁcant than

protecting the environment and people would rather

choose to be unemployed than to do work that de-

stroys the environment which both got the lowest

mean score of 2.90. The composite mean of 3.27

indicates that the respondents agreed with their per-

ception about environmental concerns in relation to

climate change.

Figure 3: Extent the Respondents’ Responsiveness to Cli-

mate Change with regard to Flood

The data in Figure 3 indicate that the educators

remind all the students to stay tuned to local radio or

television station for updates regarding ﬂood which

obtained a weighted mean of 3.61 and interpreted as

to a very great extent. The teachers invite a resource

person/speaker/trainer to train the students about the

proper ways of responding to calamities like ﬂood got

the lowest mean score of 3.45 and interpreted as to a

great extent. To sum up, the composite mean of 3.54

indicates that they respond to climate change with re-

gard to ﬂood to a very great extent.

Figure 4: Extent of Respondents’ Responsiveness to Cli-

mate Change with regard to Warm Temperature

Figure 4 manifests the assessment of the respon-

dents regarding the extent of their responsiveness to

climate change with regard to warm temperature. The

teacher commits to cooperate in the advocacy on cli-

mate change and be a model to students in reducing

the adverse effects of global warming which obtained

the highest weighted mean of 3.54 and interpreted as

to a very great extent. Initiate concerted efforts to help

mitigate the deleterious effects of global warming got

the lowest weighted mean of 3.39 interpreted as to a

great extent. The composite mean of 3.46 reveals that

the respondents respond to climate change to a great

extent with regard to warm temperature.

Figure 5: Extent the Respondents’ Responsiveness to Cli-

mate Change with regard to Tropical Storm

The assessment of respondents on the extent of re-

sponsiveness to climate change with regard to trop-

ical storm is manifested in Figure 5. The educators

leave no students in the school ground before leav-

ing the school premises obtained a weighted mean of

3.65 interpreted as to a very great extent. Informing

City DRRMC regarding the weather condition in the

school location and its emergency assistance needed

Educators’ Perspective towards Climate Change: A Case of Batangas Province, Philippines

189

with a weighted mean of 3.40 interpreted as to a great

extent. The composite mean of 3.57 reveals that the

respondents respond to climate change to a very great

extent with regard to tropical storm.

Figure 6: Difference on the Assessment of Respondents to

Climate Change in terms of Proﬁle

Figure 6 shows the difference in the assessment

of the respondents in their responsiveness to climate

change when group according to their proﬁle. The

data reveal that there is no signiﬁcant difference in

the respondents’ responsiveness to climate change as

to age, sex, civil status, educational attainment, and

length of service. The null hypothesis failed to re-

ject which indicates that the demographic proﬁle of

the respondents did not affect their assessment on cli-

mate change. On the other hand, there is a signiﬁcant

difference in the assessment of the respondents about

climate change when it comes to their area of special-

ization. The null hypothesis is rejected.

Figure 7: Relationship between the Respondents’ Percep-

tion to climate and change and Views on Environmental

Concerns

It is manifested in Figure 7 that there is a signiﬁ-

cant relationship between the respondents’ perception

to climate change and their views about environmen-

tal concerns. The data revealed that there is a sig-

niﬁcant relationship between teachers’ perception on

climate change and their views on environmental con-

cerns. The null hypothesis of no signiﬁcant relation-

ship is therefore rejected.

Based on the ﬁndings of the study, the proponents

developed a mitigating plan focusing on the percep-

tion of the teachers toward climate change in the so-

ciety where it is treated as a problem but its effect

is locally felt. They also emphasized the educators’

great roles in educating the minds of the community

people. One of the areas of concern which was given

emphasis in the mitigating plan focused on inviting

a resource speaker/trainer to train students about the

proper ways in responding to calamities. It also high-

lighted the efforts to help mitigate the deleterious ef-

fects of global warming by means of awareness cam-

paign. Finally, the researchers concentrated on en-

hancing the information extended to public in cooper-

ation with DRRMC with regard to emergency assis-

tance needed in the school.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results of the study, the following con-

clusions are drawn:

1. As to research initiatives: most of the num-

ber of both completed and ongoing researches

are under teaching and learning thematic area

and the least researches were conducted under

DRRM; researchers have their initiatives to at-

tend training, seminar and workshop, confer-

ence/forum/symposium; most of the localized

materials are done in area of Mathematics; only

few are capable to localize policy, there are nu-

merous numbers of CI projects among schools

and schools division ofﬁces.

2. Encouragement and support from superior and

colleague serve as the reason and motivation to

conduct action research.

3. Unavailability of statistical software was recog-

nized as teacher-researcher’s difﬁculty of ﬁnish-

ing research work.

4. The identiﬁed strategic interventions focus on

proposing research agenda, capacity building,

provision of research dissemination, searching for

institutional facility to fund internal and external

research study, and conduct of empirical studies

to better implement basic education programs in

the country

MITIGATION PLAN

The proposed mitigating plan for climate change

in Batangas Province was designed to help the edu-

cators to strengthen the students’ responsiveness to

climate change with regard to ﬂood, warm tempera-

ture and tropical storm. Enhancing students’ aware-

ness on natural hazards through various environmen-

tal activities and curricular integration and increasing

their interest and care for their local environment are

about to achieve its academic goals. Improve warn-

ings and forecasts of the events and provide timely

communication of threat to disaster ofﬁcials and the

public were also incorporated

RECOMMENDATIONS

In the light of the ﬁndings and conclusions of the

study, the following recommendations are offered.

1. The mitigating approach may be presented ﬁrst

to concerned authority in the Department of Ed-

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190

ucation for their review and suggestions before its

possible adoption in the ﬁeld.

2. The extensive application and implementation of

the proposed mitigating plan after the approval of

the specialists and experts is highly encouraged

3. A similar investigation and parallel study may be

conducted emphasizing on other indicators and

variables.

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http://climate.nasa.gov/effects/2016

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http://blogs.worldbank.org/arabvoices/education-and-

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http://blogs.worldbank.org/arabvoices/education-and-

climate-change-middle-east-and-north-africa

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