Dr Sarah Otanga

Kenya | Climate change is an urgent and pressing issue that profoundly impacts Kenya's communities, yet much of the discourse around climate solutions tends to exclude younger populations. As a country highly vulnerable to climate change, Kenya faces challenges that require innovative solutions.

In recent years, the effects of climate change have significantly degraded agricultural productivity in Africa, thus threatening food security and livelihood. As such, Kenya is no stranger to floods and droughts, or to the crop failure and hunger that they bring, causing many people to suffer fatalities. Given the foregoing, various initiatives have been undertaken to integrate Climate Change Literacy (CCL) into the curriculum at multiple levels, as education plays a crucial role in promoting climate literacy.

One is the Government of Kenya's 2023 initiative, the Kenya Climate Change Learning Strategy (KCCLS), which aims to enhance the interpretation and application of climate change knowledge among learners, teachers, trainers, and facilitators by 2030 (Government of Kenya, 2021). A report by Fitzpatrick and Amenya (2023) found that, although learners in Kenya have been taught about climate change in social studies lessons, the curriculum content has not kept pace with climate change both locally and nationally, indicating a need to provide more comprehensive information than what the textbooks offer. Thus, to make the curricula more responsive to climate change, there is an urgent need to integrate climate and environmental aspects.

In 2017, Kenya introduced a new education system, the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), emphasising practical skills and knowledge over theoretical learning. The shift from the previous education system was informed by Kenya's need to align with the education requirements outlined in the Constitution of Kenya (2010) and to achieve Vision 2030, the country's long-term development blueprint (Republic of Kenya, 2017).

One of Kenya's national education goals is to promote a positive attitude towards environmental protection. In line with this, the CBC seeks to build learners' capacity to be stewards of the earth and minimise adverse environmental impacts. The CBC aims to empower learners to make informed decisions and take responsible actions that promote environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for both present and future generations. According to researchers, the CBC syllabus on climate change for lower primary school students has a limited scope in terms of weather and environmental conservation. As such, there is a need to expand the learning outcome and design suitable activities and learning experiences to capture climate change elements.

Dr Sarah Otanga's research focuses on developing interactive learning resources on CCL for Grade 3 learners in Kenya and presents a unique opportunity to promote environmental awareness and empower the next generation to act on climate change. Instilling CCL early can shape a generation of informed, resilient, and proactive citizens. Her research seeks to create age-appropriate, interactive educational resources that engage young learners with the science behind climate change, its local implications, and the importance of sustainability. By leveraging digital tools and gamified learning, she aims to make complex climate concepts accessible, enjoyable and actionable for Grade 3 learners. Through this project, she seeks to contribute to the national and regional efforts to educate young people about the environment and equip them with the knowledge to advocate for sustainable practices within their communities.

The goal is to create scalable, adaptable resources that can be expanded to other African regions, reinforcing Future Africa's vision of a pan-African approach to addressing climate-related challenges. She leverages this premise to argue that early exposure of learners to climate change literacy could inculcate in them the critical tenets of the need to champion environmental conservation. Therefore, this project aims to develop supplementary interactive teaching and learning materials on climate change for lower primary learners in grade three, leveraging instructional design and storytelling techniques.

Dr Sarah Otanga is a lecturer in the Department of Educational Communication Technology and Curriculum Studies, School of Education, Maseno University, Kenya. She holds both a PhD and an MSc degree in Digital Learning and Education from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. Her fields of specialisation include technology-enhanced learning, instructional design and e-learning. Her current research focuses on promoting climate change literacy in lower primary schools through the use of interactive learning resources and storytelling. She has authored several articles in high-impact journals and one book chapter.