Waste and waste management awareness among teachers: A phenomenographic approach

Abstract

Waste has become a critical problem throughout the world, and it needs to be managed appropriately. The success of waste management primarily depends on education. Therefore, the current study aimed to reveal waste and waste management (WM) awareness of teaching staff. Primary school teachers (n = 19) participated in this study, which adopted phenomenography as a research method. There is a variation in awareness among the teachers regarding waste and WM, including conceptions, misconceptions, and the relations among them. The teachers’ level of awareness is captured in three categories: low awareness, awareness, and high awareness. Waste awareness includes the waste definition and waste examples, while awareness of WM includes the WM definition, WM importance, WM methods, and WM responsibility. A model of waste management awareness is proposed that features the complexity of WM awareness. Implications and recommendations for education are presented.