PhD defence, Fika Burton Mwakabungu, PhD candidate

Fika Burton Mwakabungu. Photo: Private

Name

Fika Burton Mwakabungu, PhD candidate
Department of Education

Title

Exploring young fishers’ and teachers' knowledge and value aspects concerning the practice of fishing in the Rufiji Delta in Tanzania.

Opponent

Professor Franz Rauch, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt (Österrike)

Supervisor

Professor Shu-Nu Chang Rundgren, supervisor
Professor Marianne Teräs, assistent supervisor

Time

Wednesday December 22, 2021, at 1 pm

Location

Room 2403, Frescativägen 54, and online on Zoom: https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/69427504542

Abstract

The study aims to explore and understand how knowledge and value are expressed by part-time and full-time young fishers and teachers concerning the practice of fishing in the Rufiji Delta in the South-Eastern zone of Tanzania. Social constructivism perspectives and the theoretical frameworks including communities of practice, scientific literacy for responsible citizenship, sustainable development and socioscientific issues shaped the study. The SEE-SEP model developed to analyzing people’s argumentation on socioscientific issues was used to analyze teachers' and young fishers' knowledge and value reflected in their talk about fishing. The central argument of the thesis is that knowledge and value aspects, as identified in the teachers and young fishers' talks, are based on their direct engagement in fishing and stories about the practice of fishing. A comparative case study design was used in the study and focused group interviews were organized to collect data from 9 teachers, 25 part-time young fishers, and 17 full-time young fishers. A mixed-method approach including descriptive quantitative analysis and two rounds of content analyses was deployed to analyse the data. Based on descriptive quantitative analysis, the findings indicated that the knowledge aspect was more distributed among the full-time and part-time young fishers than among the teachers. On the other hand, the value aspect was more distributed among the teachers than among the groups of part-time and full-time young fishers. Regarding the similarities concerning the knowledge aspect, all three groups were able demonstrate knowledge in environmental science subjects more than to other subject areas. Further, in comparison to other subject areas, all the participating groups placed a high value related to economy and environmental science subject areas. The knowledge and value aspects in relation to policy and ethics were found less expressed by the participants. Regarding the results from the two rounds of content analyses, it was found that all the participating groups were able to express knowledge and value on fishing methods and environmental impact related to environmental science subject most. As found in the results of the descriptive quantitative analysis, policy and ethics were not much related in the environmental impact. More implications are discussed in the thesis.

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