Deficit of environmental awareness among Angolan higher education physics teachers

Abstract This work analyses the response of Angolan physics teachers, from higher education (HE) institutions, to an online experimental training course (education intervention) in environmental physics, A questionnaire to measure the environmental awareness (EA) of the participants, with a special focus on the importance of fossil and alternative energy sources over the next decade was developed by the authors. The Authors collected data from 20 voluntary participant teachers in the first semester of 2023, representing four out of the six HE institutions in Angola, before and after the EI. The questionnaire included three sections: the first section gathered socio-demographic characteristics of the teachers; the second section focused on their teaching experience in HE; and the third section collected EA conceptions about alternative energy use over the next 10 years, including wind, solar and nuclear resources, in contrast to non-renewable sources such as fossil fuels, i.e. coal, oil and gas. This aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action. Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted in the third section to verify its one factor structure supported by Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measures and Bartlett’s test of sphericity, with reliability confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha. Paired t -tests were conducted to assess differences in EA before and after the EI. The results revealed no statistically significant difference in participants’ EA before and after the EI. Nevertheless, these results have significant implications for environmental physics education courses in Angola. They suggest the potential for future effective interventions, both online and in-person, to enhance EA of teachers across various HE institutions, through an adequate training. Additionally, this research aims to inform policymakers in Angola, and potentially in all of Africa, regarding the existing gaps in EA among physics educators at the tertiary level.