Assessing The Use of Participatory Communication Strategies in Communicating Climate Change by Higher Learning Institutions: A Case of Daystar University

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the use of participatory communication strategies in communicating climate change by higher learning institutions with a case study of Daystar University. Its objectives were to determine the participatory communication strategies used by Daystar University in their efforts towards climate change, to assess the student’s involvement in the participatory communication strategies applied by Daystar University in climate change efforts and to investigate the student perception of the effectiveness of participatory strategies applied by Daystar University in climate action. A mixed methods research design was adopted in this study with a target population comprising of 140 students from the eight schools within Daystar University and for the quantitative approach and 6 key informants were targeted. Stratified sampling methods was used for the quantitative sample size and purposive sampling was used for the key informant sample based on their relevance to the study. Online survey tools were used to collect quantitative data which were analysed using descriptive statistics on the SPSS software. Semi-structured interviews were used for the qualitative data collection and analysed using manual thematic analysis to identify patterns and themes. Guided by Paolo Freire’s theory of Participatory communication, the study found that Daystar used multiple participatory communication climate change strategies to enhance climate change engagement such as curriculum inclusion and participatory learning in certain departments, conferences, workshops, student led clubs and publications. The study also found that different barriers like heavy academic workload, lack of awareness and lack of interest hinder successful student engagement in participatory communication strategies highlighting the need to remove barriers to improve effective communication. The study also found that despite the participatory climate communication efforts in place, the student felt that the efforts were not enough highlighting the need for institutions do deepen their involvement with student to increase engagement in climate action. The study concluded that the institution needs to implement more inclusive strategies to strengthen participatory climate change communication at university level. The Institution also needs to identify barriers to effective engagement and find ways to overcome to create meaningful student engagement in climate action. The study recommends several strategies that institutions and policy makers can use to increase student’s participation in climate change communication to include reviewing the current curriculum to expand learning and teaching of climate change and encouraging participatory learning. The study also recommends to enhancing student involvement by increasing accessibility to participation forums and considering time favourable time that accommodate more student schedules. It also recommended to leverage on digital tools to enhance more awareness as they allow ease of access. The study recommends establishing a formal communication strategy or framework guiding participatory initiatives and also developing a monitoring and evaluation tool to evaluate the effectiveness.