Environmental Literacy: Indigenizing Environmental Education

Inculcating awareness in preserving the environment among citizens is important. Thus Environmental Education (EE) was introduced as a compulsory subject for all Malaysian students including Aboriginal community. However, many researchers have reported that indigenous knowledge (IK) with regards to environment education received less attention by researchers although many researchers have suggested that IK greatly influenced the understanding, as well as the behaviour of the Aboriginal people in preserving and conserving the environment. This study aims to investigate the effect of gender, education level and tribes on environmental literacy among Aboriginal community in Pahang, Malaysia. This study adopted a survey research design where data were collected using two research instruments which are knowledge test and questionnaire to examine their knowledge and behaviour towards protecting the environment. Findings indicate that the level of environmental knowledge among Malaysian Aboriginal people is at a moderate level while their behaviours towards environmental care are at low moderate level most probably because the formal EE curriculum at school does not re-late well with their IK. Therefore, it is suggested that Malaysian EE curriculum should be revised to creatively acknowledge and integrate IK to ensure its relevancy to Aboriginal communities. The findings show that there is a significant difference in the overall mean score based on the tribe where Wilks’ Lambda = 0.918; F (3, 424) = 12.572 and p = 0.000 (p > 0.05), and partial eta squared ŋ2 = 0.082.

themselves to preserve the quality of environment in line with the country's development (Hungerford, Bluhm, Volk, & Ramsey, 2005) At a global stage, a few series of international conferences were held to discuss on environmental issues. Among them were the Belgrade Conference, Tbilisi Conference and Earth Summit (Palmer, 1998). The main objective of these conferences is to nurture citizens with positive knowledge, awareness, behaviours, skills and actions in preserving the environment (Department of Environment, 2007;Palmer, 1998). Due to the sequence of these series, Environmental Education was introduced to inculcate awareness in protecting the environment (Department of Environment, 2007;Palmer, 1998;bin Ab Hadi, bin Mohd Yunos, & bin Esa, 2003;Stapp, 1969).
Environmental education is a compulsory subject for all Malaysian students, thus the Aboriginal community is not excluded from receiving the subject. Besides that, the Aboriginal community plays a vital role in the preservation of the environment (Hungerford & Volk, 1990) because they are the closest society with the environment (United Nations, 1992;Chopil & Hunt, 2009;Mian, 1997;Nicholas & Lasimbang, 2004;Ismail, 2004;Jelas, Ahmad, & Ayudin, 2009).
However, as a result of rapid progression, several young generations of Aboriginal are no longer living in the forest and are no longer running traditional economy by collecting resources from the forest. They are being grouped together in one district and practice modern agriculture through the support from the government (Department of Orang Asli Development (DOAD), 2009). The rapid progression achieved by the Aboriginal community can be seen not only through their economical change, but their social and way of thinking as well.
The changes of lifestyle that the Aboriginal community is currently going through will also influence their knowledge towards the environment (Hines, Hungerford, & Tomera, 1986/1987Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002). Thus, a study needs to be conducted to identify the extent to which indigenous knowledge is integrated and influence Aboriginal's knowledge and behaviour to ensure the preservation of the environment.

Literature Review
As has been agreed during the Earth Summit Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992(United Nations, 1992, Aboriginal community has an important role in conserving and preserving the environment. Since they are one of the communities that depend on nature as a source of economic livelihood (Mian, 1997;Jelas, Ahmad, & Ayudin, 2009;Hood, 2012), hence their environmental literacy needs to be assessed and strengthen.
In the past, Aboriginal only used natural resources for their own needs. However, due to commercial demands, they were being exploited to gather natural resource such as plants and exotic animals that have medicinal as well as economic value (Nicholas & Lasimbang, 2004). Furthermore, through Rancangan Pengumpul Semula (RPS), Aboriginals were given land for cultivation of oil palm and rubber. As a result, a great majority of Aboriginals has abandoned their old agricultural methods and traditions. Hence, the decline in IK especially knowledge about traditional environmental management has become eroded (Nicholas & Lasimbang, 2004).
The declining of IK being transferred from the older generation to the new generation of Aboriginal people caused the younger generation to have lower environmental knowledge. This claim is well supported by a study conducted by (Yusuf, Ibrahim, Sulaiman, & Mamat, 2005) (Hines, Hungerford, & Tomera, 1986/1987Elder, 2003;Ramsey & Rickson, 1976).

Methodology
This study adopted a survey research design. Data is collected using two research instrument which are knowledge test and questionnaire. This study involved

Sampling
This study uses stratified random sampling on 450 Aboriginal primary and secondary school students in Pahang. Student selection is assisted by their teachers in identifying students with good reading ability which may enable them to answer the questionnaire accordingly. Of the 450 questionnaires distributed, only 445 (n = 250, primary school students, n = 195, secondary school students) students returned the completed questionnaire. Respondents for primary school students are taken from fifth and sixth graders (11 -12 years old) because at this stage, more students are able to read while secondary school students are taken from lower secondary students (13 -14 years old). In terms of gender, 32.5% are males while 65.7% are females. However, for the purposes of the inferential statistical analysis, only 428 respondents were involved in this study as data from 17 respondents could not be used due to the presence of outliers.

Research Instrument
The research instrument used in this study was developed by researchers based

Data Collection Procedure
For data collection purposes, researchers obtain prior permission from the Ministry of Education (MOE) to carry out research. Upon approval by MOE, tests and questionnaires are sent by post, accompanied by a letter of application to conduct research at school, a letter of consent to conduct research from the Ministry of Education (MOE), the envelope and the address of the main researcher or the purpose of reposting the completed questionnaires as well as some souvenirs as a token of appreciation for respondents.

Data Analysis Procedure
The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistic. Descriptive analysis in used to describe the overall profile of respondent such as education level, gender, and ethnicity in order to identify their level of knowledge on environment as well as behaviour towards environmental care. The descriptive statistics used are percentage of mean score and standard deviation. Next, environmental knowledge test is interpreted based on the minimum score used by the Ministry of Education (MOE), in assessing students' performance in examinations, in assessing students' performance in examinations. The mean score interpretation used in illustrated in Table 1.
To interpret behaviour factor towards environmental care, the amount of the obtained score will be converted to mean as it would best facilitate the interpretation of mean. The mean score interpretation used in this study is based on  (Nunnally, 1997) as shown in Table 2. Inferential data involves a one-way MANOVA analysis and t-test. The data were analyzed using SPP version 2.0.

Findings
This section is divided into five section and each section serves to answer the research question which serves as a guide in designing the data collection as well as data analysis procedure.

Environmental Knowledge Level of Aboriginal School Students
The knowledge level in this study is measured based on two aspects; environ-     Table 5 shows the findings of MANOVA's analysis of the difference in knowledge and behaviour constructs among primary and secondary Aboriginal school students. After obtaining a significant result in the multivariate test, the Test of the between-subject effects was referred and the results of the analysis showed a comparative analysis made on a recurring basis.

Differences in Environmental Knowledge Level and Behaviours Based on Education Level
To reduce the error of Type 1 due to repeated analysis, Alpha Bonferroni modification method was used (Hair et al., 2010).     Table 7 shows the findings of MANOVA's analysis of the differences in knowledge and behaviour constructs between male and female students. The findings

Differences in Environmental Knowledge Level & Behaviour Based on Gender
show that there is no difference in mean score for environmental literacy con-    After obtaining significant results in the multivariate test, the Test of between-subject effects was referred and the results of the analysis showed a repeated comparison. To reduce the error of type 1 due to repeated analysis, Alpha

Difference of Knowledge Level and Behaviour on Environmental Care Practices Based on Tribes
Bonferroni modification method has been used (Hair et al., 2010). Table 9 shows a significant difference based on Alpha Bonferroni leve (0.05/2) = 0.025 in knowledge constructs (Valve F = 23.944, p = 0.00, partial eta squared (ŋ2) = 0.066. The mean score for environmental knowledge found that students from the Proto-Malay tribe scored higher than the Senoi and Negrito tribe students.
However, there was no significant difference in the constructs of environmental care behaviours based on tribes, (F = 1.887, p = 0.170, partial eta squared (ŋ2) = 0.04).

Discussion
This section which is closely related to the preceding sections, provides answers to the research questions by highlighting the findings which emerged from the Findings section. However, because of the complexities of the findings that emerged, they will not be discussed in a simple, straightforward linear fashion; rather, key issues will be discussed in an integrated way within this section. The section begins by discussion issues related to environmental knowledge before behaviour towards environmental care is provided.

Environmental Knowledge
The level of environmental knowledge among Malaysian Aboriginal people is at a moderate level. This findings confirm previous studies which argue that most Aboriginal students already possess indigenous knowledge (IK) on environmental conservation and preservation, nonetheless they are not interested to follow formal EE curriculum at school (Mallen, Barrazab, Bodenhornc, & Garcia, 2009). Investigating this matter further, it is interesting to note that, their  Furthermore, the level of environmental knowledge among secondary and primary school students indicates that preceding group of students possess a higher level of environmental knowledge than latter group. This means that the level of environmental knowledge increases parallel to the age and schooling level (Anderson, Teisl, Criner, Tisher, Smith, Hunter, Norton, Jelli-son, Alyokkin, Galland, Haggard, & Bicknell, 2007;Ismail, 2005).
The findings also show that there is no difference in the level of environmental knowledge between male and female students. This finding is consisted with the findings of Ismail (2005) and Department of Orang Asli Development (DOAD) (2009) which shows that there is no significant difference between male and female students in terms of environmental knowledge. However, this finding is contrary to the findings of the study by Ismail (2005)) and Tikka, Kuitunen, & Tynys (2000) who found that male students had higher environmental knowledge but female students showed more concern for the environmental care and are more willing to change their behaviour in preserving the environment.

Behaviour towards Environmental Care
The findings show that the behaviours of Aboriginal students towards environmental care are at low moderate level. Aboriginal students most often practices behaviour related to preventing the extinction of animal species. They are most concerned with the care of animal species most probably because they used to hunt animals for their own needs and for commercial purposes.
Facilities such as recycling bins and garbage disposal centres in their settlements do not change the students' behaviour in managing solid waste responsibly. Practical and relevant behaviours to prevent the extinction of plant species also are less exercised by Aboriginal students as they are not practicing traditional farming systems anymore due to RPS initiatives. After RPS was launched, the community of Aboriginal people was transferred to one area and was taught to practice modern farming system.
As a result, the behaviour of students in preventing and conserving plant species from extinction is at low moderate level. Furthermore, the clean tab water supply received by Aboriginal people has made them less concerned with river care compared to the old times where river was their main source of water.

Conclusion
In order to enhance Aboriginal people's environment, researchers propose some suggestions to guide responsible stakeholders in producing environmentally literate citizen. Among them are teachers need to plan a fun learning approach in delivery EE curriculum by integrating outdoor learning, hands-on, experiential, role-play, simulation, and activity-based approaches which are appropriate to Aboriginal people needs and context. As EE is closely related to science subjects, EE teachers need to collaborate actively with science teachers in planning effective pedagogical strategies that enable Aboriginal students to understand the basic concepts of science.
Most importantly, the Ministry of Education should revise the pre-service teacher training curriculum to include comprehensive and holistic training on how teachers can creatively integrate IK and funds of knowledge to improve citizen's awareness, knowledge and attitude towards environmental conservation and preservation.