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

Sammanfattning: 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 analysing people’s argumentation on socioscientific issues was used to analyse 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. This study is framed by four research questions: 1. How is the aspect of knowledge in relation to different subject areas concerning the practice of fishing identified among the different groups of participants? 2. How is the aspect of value in relation to different subject areas concerning the practice of fishing identified among the different groups of participants?  3. Are there similarities and differences concerning the content of the knowledge aspect identified among the different groups of participants? What are they?  4. Are there similarities and differences concerning the value orientation embraced in the content for the knowledge aspect identified among the different groups of participants? What are they? 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, four categories of the content were identified: (1) fishing methods, (2) fishing population in the fishing areas, (3) environmental impact, and (4) controlling fish availability and its surviving environment. 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. To promote sustainable development and scientific literate for responsible citizenship, it is important for the curriculum developers to emphasize both the knowledge and value aspects in all subject areas, regardless of the field of study. This should start from basic education to allow young minds to know the importance of social responsibility. It includes integrating contexts and societal issues into the knowledge areas so that students are engaged in activities that strengthen their knowledge as well as value to make informed decisions for themselves, the community and the society. More implications are discussed in the thesis.