COASTAL ENVIRONMENT: AN INTEGRATION CONTEXT ACROSS

SCIENCE DISCIPLINES

RODEL A. AZARES
MA. GEN. SCIENCE
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Compared to some countries in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and Thailand,

the Philippines is surrounded by deep waters ranging from 2,000 meters to 4,000 meters.

Its shallow waters are relatively narrow and close to shore. However, with its more than

7,000 islands, the country is supported by large productive areas of diverse marine

ecosystems, which provide shore protection and nutrient cycling as well as valuable

economic goods. Indeed, the Philippines is one big coastal community of more than 70

million people. The country’s coastline stretches to more than 18,000 km, and its coastal

waters cover an area of 266,000 sq km. seventy percent of its more than 1,500

municipalities are in the coastal area, which is home to millions of people for whom the

sea is an ordinary, but often little understood, fact of life. Coastal fishing activities

account for between 40% and 60% of the total fish catch. (one ocean.org, 2010)

Coastal indigenous peoples have relied on marine resources for thousands of

years and have developed locally relevant management strategies to ensure sustainability.

Local and traditional ecological knowledge can complement ecological data to augment

fisheries management (Murray, et.al. 2008). Local knowledge represents lifetime

observations by fishers, while traditional knowledge is accumulated intergenerationally

and encompasses indigenous peoples’ practices, beliefs, and worldviews passed down

through oral traditions (Berkes, 2012). In fishing practice, traditional knowledge varies in

dimension including fishing practices, development of customary rules and enforcement

mechanisms (based on punishment and shaming) (Kay and Adler, 2005). On the other
hand, Coastal areas are commonly defined as the interface or transition areas between

land and the sea, including large inland lakes (United Nations Environment Programme.

UNEP-WCMC). The sublime admiration for coastal environments in today’s world is an

interesting phenomenon globally, especially in urban areas.

Furthermore, indigenous knowledge systems and practices have played an

important role in the emergence and development of human society. For Steiner (2008),

long before the various scientific and technological advancements came into the picture,

humanity all over the world depended on indigenous knowledge. Indigenous knowledge

had enabled communities in the past to achieve stable livelihoods and to enable living

harmoniously with the environment. In general, traditional, or indigenous knowledge was

proven to be a perfect scaffold for sustainable development, connecting the past, the

present and the future (Kinomis, 2016).

Indigenous knowledge management is important for the purposes of conservation,

sustainability, and reduction of vulnerability due to climate change in coastal areas.

According to the study in IUP Journal of Knowledge Management (2018), the study

explores the utilization patterns and management aspects of natural resources, and

economic valuation of the ecosystem services through indigenous knowledge practices in

the southeastern coastal area of Bangladesh for adaptation to changing climate. The

results of analysis demonstrate that local communities of coastal area are extremely

dependent on coastal resources, in particular fishery resources. About 57% household

heads have been directly involved in coastal fishing, followed by agriculture, aquaculture,

and salt production.

 Ideally, indigenous knowledge should be integrated in the teaching-learning

process of science. Community funds of knowledge are considered a rich source of

knowledge systems and practices that can aid in the learning process. Funds of

knowledge are essential and a great tool in carrying out students’ learning. When this

knowledge is tapped and used to plan and deliver instruction, it becomes a social and

intellectual resource for teachers (Gonzalez, Greenberg, and Velez, 1999).

In a multi-cultural country such as the Philippines, it is important to preserve and

integrate indigenous knowledge into the teaching and learning process. This is for the

purpose of not only augmenting the delivery of educational instruction but also to

consider the rich local funds of knowledge that different communities have. Michelle, et

al. (2008) state that incorporating aboriginal perspectives in school science is not only

imperative to generating interest and relevance for native students but will also broaden

all people’s worldview and understanding of the interconnected relationship of people

with the earth and environment. The utilization of well documented and captured

indigenous knowledge in science teaching will basically address the needs of

multicultural learners, and more importantly learning will become meaningful and

significant in the sense that learners take pride in the ownership of their unique

indigenous knowledge.

With the phenomena, the researcher will conduct this study to determine the

knowledge and skills of students by providing classroom teachers with basic

environmental knowledge to foster interesting and meaningful learning grounded in

science. Moreover, the researcher sets the focus to identify science concepts to organize
and examine data as well as analyze what science concepts can be integrated in the

teaching of science in the senior high school.

Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to determine the level of knowledge and practices of students in

coastal environment as a springboard towards the discipline of science.

Specifically, it seeks to answers the following questions:

1. What coastal community knowledge and practices exist in the selected coastal

areas in the municipality of Pontevedra?

2. What coastal knowledge and practices can be integrated in the science

disciplines?

3. What approaches in the coastal environment can be integrated in the context of

science?

4. What lesson exemplar can be developed out from the result of the study?

Assumptions of the Study

A ‘barangay’ means something between village and neighborhood in the

Philippines and it marks a territorial unit which is considered an important political

building block that functions as the basic local government unit in Filipino society

(Oracion et al., 2005). The Philippines has historically been a hierarchical society. For

many years elite families have had control over large businesses and politics. This

selected group often own large landholdings and have held control or power over areas
for generations. In coastal areas, certain ‘patron-client’ relations exist between wealthier

groups and poorer groups. This can be seen in credits given to SSF to be able to fish.

Moreover, fishing is considered as having a low status in society. The status of poor

people as ‘clients’ has obstructed them from decision making processes and resulted in

unequal social relations (Fabinyi, Foale & Macintyre, 2015).

Pontevedra is one of the Municipality in the province of Capiz to be considered as

coastal areas. Most of the people living in the Barangays’ source of money is through

fishing and other related work which involved in their coastal environment. The coastal

environment specifically the river provided fishery resources and associated, and

dependent ecosystems is shaped by the need to meet livelihood requirements and food

security. Fishing is already an in-demand activity which involves ways on how to get fish

and other marine living organisms which is used as food for Filipinos as well as can be

sold. Coastal environment includes indigenous knowledge, beliefs, and practices which

they believe are an essential part of utilizing the materials provided by Almighty God.

These ideas are being passed from generations to generations that had been part of the

local practices in the community.

This study will focus on to the people living the coastal areas who engaged in

fishing and other related activities. Local people have developed both traditional and

modern knowledge systems and practices, which govern the management of their

resources. In the Philippines, fishermen sustain the marine sector of the country’s

economy since it provides food at the same time livelihood to the locals. Local fishing

practices are sets of activities that fishermen engaged in. These are the practices which

had been utilized by the locals ever since and had been inherited from previous and older
generations. It has been proven to be widely effective in the process of production and of

harvest of fish. Fishers obviously tend to have very good knowledge of local current

conditions and the state of resources in the areas in which fishing and do other related

coastal activities at any given time, because of their repeated and extensive experience

with these specific locales in which they are fishing. Truly a unique blend of indigenous

knowledge which by far utilizing science concepts from breeding phase up to harvesting

phase.

Contextualization is one of the keys of engaging the students in teaching learning

process wherein the students can relate their situations on their lesson. It makes the lesson

meaningful and relevant to the students’ lives by relating the students’ context to science

disciplines taught in school. This study covered the concepts and practices of science

teachers on contextualization. This implied that trainings for teachers’ conceptions and

understanding must be aligning to the changing needs of the learners. Thus, to

contextualized means to adopt the present environment, setting, and situation

modification to achieve equity of learning suited for all kinds of learners to relate their

understandings in the real context of their life. This matter should be considered by

educators as they proceed in the teaching-learning process.

Epistemology and Theoretical Perspectives

This study is anchored in an epistemological assumption leaning towards

constructivism and interpretivism.

Constructivism. Is a theory of learning that has roots in both philosophy and

psychology. which enabled us to understand the interplay between nature of science

instruction and the context. The constructivist approach states that learning is an active
process in which learners constructed knowledge by themselves through adaptation and

organization to the new environment (Piaget, 1976; Vygotsky, 1962). Additionally, it is

claimed that construction of knowledge could not be isolated from society and culture

which stressed the importance of environment during knowledge construction (Vygotsky,

1962). That is, social environment influences learning through language, tools and social

institutions, thus cognitive changes are more likely come because of the interaction with

knowledgeable social agents-peers, students develop from these social interactions

(Vygotsky, 1962). Compatible with constructivist theory, explicit reflective science

instruction within a contextualized framework might provide optimal context for

developing in-depth science views by featuring small group discussions regarding science

aspects and reflection opportunities related to ones’ own conceptions of science. This

theory helps students to build their knowledge and to control the existence of students

during the learning process in the classroom.

Interpretivism. Interpretivism is concerned with an understanding of complex human

behavior and social settings (De Villiers, 2005). Interpretivists do not generally begin

with a theory, rather they “generate or inductively develop a theory or pattern of

meanings” (Creswell, 2007, p. 9) throughout the research process. They treat people as

research participants and not as objects. They try to capture different perspectives and

look at the phenomenon from different angles. Interpretive researchers implement a

methodology that allows the researcher to conduct a study in its natural setting. The

underlying idea of the interpretivist approach is that the researcher is part of the research,

interprets data and as such can never be fully objective and removed from the research.

Interpretivists are interested in specific, contextualized environments and acknowledge

that reality and knowledge are not objective but influenced by people within that

environment. Interpretivists believe that knowledge is something personal, subjective,

and unique (Cohen et al., 2007). ... Echoing these, the impetus of this enquiry is to

understand teachers' beliefs and practices with particular attention to their individual

viewpoints. Thus, researchers have their own understanding, their own interpretations

and world views regarding the phenomenon in question due to their own cultural and

historical influences (Miles & Huberman, 1994). It is therefore imperative that social

scientists understand and interpret the social world from individual participants’

perspectives and to recognize that their own backgrounds will influence interpretations of

the phenomenon under study (Creswell, 2007a).

Moreover, interpretivism studies usually focus on meaning and may employ

multiple methods to reflect different aspects of the issue (Dudovskiy, 2019). The

emphasis is on the context in which participants live and work, so that researchers are

better able to comprehend the historical and cultural background of participants

(Creswell, 2007b).

This study anchors constructivism theory of learning with the belief that students

construct and use their personal knowledge and judgement on some of the common

coastal practices they have performed which uses science concepts. This study might give

an opportunity for students to build or construct useful knowledge specifically in science,

out of their daily activities in coastal community. Meanwhile for interpretivism approach

of this study, the students will construct his/her own understanding, reality, and

knowledge of the world he/she lives in, through reflection of his/her experiences and
through his/her interactions with the different coastal community practices which uses

science concepts.

For teachers, interpretivism will be useful tool in the teaching of science and

focuses more on understanding the current situation and does not address the issues of

empowering individuals and societies. Thus, these limitations, especially the last one,

have led to the rise of the critical theory approach to research. On the other hand, since

they are teaching in the coastal community they are exposed to observations.

Observations based on how fishing and other related coastal work done in the

community. This observation can lead to teacher’s curiosity and finally it may lead to the

creation of interview questions for the fisherfolks which the responses can be of used in

the application of context in the teaching of science.

Significance of the Study

This study is significant and can benefit the following:

Local Community. The information gathered in this study will be useful to the

local indigents to preserve the indigenous traditions, practices, and culture of science

from generation to generation which are helpful for the younger generation to give value,

respect and preserve these ideas.

Science Teachers. This study will give teachers further knowledge of the local

science practices, indigenous traditions and local science culture which can be integrated

in the curriculum in the teaching of science subject. Likewise, teachers can work to

develop a better learning method out of coastal practices that they think are science-based

which can provide a meaningful culture-based learning for the students.

 Students. This study can enhance classroom education through hands-on learning

activities related to coastal practices and give students further knowledge on how and

what to do like fishing and other related activities. It can also provide students the skills

needed for employment in this field.

Local School. The information gathered will give the local schools interest to

promote the integration of the indigenous local knowledge across science curriculum as

well as in other subject areas.

Science Administrators/Supervisors. The result of the study will raise the

awareness of the administrators to give full support to the science teachers in the

promotion of indigenization of science lessons in schools especially in coastal areas and

other related activities in coastal environment.

Future Researchers. This study will give future researchers the knowledge to be

used in the study regarding local communities and the use of contextualize science ideas

and practices in integrating this knowledge in the teaching of science; this will serve as

their literature and basis in conducting their study.

Definition of Terms

To understand the study clearly, the following terms are conceptually and

operationally defined:

Barangay. The smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the

native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward (Definitions, 2019).

In this study, it refers to Barangay Agbanog, Ameligan, Bantigue, Cabugao,

Gabuc and Manapao, chosen barangays where the study is to be conducted.

 Coastal Areas. Are commonly defined as the interface or transition areas

between land and the sea, including large inland lakes (United Nations Environment

Programme. UNEP-WCMC).

In this study, it refers to the area where the data will be collected.

Coastal Community. A community where fishing is the main industry (Collins, 2019).

In this study, it is defined as a community where people engage in fishing

practice, indigenous traditions and local culture which is pass on from generation to

generation and exhibits the utilization of science ideas specifically in the involvement of

fishing and other related activities in the coastal community.

Coastal Practices. Refers to the indigenous traditions being practiced in the

coastal area. (Merriam-Webster, 2019).

In this study, it is defined as activities and knowledge innate to the local

fishermen which are being utilized as part of their fishing practice.

Contextualization. Refers to the educational process of relating the curriculum to

a particular setting, situation, or area of application to make competencies relevant,

meaningful, and useful to the learners. (Press Reader, 2019).

In this study, it refers to anything a teacher does to help create understanding of

language and/or concepts by using materials.

Indigenization. Refers to the fact of making something more native,

transformation of some service, idea, etc. to suit a local culture, especially using more

indigenous people in administration, employment, etc. (Merriam-Webster, 2019).

In this study, it refers to ways of knowing, being, doing and relating by localizing

or contextualizing that can be incorporated into lesson.

 Science Disciplines. A particular branch of scientific knowledge. (Merriam-

Webster, 2019).

In this study, it is defined as the branches of sciences such as earth science,

biology, chemistry, and physics where the lessons focused on.