Evaluating the use of social marketing as a tool to affect people's attitudes towards water safety, in particular for the use of the Land PAWS programme in Irish national schools /

Abstract

This dissertation has been conducted with the aim of identifying the social marketing carried out by Irish Water Safety, focusing specifically on children in national schools who can avail of the Land Primary Aquatic Water Safety (PAWS) programme. Social marketing has evolved as a marketing strategy which involves campaigns that aim to change individual behaviour as well as global behaviour in diverse fields, such as health promotion and environment protection. The Land PAWS programme has risen in popularity from only 262 participants in 2004 to 42,348 participants in 2016. This dissertation evaluates the use of the Land PAWS programme by teachers in national schools across Ireland. It is identified which aspects of personal safety are taught in national schools, in this way the researcher explores the teacher’s interest in teaching water safety and examines how Irish Water Safety can improve the PAWS course for increased uptake. The researcher has chosen to use surveys and semi-structured interviews as the primary research data collection methods for this dissertation. Secondary research involved a systematic literature review on all relevant research topics. The surveys were designed to identify trends relating to personal safety teachings of national school teachers in addition to the teacher’s overall knowledge and awareness of the Land PAWS programme. Meanwhile, the semi-structured interviews were created, fuelled by the results of these surveys, to provide more in-depth responses. The overall conclusion accomplished by this research demonstrates that Irish Water Safety has more work to do in spreading awareness and ensuring national uptake of the PAWS programme. Increased teacher awareness, resources and training are all required to improve the numbers partaking in the Land PAWS programme. From the extensive primary and secondary research conducted in this dissertation, noteworthy and valid recommendations were achieved that aim to assist Irish Water Safety in furthering the Land PAWS programme for the continued safety of our children.