Environmental Education; A Qualitative Study On Sustainable Environment

Abstract

Recently, environmental awareness, sustainable development, environmental literacy, and science literacy, combined with a new concept within the framework of the ecological and environmentally conscious citizens, who protect the environment, contributing to sustainability and environmental responsibility of individuals form the perception of citizenship called ecological citizenship. Ecological citizenship is an interdisciplinary concept both in terms of legal and social rights and the environment in terms of ecology, social sciences, covering natural sciences.

In this research, Science and Technology, and Social Studies teacher candidates’ knowledge and ideas on sustainable environmental, ecological citizenship, the issues of environmental awareness were tried to put. For this purpose, 36 Science and Technology Teacher candidates and 31 Social Studies Teacher candidates studying in Kastamonu University, in the academic year 2012-2013 form a candidate sample consists of 67 teachers. The data of the research were obtained with 8 open-ended questions asked to 67 pre-service teachers sustainable environmental and ecological issues related to citizenship and environmental sensitivity. According to the data obtained an important part of Science and Technology, and Social Studies teacher candidates used expressions; for the sustainable environment as “to move the environment for future generations” and “the environment to sustain itself”.  A large number of the candidate science teachers, used a phrase for ecological citizenship as “the individuals protecting ecology with their behaviors”. A large number of candidates of Social Studies Teachers used phrase “individuals who take responsibility for the environment”. A large part of the study sample teachers’ used a phrase for sensitivity to the environment as “to protect and not pollute the environment”. A large number of teachers used a phrase for individuals who are environmentally friendly, as “love of plants is more important than love of animals”.

Our goal in this research is to draw attention to the issue of an estimate according to the findings   in terms of environmental sustainability issues in environmental education at the level of higher education that will arise as a result of the research, and to reveal the inadequacy of pupils to the increasingly important issues of environmental education in the current century, to find more space in its education system which began to be restructured.

Keywords

• environmental sustainability,Environmental education,ecological citizenship,envirnmental sensitivity

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