Connectedness to Nature and Environmental Identity Scales Reveal Environmental Awareness in Greek Teachers

Abstract

Core Ideas: The present study measures Greek teachers' environmental identity, feeling of connectedness to nature, and environmental knowledge. Primary and secondary teachers are environmentally conscious, but they lack knowledge of fundamental concepts of environmental literacy. Effective environmental education in schools requires environmental literacy in teachers. Teachers are responsible to provide their students with knowledge, values, attitudes, and skills needed to preserve the environment in order to produce environmentally literate citizens. The latter is possible if teachers themselves have high levels of environmental knowledge, strong environmental awareness, and manifest environmental behavior. In response, this study aimed to assess Greek in-service teachers' environmental knowledge, eco-friendly behavior, and their connectedness to nature and environmental identity as aspects of their environmental consciousness. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess teachers' demographic profile, environmental knowledge, and self-reported environmental behavior. Two well-established measures of general environmental attitudes—connectedness to nature and environmental identity scales—were also used. The method lies on principal component analysis and evaluation of Cronbach's alpha to confirm the reliability and validity of the scales. The results showed that teachers' scores on both scales were high, revealing their positive attitudes in terms of the environment. Responders possess a moderate level of environmental knowledge and they possess pro-environmental behavior. Results from this study can be useful to policy makers in order to design and promote the implementation of teachers' training programs in Greece and other countries of the European Union that focus on the enhancement of their environmental literacy. Copyright © 2018 by the American Society of Agronomy