Environmental education policy of schools and socioeconomic background affect environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behavior of secondary school students

Abstract

Measuring environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviors in schools is crucial in order to assess how pedagogical work in the schools cope with the expectations to move sustainability related attitudes and behaviors of students toward more pro-environmental ones. These changes in students’ attitudes and behaviors are among the main possibilities that may lead societies toward sustainability transition. In this study we surveyed sustainability related attitudes and behaviors of students in 14 Hungarian secondary schools, as well as the efforts of their schools and teachers related to environmental and sustainability education. Factors affecting students’ attitudes and behaviors with the greater effect sizes were related to the socioeconomic background of students, i.e. socio-economical status of their schools, residency (settlement type and country region), and education of parents. Class grade and gender had only a smaller effect. Some measures of schools’ sustainability efforts also affected students’ measures of environmentalism indicating the effectiveness of focused educational policies. Final grade students became more pro-environmental consumers as compared to first grade students in schools with higher level of EE/ESD related infrastructure and facilities, while attitudes were quasi-significantly affected by the level of integration of diverse EE/ESD programs in their schools.

Keywords:

• Environmental attitudes
• pro-environmental behavior
• environmental education
• sustainability policy
• socioeconomic background

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to several of my students, especially to Eszter Császár and Miklós Nagy, who helped this study by reaching secondary school teachers distributing questionnaires to students. As well as to the many teachers who kindly coordinated the students to fill in the questionnaires online or printed. Special thanks to the many teachers and members of schools’ management who provided me with information on the environmental policy of their school and meticulously filled in the schools’ questionnaire, and to Edina Malmos who helped me to reach many of the school staff. Special thanks for the anonymous referees for their precious comments on earlier version of the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ferenc Mónus

Ferenc Mónus is a college associate professor, he lectures in behavioral ecology, evolutionary biology and sustainability education. He does research in Behavioral Ecology and is currently involved in educational research, including Education for Sustainability, methods and efficacy of Environmental Education, and students’ attitudes towards environmental issues.