Czech students and mitigation of global warming: beliefs and willingness to take action

Abstract

The future life-styles and pro-environmental behaviour of today’s younger students will be a cardinal factor in mitigating the severity of projected climate change. In this study, Czech students at upper-primary and secondary-school levels responded to a set of covertly paired statements designed to assess their beliefs concerning the usefulness of actions that might ameliorate global warming and the degree to which they are willing to act. Relations between their beliefs and willingness to act were assessed by means of an index of Potential Effectiveness of Education (PEE). The results show that Czech students are generally sceptical about the usefulness of the actions suggested and are among the less willing, in a wider international context, to participate in actual processes that might ameliorate global warming. However, Czech secondary-school students, particularly females, are significantly more willing to act than upper-primary students. Although relatively high PEE values were observed, Czech students tend to underestimate the role of personal consumption and male students in particular are not willing to take actions that involve no immediate personal benefit. Our results thus emphasize the importance of adjusting school curricula by promoting insight into the topic of global warming, and extending that understanding into practical measures.

Keywords:

• Global warming
• climate change
• environmental education
• primary and secondary students

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the students Kristýna Kavková and Christina Stránská who participated in the questionnaire survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Palacký University Internal Grant Agency under Grant IGA_PrF_2018_018 ‘Regions and Cities: Analysis of Development and Transformation of Their Selected Components’.

Notes on contributors

Michal Lehnert

Michal Lehnert holds a MSc in Regional Geography and a PhD in Environmental Geography. A senior lecturer at the Department of Geography, Palacký University Olomouc, he focuses on the topics of urban climate and climate change.

David Fiedor

David Fiedor holds a MSc in Teaching Mathematics and Geography and a PhD in Regional Geography and Regional Development. A senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Andragogy and Cultural Anthropology, Palacký University Olomouc, he focuses on statistics in social sciences and on the geography of hazard.

Jindřich Frajer

Jindřich Frajer holds a MSc in Teaching History and Geography and a PhD in Environmental Geography. A senior lecturer at the Department of Geography, Palacký University Olomouc, he focuses on the topics of human geography.

Jan Hercik

Jan Hercik holds a MSc in Teaching History and Geography and a PhD in Regional Geography. A senior lecturer at the Department of Geography, Palacký University Olomouc, he focuses on the didactics of geography.

Martin Jurek

Martin Jurek holds a MSc in Teaching Mathematics and Geography and a PhD in Environmental Geography. A senior lecturer at the Department of Geography, Palacký University Olomouc, he focuses on the topics of air conservation and climate change.