Extending the concept of pro-environmental action and behaviour: a binary perspective

Abstract

Many studies have explored pro-environmental actions. This paper aims to extend the concept of pro-environmental action in the context of binary themes or perspectives. The extended conceptualisation is drawn from a study that investigates the influence of residential outdoor environmental education courses on Malaysian participants’ environmental attitudes and behaviours using a life history approach. Data analysis revealed six binary pro-environmental actions: conforming/transforming action, compulsory/optional action, intentional/unintentional action, public/private sphere action, activist/non-activist action, and biospheric/anthropocentric-oriented action. The binary actions presented in this paper pull together all of the binary themes, both pre-existing ones and those emerging from the current study data. The paper provides recommendations about how one can contribute to environmental quality and positively impact the sustainable development agenda.

Keywords:

• Outdoor education
• environmental education
• residential education
• pro-environmental action
• sustainable development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Majlis Amanah Rakyat;Putra Grant - Young Lecturer Initiative.

Notes on contributors

Sharifah Intan Sharina Syed-Abdullah

Sharifah Intan Sharina Syed-Abdullah received a Ph.D. in Outdoor and Sustainability Education from the University of Edinburgh. Currently, she is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Her research interests include outdoor environmental education, environmental behaviour change, and learning ecosystem, especially in non-formal and informal learning environments.