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Sustainability Education and Environmental Worldviews: Shifting a Paradigm

Author

Listed:
  • Simon Ling

    (Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA)

  • Adam Landon

    (Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA)

  • Michael Tarrant

    (Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA)

  • Donald Rubin

    (Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA)

Abstract

Higher education institutions are tasked with education for sustainable development, of which the environment is a central pillar. Understanding the demographic factors that influence the establishment of environmental worldviews allows educators to better contextualize sustainability content and discussion. Identifying pedagogies capable of creating learning spaces within which worldviews can shift offers similar opportunities. Using a quasi-experimental design and model building, this study identifies important social psychological antecedents of environmental beliefs, assesses the effectiveness of outbound mobility pedagogy at changing those beliefs and identifies important predictors of the nature and magnitude of those changes. Sustainable outbound mobility courses were effective at increasing environmental worldview compared to a control group. At program commencement, political orientation and business majors were negatively associated with environmental worldview, while female gender was the reverse. For sustainability education courses, only gender was retained as a significant predictor of the nature and change of environmental worldview by the course’s end. These results suggest that the factors associated with environmental worldview upon commencement of a course do not necessarily predict the malleability of that worldview in higher education students.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Ling & Adam Landon & Michael Tarrant & Donald Rubin, 2020. "Sustainability Education and Environmental Worldviews: Shifting a Paradigm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-19, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:19:p:8258-:d:424659
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    2. Ziegler, Andreas, 2017. "Political orientation, environmental values, and climate change beliefs and attitudes: An empirical cross country analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 144-153.
    3. Xianwei Liu & Yang Zou & Jianping Wu, 2018. "Factors Influencing Public-Sphere Pro-Environmental Behavior among Mongolian College Students: A Test of Value–Belief–Norm Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-19, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Alicja Balcerak & Jacek Woźniak, 2022. "Shaping Pro-Environmental Attitudes through Higher Education—A Preliminary Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Brack W. Hale, 2021. "Educating for the Environment: The Role of the Host Destination in Education Travel Programs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-17, July.

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