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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 16, Issue 1, Article 3 (Jun., 2015) |
Female and male teachers’ pro-environmental behaviour, conceptions and attitudes towards nature and the environment do not differ: Ecofeminism put to the test
B. MC EWEN
Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Science and Technology, Karlstad University, SE-651 88 Karlstad, SWEDEN
E-mail: birgitta.mcewen@kau.se
P. CLÉMENT
S2HEP, Université Lyon 1, University of Lyon, Villeurbanne, FRANCE
E-mail: clement.grave@free.fr
N. M. GERICKE
Department of Environment and Life Sciences, Faculty of Health Science and Technology, Karlstad University, SE-651 88 Karlstad, SWEDEN
E-mail: niklas.gericke@kau.se
E. NYBERG
Department of Pedagogical, Curriecular and Prof Studies, University of Gothenburg, Box 100, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, SWEDEN
E-mail: eva.nyberg@ped.gu.se
M. HAGMAN
Department of Pedagogical, Curriecular and Prof Studies, University of Gothenburg, Box 100, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, SWEDEN
E-mail: mats.hagman@ped.gu.se
J. LANDSTRÖM
Department of Pedagogical, Curriecular and Prof Studies, University of Gothenburg, Box 100, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, SWEDEN
E-mail: jan.landstrom@ped.gu.se
Received 5 Mar., 2015
Revised 10 Jun., 2015
Teachers’ pro-environmental behaviour, conceptions and attitudes towards nature and the environment were investigated using 47 questions from the BIOHEAD-Citizen questionnaire. The sample included 1,109 pre- and in-service teachers from Sweden and France. Analyses showed only few significant differences between female and male teachers. Forty-one questions were further analysed in terms of ecofeminism. Ecofeminism claims that women and men’s conceptions and attitudes towards nature and the environment differ, in the sense that women show higher awareness of environmental issues than men. Our study finds quite poor support for this claim and therefore challenges ecofeminism. This may have implications for environmental education and the perspectives of sustainable development at schools, as our results indicate that there is no reason to fear that male teachers are less engaged with environmental education than female teachers.
Keywords: Attitudes; Ecofeminism; Education; Pro-environmental behaviour; Sustainable development; Teachers.
