Assessing Secondary School Teachers' 21st Century Attitude and Environmental Awareness for Promoting Education for Sustainable Development
Keywords:
Education for Sustainable Development, Secondary School Teachers, 21st century attitude, Environmental Awareness, IndiaAbstract
The purpose of this study was to assess secondary school teachers’ 21st century attitude and environmental awareness for promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). To do this, a mixed-methods approach involving both descriptive-quantitative and qualitative tools was used. Data were collected from both questionnaires administered to a sample of 104 secondary school teachers in Selangor, India and interviews conducted with 17 teachers from the same sample. Descriptive-quantitative techniques studied the attitudes, environmental awareness and engagement in environmental activities. Qualitative techniques adopted thematic analysis to analyse the interview data. Subsequently, the results from this study imply that Indian secondary school teachers had a positive attitude towards ESD and environmental issues. In addition, the majority of them had moderately high environmental awareness. The teachers’ engagement in environmental activities was limited due to the lack of resources and their limited understanding of the ESD’s purpose. The study draws attention to the advantages of ESD as a pedagogical practice to strengthen the 21st century attitude of teachers and students and increase their environmental awareness. The article concluded with implications, some limitations, and recommendations.
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