Climate Change Education and Environmental Education: Perceptions and Knowledge Among Environmental Educators in the Southeastern United States

<p>Climate change is a global environmental problem and issue. Mitigation and adaptation have been suggested for use in dealing with the impacts, both current and in the future. Climate change education as a mitigation and adaptation effort is one that could have great impact. This quantitative survey study examined the climate change and climate change education perception and knowledge of Southeastern Environmental Education Association members. This study segmented participants into one of six unique climate change groups: Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Doubtful, Dismissive, and Disengaged based on the Six Americas Survey developed by Maibach, Lesierowitz, Roser-Renouf, and Mertz. CC knowledge was collected with items based on an instrument developed by Leiserowitz, Smith, and Marlon. The results of this segmentation were also analyzed against the participants’ demographics, and the climate change segment and knowledge proportions were compared to previous studies. An online survey was distributed to Southern Environmental Education Association members with a final sample of 93. Analysis of the data included discriminant analysis, multi-nominal logistic regression, chi-square, ANOVA, crosstabs, and descriptive statistics. The results of this study indicated that overall, Southeastern environmental education had high climate change perception levels, with most being segmented into the Concerned and Cautious groups. In addition, they reported higher climate change knowledge than the general public. The findings had limited implications for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts for Southeastern environmental educators.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Counseling, Foundations & Leadership

Year dc:date.available

2019

Author dc:creator

• Johnson, Lauren C.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Deniz Peker
• Dr. Basil Conway
• Dr. Michael D. Richardson

• Climate Change
• Education
• Environment
• Southeastern United States
• Demographics
• Southeastern Environmental Education Association Members
• Curriculum and Instruction
• Educational Leadership
• Other Education

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/theses_dissertations/317

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:csuepress.columbusstate.edu:theses_dissertations-1319