An Evaluation of Environmental Responsibility and Its Associated Factors: Reflections from PISA 2006

Abstract

Problem statement: Contemporary global environmental problems havehighlighted the importance of acting responsibly towards naturalresources and the environment. The role of science education in shapinghow people interact with the environment, therefore, has gainedimportance. The science education community has responded to thischallenge by helping citizens develop responsibility for environmentalissues. Accordingly, “scientific literacy and the environment” was one ofthe research areas in the Programme for International Student Assessment(PISA) 2006. We attempted to examine patterns in Turkish students’environmental responsibility and to expose relationships between studentresponsibility for environmental issues and socio-demographic variables.We did this by assessing scientific literacy and evaluating anenvironmental database for Turkey in the context of PISA 2006.Specifically, the current study examined the extent to which Turkishstudents’ economic, social, and cultural status; school activities; parents’sense of responsibility and optimism regarding environmental issues andgender predicted their perceived responsibility towards the environment. Purpose of Study: This study evaluated students’ responsibility towards theenvironment and the relationship between perceived responsibility andseveral background variables, utilizing Turkish data obtained from theProgramme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006.Methods: Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) was used to examine theassociation between dependent and independent variables.Findings and Results: The findings suggested that 15-year-old Turkishstudents’ responsibility towards the environment varied with respect tosuch socio-demographic variables as gender; economic, social and culturalstatus; availability of school activities related to environmental topics andparental sense of responsibility for and optimism about environmentalissues. Among these, although the association was negative, parental levelof optimism regarding environmental issues explained the greatestamount of variation in student responsibility towards the environment.This was followed by parental sense of responsibility for environmentalissues.Conclusions and Recommendations: The overall picture disclosed by thisstudy is one in which economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) is theprimary feature shaping awareness and responsibility toward theenvironment. It is important to note that this result was obtained bysampling 15-year-old students in Turkey, where there is no strategy forenvironmental education. That is to say, if we were to gather backgrounddata on environmental awareness and responsibility in Turkey (althoughthese would be below the OECD average), and if we were to identify howthis awareness and responsibility have shaped the country’s economic,social and cultural status, which differs by region, then we might be ableto make plans to develop a tendency toward environmentalconsciousness. Such change would be important for the developingworld. Being pessimistic about low ESCS coincides with lowenvironmental awareness and responsibility, but alternative means toameliorating this situation can be found by addressing national and evenregional factors.