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Activity Funded

Assessing and Promoting Environmental Culture in Higher Education

Avaliação e Promoção da Cultura Ambiental no Ensino Superior

Reference
2022.03754.PTDC
Project Start Date
2023-03-01
Project End Date
2026-08-31
Principal Investigator
Coinvestigator
Scientific Area
Social sciences
Funding Program
Concurso de Projetos de I&D em Todos os Domínios Científicos - 2022 - ICDT

Abstract

Humankind is facing a long-lasting and global ecological crisis. Since the 1970s, the Planet’s biocapacity has been overtaken by intensive resource exploitation and massive emissions of pollution, resulting in profound imbalances that threaten climate stability, biodiversity and, among others, our safety (1). However, the route that brought us here started a long time ago, with roots in ancient cultures that put men above all things, legitimating depredatory exploitation of nature. As so, the strategy to tackle this ecological crisis can’t go only through clean and efficient technologies, it must include cultural changes, which can be driven by education (2). As environmental education (EE) aims to promote environmental literacy (EL), it is a powerful tool to drive a cultural change that could transcend the anthropocentric view and bring back humans together with nature (3). EL includes knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards environmental sustainability in a broad spectrum that goes through the understanding of concepts, problems, and issues, cognitive and affective dispositions, cognitive skills and abilities, and has its climax in the integration of pro-environmental behaviours (4-8). In its projection beyond the individual, EE should aim to promote Environmental Culture (EC) (15, 16) and, in this way, contribute to the construction of environmentally sustainable societies. APECHE project assumes that, due to its influence on society, academic freedom (31) and the integration of about half of all young people, higher education could lead to a cultural change that minimizes the ecological crisis. Although previous studies (10, 17, 18) show that, in Portugal, EE has been infantilized, leaving higher education out of it, and despite resistance to change (30), in the last decade, several Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have taken up the challenge of environmental sustainability, incorporating it culturally through their strategic documents, its training offer, in EE projects and a greening effort on its campuses. However, the few studies available for higher education (19-29) suggest that the fragilities found for previous levels of education may be herein exacerbated. Besides, no previous studies have been conducted to assess the levels of EL in higher education students in Portugal, nor the contribution made by HEIs for their improvement, namely with the adoption of an EC. Therefore, our proposal aims to provide a better understanding of the EL progression in Portuguese higher education and contribute to its improvement, placing for research the characterization of EL and EC levels and evolution and the variables that most influence these results, namely the grade of incorporation of the EC, and give guidelines for better performance. To this end, we have assembled a multidisciplinary team with competence and experience in Education and Environment, with researchers from 8 HEIs, from north to south of Portugal, including Madeira and Azores islands. At the end of this project, we hope to know the EL profile of higher education students and trace their evolutionary profile during higher education. We also intend to identify the most determinant variables (predictors) in the evolution of EL, evaluating and correlating with EC indicators and variables intrinsic to higher education, besides the socioeconomic and demographic aspects of the participants. Thus, identifying the main predictors of EL, we intend to define guidelines for an innovative and practical approach to EE in HEIs, to be presented through a guide of best practices, and directly in the courses and HEIs integrated into the project. The methodology to achieve our objectives was structured and detailed in a work plan, providing alternatives to overcome difficulties that may arise. First, for each of the HEIs included in the study, a sample of first-year students from different degree courses will be selected, and a survey will be carried out to characterize their EL profile and gather their socioeconomic and demographic data. The same students will be approached again in the middle and end of their degree courses. A similar questionnaire will be applied to teachers. Additionally, according to a set of reference criteria, the levels of environmental sustainability of curricula and campuses will be characterized through, among others, the analysis of programs, questionnaires, and interviews. The collected data will be submitted to statistical analysis, including the correlation between the variables and the levels of EL, and the results, main conclusions and guidelines will be released. The present study will contribute to understanding at what level of EL students reach higher education and the influence of the HEIs in their evolution, providing the identification of the best approaches and strategies to provide more effective results in the face of the current ecological environment crisis.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Universidade da Madeira (UMA)

Other Institutions

  • Instituto Politécnico de Leiria (IPLeiria)
  • Universidade de Aveiro (UA)
  • Universidade Aberta (Uab)
  • Universidade do Minho (UMinho)
  • Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI)
  • Universidade do Algarve (UALg)
  • Universidade dos Açores (UAc)

Funding 240.190,28 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

240.190,28 €