Different tracks, same greenness? Environmental literacy models integrated with teachers’ environmental education practices for academic vs. technical/vocational high school students

Abstract

Are we having high school students in different tracks be equally knowledgeable, concerned about, and active for the environment while they learn different curricula that suit their aptitudes? 798 students of academic high schools and 751 students of technical high schools in Taiwan participated in a survey of their environmental literacy and their teachers’ integrating environmental education into instruction. Results revealed that compared to technical students, academic students had better environmental knowledge, more approval for nature’s value, higher sensitivity to air quality, and conducted some environmental behaviours more often. With structural equation modelling, the environmental literacy models of the two school types of students were found to differ in the correlations between sub-dimensions as well as goodness-of-fit. The possible causes of differences were discussed from the perspectives of the intellectual development in academically-oriented curricula, the environmental education integration of teachers, and other factors such as compulsory subjects and socio-economic status.

Keywords

• Environmental literacy
• high schools
• environmental education integration
• structural equation modelling
• John Chiang, Communication and Media, State University of New York, Oneonta, New York, USA
• Sustainability Education, Training & Leadership