Attitudes of secondary school students towards environmental and sustainable development issues: A case study from Turkey

As a consequence of the industrial revolution, countries around the world began to exploit natural resources more than ever before without regard for maintaining a balance between development and nature. The problems stemming from these human actions has compromised the ability of subsequent generations to meet their needs from the earth and in the last few decades, have obliged them to restructure their educational systems in terms of environmental and sustainability education. Turkey has also introduced a new high school geography program that emphasizes environmental and sustainability education. At present, there is an urgent need to test the relationships between theory and practice to understand whether Turkish schools provide sufficient education on the environment and sustainable development (SD). This study used survey research in an attempt to measure student knowledge levels in environmental and sustainability issues as well as student opinions about the importance, place and future of SD in Turkish high schools. The results suggest that students were relatively knowledgeable about environmental issues, but their knowledge of SD was not satisfactory. The students had significant knowledge gaps concerning certain environmental and sustainability issues. It is quite promising however, that the surveyed students believed that SD was an important concept for their future. Moreover, the students seemed ready to take part in any activity promoting SD.