How environmental club participation may develop ecocentric mindsets

Adolescent students are in the midst of personal identity development throughout their young adult years, including the development of their individual ecological philosophy and identity. Previous studies have investigated the spectrum of young students' ecological philosophies, ranging from ecocentrism (prioritizing natural resources for all living and nonliving things) to anthropocentrism (prioritizing natural resources for humans). Little is known about what encourages students to develop an ecocentric mindset, or care for natural environment, including ecosystems and wildlife. Developing an ecocentric mindset may lead to responsible behavior toward the earth. The researchers in this study attempted to identify the values, wisdom, self-identity, and empathy of the students as related to their relationship to the natural world. Specifically, the researchers sought to understand the student experiences in school, at home, and in their daily lives influence students' pathways to development of ecological self.

This study took place in Victoria, Australia, and involved students between the ages of 13-16 years old from three secondary schools. These schools were chosen because each had a sustainability program. The researcher proposed voluntary study participation to students involved in each school's environmental club. In total, 30 students in environmental clubs were assessed. The students were asked to participate in a questionnaire and 30-minute interviews. In the interviews, students responded to a number of questions, including one in which participants ranked their self-interpreted degree of anthropocentric or ecocentric mindset using the Deep Ecology Spectrum (DES) sliding scale. The sliding scale ranged from 0, indicating an anthropocentric viewpoint, to 10, indicating an ecocentric viewpoint. The researchers analyzed the data for patterns and recurring themes.

Researchers identified four overarching themes related to pro-environmental attitudes, believes and values in participant interviews. These themes were: 1) social influence and daily lifestyle choices, such as making ethical choices; 2) right of non-humans to natural resources, and the limits to human growth; 3) connection to nature, such as feeling love for wildlife; and 4) self-development through environmental clubs. The study found that participant ability to embrace the combined forces of both participation in environmental clubs and parental influence at home allowed for the participant to develop their own ecological philosophy. Further, the study found that involvement of the participant's community (such as siblings, parents, school administrators, teachers, and other students) was important to most participants. The community's encouragement helped to foster and enhance the participants' personal ecological identity. Through engagement with both the club and their parents, participants reported feeling confident and supported in developing their ecological identity.

Additionally, 28 of 30 participants from the environmental clubs indicated holding an ecocentric viewpoint. This finding is consistent with literature on environmental club participants. Further, student responses indicated a slightly above center ecocentric viewpoint (averaged 6.29/10 on the DES scale), but not a highly ecocentric viewpoint. Further, researchers found that participants demonstrated a tendency to re-think how to minimize human impact in terms of utilizing available natural resources.

The participants identified the importance of the environmental club as a collaborative and encouraging community to allow for deeper ecological self-identification. They also expressed a reverence for the needs of wildlife and plants that inhabit this planet and self-reflected to acknowledge the consumptive nature of humans. Participants went on to demonstrate their alignment of their ecological selves through instituting of personal restrictions on their own consumption. An environmental club's collaborative and supportive community encourages students to investigate personal relationship to nature and therefore personal ecological self-identity.

This study has several limitations. Relatively few students from a small number of schools participated in this research. Inclusion of additional students and examination of additional schools could better capture the diversity of environmental clubs and increase the reliability of the results. In addition, the findings of this study are specific to these participants; another study conducted in a different location may yield different results. This research could benefit from tracking student experiences and beliefs over a longer period of time to understand the long-term impact on results.

The authors recommend discussing anthropocentrism and ecocentrism in formal environmental and sustainability education. However, students should also be encouraged to think beyond the binary spectrum of anthropocentric/ecocentric viewpoints. Rather, practitioners should encourage students to develop their own deeper self-identity and philosophy in relation to the environment and natural resources. Fostering a community of enthusiasm and support surrounding the ecocentric mindset allows for students to explore ecocentric identities, allowing more focus on how to sustain natural resources for all rather than on how to use them to the human's greatest advantage now.