A Mixed Methods Exploration of Postsecondary Education Students’ Environmental Awareness and Worldviews

Abstract

Postsecondary education students are positioned to contribute to solving complex environmental problems present in the world today. This convergent mixed methods study aimed to explore environmental worldviews for undergraduate and graduate students at a public four-year university in the Southwest United States. The revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP-R) Scale, demographic questions, and three open-ended questions were implemented in an online survey to explore participants’ environmental worldviews. Using descriptive and non-parametric statistical analyses, the results of an online survey revealed that overall participants (N = 513) reported pro-environmental worldviews, and factors such as age and gender influenced environmental worldview scores. Moreover, identifying major and minor themes after coding responses to open-ended questions broadened the understanding of students’ environmental worldviews in the context of experiencing higher education. Although the present study had limitations, the findings can assist postsecondary educational leaders, faculty, and practitioners in developing and implementing pro-environmental or sustainability-oriented policies, practices, and programs on higher education campuses.