Urban vs. Rural: Comparing Ecological Worldviews of High School Students in Pennsylvania
Open Access
- Author:
- Schanwald, Sarah
- Area of Honors:
- Environmental Resource Management
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Douglas R Goodstein, Thesis Supervisor
Robert David Shannon, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- ecological worldviews
environmental pedagogy
climate change
new ecological paradigm
curriculum
high school
environmental concern
urban
rural
worldviews
pedagogy
environment - Abstract:
- The Earth’s climate is currently changing faster than at any other point in modern civilization due to anthropogenic causes. Although climate change is often seen as a problem that is affecting areas of the world that are far from North America, there is reason to believe that Pennsylvania, in particular, will be experiencing significant changes within the coming decades. In rural areas, climate change has the potential to negatively affect agricultural productivity due to intense temperature and precipitation changes. In contrast, urban areas have their own vulnerabilities due to their high population density and developed infrastructure. This study sought to understand how high schoolers in urban and rural populations in Pennsylvania differ in terms of their perceptions and values related to Earth’s current environmental conditions by prompting students to respond to Riley Dunlap’s New Ecological Paradigm. US Census Bureau data and Minitab18 were used to analyze the data collected and run statistical analyses, respectively. Results indicated there is no statistical significance regarding the median differences between the NEP scores of urban (n1) and rural (n2) populations (Mann Whitney: W=28823.00, n1 – n2 = 0.13, p=0.253), although urban communities tend to have higher NEP scores. However, like most previous research, there is statistical significance in the median difference between the NEP scores of the male (n1) and female (n2) populations (Mann Whitney: W=9319.00, n1 – n2 = -0.333, p=0.00005194). Differences between environmental concern among Generation Z and the older generations are present as well in this study. The discussion emphasizes how NEP scores have been wrongly used to predict people's behaviors and how different experiences and generational gaps could impact worldviews.