The relationship between secondary school students’ environmental and human values, attitudes, interests and motivations

Abstract

Education for sustainability (ESD) is meant to enhance learners’ knowledge, values, attitudes, and skills concerning sustainable development. In this study the relationships among Finnish grade nine students’ (N=2,367) values, attitudes, interests, and motivations were studied. Human-centered values, biocentric nature value, pro-environmental and pro-social attitudes, interests, and motivations were found to be interconnected. Attitudes, interests, and motivations connected to dismissive human and utilistic nature value correlated negatively with the factors. It is important to notice the connections between students’ values and value-related orientations because they affect students’ engagement in issues and activities concerning ESD at school.