Worldviews in transition: using ecological autobiographies to explore students’ worldviews

Abstract

College students (n = 292), after completing an American environmental history course, self‐selected, defined and defended their ecological worldview in an ecological autobiography essay that used historic content about different philosophies concerning the environment and natural resource use. The whole sample divided into groups along a spectrum of anthropocentrism to biocentrism with several worldview perspectives that ranged from utilitarian conservationism, which were anthropocentric, to preservationism, which were biocentric. A large group (n = 115), named logical idealists, fell midway in this continuum and expressed conflict with their desires for preserving the environment and their utilitarian lifestyle references. However, another mid‐continuum group, non‐radical environmentalists and ecologists (n = 59), were quite firm in their definition and did not express dissonance with their views, and considered themselves more mainstream environmentalist. The students stated that exposure to different worldviews within contextual content made them more tolerant and understanding of worldviews different from their own. The resulting worldview categories and polarized spread of worldviews have implications for the field of environmental education.