Date of Award

5-2019

Type

Dissertation

Major

Doctor of Education

Degree Type

Ed.D

Department

Counseling, Foundations & Leadership

First Advisor

Deniz Peker

Second Advisor

Basil Conway

Third Advisor

Michael D. Richardson

Abstract

Climate change is a global environmental problem and issue. Mitigation and adaptation have been suggested for use in dealing with the impacts, both current and in the future. Climate change education as a mitigation and adaptation effort is one that could have great impact. This quantitative survey study examined the climate change and climate change education perception and knowledge of Southeastern Environmental Education Association members. This study segmented participants into one of six unique climate change groups: Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Doubtful, Dismissive, and Disengaged based on the Six Americas Survey developed by Maibach, Lesierowitz, Roser-Renouf, and Mertz. CC knowledge was collected with items based on an instrument developed by Leiserowitz, Smith, and Marlon. The results of this segmentation were also analyzed against the participants’ demographics, and the climate change segment and knowledge proportions were compared to previous studies. An online survey was distributed to Southern Environmental Education Association members with a final sample of 93. Analysis of the data included discriminant analysis, multi-nominal logistic regression, chi-square, ANOVA, crosstabs, and descriptive statistics. The results of this study indicated that overall, Southeastern environmental education had high climate change perception levels, with most being segmented into the Concerned and Cautious groups. In addition, they reported higher climate change knowledge than the general public. The findings had limited implications for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts for Southeastern environmental educators.

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