Planning education to care for the earth - IUCN Knowledge Network

Planning education to care for the earthOf 232 useable responses, 102 came from men and 130 from women.Categories of response were coded and only explicit or prominentreferences in individual statements were scored. Responses were neitherweighted nor ranked between or within statements. Weighting suggested bythe subject - identification of a single most important influence - was,however, noted and included in the analysis.Thirteen major categories of response were established, some with subcategories,in the final analysis (Table 1). “Outdoors” included threesubstantial sub-categories: childhood outdoors (97 respondents), outdooractivities (90), and wilderness/solitude (24). The 97 references to childhoodoutdoors included details of growing up in rural areas, holidays in theoutdoors and childhood participation in outdoor pastimes.Table 1. Number of Subjects Identifying with Each Major Category ofResponse (n=232)Number %Outdoors 211 91Education / Courses 136 59Parents / Close relatives 88 38Organisations 83 36TV / Media 53 23Friends / other individuals 49 21Travel abroad 44 19Disasters / negative issues 41 18Books 35 15Becoming a parent 20 9Keeping pets / animals 14 6Religion / God 13 6Others 35 15Total 232“Education/courses” referred to two sub-categories: higher education orother courses taken as an adult (85 respondents) and school courses (51).Twenty-three subjects reported that school programmes had no influence onthem; others described courses, particularly at higher and secondaryeducation levels, as being very significant.The third largest category of response - “parents and close relatives” (88respondents) - and the separate category - “friends and other individuals”(49) - demonstrated that ideas and examples set by others are criticalformative influences.The role of organisations in developing environmental concern was also4