Assessing the impact of the efforts of sustainability education in Hungarian secondary schools; and related recommendations on research methodology

Abstract

Examining environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviours in schools is key in assessing how the requirements regarding the improvement of students’ attitude and behaviour about sustainability towards becoming pro-environmental appears in pedagogical work. This way feedback for the development of pedagogical work is provided. In this study, we examined students’ attitudes and behaviours concerning sustainability in 14 Hungarian secondary schools, as well as the sustainability education (ESD) related efforts of their schools and teachers. Environmentalism (i.e. attitudes and behaviour) in students was mostly influenced by factors related to socio-economic background (type of settlement, county, parents’ education, school status as a proportion of successful graduations), while grade and gender had only a small effect. Our research confirmed that the ESD efforts of Hungarian secondary schools have a positive impact on students’ environmentalism. Due to the ESD efforts (e.g. facilities and programs related to sustainability) environmentalism has improved in students, indicating the effectiveness of focused pedagogical efforts. Furthermore, ESD efforts were linked to the time of participation in the eco-school program, confirming that participation in the eco-school program helps schools to make continuous progress towards the development of sustainability related knowledge, skills and competences of their students.