Environmental Attitudes of Homeschoolers in Canada by Emily
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Environmental Attitudes of Homeschoolers in Canada by Emily Elizabeth McMillan Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Human Studies School of Graduate Studies Laurentian University Sudbury, Ontario © Emily McMillan, 2012 Signature Page Placeholder ii Abstract Environmental attitudes are shaped by a variety of factors including our educational history, cultural background, childhood and life experiences, and past and current interactions with nature. This research set out to examine attitudes toward the environment in an understudied but growing segment of the Canadian population, homeschoolers. The purposes of this study were to investigate whether environmental attitudes in Canadian homeschoolers differ from those of people involved with public school and to acquire a greater understanding of the factors that affect the development of these attitudes. The mixed method, follow-up explanatory research design utilized the New Ecological Paradigm Scale and the Connectedness to Nature Scale in an internet survey. The survey was sent to homeschooling and parent groups across Canada. Subsequently, interviews were conducted with a subsample of respondents. The results of the survey showed that demographic variables were not significantly related to environmental attitude scores with the exception of locale and religion. Urban respondents had slightly stronger environmental attitudes than rural respondents. The confluence of homeschooling and religiosity emerged as the key factor influencing environmental attitudes. There was no significant difference between environmental attitudes of homeschoolers and public schoolers until importance of religion was taken into account. As measured by the scales, religious homeschoolers exhibited the weakest environmental attitudes, public schoolers were in the middle, and not-as-religious homeschoolers had the strongest environmental attitudes. The qualitative data supported these results, with religious homeschoolers expressing weaker iii environmental attitudes, particularly in terms of climate change and the need for a more sustainable lifestyle. Religious homeschooling respondents favoured a more structured back to basics style of schooling which also correlated with lower environmental attitude scores. Unstructured homeschooling respondents tended to choose a child-centred philosophy of education which was correlated with stronger environmental attitudes. During the interviews, respondents were asked to reflect on what in their lives had influenced their attitudes toward the environment. Consistent with other literature, unstructured outdoor time as a child remained the most significant factor, cited by a majority of respondents. Other important factors included religion, parents, school, teachers, TV/media, economic necessity, and negative experiences with environmental pollution. The results of this study highlight the importance of considering variables associated with religion when exploring the development or level of environmental attitudes or when conducting a study of homeschooling. Religious beliefs are complex and highly personal in some cases, as is their corresponding influence on environmental concern. Potential exists for environmental concern and action from a group of spiritual people with strong community bonds and often political involvement. The key may be finding common ground and learning to communicate, while resisting expectations of complete agreement. This dissertation showed that stepping outside of the educational system does not necessarily have a direct impact on environmental attitudes, as they are mediated by a complex array of variables. Homeschooling may not directly generate a different level of environmental attitudes than public school; however, religious iv homeschoolers definitely have a different set of attitudes toward the environment that deserve further in-depth study. v Acknowledgements My sincere gratitude goes to my excellent supervisor Dr. Liette Vasseur. Thank you for always having time to help, for steering me along the path and for all of your encouragement. Much appreciation also goes to my committee members, Dr. Luis Radford and Dr. Francois Depelteau, for their advice and guidance. Many thanks go to the Human Studies Department for their support, particularly Dr. Simon LaFlamme, Dr. Cynthia Whissell and Carole Anderson. Thank you to Dr. Gary Knowles and Dr. Yovita Gwekwerere for agreeing to act as external readers and providing valuable feedback. This project would not have been possible without financial support. First of all, thanks to Sherry Blinkhorn, Margaret Nicholls, and Rudy Haase and the Chester Educational Foundation for their financial rescue. Thanks to my father for financial support throughout my education. Also many more thanks to Liette Vasseur for generously providing funds in my initial year. Special mention also to Elizabeth May for ensuring my continual well-being. I am also grateful to Laurentian University for their fellowship. Finally, it was an honour to receive the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship – SSHRC Doctoral Award. This research would not have been possible without the survey and interview participants and I truly appreciate their time and altruism. For the day-to-day support ensuring that the work was finished, I thank my daily writing group. Also, thanks to River for ensuring that I had fresh air each and every day. Lastly, I would like to thank all of my loved ones for their support and help over the course of completing this project. Thank you to my Mom and my Dad, my sisters Christa and Jennie, and my husband Simon. vi Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................. xii List of Figures .............................................................................................................. xiv Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 Research Question ....................................................................................................... 1 Need for Research........................................................................................................ 2 A Planet in Trouble ...................................................................................................... 5 Education - Part of the solution .................................................................................... 6 Education – Part of the Problem ................................................................................... 7 An alternative path – homeschooling ........................................................................... 9 Measuring Environmental Attitudes ........................................................................... 10 Delimitations ............................................................................................................. 12 Key Terms ................................................................................................................. 13 Overview of Methods ................................................................................................ 14 Interdisciplinary world of the environment ................................................................. 15 An Interdisciplinary Project ....................................................................................... 18 Overview of Chapters ................................................................................................ 20 Chapter 2: Research Design ........................................................................................... 22 Mixed Methods Study Design .................................................................................... 22 Quantitative methods ................................................................................................. 23 Internet Surveys ..................................................................................................... 24 My Survey Sampling Method ................................................................................ 25 vii Missing Data Analysis ........................................................................................... 29 New Ecological Paradigm Scale ............................................................................. 31 Connectedness to Nature Scale............................................................................... 35 Reliability Analysis ................................................................................................... 39 Qualitative methods ................................................................................................... 48 Interviews .............................................................................................................. 48 Interview Sampling ................................................................................................ 51 Demographics of Interview Participants ................................................................. 54 Interview Data Analysis ......................................................................................... 55 Limitations of the Study ............................................................................................. 55 Quantitative ..........................................................................................................