Significant life experiences affect environmental action: a confirmation study in eastern Taiwan

Abstract

Two field studies form the basis of this article. The major purposes of Study 1 were to examine significant life experiences affecting the cultivation of environmental activists in eastern Taiwan, and to reconstruct the life paths followed by those active people who engaged in effective environmental action. 40 usable autobiographical memories were collected and content-analysed to derive 17 significant life experiences. Based on the 17 accounts, a quantitative questionnaire of 24 items on significant life experiences variables was developed for Study 2. Four hundred and thirty valid questionnaires were analysed. Eighty two respondents with a high level of environmental action were determined to be environmental activists, and 153 with a low level of environmental action were determined to be people apathetic towards environmental protection. It was found that the significant life experiences identified in Study 1 could effectively distinguish environmentally committed people from those apathetic to environmental protection. Study 2 also found that 54.6% of the variances in environmental actions could be explained by the significant life experiences.

Significant Life Experiences Affect Environmental Action: A Critical Review of Taiwanese Research

“…Almost all of the subjects interviewed in the previous studies mentioned directly and affi rmatively that the primary and secondary education in Taiwan did not have any positive infl uences on the development of their environmental civic action (Hsu 2003, 2009, Hsu and Lee 2004. This result contrasts strongly with the studies conducted in Western countries such as the United States, Britain, Australia, and Canada, where primary school education has been confi rmed as highly infl uential in facilitating environmental actions; nevertheless, similar fi ndings have been reported in Hong Kong, a society with cultural elements similar to those of Taiwan (Chawla 1999, Palmer et al 1998).…”

“…Based on research conducted in Taiwan (Hsu 2003, Hsu and Lee 2004, Hsu 2005, Hsu 2009), Hsu and Jen (2014) proposed an environmental action model (Figure 1), in which environmental action is the product of the interaction among fundamental factors, facilitating factors, inhibiting factors, and environmental hope.…”

“…This literature review indicated that childhood natural experiences are the most crucial factor for developing environmental activists (Hsu 2003(Hsu , 2005(Hsu , 2009, and this factor exhibited a distinct urban-rural divide both in its frequency of being mentioned and its implications. As Taiwan has undergone industrialization and urbanization, the limited natural environments in urban areas have prevented Taiwanese children from easy access to nature in their childhoods.…”

“…Therefore, many signifi cant life experiences studies have been done in the international society for environmental education because of the relevancy of lived, everyday experience, which primarily occurs outside of school, as the main channel for environmental learning (Chawla and Cushing 2007, Hsu 2009, UNESCO 1980.…”

Trajetórias da Construção da Identidade de Professoras do Ensino Básico como Educadoras Ambientais

“…As pesquisas com experiências de vida significativas têm gerado opiniões controversas entre os pesquisadores (GOUGH, 1999). Alguns defendem que tais investigações são capazes de identificar quais experiências podem produzir pessoas sensíveis e/ou comprometidas com a questão ambiental (PALMER, 1998;HSU, 2009), enquanto outros afirmam que as experiências relatadas não se constituem uma realidade absoluta, mas são (re)interpretadas como significativas, à luz do momento presente (CHAWLA, 1998), o que é coerente com a perspectiva na qual desenvolvemos esta pesquisa. Assim, acreditamos que as vivências no meio natural muito provavelmente trouxeram contribuições importantes para a formação da sensibilidade ambiental das professoras, porém não podemos assumir uma relação direta, tipo causa-efeito entre elas, o que seria subestimar a complexidade das experiências humanas ao longo da vida (PAYNE, 1999).…”