The Correlation between Dimensions of Sustainability Literacy: The Case of British and Turkish Students

Abstract

The acquisition of the competencies of sustainability literacy through education requires an understanding of how sustainability literacy is shaped. In this connection, in the current study, the interaction between the following dimensions of sustainability literacy was investigated; SA (sustainability attitude), SB (sustainability behavior) and SK (sustainability knowledge). The study was conducted as a survey study on university students in the UK and Turkey within the context of a project entitled “Ecological Literacy Education” and supported by TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Organization). The participants (n:1023) of the study are students attending several departments of Plymouth University in the UK and Mugla Sitki Kocman University in Turkey. The data were collected by using the Scale of Sustainability Literacy and analyzed using AMOS version 24. Although it was understood that there were mutual and positive correlations between the dimensions of sustainability literacy, it was revealed that the correlations between some sub-dimensions of these dimensions showed variation. The results of the study are expected to contribute to revealing the interaction between the dimensions of sustainability literacy in more detail and accordingly to the effectiveness of sustainability education.