Investigation of preservice preschool teachers’ views on environmental problems and relevant suggestions of solution

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate preservice preschool teachers' opinions on environmental problems and their suggestions of solution. This study was conducted through case study which is one of the qualitative research design. The study group consisted of 62 senior preservice teachers studying Preschool Teacher Education at a public university in South-eastern Anatolia. Eight semi-structured open-ended questions were asked to preservice teachers as the data collection tool. The data was transferred to the electronic environment and content analysis was made with the NVivo11 program. According to the results, it was observed that the majority of preservice teachers didn’t take a course related to the environment during their education, almost half of them didn’t participate in any environmental activities, and the most of them did not have membership in any non-governmental organizations related to environment. It was identified that preservice teachers considered global warming as the main global-scale environmental problem, and air, water and soil pollution as other major environmental issues in Turkey. Additionally, the study showed that preservice teachers regarded human factor as the main reason of environmental issues, and that natural environment would be harmed and human life would be challenged as a result of environmental issues. In the solution of environmental issues, the study showed that raising awareness, taking responsibility and receiving education were seen necessary.