The Sustainability Literacy of Students: A Comparative Study between Turkey and the UK

Abstract

In recent years, the sustainability literacy has become crucial for building more sustainable future.  In this regard, a shift toward sustainability requires literate society on sustainability issues at global scale. Thus, the current study aims to detect the status of sustainability literacy of British and Turkish students. The study was conducted as a survey research with university students in the UK and Turkey within the context of a project that was supported by TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Organization) and entitled “Ecological literacy education”. 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 Scala of Sustainability Literacy and analyzed using appropriate statistical tests at SPSS 22. The findings show that the participants’ sustainability literacy varies significantly depending on their sustainability attitude (SA), sustainability behavior (SB), sustainability knowledge (SK). Besides, the results of t- test analysis indicate that the participants exhibit different tendencies depending on the variables nationality, gender and place. On the other hand, the results of One-way ANOVA-Test revealed that the participants’ sustainability literacy varies depending on the department attended.