An investigation of the views of teachers and parents living around Lake Eğirdir and Kovada on the environment

Environmental education provides individuals with the necessary knowledge and skills for a sustainable life, and the effective and conscious use of pesticides plays an important role in achieving these goals. In Turkey and the world, effective and efficient use of pesticides together with environmental education is of great importance for environmental sustainability. In this study, the opinions of teachers working in schools around Eğirdir and Kovada Lake and parents residing in the region on environmental education and the effects of pesticides used in agriculture on the environment were examined. The research model was designed as parallel mixed method. With qualitative data, it was aimed to obtain in-depth information about environmental attitudes by interviewing teachers and parents living in Eğirdir and Kovada region, and with quantitative data, it was aimed to analyze the environmental awareness levels of teachers numerically through the attitude scale towards the environment and pesticides. In this context, while quantitative data show the average environmental awareness of science, social studies and classroom teachers, qualitative data provide explanations on how this awareness is developed. In the qualitative dimension of the study, a case study design was used to investigate in depth the sensitivity of science teachers and parents working around Eğirdir and Kovada Lake to the environment they live in, how they find solutions to the problems encountered in that region, and what they do to raise awareness of the individuals around them. In this direction, descriptions of teachers' and parents' feelings and thoughts about the environment and the issue of raising environmental awareness in students were revealed. In order to determine the opinions and thoughts of teachers and parents about environmental education and the effects of pesticides used in agriculture on the environment, "semi-structured interview" technique was used, and descriptive analysis approach was used to analyze the collected qualitative data. In the quantitative dimension of the study, teachers' responses to the scale of attitudes towards the environment and the use of pesticides were examined by using the "Attitude Scale Towards the Environment and the Use of Pesticides" prepared by the researcher and whose reliability coefficient was .77. In the analysis of the data, teachers' gender, age, professional seniority, branch, working in the lake region, being a member of an environmental institution/organization and participating in environmental projects were determined as variables. SPSS 26 package program was used in the analysis of quantitative data, and the findings obtained as a result of the analyzes carried out by means of parametric tests, t-test and ANOVA, were interpreted by supporting the studies in the literature. In the study group of the research, interviews were conducted with 16 science teachers working in schools around Eğirdir and Kovada Lake in Isparta province in the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year and 7 parents residing in the region. In order to collect qualitative data, the study group was determined by criterion sampling from purposeful sampling methods. The attitudes towards the environment and pesticides scale was administered to a total of 330 teachers including Science, Social Studies and Classroom teachers working in the Central, Eğirdir, Gelendost and SenThe data were collected through the "teacher interview form", "parent interview form" and "attitude scale towards the environment and pesticides" developed by the researcher in accordance with quantitative and qualitative research techniques. As a result of the interviews with science teachers working in the region, it was concluded that teachers were sensitive to the environment and the use of pesticides and had environmental awareness, but did not have sufficient knowledge about pesticides. It was concluded that parents residing in the region did not have sufficient awareness about environmental awareness and the use of pesticides. It was also revealed that teachers' attitudes towards the environment were highly positive, but they were more critical of utilitarian approaches to the use of pesticides.irkent districts of Isparta province. While demographic variables such as gender and major did not have a determining effect on environmental attitudes, age and professional seniority variables created significant differences especially in the tendency to avoid environmental responsibility. As age and professional experience increased, environmental responsibility behaviors increased. Although the effect of the region of assignment (central or peripheral districts) on environmental attitudes was not found to be significant, it was found that the environmental responsibility levels of teachers working around the lake were higher. In addition, voluntary environmental activities such as membership in environmental organizations and participation in environmental projects were found to have a significant effect on the environmental awareness dimension. These findings indicate that environmental education policies should be designed in a structure that is not only knowledge-based but also supports behavior change, is sensitive to age and professional experience, encourages participation and increases interaction with the local environment. The research is important for the protection of Lake Eğirdir and Lake Kovada and to draw attention to the use of pesticides.