Analyzing ecocentric, anthropocentric and antipathetic attitudes toward environment and ecological footprints of teachers and preservice teachers

The purposes of this study were to determine teachers' and preservice teachers' ecocentric, anthropocentric and antipathetic attitudes toward environment, to examine their attitudes with respect to related variables (gender, income, place of residence, housing, parental education, department, class, attendance of environmental course, participation in presentations and activities about environmental, status of watching environmental documentary), and to calculate their ecological footprints. The sample included 273 teachers working in secondary schools in the province of Antalya in the academic year of 2015-2016, whose branches are science, mathematics, Turkish, English, social studies and education of religion and ethics and 973 preservice teachers enrolled in these departments. The overall design of this study was mainly a survey and conducted in the 2015-2016 academic year. Personal Information Form prepared by researcher, "Ecocentric and Anthropocentric and Antipathetic Attitude Scale" adapted to Turkish by Erten (2007) and web-based "Ecological Footprint Calculator" were used as a data collection tool in the study. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics techniques were used in data analysis. Results revealed that participants' ecocentric attitude scores were positive. Besides, the average of participants' ecocentric, anthropocentric and antipathetic attitudes toward environment are significantly different with respect to various variables. Findings also revealed that participants' ecological footprints exceeded the world's average biological capacity.