A Study on the Environmental Literacy and Training Needs of Civil Servants: Based on the Example of Kaohsiung City Civil Servants

• Main Authors: Chiou-Chu Jeng, 鄭秋菊
• Other Authors: San-pui Lam
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/00274106986784705273

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 公共事務管理研究所 === 98 === The main purposes of this study are to investigate the environmental literacy of the Kaohsiung City civil servants, their education and training needs, and the correlation between the two. The subjects of this study were civil servants of the Kaohsiung City Government, and data were collected by quantitative research methods. The study was built mainly on the theoretical framework of Hungerford and Volk’s responsible environmental behavior model, and an environmental behavior model consolidated by San-Pui Lam was also consulted, in order to carry out investigation and analysis. Environmental concern was categorized into 5 levels, and general environmental attitude into 4 levels. These two variables were not used to decide the level of environmental literacy. The object of categorization was to provide a reference for environmental education and training. However, having less concern for environmental issues than other issues or placing less emphasis on environmental values than other civil values was considered as an indicator of poor literacy performance. Other variables were categorized into three levels (A, B and C) according to the scores, with A representing the highest level of performance, followed by B representing a medium level of performance, and C representing poor performance. The following conclusions were obtained: 1. In the performance of environmental literacy, more than 75% of the responding Kaohsiung City civil servants had an environmentally friendly attitude, with at least a medium level of environmental knowledge and skills. In the environmental behavior aspect, however, poor performance in behaviors other than ecomanagement was shown. It was evident that the respondents were unable to apply their environmental knowledge, skills and positive attitude, and transform them into active environmental behaviors. 2. With regard to the education and training needs, the study proposed the following benchmarks for strengthening environmental education and training: (1) those who had not achieved the high level in terms of the scores of environmental knowledge, skills and behaviors; (2) those who had less concern for, or placed less emphasis on, environmental issues or values than other issues or civil values. Test results showed that 25% of the responding Kaohsiung City civil servants had not reached the high level for their knowledge of issues, 66% had not reached the high level for their knowledge of action strategies, and 78% had not reached the high level for their skill in using action strategies. In terms of their self-assessed training needs, 90% of the respondents indicated a high level of need for knowledge, and 85% indicated a high level of need for skills. It showed that respondents’ subjectively-assessed needs for environmental education and training in terms of knowledge and skills were slightly higher than their actual needs for education and training. However, only 20% of the responding civil servants had participated in environmental education and training in the past three years, representing a paradox formed by a high level of needs and a low level of participation. 3. Regarding the difference in environmental literacy of respondents with different backgrounds, it was shown that respondents who had participated in environmental education and training in the past three years generally had better performance in literacy indicators than those who had not, except for these 5 variables: knowledge of issues, knowledge of action strategies, persuation, general environmental attitude, and locus of control. For other backgrounds, it showed no significant difference in the environmental literacy performance. 4. For the difference in environmental education and training needs of respondents with different backgrounds, those who had participated in environmental education and training in the past three years had a higher level of needs than those who had not. Other differences in respondents’ backgrounds made no significant difference in their environmental education and training needs. 5. On the correlation between environmental literacy and environmental education and training needs, 7 variables were shown to be significantly correlated: the knowledge aspect of environmental education and training needs, environmental concern, environmental attitude, general environmental attitude, specific environmental attitude, locus of control, as well as skill in using action strategies. In the aspect of skills, variables that showed significant correlation with environmental literacy were the same as those for the knowledge aspect of training needs, except for general environmental attitude. Finally, recommendations on civil servants’ environmental education and training were made based on the literature review and the study results, to provide a reference for the competent authority of civil servants and the training organizations.