Ecological behavior of students of the National University of La Rioja

Abstract

In a global context in which environmental problems have become more visible, people have been generating greater awareness or concern for the protection of the natural environment. In Argentina, the Comprehensive Environmental Education Act was passed in 2021. This Act "establishes the right to comprehensive environmental education as a national public policy with the aim of promoting environmental education and incorporating the new paradigms of sustainability into the areas of formal, non-formal and informal education. Within the framework of a national environmental education law, it becomes relevant to carry out diagnoses in the various educational fields to make proposals for approaches to environmental issues.  

Within the scope of the National University of La Rioja, this work seeks to analyze the ecological behavior of students, in particular those who are studying in the UNLaR, based on a quantification of behavior using a scale of ecological behavior and subscales of individual actions, participation and knowledge of academic activities. Differences between majors and province of origin of the students are analyzed.

The approach of this work is quantitative, with a descriptive, observational, cross-sectional and prospective scope. The sample is non-probabilistic. All students who attend classes and who are willing to collaborate voluntarily with the study by answering a questionnaire that was distributed online are considered. Total sample n=418 students.

Most of the students have habits of caring for the environment based on individual actions. To a lesser extent, they participate in collective actions and do not have much knowledge or appreciation of university actions.

There are differences between academic departments but not between provinces.