The value orientation of a person is highly likely to have consequences in his/her attitudes and behavior. The study reported in this paper examined the ecological/environmental value orientations of prospective secondary school teachers enrolled at Addis Ababa University for a one year Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching (PGDT) program. An environmental and sustainability literacy questionnaire (ESLQ) was used to measure the awareness and views of participants on key environmental/ecological issues and concerns. The 15 items that make up the New Ecological Paradigm Scale have been included in the ESLQ as they are. This paper reports findings related to participants' entry profile and their views about key environmental/ecological issues. The results show two interesting trends with regard to participants' ecological value orientations. First, both the eight pro-NEP and the seven pro-DSP statements have been endorsed. Second, the level of agreement with the two apparently contradictory groups of statements happened to be almost exactly the same (with an average of 67.1% endorsement for pro-NEP statements and strikingly equal level of endorsement of 67.4% for pro-DSP statements). The findings thus show that the prospective secondary school teachers hold a syncretic (NEP plus HEP) not a dualistic (NEP vs. HEP) worldview. In fact, a closer look into the patterns of responses to the five categories of statements shows that respondents had, on average, a pro-DSP worldview in four of the five categories. The only category where respondents had a pro-NEP view relates to 'possibility of eco-crisis'.

 

Key words: Dominant social paradigm, ecological value orientations, green development, new ecological paradigm, prospective teachers.