GRADE OF KNOWLEDGE OF ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS AMONG THE TEACHERS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE NORTHEASTERN OF SPAIN

Environmental (or ecological) consciousness is addressed in terms of the level of endorsement for the so-called new environmental (or ecological) paradigm. This paradigm associates environmentalism to a general eco-centric worldview that emphasizes humanity's need to establish a balance with nature, the existence of limits to growth for human societies and question humanity's right to rule over the rest of nature. Ecological consciousness is not a recent question, since the early sixties the national and international organizations increased their efforts for a better environmental education and ecological consciousness, although these efforts lack of attitudes and concepts were detected in the students from the secondary education in the north-eastern of Spain. This lack of attitudes in the students may be due to the deficiency of concepts from their teacher. Within this frame work, the objective of this study is to evaluate the ecological consciousness level from the teachers. In order to rate them, the methodology used was a questionnaire, with knowledge related to ecological consciousness, that previously had been validated. This questionnaire allow us to rate them according to the number of questions answered correctly from the questionnaire, those questions are referred the theoretical background of the teacher. These questions were also correlated with different parameters such as the gender -masculine or feminine-, the type of secondary school where the teacher proceed - state or non-state high school-, academic grade -PhD teacher or no PhD teacher-and the year when they study the degree. This questionnaire was made to 69 teachers from the secondary school in the northeastern of Spain. The results of this study, demonstrate that, over 97% of the teachers possess enough knowledge in ecological consciousness concepts related to the syllabus from the secondary education. This level is not related to the gender, the type of secondary school where the teachers proceeds, level of education or the year when they study the degree. In conclusion, this is a first approach to the reason of why evaluate the teachers from the secondary school. It is essential the evaluation of the ecological consciousness level form the teachers in the high school, it is also essential to facilitate the evolution of the society and future generations, those that depends the future and the development of the nature and the world.