Environmental Culture in Northern Peru: A Mixed Approach

Abstract

Introduction:  In the field of Ecology, environment is understood as the living and not living factors which influence the development of our species, also in the field of Ecology it is common to study attitudes towards the environment and knowledge related to the environment, here it was proposed the variable “Environmental Culture” and a mixed approach for an observational study on the state of the variable in “Amazonas” Region northern Peru. Material and Methods: “Amazonas” region northern Peru was studied as a case. The qualitative intruments were a semi-structurated survey (n = 42) and an open interview (n = 44) whereas scores for the Secondary School Course Science Technology and Environment were collected for their latter three years of study in late 2019 (n = 95), the scores corresponding to quantitative collectiong in the mixed appraoch. The strategy of multiple sources of data allowed data triangulation which render higher validity. ANAVA for variance between groups and “t” tests were carriend out as the post hoc for data on the students scores, thematic analysis towards category saturation was carried out for both the semi-structurated survey and the open interview. Results and Discussion: The semi-structurated survey and the open interview render diverse categories mostly unrelated to the scrutiny variable indicating low “Environmental Culture” these finding were then correlated with the analysis of the scores on Science Technology and Environment where students in average barely passeed the course (α = 0.025). Conclusion: Students in northern Peru are low for “Environemntal Culture” as proposed and assesed here and more than 50% of the Peruvian population might be affected in the lack of intervention towards these initial findings. The scenary should be repeated around the world being that the proposed variable is more comprehensive than what is usually studied, attitudes and knowledge.