Preservice Preschool Teachers' Recycling Intentions

Preschool teachers play active and significant role in assisting young children to understand issues of sustainable development. Considering their influence on young children, it is important to answer that how they behave for... [ view full abstract ]

Preschool teachers play active and significant role in assisting young children to understand issues of sustainable development. Considering their influence on young children, it is important to answer that how they behave for a sustainable future and which factors affect their behaviors. Preservice preschool teachers’ intentions to recycling and influential factors in their intentions were analyzed in this study through Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The data of the study were collected from 307 preservice preschool teachers from two universities via a survey to measure their attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention and behavior regarding recycling. After analyses, the results indicated that preservice preschool teachers exhibited high scores on the level of attitude, subjective norms and intention compared to perceived behavioral control. On the other hand, perceived behavioral control was shaped by recycling opportunities in their childhood, college campus and city that they live in. And finally, the linear combination of recycling attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were found to be significantly related to their intentions. These predictors were explained 32% of variance in preservice preschool teachers’ behavioral intentions on recycling. In this regard, there is evidence that preschool teacher candidates are willing to recycle. This research attempted to fulfill the gap identifying the determinants of preservice preschool teachers’ recycling behavior in Turkey. The current research can make a contribution to the improvement of the quality of early childhood education for sustainable development.