Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T13:56:12.110Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Autonomous Motivation and Pro-Environmental Behaviours Among Bedouin Students in Israel: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2015

Haya Kaplan  and
Nir Madjar
Haya Kaplan*
Affiliation:
Kaye Academic College of Education, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Nir Madjar
Affiliation:
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
*
Adddress for correspondence: Haya Kaplan, Kaye Academic College of Education, Beer-Sheva, Israel. E-mail: kaplanp@bgu.ac.il
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Promoting pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) among students is a major concern for educators. The present article presents an educational program based on a self-determination theory framework (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) and a study demonstrating that working according to the theoretical principles presented in the program leads to the desired outcomes. The primary aim of the study was to test whether a hypothesised model in which autonomy support by students’ parents and moderators in a large-scale intervention program would be associated with autonomous motivation, which would in turn lead to PEBs, over and above the contributions of the students’ self-perceived competence and relatedness. The participants were 102 Bedouin high-school students (Grades 8 to 10) sampled from a cultural background characterised by a collectivist-hierarchical society in Israel. The results, based on structural equation modelling, indicated that moderators and parental autonomy support, as well as self-perceived relatedness and competence, were associated with students’ autonomous motivation, which in turn was associated with pro-environmental behaviours (including cleaning behaviours, activism, and preserving behaviours). The study supported the hypothesised model and demonstrated that SDT can be utilised as a theoretical framework for educational programs aimed at improving students’ self-determined PEBs.

Keywords

motivationpro-environmental behavioursself-determination theorydisadvantagecivic engagement
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , December 2015 , pp. 223 - 247
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Al-Krenawi, A. (1999). Explanations of mental health symptoms by the Bedouin Arabs of the Negev. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 45, 56–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Al-Krenawi, A. (2010). Women in polygamy families in the Arab-Bedouin society in the Negev. In Abu-Rabia-Queder, S. & Weiner-Levy, N. (Eds.), Palestinian women in Israel: Identity, power, and coping strategies (pp. 105–122) [in Hebrew]. Hakibbutz Hameuchad and The Van Leer Jerusalem InstituteGoogle Scholar
Abu-Rabia-Queder, S., & Weiner-Levy, N. (2010). Introduction. In Abu-Rabia-Queder, S. and Weiner-Levy, N. (Eds.), Palestinian women in Israel: Identity, power, and coping strategies (pp. 27–48) [in Hebrew]. Hakibbutz Hameuchad and The Van Leer Jerusalem InstituteGoogle Scholar
Assor, A. (2003). A model of a school that supports psychological needs and fosters emotional competence. In Aviram, A. (Ed.), Schools of the future (pp. 165–210) [in Hebrew]. Tel Aviv: Masada.Google Scholar
Assor, A., Kaplan, H., Feinberg, O., & Tal, K. (2009). Combining vision with voice: A learning and implementation structure promoting teachers’ internalization of practices based on self-determination theory. Theory and Research in Education, 7, 234–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Assor, A., Kaplan, H., & Roth, G. (2002). Choice is good, but relevance is excellent: Autonomy-enhancing and suppressing teacher behaviors in predicting students’ engagement in school work. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 72, 261–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brody, M., & Storksdieck, M. (2013). Evaluation and analysis of environmental education programs, materials, and technologies and the assessment of learners and learning. In Stevenson, R.B., Brody, M., Dillon, J., & Wals, A.E.J. (Eds.), International handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 285–288). New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cheon, S., & Reeve, J. (2013). Do the benefits from autonomy-supportive PE teacher training program endure? A one-year follow-up intervention. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 14, 508–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chirkov, V.I., Ryan, R.M., Kim, Y., & Kaplan, U. (2003). Differentiating autonomy from individualism and independence: A self-determination theory perspective on internalization of cultural orientations and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 97–110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chirkov, V.I., Ryan, R.M., & Sheldon, K.M. (2011). The struggle for happiness and autonomy in cultural and personal contexts, an overview. In Chirkov, V.I., Ryan, R.M., & Sheldon, K.M. (Eds.), Human autonomy in cross-cultural context: Perspectives on the psychology of agency, freedom, and well-being (pp. 1–30). Dordrecht: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connell, J.P. (1990). Context, self, and action: A motivational analysis of self-system processes across the life span. In Cicchetti, D. (Ed.), The self in transition: From infancy to childhood (pp. 61–97). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Darner, R. (2009). Self-determination theory as a guide to fostering environmental motivation. The Journal of Environmental Education, 40, 39–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deci, E.L. (2009). Large-scale school reform as viewed from the self-determination theory perspective. Theory and Research in Education, 7, 244–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deci, E.L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R.M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 627–668.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (1987). The support of autonomy and the control of behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1024–1037.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (2000). The ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (2012). Self-determination theory. In Van Lange, P.A.M., Kruglanski, A.W., & Higgins, E.T. (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology, 1 (pp. 416–437). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gough, A. (2013). The emergence of environmental education research: A history of the field. In Stevenson, R.B., Brody, M., Dillon, J., & Wals, A.E.J. (Eds.), International handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 13–22). New York and London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green-Demers, I., Pelletier, L.G., & Menard, S. (1997). The impact of behavioral difficulty on the saliency of the association between self-determined motivation and environmental behaviours. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 29, 157–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grolnick, W.S., & Ryan, R.M. (1987). Autonomy in children's learning: An experimental and individual difference investigation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 890–898.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grolnick, W.S. (2009). The role of parents in facilitating autonomous self-regulation for education. Theory and Research in Education, 7, 164–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardré, P.L., Chen, C., Huang, S., Chiang, C., Jen, F., & Warden, L. (2006). Factors affecting high school students’ academic motivation in Taiwan. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 26, 198–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heimlich, J.E., Mony, P., & Yocco, V. (2013). Belief to behavior: A vital link. In Stevenson, R.B., Brody, M., Dillon, J., & Wals, A.E.J. (Eds.), International handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 262–274). New York and London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G.J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. (2011). Retrieved on July 15, 2013, from http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/cw_usr_view_Folder?ID=141Google Scholar
Iyengar, S.S., & Lepper, M.R. (1999). Rethinking the value of choice: A cultural perspective on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 349–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jang, H., Reeve, J., Ryan, R.M., & Kim, A. (2009). Can self-determination theory explain what underlies the productive, satisfying learning experiences of collectivistically oriented Korean students? Journal of Educational Psychology, 101, 644–661.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jang, H., Reeve, J., & Deci, E.L. (2010). Engaging students in learning activities: It's not autonomy support or structure, but autonomy support and structure. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 588–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, H. (2004). The effects of autonomy support and autonomy suppression by teachers on academic functioning, motivation, and emotions of children and adolescents: A longitudinal study (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.Google Scholar
Kaplan, H., & Assor, A. (2012). Enhancing autonomy-supportive I-Thou dialogue in schools: Conceptualization and socio-emotional effects of an intervention program. Social Psychology of Education, 15, 251–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, H., Assor, A., Elsaied, H., & Kannat-Maymon, Y. (2014). The unique contribution of autonomy support and suppression to predicting an optimal learning experience in Bedouin students: Examining self-determination theory in a collectivist society. Dapim, Journal for Studies and Research in Education [in Hebrew], 58, 41–77.Google Scholar
Katz, I., Madjar, N., & Harari, A. (2015). Parental support and adolescent motivation for dieting: The self-determination theory perspective. The Journal of Psychology, 149, 461–479.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kyburz-Graber, R. (2013). Sociological approaches to environmental education and research: A paradigmatic response to behavioral change orientations. In: Stevenson, R.B., Brody, M., Dillon, J., & Wals, A.E.J. (Eds.), International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education (pp. 23–32). New York and London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iacobucci, D. (2010). Structural equations modeling: Fit indices, sample size, and advanced topics. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20, 90–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lam, S.-F., Cheng, R.W., & Ma, W.Y. (2009). Teacher and student motivation in project-based learning. Instructional Science, 37, 565–578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legault, L., & Pelletier, L.G. (2000). Impact of an environmental education program on students’ and parents’ attitudes, motivation, and behaviours. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science Revue, 32, 243–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levesque, C.S., Pelletier, L.G., & Hunsley, J. (1999). Predicting environmental behaviours: The influence of self-determination and information about environmental health risks. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 1582–1610.Google Scholar
Lundholm, C., Hopwood, N., & Rickinson, M. (2013). Environmental learning: Insights from research into student experience. In: Stevenson, R.B., Brody, M., Dillon, J., & Wals, A.E.J. (Eds.), International handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 243–252). New York and London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madjar, N., & Cohen-Malayev, M. (2013). Youth movements as educational settings promoting personal development: Comparing motivation and identity formation in formal and non-formal education contexts. International Journal of Educational Research, 62, 162–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markus, H.R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, G.C. (1975). A review of objectives for environmental education. In Martins, G. & Wheeler, K. (Eds.), Insights into environmental education. Edinburgh, UK: Oliver & Boys.Google Scholar
McNiff, J., & Whitehead, J. (2002). Action research: Principles and practice (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moller, A.C., Ryan, R.M., & Deci, E.L. (2006). Self-determination theory and public policy: Improving the quality of consumer decisions without using coercion. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 25, 104–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osbaldiston, R., & Sheldon, K.M. (2003). Promoting internalized motivation for environmentally responsible behavior: A prospective study of environmental goals. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 23, 349–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelletier, L.G. (2002). A motivational analysis of self-determination for pro-environmental behaviours. In Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (Eds.), Handbook of self-determination research (pp. 205–232). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.Google Scholar
Pelletier, L. (2013, June). Enhancing pro-environmental behaviors (PEB): Making sense of threatening messages, the facilitation of PEB, providing information. Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Self-Determination Theory, Rochester, New York.Google Scholar
Pelletier, L.G., Baxter, D., & Huta, V. (2011). Personal autonomy and environmental sustainability. In Chirkov, V.I., Ryan, R.M., & Sheldon, K.M. (Eds.), Human autonomy in cross-cultural context: Perspectives on the psychology of agency, freedom, and well-being (pp. 257–77). Dordrect, the Netherlands: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelletier, L.G., Dion, S., Tuson, K.M., & Green-Demers, I. (1999). Why do people fail to adopt environmental behaviors? Towards a taxonomy of environmental amotivation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 2481–2504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelletier, L.G., Tuson, K., Green-Demers, I., Noels, K., & Beaton, A. (1998). Why are you doing things for the environment? The Motivation Toward the Environment Scale (MTES). Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 437–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeve, J. (2006). Extrinsic rewards and inner motivation. In Evertson, C.M. & Weinstein, C.S. (Eds.), Handbook of classroom management: Research, practice, and contemporary issues (pp. 645–664). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.Google Scholar
Reeve, J., & Assor, A. (2011). Do social institutions necessarily suppress individuals’ need for autonomy? The possibility of schools as autonomy promoting contexts across the globe. In Chirkov, V.I., Ryan, R.M., & Sheldon, K.M. (Eds.), Human autonomy in cross-cultural contexts: Perspectives on the psychology of agency, freedom, and well-being (pp. 111–132). New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeve, J., Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (2004). Self-determination theory: A dialectical framework for understanding sociocultural influences on student motivation. In McInerney, D.M. & Van Ettan, S. (Eds.), Big theories revised (pp. 31–60). Greenwich, CT: Information Age.Google Scholar
Reeve, J., Jang, H., Carrell, D., Jeon, S., & Barch, J. (2004). Enhancing students’ engagement by increasing teachers’ autonomy support. Motivation and Emotion, 28, 147–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeve, J., Vansteenkiste, M., Assor, A., Ahmad, I., Cheon, S.H., Jang, Y., Wang, J. (2013). The beliefs that underlie autonomy-supportive and controlling teaching: A multinational investigation. Motivation and Emotion, 38, 93–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, G., Assor, A., Kanat-Maymon, Y., & Kaplan, H. (2007). Autonomous motivation for teaching: How self-determined teaching may lead to self-determined learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 761–774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothbaum, F., Pott, M., Azuma, H., Miyake, K., & Weise, J. (2000). The development of close relationships in Japan and the United States: Path of symbiotic harmony and generative tension. Child Development, 71, 1121–1142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ryan, R.M., & Connell, J.P. (1989). Perceived locus of causality and internalization: Examining reasons for acting in two domains. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 749–761.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, S.H. & Bilsky, W. (1987). Toward a universal psychological structure of human values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 550–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuck, S., & Russell, T. (2005). Self-study, critical friendship and the complexities of teacher education, Studying Teacher Education, 1, 107–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharabi, M. (2014). The relative centrality of life domains among Jews and Arabs in Israel: The effect of culture, ethnicity, and demographic variables. Community, Work & Family, 17, 219–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, D., Battistich, V., Watson, M., Schaps, E., & Lewis, C. (2000). A six-district study of educational change: Direct and mediated effects of the child development project. Social Psychology of Education, 4, 3–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, P.C. (2000). Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior. Journal of Social Issues, 56, 407–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, S.M., Bond, M.H., Ho, L.M., Zaman, R.M., Dar, R., & Anwar, M. (2000). Perceptions of parents and adolescent outcomes in Pakistan. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 18, 335–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, R.B., Dillon, J., Wals, A.E.J., & Brody, M. (2013). The evolving characteristics of environmental education research. In Stevenson, R.B., Brody, M., Dillon, J., & Wals, A.E.J. (Eds.), International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education (pp. 512–518). New York and London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, R.B., & Robottom, I. (2013). Critical action research and environmental education: Conceptual congruencies and imperatives in practice. In Stevenson, R.B., Brody, M., Dillon, J., & Wals, A.E.J. (Eds.), International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education (pp. 469–479). New York and London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Su, Y., & Reeve, J. (2011). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of intervention programs designed to support autonomy. Educational Psychology Review, 23, 159–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sustainable Development for the Negev, Israel, (2013). Retrieved June 20, 2013, from http://www.negev.org.il/index.php?m=text&t=9005Google Scholar
Tbilisi Declaration. (1978). Toward an active plan: A report on the Tbilisi intergovernmental conference on environmental education. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
UN Conference on Environment and Development. (1992, June). The Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Retrieved July 2, 2013, from http://www.un.org/geninfo/bp/enviro.html/Google Scholar
Vansteenkiste, M., Zhou, M., Lens, W., & Soenens, B. (2005). Experiences of autonomy and control among Chinese learners: Vitalizing or immobilizing? Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 468–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Villacorta, M., Koestner, R., & Lekes, N. (2003). Further validation of the Motivation Toward the Environment Scale. Environment and Behavior, 35, 486–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wals, A.E.J., & Dillon, J. (2013). Conventional and emerging learning theories. Implications and choices for educational researchers with planetary consciousness. In Stevenson, R.B., Brody, M., Dillon, J., & Wals, A.E.J. (Eds.), International handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 253–261). New York and London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, T.H., & Katzev, R. (1990). Group commitment and resource conservation: Two field experiments on promoting recycling. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20, 265–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Commission on Economic Development. (1987). Our common future. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yamauchi, H., & Tanaka, K. (1998). Relations of autonomy, self-referenced beliefs, and self-regulated learning among Japanese children. Psychological Reports, 82, 803–816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar