The Challenge of Greening Religious Schools by Improving the Environmental Competencies of Teachers

Rafael Robina-Ramírez; M Isabel Sánchez-Hernández; Héctor V Jiménez-Naranjo; Carlos Díaz-Caro

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00520

The Challenge of Greening Religious Schools by Improving the Environmental Competencies of Teachers

Front Psychol. 2020 Mar 24:11:520. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00520. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Rafael Robina-Ramírez¹, M Isabel Sánchez-Hernández², Héctor V Jiménez-Naranjo³, Carlos Díaz-Caro³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Business Organization and Sociology, School of Business and Tourism, Cáceres, Spain.
² Department of Business Organization and Sociology, School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain.
³ Department of Finance and Accounting, School of Business, Finance and Tourism, Cáceres, Spain.

Abstract

Even though sacred scriptures emphasize the key role that Creation and respect for living creatures play in all religions, the so-called religious schools seem to show little interest in putting this sacred mandate into effect. To shed light on this subject, this work investigates the role of teachers in the process, focusing on their environmental competencies. Our hypotheses are tested through a structural equation model on a sample of 214 biology and religion teachers from 118 Catholic schools in Spain who voluntary participated in a survey. The research findings confirm that it is crucial that environmental competencies are developed in teachers to enable the greening of schools. Theoretical and practical implications for defining the job training of teachers in religious schools are drawn from the study.

Keywords: competences; environmental threat; greening; religious schools; schools.