Sociology Mind
2013. Vol.3, No.2, 119-122
Published Online April 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/sm) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/sm.2013.32018
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. 119
A Study on Cultivating College Students’ Ecological
Consciousness
Junhong Tang1, Wei Zhang2
1The Foreign Language Department, Baoding University, Baoding, China
2Educational Administr ation, Jibei Baoding Electric Power Vocational & Technical College, Baoding, China
Email: jessy09012003@yahoo.com.cn
Received January 29th, 2013 ; revised March 2nd, 2013; accep ted March 20th, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Junhong Tang, Wei Zhang. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is p roperly cited.
The aim of this study is to cultivate modern college students’ ecological consciousness under the back-
ground of current deteriorating ecological crisis. The study shows some college students do not realize the
harm of the ecological crisis and are not fully aware that it is each person’s duties and responsibilities to
relieve even solve the ecological crisis either. The study also conveys most students have realized the
importance of ecological consciousness in solving the current ecological crisis. They also would like to
gain ecological consciousness and accept the three ways discussed in the part of discussion of cultivating
their ecological consciousness. Because college students are the precious source of the world and thus
colleges have the special mission of guiding the social trend, developing the social culture and making
contributions to spiritual construction, it is absolutely urgent and necessary for colleges to make any effort
to cultivate college students’ ecological consciousness.
Keywords: College Students; Colleges; College Students’ Ecological Consciousness
Introduction
With the rapid development of science and technology, peo-
ple’s material living standard has been improved so much, but
the ecological system of the earth has completely failed to
maintain its balance. Nowadays, not only the natural and social
ecological crisis appeared, but the spiritual ecological crisis
also crawled into the human beings’ soul. So the modern people
have to face up to both the natural and social ecological crisis
and the spiritual ecological crisis. Professor Lu Shuyuan
pointed out in his Ecological Research in Literature and Art.
that saving people’s soul is as important as saving the earth and
it is not workable only to depend on the development of science
and technology and the scientific management (Lu, 2000). At
present, it is the high time for modern people to pay much at-
tention to the cultivation of people’s ecological consciousness.
Ecological consciousness refers to the ethics of love, life, value,
appreciation, consuming, etc which is the reflection of the rela-
tionships between people and the nature, people and the society ,
people and the other people and people and themselves.
On the one hand, College students are a unique and promi-
nent group in the social development. College students are
young, energetic, active and eager to know the world and im-
prove the world. College students are the precious source of the
world. To some extent, we can say college students are the
productivity and they will determine the future of the world and
college students’ ecological consciousness decides the main
stream of future ecological consciousness. So colleges must and
have to cultivate college students’ ecological consciousness and
college students’ ecological consciousness is so critical that it
will lead to the success in dealing with the ecological crisis.
On the other hand, in addition to the basic tasks of teaching
and research, colleges are also expected to guide the social
trend, develop the social culture and make contributions to
spiritual construction. Colleges are the drive power of social
development (Tan, 2012). As an important part of the system of
social culture, colleges have both the internal academic concern
and the external social role (Mu, 2007). Any college does exist
in certain society. As one of the institutions of the social or-
ganizations, colleges have a close relationship with other social
institutions. Although different country has different social
system, all the colleges have the same mission which is to serve
the society (Gasset, 2006).
In terms of the history of education, college education
adapted to the development of the agricultural economy before
the capitalism, and after the Industrial Revolution, college edu-
cation served the development of industrial economy (Kerr,
2001) and the current college education, in the 21st century,
should contribute to not only the knowledge economy but the
solution to the ecological crisis. Taking the social responsibility
of the colleges into consideration, we will find the best way to
serve the solution to the ecological crisis for college education
is to cultivate colle ge students’ ecological consciousness.
Data and Variables
College students’ ecological consciousness determines the
main stream of future ecological consciousness. In order to
know modern college students’ ecological consciousness and to
improve the efficiency of cultivating college students’ ecologi-
cal consciousness, I made a survey on college students’ eco-
logical consciousness.
J. H. TANG, W. ZHANG
The surveys were conducted during March, 2012 to October,
2012. We handed out 5500 questionnaires and collected 5350
and 5000 are valid. The 5000 college students who answered
the CSEC (college students’ ecological consciousness) ques-
tionnaire are from the age of 18 to 25, in randomly selected in
50 colleges. The CSEC questionnaire contained four parts.
They are personal general information, attitudes towards cur-
rent ecological crisis, ideas of ecological consciousness and
ways of cultivating college students’ ecological consciousness
including natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology.
Table 1 lists all the variables used in the study.
Methods and Results
In order to know college students’ attitudes towards current
ecological crisis and the cultivation of college students’ eco-
logical consciousness, I made a simple descriptive statistics
expressed as percentages, which is listed in Table 2.
In Q5, who should take the responsibility of solving the cur-
rent ecological crisis, 8.46% college students think leaders
should take the responsibility of the current ecological crisis
and 7.04% college students have the idea that administrators are
responsible for the ecological crisis. This conveys that 17.33%
college students did not realize it is each person’s responsibility
to relieve and even solve the ecological crisis. In Q6, who will
suffer from the ecological crisis, 82.26% college students think
each person will suffer from the ecological crisis, which means
that there are still 17.74% college students who did not realize
the harm and bad effect of current ecological crisis. Fortunately,
in Q7, which of the following must and have to acquire the
ecological consciousness, 91.55% college students choose1 =
each person, which shows 91.55% college students think each
person are supposed to acquire the ecological consciousness.
Taking all the date into account, we are able to easily make a
conclusion that it is urgent and necessary to cultivate people’s
ecological consciousness. Moreover, because of the special
characteristics and the critical importance of the college stu-
dents in the development of the world and the special mission
of colleges mentioned in introduction, one of the key points of
colleges is to cultivate college students’ ecological conscious-
ness.
In Q4, Q8, Q10, Q11, Q12, Q13, 1 = agree very much, 2 =
agree a little, 3 = agree, 4 = don’t agree. All the date about the
former questions was dealt with through SPSS 17.0 and the
result is shown in Table 3.
In view of all the means, medians and modes illustrated in
Table 3, we can see the college students’ attitudes towards
current ecological crisis (Q4: Mean = 1.88, Median = 2.05,
Mode = 2), that is to say, most students care about the ecologi-
cal crisis and they would like to obtain the ecological con-
sciousness (Q8: Mean = 1.97, Median = 2.13, Mode = 1) and
they accept the three ways (Q10: Mean = 2.99, Median = 2.55,
Mode = 3; Q11: Mean = 2.84, Median = 2.76, Mode = 3; Q12:
Mean = 2.77, Median = 3.00, Mode = 3; Q13: Mean = 2.89,
Median = 2.78, Mode = 3) which will discuss in the part of
discussion to cultivate their ecological consciousness.
Discussions
Three ways of cultivating modern college students’ ecologi-
cal consciousness are discussed in this part.
Each person is thrown into the complex relationship of the
Table 1.
Description of the CSEC ques ti o nn a ire.
Variables Description
Q1. Gender 1 = female; 2 = male
Q2. Age 1 = 10 - 17; 2 = 18 - 25;
3 = 26 - 33
Q3. Major 1 = arts; 2 = science;
3 = engineering
Q4. Attitudes towards curren t
ecological crisis
Three categories:
1 = care a bo ut it v ery much;
2 = care about it;
3 = care about it a little;
4 = does not care about it at all
Q5. Who should ta ke the responsibility
of solving the current ecological crisis?
Four groups of people;
1 = leaders; 2 = administrators;
3 = the famou s and rich person;
4 = each pe rs on
Q6. Who will suffer f r om the
ecological crisis?
Four groups of people:
1 = leaders; 2 = administrators;
3 = the famou s and rich person;
4 = each pe rs on
Q7. Which of the following m ust and
have to ac q ui re the ecolo gical
consciousness?
Four categories:
1 = leaders; 2 = administrators;
3 = the famou s and rich person;
4 = each pe rs on
Q8. Do you agree that each person
should have ecological consciousness ?
Four categories:
1 = agree very much;
2 = agree a little;
3 = agree; 4 = don’t agree
Q9. Are the huma n beings able to gain
sustainable developm ent without
ecological consciousne ss?
Two categories :
1 = Yes; 2 = No
Q10. Do you agree that people’s
ecological consciousness can be
cultivated through reading ecological
literature wor ks?
Four categories:
1 = agree very much;
2 = agree a little;
3 = agree;
4 = don’t agree
Q11. Do you agree that we should pay
more attention to the ecological literatu re
works in order to cultivate college
students’ ecological consciousness?
Four categories:
1 = agree very much;
2 = agree a little;
3 = agree;
4= don’t agree
Q12. Do you agree it is necessary for
colleges to set up some kind of Soul
Communication Bars to dire ct college
students’ normal spiritual ecological
system?
Four categories:
1 = agree very much;
2 = agree a little;
3 = agree;
4 = don’t agree
Q13. Do you agree that it is helpful for
colleges to remolding college students’
ecological consciousness in the practice?
Four categories:
1 = agree very much;
2 = agree a little;
3 = agree; 4 = don’t agree
Note: Source: data from CSEC, 2012.
nature, the society and the individual at the very beginning of
his or her life, and he or she begins his or her life progress on
the three layers of natural ecology, social ecology and the
spiritual ecology (Zhang, 2001). The person is the important
hub in the interaction of the three layers. The relationship
among the spiritual ecology and the natural and social ecology
is dynamic and they influence each other. Only is there a per-
fect balance among the three layers, the ecological system of
the earth could be preserved.
Ecology is a new field with the appearance of ecological cri-
sis. It puts the emphasis on creating a good and healthy eco-
logical environment including the natural ecology, the social
Copyright © 2013 SciRes.
120
J. H. TANG, W. ZHANG
Table 2.
Descriptive statistics.
Questions Choices Percentage
1 = leader s 8.47
2 = administrators 7.04
3 = the fam ous and rich pe rson 1.83
Q5. Who should take the
responsibil ity of solving
the current ecological
crisis?
4 = each pe rs on 82.67
1 = leader s 7.73
2 = administrators 5.15
3 = the fam ous and rich pe rson 4.86
Q6. Who will suffer f r o m
the ecological crisis?
4 = each pe rs on 82.26
1 = leader s 3.14
2 = administrators 1.58
3 = the fam ous and rich pe rson 3.73
Q7. Which of the following
must and have to acquire
the ecological
consciousness?
4 = each pe rs on 91.55
Table 3.
Investigation on college studen ts’ ecological consciousness.
Number
Questions Valid Invalid Mean MedianMode
Q4 5000 0 1.88 2.05 2
Q8 5000 0 1.97 2.13 1
Q10 5000 0 2.99 2.55 3
Q11 5000 0 2.84 2.76 3
Q12 5000 0 2.77 3.00 3
Q13 5000 0 2.89 2.78 3
ecology and the spiritual ecology (Lu, 2006) so as to obtain the
purpose of harmonious development of the nature, the society
and the individual.
Ecological education is a very complicate systematic project.
It needs the cooperation of many subjects and sectors. Some
courses like literature, ethics are expected to play their part in
cultivating college students’ ecological consciousness. More-
over, Soul Communication Bar is also necessary for the stu-
dents to get healthy guidance and warm-hearted comfort
(Zhang, 2005). It is also helpful for the students to go into the
society, to go into the nature after class. In the real life, college
students’ ecological consciousness will get better improved.
Salvaging College Students’ Soul by Means of
Ecological Literature
Because college students have special characteristics, one of
the efficient ways to cultivate their ecological consciousness is
by means of ecological literature. Literature comes from life, so
it can influence people’s life to some extent. Literature is such a
kind of spiritual weapon that it can affect a person’s mind,
emotion, behavior, etc. Ecological literature is the author’s
concern about the ecological crisis, and it is also some kind of
reflection on the current ecological crisis. From Table 3, we
can see such statistics as Q10: Mean = 2.99, Median = 2.55,
Mode = 3; Q11: Mean = 2.84, Median = 2.76, Mode = 3, which
shows most students agree that ecological literature works can
help to savage college students’ soul and will be helpful for the
cultivation of college students’ ecological consciousness.
In Moby Dick, people killed the whales not for supporting
their families but for meeting their ever-lasting greedy desires.
The evil desires finally lead to the completely drown of the ship
and all the people on the ship. Moby Dick tells the modern peo-
ple that we should not exploit the nature excessively and it is
very important for us to control our greedy desires. The Great
Gatsby also demonstrated people’s materialism, alienation and
utilitarianism (Sun, 2007). As soon as Rachel Carson’s Silent
Spring appeared in 1962, it shocked America. In the novel,
using a lot of real scientific arguments, Carson showed the
threat of the insecticide abuse to people’s health and even to the
whole ecological environment. In the novel, the author fiercely
criticized people’s excessively exploitation of the nature under
the drive of evil desires.
Through studying some ecological literature, the teacher can
call on the students to cherish the nature, wake up the students’
ecological intuition and cultivate their ecological consciousness.
As a result, the ecological environment will get improved.
Directing Col lege Students’ Soul through Creating
Soul Communication Bar
In Table 3, such data as Q12: Mean = 2.77, Median = 3.00,
Mode = 3 was shown, so it is necessary and important for the
colleges to create some Soul Communication Bar by using the
modern science and technology, for example, qq chat, blog.
Because such kind of communication styles do not need to
communicate face to face, it is easier for the college students to
speak out their real feelings and their real problems. College
students acknowledged that sometimes they will feel sad, de-
pressed and gloomy. The reason of this bad mood does not
come from the learning pressure, but come from the daily life.
There does exist some distance between one person to another,
but the real and terrible distance is the spiritual distance.
Therefore, the related teachers should be fully aware of the
chances by means of the Soul Communication Bar to cultivate
the college students’ ecological love ethics, ecological consume
ethics, ecologi cal job-hunting ethics, etc.
In Space of Eco-criticism, professor Lu Shuyuan mentions
that except for social and natural ecology a person is also a kind
of spiritual ecology in terms of the living conditions of human
beings. The spiritual ecology refers to the balance and stability
of the spiritual ecological factors such as love ethic, moral ethic,
aesthetic ethic, life ethic, etc. Moreover, the spiritual ecological
system is the necessary premise and basis of the natural eco-
logical and the social ecological system. Once the balance and
the stability of the spiritual factors are disturbed, the spiritual
ecological system of a person will be thrown into disorder.
Then the spiritual ecological crisis will come into being and the
crisis will lead the person to be immoral, abnormal and far
away from the right orbit of life.
Remolding College Students’ Soul in the Practice
Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. Various kinds
of activities are a good form to cultivate college students’ eco-
logical ethics and they are also easily accepted by the college
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. 121
J. H. TANG, W. ZHANG
Copyright © 2013 SciRes.
122
students. As shown in Table 3, Q13: Mean = 2.89, Median =
2.78, Mode = 3, organizing college students into the real life is
also suitable for the college students’ psychology. So the re-
lated leaders and teachers of colleges should be fully aware of
this and make their effort to cultivate college students’ eco-
logical consciousness. On the one hand, let the students enjoy
the beautiful nature and harmonious social phenomenon. On the
other hand, lead them into some destroy ed and pol luted pla ces.
In the completely contrast, the college students will respect and
cherish the nature, the life much more.
At the same time, the related government is expected to
make its any effort to improve college students’ ecological
consciousness; the journalists and the public media are sup-
posed to play their part in this issue: they should keep the col-
lege students well-informed of the potential harm of the imbal-
ance of the ecological system; each college student should try
his or her best to gain the ecological consciousness.
Conclusion
It Is Necessary and Practicable to Cultivate College
Students’ Ecological Consciousness
Heidegger once said that the earth had become a lost heav-
enly body and the human beings had lost reason (Bold, 1993).
Professor Lu Shuyuan also thinks that modern people’s value of
current utilitarian, materialistic ethics is the main cause of the
modern ecological crisis and the modern society is such a soci-
ety that people’s values has overturned (Lu, 2001). Considering
this situation, it is very important and necessary to rebuild peo-
ple’s life ethics and cultivate their ecological consciousness.
College students are important power in the future construc-
tion of one country and it is easier to cultivate college students’
ecological consciousness because of their study place, their
study method and their study pattern, so it is a wise, simple way
to cultivate college students’ ecological consciousness in deal-
ing with the current ecological crisis.
It Is Urgent to Cultivate College Students’ Ecological
Consciousness in Current Ecological Crisis
With the modernization and the rapid development of the
science and technology, the human beings exploit the nature so
excessively that the nature has been destroyed badly and the
balance between the human beings and the nature was also
damaged, so the natural ecological crisis appears. The natural
crisis includes such phenomena like enlarging desert, shrinking
grassland, losing soil, abnormal climate, etc. The natural eco-
logical crisis has limited the long, lasting development of the
global economy. Social ecological crisis also appears in the
social field because of the heavy life burden and the bad con-
cept of competition. The relationship between one person and
another becomes indifferent and it is hard to cooperate with
each other sincerely at present. Nowadays, the human beings
have lost the feeling of safety, while the utilitarian, materialistic
ethics are pervasive.
With the deterioration of the natural and social ecological
crisis, people’s spiritual ecological crisis came into being and
even got worse. Some modern people lost their believes in the
face of personal benefits, went astray before temptation and
alienated friends and relatives, so the rate of committing suicide,
taking drugs, divorce, melancholia, extra-marital relationship
has become higher. Just as Joyce said that the modern people
conquered the space, the land, the decease and the backward,
but all the victories would become one drop of tear in the fur-
nace of spirit.
The spiritual ecological crisis not only has a bad effect on the
development of a person but also has an important impact on
the development of the natural and social ecological develop-
ment. Spiritual ecological crisis is the fatal cause of the natural
and social ecological crisis. If we want to solve the social and
natural crisis, it is the first thing that we deal with spiritual eco-
logical crisis. Taking all these factors into consideration, it is
definitely urgent and important to cultivate modern college
students’ ecological consciousness.
Acknowledgements
The paper is under the project of the Importance of Ecologi-
cal Literature in British and American Literature Teaching
(SZ123002). All the project members made their contributions
to the paper. I also thank all my friends and classmates who live
in different cities, which made the investigation possible.
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