Permaculture as a System for Sustainable Life: Attitudes of Prospective Science Teachers From Eastern Anatolia (Turkey)

Abstract Permaculture is a concept that can greatly contribute to sustainable living. It refers to a design-oriented system that aims to organize human settlements in a sustainable manner. Science teachers can contribute to the dissemination of permaculture through education by playing a critical role in conveying environmental awareness and sustainability issues to students. Considering the role of science teachers in creating awareness towards permaculture, this study aims to investigate the attitudes of prospective science teachers towards permaculture. To determine the permaculture attitudes of prospective science teachers, the 40-question 5-point Likert-type Permaculture Attitude Scale developed by Ozcalik and Yorubulut (2022) has been used as a data collection tool. The scale has been applied to 164 prospective teachers studying at the Science Teaching Department of the Faculty of Education of a state university. According to the data obtained from the scale applied to prospective science teachers, the average general attitude score is 3.83. This value indicates that prospective science teachers have a positive attitude towards permaculture. Also, a significant difference has been found between the permaculture attitudes of prospective science teachers according to their gender, and this difference is in favor of female prospective teachers. Additionally, a significant difference has been observed based on their place of upbringing, with those who grew up in districts exhibiting more positive attitudes than those who grew up in villages. Permaculture attitudes of prospective science teachers do not show any significant difference according to the family income level and residence type. Based on these findings, it is recommended that further studies be conducted on different sample groups to explore prospective teachers’ attitudes towards permaculture and the variables affecting their awareness of sustainable living.