Summary: | 碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 自然資源與環境學系 === 106 === Significant Life Experience (SLE) research, which purposes to find factors that motivate one to take environmental action in one’s life path, has become a crucial issue in the field of environmental education. This case study takes Willow, a dedicated environmental activist in Hualien, as the subject. Research questions are as follows: (1) What are the categories and the cores of SLE that influence subject to take environmental actions? (2) How are those SLE constructed significantly in subject’s life in the context of environment, society, culture and personality? (3) How does the subject confront despair resulting from participating in the environmental issues? Where does his hope come from?
Qualitative research methods such as in-depth semi-structured interview, informal interview and observation are used to gather qualitative data. Results show that childhood nature experience, the ability of reading and introspection, the negative environmental experience, adult model, and the affirmation of beliefs empower the subject to take environmental actions. The result also indicates that income and educational background are not essential to foster an active environmental activist.
Based on the results, recommendations for environmental education in Taiwan are raised as follows: (1) Nature experiences and the awareness of local environmental issues should be created near one’s dwelling place. (2) Encouraging reading habits, fostering self-reflexivity abilities, providing adult model’s company, sharing life stories, and giving hopeful images for the future environment are important elements in environmental education. Recommendations for future research are given at last.
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