Measuring the environmental literacy of teachers

The crucial role that teachers' environmental literacy plays in realising the goals of environmental education and the importance of the ability, to determine their level of environmental literacy, are argued. A measuring instrument was developed in this regard and was applied to a sample of teachers. An analysis of the results revealed that the instrument meets the necessary psychometric requirements and that it can be considered a valid and reliable instrument to measure the level of environmental literacy of teachers. The research also revealed interesting results regarding the relationship between the level of teachers' environmental literacy and their field of academic training, accompanying learning area involvement, and general environmental education training. (South African Journal of Education: 2002 22(4): 286-292)