Claudia Navarro-Villarroel

Achieving soil conservation requires education that not only delivers factual knowledge but also sparks the personal commitment and care essential for lasting behavioral change. However, by emphasizing cognitive domains, current soil science curricula often neglect the affective dimensions that foster a deep connection to soil. This study explores how emotions and feelings influence soil-care attitudes among university agriculture students. The study participants were undergraduate students enrolled in the introductory soil science course (n = 28). The test design involved a survey, with a pre-test administered at the beginning of the semester and a post-test administered at the end of the semester. A confidential code was used to match the two tests of each respondent. Students with rural backgrounds demonstrated a stronger emotional connection to soil compared to their urban peers (p = 0.037). However, no significant effect of place of upbringing was observed on students’ attitude toward soil care. The course significantly improved students’ attitude toward soil care (p = 0.0049). Pre-test emotional connection to soil emerged as a strong predictor of post-test attitude toward soil care (r = 0.52, p = 0.004). In contrast, the predictive power of pre-test soil science knowledge on post-test attitude toward soil care was not statistically significant. The results of this study suggest that fostering a deeper emotional connection to soil can be a crucial strategy for promoting soil conservation among students. To achieve this, soil science education should incorporate more experiential and emotionally engaging learning activities.

A unified theoretical framework that comprehensively explains soil conservation behavior remains elusive. This underscores the significance and novelty of research exploring the psychological factors influencing farmers’ decisions. The concept of “connection to soil” captures the emotional bond that farmers develop with the land. We hypothesized that connection to soil acts as a mediator, strengthening the relationship between farmers’ pro-environmental propensity (broad commitment to environmental protection) and their adoption of soil conservation practices. This study involved 150 farmers, equally distributed across three culturally and geographically diverse regions in Chile. Our target population consisted of farmers who independently manage soil practices on their farms. Data collection utilized surveys incorporating three validated scales: pro-environmental propensity, connection to soil, and soil conservation behavior. While pro-environmental propensity directly predicted the adoption of specific soil conservation practices, this study highlights the crucial role of connection to soil in translating this general environmental motivation into concrete actions. Notably, we identified a significant indirect effect of pro-environmental propensity on soil conservation behavior mediated by connection to soil (ab = 0.15, 95 % CI [0.05, 0.26], p<0.001). This finding is particularly relevant because traditional soil science education has primarily focused on psychomotor and cognitive learning, neglecting the affective domain (emotions and feelings). Consequently, the potential of fostering connection to soil as a response to global soil degradation has been under-emphasized. Our contribution lies in highlighting the importance of connection to soil as a factor influencing farmers’ soil conservation behavior.

Both altruistic and ecological behaviours are considered prosocially driven behaviours, but our understanding of what motivates action in either the human or ecological domain is still in its infancy. Our goal was to assess connection to nature, connection to people, and connection to country as mediators of the relationship between prosocial propensity and prosocial behaviours in both the ecological and human domains. This study used honesty-humility as an indicator of prosocial propensity. Data for the study were collected through online surveys in Spanish. The survey was answered by 438 adolescent participants aged 11–19 years. The present study demonstrates that personal prosocial propensity can be directed to a particular domain of prosocial behaviour (ecological or altruistic) through the individual’s connection to the relevant domain. Specifically, the effect of prosocial propensity on ecological behaviour was positively mediated by connection to people and connection to nature, but negatively mediated by connection to country. For altruistic behaviour, the effect of prosocial propensity was positive via connection to people, nature, and country. Future research is called for, in particular, to examine the role of connection to country in ecological behaviour.

Although both altruistic and ecological behaviors can be considered prosocially driven behaviors, our psychological understanding of what motivates action in either the human or ecological domains is still in its infancy. We aimed to assess connection to nature and connection to humans as mediators of the relationship between prosocial propensity and prosocial behaviors in both the ecological and human domains. This study used empathy as an indicator of an individual’s prosocial propensity. The data for the study was collected through surveys in Russian (841 participants) and Spanish (418 participants). The study demonstrated that an individual’s prosocial propensity can be actioned into ecological (nature-related) behavior through connection to nature. Similarly, an individual’s prosocial propensity can be actioned into altruistic (human-related) behavior through connection to humans. However, the present study also demonstrates that an individual’s prosocial propensity can be directed to humans through a connection to nature. Thus, altruistic and ecological behaviors are two related classes of behavior, driven by the same prosocial propensity of the individual. This study is an important step towards generating scientific support for the claim that traditionally separate teaching of prosocial and environmental subjects should be combined into a single educational approach. An integrated approach will contribute to a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary effort to create a society that is both ecologically and socially sustainable.

In this research study, the attitudes of English- and Spanish-speaking students from three Midwest states in the U.S., who were enrolled in second, and world language education programs in the early grades of elementary school (K-2) were evaluated and compared with the attitudes of students at the same grade levels enrolled in English-only programs in which no world languages were taught. One of the groups of young students was participating in a Spanish two-way immersion program and their attitudes were compared with the attitudes of students from the same school district in a similar comparative school with an English-only program. The other group of students was participating in a Chinese world language program. Their attitudes were compared with students at the same grade levels (K-2) in similar schools within the same school districts. In these comparative schools, however, there were no world language programs. In general, students enrolled in Spanish two-way immersion programs or in the Chinese world language program demonstrate more positive attitudes toward languages than students enrolled in English-only programs.