Accountability of FCS Education to a Sustainability Ethos: Focus on Sustainable Consumption
Abstract:
The American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences’ (AAFCS) brand, “creating healthy and sustainable families,” implies accountability in promoting sustainable consumer behavior. This study compared students majoring in family and consumer sciences (FCS) and its specializations to those majoring in other fields on constructs of perceived consequences of sustainable consumption, ethical obligation, and learning about sustainability as well as of their behavioral intention toward sustainable consumption.
Results indicate that FCS students scored higher on their perceived consequences of sustainable consumption and learning about sustainability than their counterparts. On the other hand, there was no significant difference on ethical obligation, a variable shown to play an important role in intention toward sustainable consumption behavior. The results provide evidence that FCS educators can demonstrate accountability for their commitment to sustainability. FCS higher educators should continue to examine their ability to create the changes they say they want to see in FCS students.