Do student teachers’ wildlife value orientations impact how they judge management actions of carnivore species from different habitat status groups?

Abstract

Lethal management of carnivore species in Germany differs according to the species habitat status (i.e., for new arrivals, long-established, or re-colonizing species). Management actions are not always accepted by the public. Since prospective teachers are future multipliers of public acceptance of lethal management, and teaching is influenced by ones’ value orientations, we investigated student teachers’ (N = 95) decisions on lethal management of carnivore species of different habitat status groups in relation to their wildlife value orientations (WVOs). Our results show that student teachers’ WVOs are more strongly associated with certain management actions for new arrivals and re-colonizing species than for long-established species. In those cases, their WVOs are more likely to affect teaching of decision-making in the context of management actions. Thus, teacher education should support student teachers in reflecting their value orientations for teaching local biodiversity protection.