Teachers’ Working Commitment, Voluntary to New Evangelization, Catholic Religious Teaching-Learning, and Students’ Ecological Citizenship

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of teachers’ working commitment, teachers’ voluntary to new evangelization, and Catholic religious teaching-learning process on students’ ecological citizenship based on Laudato Si' encyclical. To do so, a survey method was used to collect data were from a total of 147 Catholic religious education teachers, drawn purposively from amongst 282 Catholic religious education teachers teaching in the elementary schools of Flores Timur Regency. Employing the Structural Equation Model (SEM) software version 22, the results shown that all the proposed hypotheses were proven significantly. It means that the better awareness, attitudes, and actions to care for the environment, the better ‘caring for our common home’ based on Laudato Si’ encyclical. The findings highlight the need for Catholic religious education teachers to promote voluntary new evangelization in order to encourage students to actualize all dimensions of Catholic ecology in properly treating the planet earth and the entire environment, as well as ‘a mother who cares for her child(ren)’. It inferred that teachers’ voluntary to new evangelization enables students to grow in compassion, love, and tenderness to the planet earth and the entire environment and, as a result, to see the planet earth and the entire environment as ‘a sister who always shares her life for us.