Alternative Paradigms in Environmental Education Research by Rick Mrazek

Abstract

Children's Environments Vol. 11 No. 3 (September 1994) Alternative Paradigms in Environmental Education Research Mrazek, Rick (1993). Troy, Ohio: NAAEE; 333 pages. $20.00 (non-members); $16.00 (members). ISBN 1884008046. At its annual conference in 1990, the North American Association forEnvironmental Education (NAAEE) held a symposium on 'Alternative Paradigms inEnvironmental Education Research,' which became the nucleus for this monograph.The symposium took up questions about the nature and history of differentresearch paradigms: the assumptions that each makes about theory and practice,including definitions of rigor, validity, and generalizability and views aboutthe nature of teachers, learners, subject matter, and the learning environment.The resulting collection is for the stout of heart who are undaunted by morethan 300 pages of platform presentations, position statements, responses, andcase studies of research projects in more or less finished form. For readerswho are interested in understanding the status of North American environmentaleducation research at this time, it is an illuminating volume. According to the editor, Rick Mrazek, the purpose of the collection is to inviteparticipation in debate over philosophy, theory, and practice, with the goal ofultimately finding 'signposts which help provide direction' (p.3): direction,the reader is left to assume, to making sense of the debate itself and toselecting personally congenial research approaches. Considering that themonograph ends with a copy of the guidelines for publication in the Journal ofEnvironmental Education - the main North American outlet for research in thisfield - the intended audience appears to be current and prospective researchers,including graduate students in research courses. Therefore, fortitude for themonograph's succession of positions and counter-positions is taken for granted. John Disinger, a seasoned leader in the North American environmental educationcommunity, opens the collection with a 270 brief paper which challenges the title.The choice of the term 'alternative paradigms,' he notes, invites comparisonwith Thomas Kuhn's influential book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.Rather than a simple dictionary definition of a paradigm as a 'pattern, example,model,' Kuhn's paradigms refer to fundamentally different conceptual frameworksthat involve fundamentally different world views, research practices, andinterpretations of evidence, as in the shift from Ptolemy's geocentric toCopernicus's heliocentric cosmology. The monograph's debate, Disinger observes,is not on this level. He recommends that 'Alternative Models in EnvironmentalEducation Research' would have been a more moderate and accurate title. Giventhat in research, a 'model' refers to the identification of key variables andtheir relationships - whereas contributors to this volume discuss general philosophies,assumptions, methods, and purposes - this reader's own recommendation is that aneven less pretentious 'alternative perspectives' or 'alternative approaches'would be more accurate. Disinger also makes several opening observations which are essential to acritical reading of the monograph, but which subsequent contributions tend toignore. He notes that the scope of environmental education, in terms of contentareas, purposes, and audiences, is extremely broad; ranging from nature study tosustainable development, involving cognitive information, feeling, and behaviorchange, among cradle-to-grave populations, and in formal and non-formalsettings. The environmental educators who are represented in the monograph,however, focus almost exclusively on formal school-based education. Disingerasks that environmental education research acknowledge differences in audiences,with a corresponding necessity for different approaches. As an example of theneed for a broad vision of environmental education, he mentions extensivemedia-related research dealing with the mass communication of environmentalinformation, which has not been assimilated into the environmental educationresearch discussion. At the same time, Disinger notes that there is an inherent conflict between thegoals of environmental education and formal education. According to WilliamStapp's often-quoted definition: 271 Environmental education is aimed at producing a citizenry that is knowledgeableconcerning the biophysical environment and its associated problems, aware of howto help solve those problems, and motivated to work toward their solution (p.23). Stapp's definition goes beyond knowledge and awareness to motivation to worktowards the solution of environmental problems: a potentially profoundcommitment. Most areas of education, in contrast, focus on cognition or, atmost, the identification of values. This conflict should call into question themonograph's (and NAAEE's) emphasis on formal school-based education. Themonograph as a whole, however, ignores the conflict. In fact, papers repeatedlyrefer to 'K-12'or 'classes' as the assumed research setting. This implicit narrowing of the...