Abstract
AbstractThis chapter explores the concept of non-formal education and its potential for fostering Environmental Citizenship. Non-formal education emphasises learning beyond the formal framework of the education system. Whether this takes place at school or outside the playground, or through activities that are not subject to the school curriculum, non-formal education responds to learners’ needs, interests, knowledge and development. Non-formal education is flexible and can be adapted quickly to the socio-economic and cultural changes of the world. Involving children from a young age could later on be the difference between viewing environmental ‘best practices’ as a way of life or just as a temporary episode. We explore how learning experiences can be formative both for children’s environmental identity and as agents of change. We present an overview of significant life experiences that can contribute to this development and stress the need to attune (non-formal) Education for Environmental Citizenship to the perspective of children rather than to adults.
Highlights
Kellert (2005) identifies three basic stages for children’s development of environmental values and actions
Reformations of early and primary education based on the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child (UNICEF 1990) have led to redefining the goals that it pursues
The concept emerged in the international discourse on education about 40 years ago. It is associated with the idea of lifelong learning and emphasises the importance of education going beyond the formal frameworks of the education system, whether in educational spaces other than school, or through education activities that are not subject to the school curriculum but that respond to the needs and interests of a group’s knowledge and development
Summary
Kellert (2005) identifies three basic stages for children’s development of environmental values and actions. Primary education is the second link in most of the formal education systems, and it shares several basic characteristics across the systems It provides basic training, instrumental component of general culture, and second it aims at the development of human personality components: intelligence, curiosity, skills and moral habits, etc. These two features essentialise the main functions of education for children between the developmental ages of 6 and 12 years old. Reformations of early and primary education based on the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child (UNICEF 1990) have led to redefining the goals that it pursues We mention below those we see as being relevant discussion points in relation to Education for Environmental Citizenship. As we will debate later in this chapter, non-formal education presents a unique educational context in which children’s environmental identities (see, e.g. Clayton 2003) can be developed and where they can acquire the competences needed to become Environmental Citizens
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
