Environmental Education and Practices in Canada, Turkey & Pakistan at Primary Level: A Content Analysis

Abstract

The current investigation was directed to analyze environmental education and practices in curriculum adopted in Pakistan, Turkey, and Canada at the primary level. For this purpose, General Science textbooks of the public schools in Ontario (Canada), Istanbul (Turkey), and Rawalpindi (Pakistan) were explored and their practical implementation was studied as primary data for the year 2008-2015. A close content analysis of the inscribed curriculum revealed that over time, Canada has taken significant steps to incorporate the elements of environmental awareness as their curricula and trained the teachers to deal effectively with environmental education, leading to creating awareness in problems and their solution among children regarding concepts of waste management, littering and sustainability. Topics related to awareness about reducing, recycle, reuse, and ecosystems were a vital part of the environmental curriculum and practices in Turkey. Exploring climate change and the environment was found to be part of the Science curriculum in Pakistan. However, the practical activities regarding environmental education were relatively less in Pakistan as the implementation of the curriculum is not in its mature stages. Comparison of the study reveals that incorporating environmental projects benefitting from national and international organizations in Pakistan would help as they have contributed constructively in creating awareness in the education sector in Turkey and Canada.