Environmental Education in Schools

Abstract

Research has given critical attention to diverse theories and practices of environmental education, but has tended to take a narrow focus on specific curricula and policies or on activities within strictly defined sites such as schools, classrooms or protected areas. In contrast, this research argues that greater attention needs to be given to the broader social, economic and political contexts in which these initiatives take place, as well as to how they impact upon educational practice. The chapter begins with an introduction to the community of Monteverde, Costa Rica, where the research was conducted. The discussion then examines how the content and goals of environmental education programme in local schools are strongly linked to a range of wider social and economic relationships, and explores the ways in which these impact upon educational practice. In particular, despite their diverse sizes and relationships to the state, local schools faced many of the same difficulties in promoting environmental learning, including meeting the expectations of the state, parents, and employers; structural concerns such as high teacher turnover and limited resources; and the demands of the state’s heavily content-based curriculum and strict national examination requirements.