Environmental Education in the Federal Republic of Germany: A Survey

Abstract

Silent Spring sent a vivid warning around the world. The Federal government's first environmental programme, passed in 1970, stressed the significance of environmental education. As early as the late 1960s, syllabuses in biology and geography included environmental problems. The early 1970s saw a period of intensive subject-specific work and a flurry of publications in the natural and social sciences. Large organisations such as Unesco and the Council of Europe were a strong influence, especially in the theoretical field. Increasingly, efforts were made to devise a way of making environmental education transcend subject barriers. Interdisciplinary teams in the Kiel Institute for Science Education (Institut fur die Padagogik de Naturwissenschaften, IPN) developed teaching materials and a methodological programme for environmental education. This was published in 1981. German ministries first of all participated in the international activities of Unesco in Stockholm, Tbilisi and Munich. Recommendations and resolutions were passed for the various educational disciplines in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1978 (Munich) and 1980 (Standing Conference of Ministers of Education and Science in the Lander, KMK). Within individual German Lander, environmental problems found their way into syllabuses in the various subjects. However, such theoretical recommendations from educational and ministerial sources were in practice rarely implemented in the schools. In an empirical study in 1985, IPN questioned teachers in 60 schools as to how they had conducted environmental education during the past six months. This survey showed up considerable weaknesses, in terms of the time allocated to such teaching as well as, and in particular, in terms of methodology. It demonstrated that environmental education is still seen as an extension of subject teaching and, as a rule, is conducted in this fashion. In 1986, the Federal Minister of Education and Science in Bonn organised a symposium including experts from all areas of teaching. Their suggestions and recommendations were incorporated into a list of criteria produced by the Commission of Federal and Land Representatives for Educational Planning and the Promotion of Research (Bund-Lander Kommission fur Bildungsplanung und Forschungsforderung).