Environmental Education is History: The Extent to Which Modern History Education Adopts Characteristics of Socially Critical Environmental Education

Abstract

AbstractThis paper reports on a research study that investigated the extent to which the Queensland secondary school subject Modern History adopts characteristics of socially critical environmental education. The study found that while the Modern History syllabus gives ample opportunities for students to focus their inquiries on environment, Modern History teachers had overlooked this aspect of the syllabus. More positive findings of this research are that both the syllabus and teachers adopt many characteristics of socially critical environmental education. In particular, the values, political and emancipatory characteristics feature strongly in both policy and practice. To a lesser extent, both the holistic and issues-based characteristics are represented. Finally, this research study shows that the action characteristic, as defined in socially critical environmental education, is clearly neglected. Despite this, there is a case to be made for Modern History to be used as a vehicle for socially critical environmental education in Queensland schools.