Founders of Environmental Education: narratives of the Australian environmental education movement

Abstract

Summary The environmental education movement in Australia and elsewhere is nearly three decades old. The discourses which frame the movement, the ‘goals, objectives and guiding principles’ did not come out of the air; they were proposed by people who have become the founders’ of the movement. The influence of one of these founders is discussed and the statements which he proposed are analysed in terms of their roots in an environmentalism of a rational science variety and an instrumentalist view of education. Attention is also drawn to the colonial domination implicit in the founda‐tional discourses of the movement and the need to be aware of these and other contexts of their development over two decades ago is discussed. While it is important to celebrate the founders and foundations, that these foundational statements continue to be endorsed without modification is considered to be a serious impediment to the future development of the field.