Toward an ecology of environmental education and learning

Abstract

Environmental education traditionally has focused on changing individual knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Concern about environmental education's lack of effectiveness in instilling an understanding of human's role within ecosystems has led us to an exploration of the relationship of learning and education to the larger social-ecological systems in which they are embedded. We draw from socio-cultural learning theory and from frameworks developed by long-term ecological research, hierarchy theory, and social-ecological systems resilience to suggest an “ecology of learning” and an “ecology of environmental education.” In so doing, we hope to open up new research and practices that consider possibilities for environmental education to act in consort with other initiatives, such as local stewardship efforts, to foster social capital, ecosystem services, and other attributes of resilient social-ecological systems.