Environmental Education Experiences Research Articles

Teachers' environmental education as creating cracks and ruptures in school education: a narrative inquiry and an analysis of teacher rhetoric

This article discusses a narrative inquiry as a methodology for understanding and examining teachers' interpretations of their environment‐related teaching experiences. Focusing on the value of teacher stories for interrogating the discursive practices of schools as institutional contexts, four main rhetorical themes are identified to illustrate how teachers' engagements in practice and thinking with environmental education display ongoing identity work. Five Korean secondary science teachers' stories illustrate the dynamic processes and interplay between multiple discourses, such as the ‘proper’, ‘good’, ‘science’ teacher, and the cultural norms, resources and subject positions available to them, as they take up and explain their own and others' meanings and subject positions in science education and environmental education. The paper discusses the value of narrative inquiry to conceptualising teacher agency in ways that offer alternatives to conventional research perspectives in this field, and in taking account of the possible meanings of environmental education, the possibility of creating cracks and ruptures in the ‘sense‐making’ discourses and ‘sense that is made’ of experiences of environmental education and school education more widely.

A Day Hike Designed to Promote Environmental Literacy

This paper introduces a theoretical framework and practical means of teaching environmental literacy through the explanation of a structured day hike experience with university students along the Bruce Trail in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. Environmental literacy is about deeply knowing the details and histories of particular settings and has become increasingly popular for directing outdoor and environmental education experiences. However, what it means to be environmentally literate is a topic for debate and is often difficult to articulate and describe to those who are unfamiliar with the term. Stables (1998) described an environmental literacy framework that is useful for teaching different ways of learning about and experiencing natural environments. Stables' framework was based upon functional, cultural, and critical elements, which coalesce to create a holistic approach to understanding environmental literacy. The purpose of this article is to describe an interactive approach for teaching environmental literacy by using a theoretical framework as a guide for practice.

Education for Sustainable Development: Knowledge and environment in South African schooling

The United Nations’ launch of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in 2005 has focused international attention on the concept of education for sustainable development (ESD). This paper covers the emergence of ESD in relation to environmental education in South Africa. It critiques the core concept, sustainable development, and identifies a trend in ESD to de-value a knowledge base, particularly in relation to the natural environment. A sociology of knowledge perspective is used in conjunction with the writer’s own experiences in environmental education. A critical/social realist approach is proposed as a way past the impasse of traditional education versus the progressivism of ESD. A disciplinary knowledge base is seen as foundational in teacher education and schooling in order to develop environmentally literate and responsible citizens. Strategies to achieve this include the introduction of a few selected environmental issues across the curriculum, making use of selected teachers rather than all teachers, and including core environmental literacy courses in teacher education.

Environmental education: pupils’ perspectives on classroom experience

This paper presents findings from research about pupils’ experiences of environmental education in UK secondary schools. The study focused on six pupils aged 13‐ to 14‐years‐old and nearing the end of their compulsory geography education. Geography provided a relevant a curricular context for exploring pupils’ experiences of environmental education as it is one of the main subject areas dealing with environmental issues and education for sustainable development in the UK. Classroom observation and interviews offered insights into the way the six pupils interpreted a range of classroom experiences. This paper elucidates the personal ideas and agendas that children may bring to their environmental learning experiences, and demonstrates how lessons that were not intended to be environmental in focus may nonetheless be interpreted as such by pupils.

A conservação do papagaio-da-cara-roxa (Amazona brasiliensis) no estado do Paraná: uma experiência de Educação Ambiental no ensino formal

No presente trabalho, avaliou-se a experiência de Educação Ambiental do "Projeto de Conservação do Papagaio-da-Cara-Roxa (Amazona brasiliensis)", no ensinoformal, realizado pela Sociedade de Pesquisa em Vida Selvagem e Educação Ambiental (SPVS), no litoral norte do Estado do Paraná. A experiência teve o intuito de fomentar, tanto no corpo docente quando no corpo discente, a discussão sobre valores e princípios que norteiam as relações homem/natureza, desenvolvendo-se, assim, uma interação mais responsável com o meio ambiente. Foram desenvolvidos módulos-educativos sobre o papagaio-da-cara-roxa e seu ambiente, direcionados a 795 estudantes do ensino fundamental, nos Municípios de Paranaguá e Guaraqueçaba. Para analisar a eficácia das atividades, os estudantes responderam a testes antes e depois do processo educativo que mediram mudanças obtidas com relação ao incremento de conhecimento, postura e valorização do papagaio-da-cara-roxa e de seu ambiente. Os resultados indicaram que a utilização do exemplo de uma espécie, ameaçada de extinção e que ocorre próximo às comunidades envolvidas no processo de conservação, serviu de base para a associação do tema específico para com uma realidade ambiental mais ampla e contextualizada localmente.

Learning about Environments: The Significance of Primal Landscapes

The way we learn about our environments--be they farms, forests, or tribal lands--has implications for the formulation of environmental policy. This article presents the findings of how residents learned about their environments in two rural case studies conducted in northern Queensland and relates these to the concept of "primal landscapes," which is concerned with the interaction that occurs between children and the environments in which they mature. Rather than focusing specifically on built environments or natural environments, the article draws on an approach that conceptualizes environment as meaning-laden places in which we live and work, which integrate social, cultural, biological, physical, and economic dimensions. In drawing insights for environmental policy, the article draws attention to the timing of policy interventions, the significance of experiential environmental education, the potential to learn from place-based festivals, and the importance of learning from extreme events such as fires and floods.

Teacher Education: A Diluted Environmental Education Experience

AbstractThis paper presents the findings of a small-scale research project about student teachers' perceptions and experiences of environmental education. The context of this study is a pre-service teacher education faculty in rural New South Wales, Australia. A combined methods approach was applied, with a survey designed from rich data elicited through focus group interviews. The focus of this paper is on the findings of the survey, revealing that prospective teachers' preparedness in environmental education is diluted by their teacher education experience and that such experiences are not providing a stimulus for novice teachers to practice environmental education.

An Intergenerational Approach for Enriching Children's Environmental Attitudes and Knowledge

Intergenerational programming, which brings children, youth, and older adults together for mutually beneficial interaction, represents a relatively new strategy for broadening the public's awareness and participation in environmental activities. To explore the potential benefits of involving older adults and young people in joint environmental education experiences, a study was conducted of an intergenerational outdoor education program in an environmental center in Central Pennsylvania. Senior adult volunteers were found to influence children to adopt an enriched sense of awareness and appreciation of the natural environment. Senior-student relations were influenced by staff facilitation styles, the roles taken by the seniors, and the intergenerational engagement format.

Everyday Environmental Education Experiences: The Role of Content in Early Childhood Education

AbstractIn recent years discussions surrounding early childhood curriculum has focused on the movement from developmental to sociocultural theory. A further area worthy of investigation involves the role of content in early childhood education, specifically the relationship between content, context and pedagogy. The paper draws on teacher vignettes to consider how environmental education can be represented as a content area in early years education. Issues associated with environmental education as an emerging area of importance in early childhood education are also discussed.

Learning about environmental issues

PurposeTo present results from a research project on postgraduate and undergraduate students' learning about environmental issues in education.Design/methodology/approachThree cases were carried out with civil engineering students, biology students and postgraduate students. Discussions in classroom were tape‐recorded, as well as discussions while working with assignments, and interviews were carried out.FindingsShows how differently environmental issues can be interpreted, i.e. scientifically, existentially and politically, and the way values and emotions become an aspect of the learning process and reveal the students' difficulties in differentiating between values and descriptions of phenomena. This is analysed and explained in relation to the students' various projects that come into conflict in the educational setting.Practical implicationsThe paper can be of use to those who are engaged in environmental education and raises questions regarding the content of today's environmental education.Originality/valueGives an insight into students' learning processes and experiences in environmental education and the difficulties they can experience when studying such a subject.

1B2-E3 環境教育と自然体験学習の体系化(科学教育と自然体験学習)

1B2-E3 環境教育と自然体験学習の体系化(科学教育と自然体験学習)

Lend Them An Ear: The Significance of Listening to Children’s Experiences of Environmental Education

Over the last four decades, research in environmental education (EE) has offered valuable theoretical insights spanning a number of pedagogical and philosophical arenas. EE literature offers expansive accounts of projects looking at a multiplicity of factors involved in bringing EE to the forefront of educational endeavour. Within all this activity, however, a ‘gap’ between the field of EE and the recipients of such endeavour appears requiring some consideration and exploration. This paper discusses this ‘gap’ and suggests the need for future research initiatives utilising student voice as a mechanism for reflecting on and informing EE philosophy and pedagogy. Premised on an ongoing international doctoral study examining children’s experiences of EE, this paper discusses an approach that builds on emerging EE research nodes and assists in addressing this ‘gap’. It argues that understanding EE conceptions as described by schoolchildren offers environmental educators important considerations for future learning experiences and researchers important insights into factors influencing those experiences.

Making connections with nature: Bridging the theory — practice gap in outdoor and environmental education

In this paper I describe my experience in attempting to assist tertiary students connect with the natural environment through outdoor and environmental education experiences. The paper addresses research conducted with students undertaking an outdoor and environmental education degree and focuses on the pedagogical methods employed in this context. I argue that outdoor and environmental education practitioners may benefit from moving away from a mode of teaching based upon ‘generic’ methods and look instead to a more local, specific and contextual form of education. By describing an outdoor and environmental education journey in a local, ‘ordinary’ place and students’ experiences in unearthing the stories embedded in this place, I aim to provide some practical strategies to engage young people in a direct and meaningful way. The intention is to broaden the pedagogical possibilities related to facilitating experiences in natural environments and thus contribute to bridging the rhetoric/reality gap in outdoor education.

Educação ambiental na universidade: construindo possibilidades

Environmental education is a big challenge in this century and the University has an important role to play in it. This paper presents a practical experience of environmental education in the university teaching at the University of Bahia. That experience involves the creation of an interdisciplinary group that has been developing research and teaching activities with interdisciplinary perspectives. The paper also discusses a methodology proposed by this group aiming to include environmental education in science teaching using social and cultural approaches.

Having a Field Day with Environmental Education

Few research examples or discussions about successful and practical application of environmental education within teacher education programs exist (UNESCO-UNEP, 1990). Meaningful environmental education experiences for preservice teachers need to incorporate the processes of inquiry, implementation, and reflection. In this article, we describe an environmental education action research project with preservice teachers grounded in a widely-accepted framework for guiding the teaching and learning of environmental education. We spotlight a cohort of 14 elementary education majors in their efforts to plan and implement an environmental education field day for students and teachers at an elementary school.

The Influence of an Introductory Environmental Science Class on Environmental Perceptions

An environmental concern scale (ECS) was administered to a group of college students before and after completion of an introductory environmental science class. A significant increase in the level of concern was seen in questions related to overall environmental awareness and personal responsibility. Specifically, concern was raised on questions related to slowing down pollution, preventing animal extinction, and students’ willingness to accept an increase in family expenses to help protect the environment. After completing the course, students also supported providing ample opportunities in all schools to learn about environmental issues. These data provide evidence that a collegelevel environmental education experience can have an impact on environmental concerns and anticipated future behaviors. These data stress the importance and influence of environmental education at the higher educational (college) levels, and indicate such courses may provide opportunities for students in diverse degree programs to reshape their personal environmental ethic.

USING A FIELD TRIP TO A WETLAND AS A GUIDE FOR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING IN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION – A CASE STUDY OF A PRE-SERVICE TEACHER’S RESEARCH

This paper describes a pre-service chemistry teacher in her senior year at the university, who attended an environmental education (EE) course, in which within a project assignment, she studied her peers’ and other college students' conceptions of the swamps in Israel. In her study she discovered that the students held naive conceptions about the swamps as filthyhazardous places that must be drained for improving the public health. A visit to the swamp, which included observations and investigation of its water quality, caused a conceptual change that allowed the students to understand the ecosystem better and to re-assess their pre-conceptions. The pre-service teacher, who was at the focus of this study challenged her own and her colleagues conceptions and used the conceptual change as a lever for her own professional growth as an environmental educator. Her project provides a better insight on pre-service environmental education experiences. The changes that the prospective teacher identified are discussed in the context of constructivist learning and teaching in EE, suggesting that pre-service training in EE must include actual outdoors learning experiences, which allow students to challenge previous knowledge and practice effective teaching methods. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.: 2004, 5, 127-142]

Nature-based Excursions: School Students' Perceptions of Learning in Natural Environments

Increasingly, environmental educators are incorporating visits to natural areas into their environmental learning programmes for school students. This paper investigates school students' expectations regarding environmental education experiences in natural areas and the attitudinal and behaviour changes they report as a result of their involvement in such programmes. Questionnaire responses from 580 students aged 8-17 years confirmed that learning in natural environments is attractive to students and has an important impact on their attitudes towards the environment, their desire to look after the environment, their behaviour in natural areas and their household environmental practices. It is concluded that combining observation with instruction is a powerful teaching strategy, especially when this allows students to understand the impact of human action on wildlife and natural habitats.

Renovating the Landscape and Packaging the Penguin: Culture and Nature on Summerland Peninsula, Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia

Changes in settler impacts on Summerland Peninsula, Phillip Island are examined, with an emphasis on the recent program of environmental restoration associated with the Penguin Parade, one of Victoria's largest tourist attractions. Management strategies construct nature around an ideal of human absence, expressed in, for example, removal of residents and residential buildings; representations of the Aboriginal presence as both prehistoric and part of nature; and formalised rather than experiential environmental education. Paradoxically this encourages intensified tourism and its associated impacts, such that the economics of environmental preservation are dependent on its commodification. This paper draws on two traditions of cultural geography, with components undertaken more than 20 years apart. I argue that a combination of Sauerian and deconstructive approaches can be productively applied to many current environmental issues. © Institute of Australian Geographers 2000.

Problematizing Nature Experience in Environmental Education: The Interrelationship of Experience and Story

Problematizing Nature Experience in Environmental Education: The Interrelationship of Experience and Story