Objectives The purpose of this study is to explore how ecology-environment education instructors perceive the relationship between ‘ecological education’ and ‘environmental education’ based on Wittgenstein's concept of the language game and whether there are differences in relationship perception types depending on their background variables.
 Methods 57 ecology-environment education instructors participated in the study, and a questionnaire was organized to select a Van diagram that matches one's thoughts among the types of relationships between ecological education and environmental education and explain why.
 Results As for the types of perception, “ecological=environmental”, “ecological⊃environmental”, “ecological⊂environmental”, and “ecological∩environmental” appeared in the order of frequency. However, even with the same type of response, there were various reasons for choosing. Through this, it was confirmed that while recognizing a common area in values and content knowledge between ecological education and environmental education, it has various perceptions in everyday language according to individual experiences and backgrounds. There was no difference in perception of relationship types according to gender, career period, age group, and final academic level.
 Conclusions It was confirmed that there is a family resemblance between ecological education and environmental education by exploring various types recognized by ecology-environment education instructors as language game concepts. In addition, it suggested the need to continuously pursue diversity and expand education.