Environmental Education Practice Research Articles

Learning to Govern Oneself: Environmental Education Pedagogy and the Formation of an Environmental Subject

AbstractThis paper uses the work of Weber and Foucault to explore the ways in which environmental education may operate as a site for forming and maintaining particular ethical competencies which most environmental educators argue are necessary in order to live in an ‘environmentally sustainable' manner. Environmental education practices, as evidenced in the Earthkeepers program, are examined to show how environmental education may be working in quite particular ways to construct specific ethical abilities and competencies in students. It is argued that we need to be far more concerned with and aware of the actual means we use to encourage students to live in an ‘environmentally sustainable' fashion.

Consuming Passions: Educating the Empty Self

ABSTRACTThe paper considers the connections between the environmental crisis and patterns of consumption in the Western, and Westernised, worlds. These patterns are named as ‘malconsumption’, a concept which is defined and then discussed In terms of its importance to the work of environmental educators. Malconsumption as a means of ‘meaning-making’ and of countering ‘the empty self, and as a consequence of the activities of the advertising and other industries is explained. The paper closes with a summary of the orientation and activities associated with the practice of permaculture, and a proposition that a consideration of this practice in environmental education might contribute to a countering of the drive towards malconsumption.

Environment as text: Initial insights into some implications for professional development in environmental education

This paper describes part of a current international research capacity-building project in South Africa. In the project a research-based approach to professional development is adopted, one in which participants develop detailed case studies relating to their own changing practices in environmental education. It is argued that such an approach is consistent with the highly contextual nature of the field of environmental education. The article describes a central three-day 'moment' in the project, drawing on this experience to consider a number of issues concerning participatory research and the role of case study in professional development.

Young Children, Environmental Education and the Future

This chapter argues that environmental education is an issue of profound importance, especially for young children, the inheritors of great possibilities, but also of major social and environmental problems and challenges. The author observes that, despite little intersection between early childhood education and environmental education, these two fields are natural allies, sharing common philosophical orientations and endorsing similar educational practices. In reconceptualising early childhood education to take account of environmental concerns, there needs, however, to be a refocus on outdoor play, better provision of natural playspaces for children, and a broadening of the term ‘environment’ to encompass holistic and intergenerational perspectives. It is imperative that early childhood teacher education, both preservice and inservice, be transformed to incorporate futures-oriented environmental education principles and practices.

Science Education for Environmental Education? Primary Teacher Perspectives and Practices

AbstractThis article presents the results of a survey of primary managers and teachers to assess the relationships between experience, attitudes and practice in science and environmental education. Analysis, from a concerns theory perspective, shows that science, by virtue of its high National Curriculum status, has progressed to collaborative and refocusing concerns with substantial management support, whilst environmental education, in spite of perceived importance, remains at the status of personal concerns, due to insufficient pragmatic management support and pressure to cover National Curriculum subject content. Four broad groups of attitudes towards science and environmental education are identified which highlight the relationship between experience, attitudes, practices and views of science and corresponding practices and attitudes relating to environmental issues and education. The significance of this to science and environmental education is discussed.

Environmental Education Towards Personal, Professional and Societal Change: Possibilities for Distance Education

AbstractIn this paper I describe the design of distance education texts that encourage the kinds of student-tutor dialogue which ‘industrial’ methods of course delivery may find hard to achieve, and how such texts enable students and their tutors to be critically reflective about the theory and practice of environmental education in different cultural contexts. Aspects of the following are discussed - the limitations of ‘new technologies’ in resolving issues faced by distance educators; the potential of open texts in distance education; ways of supporting students in necessary critical reflection; the Importance of social belonging for students, especially those of distance education courses in environmental education. The paper concludes with a series of suggestions for colleagues wishing to establish culturally sensitive, critically reflective distance education courses in environmental education.

Stand Up, Stand Up and Be Counted: Undermining Myths of Environmental Education

AbstractThis paper explores some of the ideas that underlie different conceptions of sustainable development. It suggests the notion of ‘sustainable living’ may provide direction for the role of environmental education in the transition towards a sustainable society. Aspects of the emerging concept of ‘education for sustainable living’ are used to analyse some widely-held assumptions about environmental education practice. In doing so the paper seeks to contribute to the process of identifying a vision and practice appropriate to environmental education for a new millennium.

Bringing It All Together: Partnerships, Holisms and Futures

Innovative environmental education practices have been grouped under the following themes: partnerships, holisms and futures. These practices show the importance of creating interactions among students which add meaning to the lives of students, schools and the entire community.

The Development of Responsible Environmental Citizenship: A Critical Challenge

Although this article should not be considered a research article, its content is based almost entirely on research into responsible environmental behavior. It looks at instructional practice in environmental education and some of the flaws associated with it. The research that guides successful curriculum development and instruction is briefly discussed, and inferences flowing from that research are stated and described. The article then describes what the author believes to be the critical educational components that must be in place if receivers are to become lifelong responsible decision makers in society. Following this is a discussion of what an instructional program would look like that can be predicted to lead to responsible citizenship action regarding important environmental issues.

Reflective Practice: A Case Study of Professional Development for Environmental Education

Abstract A case study is presented of a professional development program for environmental education in Australia that applies the principles of participatory research and critical reflection. These two principles are embodied in the concept of reflective practice. Reflective practice involves using ethical and contextual considerations in professional decisionmaking rather than making such decisions on the basis of habit, intuition, impulse, and tradition. The education of “reflective practitioners” of this type is the goal of the Master of Environmental Education program at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. After an introduction to the program and the concept of reflective practice, a case study of the experiences of students in one of the subjects of that program is presented. The case study revealed that students derived a number of benefits from developing their reflective practice skills, including heightened political awareness, a strong sense of influences and limitations of social context on their ideas and environmental education practices, increased self-confidence, and a desire to continue in a reflective practice group. The case study also revealed some of the concerns of the students and staff, especially in the areas of assessment, the fear of personal disclosure, and the need for structured peer support.

Shaping Environmental Education Practices

Language has very real and powerful material outcomes for people and for the environments which they construct and inhabit. Social constructions of the category "environment" shape environmental education practices and ultimately affect strategies for mitigating environmental problems and degradation. Anthropologists can play a key role in clarifying these categories of meaning and their ramifications by examining what issues are considered, how they are considered, and what priorities are established, and by noting the things that are omitted, consciously or unconsciously, from the discussion.

Policy and the Practice of Environmental Education in England: a dilemma for teachers

summary Environmental education in schools in England is subject to conflicting pressures from the policies of central government concerning the environment and education. Schools are considered to be important vehicles for improving environmental responsibility and within this ‘values education’ makes a significant contribution. Recent reform of the education system has been directed towards raising standards, with an emphasis on knowledge and skills. Aspects of affective education, including beliefs, values and attitudes receive less emphasis. Results of a study into how environmentally‐aware teachers in secondary schools see their role in relation to their own attitudes to the environment, the relationship between local and global concerns and their understanding of the nature of environmental education and its contribution to the curriculum are reported and discussed in the context of policy mismatch.

Environmental education and classroom practice: Some implications for teacher education

Abstract Informal, open, experiential, student‐centred classroom styles are seen as preferable for. effective environmental education. The paper examines how far and in what ways such styles are employed and what model of teacher education is needed. Three hundred and eighty‐one teachers in Hong Kong completed a self‐administered questionnaire examining the openness and indirectedness of teaching style primarily within a framework of Gagné instructional events. Opening phases in lessons tended to be open, indirect and student‐centred but as lessons progressed became more closed, teacher‐directed, bookish and examination oriented. The relative inappropriateness of the style adopted is not seen in terms of lack of teacher knowledge but of teacher perceptions of practicality and a tendency to adopt satisficer strategies to accommodate short‐term demands. Teacher education needs to take account of the realities of the school and focus on teacher education and curriculum development as one within a process model of teacher training that is appropriate to the needs of environmental classes.

Young Adolescents' Perceptions of Environmental Issues: Implications for Environmental Education in Urban Settings

Despite good intentions, many environmental education (EE) projects seem to fall short in realising ambitious learning goals such as “helping citizens become environmentally knowledgeable, skilled and dedicated people who are willing to work individually and collectively, toward achieving and/or maintaining a dynamic equilibrium between the quality of life and the quality of the environment.” (Harvey cited in Hungerford et al., 1980). Without always challenging the nature and content of these goals, many researchers and practitioners are trying to resolve this discrepancy between the theory and practice of EE. Some have tried to instrumentally structure EE content matter by using hierarchical levels of universal goals and objectives (e.g. Hungerford et al., 1980; Marcinkowski, 1990) whereas others who question the value or the status of universal goals and objectives, have put emphasis on contextual development of EE within the school community (e.g. Bull et al., 1988; Robottom, 1987). However, relatively little attention has been paid to the way young people come to make sense of their own environment through their everyday interactions with(in) the lifeworld.For more than fifty years constructivist approaches to learning have suggested that the pre-instructional perceptions (also referred to as “mini-theories” and “misconceptions”) of the learner play a key role in successful learning or lack thereof (Ausubel, 1968; Driver and Oldham, 1986; Freyberg and Osborne, 1981; Gilbert and Watts, 1983; Hasweh, 1986; Novak and Gowin, 1984, Wals, 1987) Yet, unlike the English teacher who is very capable of determining at what “level” her students are, environmental educators have little understanding of students' perceptions of the environment and environmental issues, and the “mini-theories” to which they lead.

Towards School-level Curriculum Inquiry in Environmental Education

This paper is an outgrowth of my work for the Bicentennial Australian Studies Schools Project (BASSP) for which I wrote the booklet, Education for the Australian Environment (Fien 1988). This was one of ten booklets on Australian Studies distributed to every primary and secondary school in Australia early in 1988. The purpose of Education for the Australian Environment was to provide guidelines for injecting an Australian Studies perspective into environmental education. In the final chapter of the first draft of the booklet I sought to provide a framework for the development of an environmental education policy through a process of curriculum inquiry at the individual school level.In part, I was moved to include a framework for school level curriculum work in environmental education by concerns expressed by Gough (1987) and Robottom (1987a) about the value of centrally-developed policy statements on environmental education. While the 1977 Tbilisi Declaration urged UN member states to prepare policies “to introduce environmental concerns, activities and content into their education systems”, Gough and Robottom urged caution over the use of centralised policies as instruments for educational change. In summary, the reasons for their concern stemmed from the potential danger that centrally developed policies might foreclose debate over the nature, goals and practices of environmental education and, thus, supplant local innovations and variations in environmental education with uniform prescriptions. They also expressed concern that the hierarchical pattern of authority embedded in centralised curriculum decision making was inappropriate to environmental education and that it could easily lead to the deskilling and disempowerment of environmental educators at the grassroot levels.

Environmental Education in Canada: Contemporary Issues & Future Possibilities

Environmental education has become a major concern for many politicians, educators, and parents in Canada. The politics of resource scarcity, environmental deterioration, and failed economic theories have combined to force nations such as Canada to reassess their priorities. Environmentalism has matured to the degree that large numbers of environmentally related contradictions in Canadian society can be traced to patterns of western intellectual thought and debated in terms of differing ideologies relating to population, economic development, government policy making, the legal system, and to education. As we face the 21st century with growing uncertainty and threats to our understandings, our ideas, and our institutions, an environmental perspective may well come to dominate our consciousness and our education.This paper develops an argument for reform in current environmental education practices within Canada at a time when educational systems in this country are becoming serious about incorporating an environmental perspective. After setting the context within systems of Canadian education, the paper attempts to capture the essence of environmental education activities by means of some broadly based Canadian contributions to the field and by two specific examples. The purpose of these sections is to throw into relief a number of tensions and contradictions in the contemporary theory and practice of environmental education in Canada and to identify a number of issues for debate in light of this experience. Finally, a proposal consistent with authentic principles of socially critical environmental education is suggested as a means of reconceptualising future environmental education activities within Canadian contexts.

Education activities for environment and sustainability: A Snapshot of eight New South Wales councils

This paper describes in brief the findings of a research project undertaken by the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. The research was commissioned by and undertaken on behalf of the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW). The aim of the project was to investigate current practices of environmental and sustainability education and engagement within local government in NSW. The research was commissioned by DECCW as the preliminary phase of a larger project that the department is planning to undertake, commencing in 2010.