Environmental education

About: Environmental education is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 14551 publications have been published within this topic receiving 211056 citations. The topic is also known as: environmental learning.

Ecological literacy: the ‘missing paradigm’ in environmental education (part one)

Abstract: Environmental educators often maintain that primary school education should endeavour to improve and protect the environment through producing an ‘environmentally informed, committed and active citizenry’, yet existing research shows that the implementation of environmental education in primary schools is problematic and has had limited success. The reasons for these shortcomings are far from clear, with present research merely speculating about barriers to effective implementation. To this extent, there is a dearth of empirical research about primary school teachers' knowledge of environmental education and the degree to which teachers' knowledge inhibits environmental education practice. As such, this article investigates Australian primary school teachers' knowledge about environmental education, and in so doing utilises a combined-methods approach and the theoretical concept of ‘ecological literacy’ (eco-literacy) to assess primary school teachers' knowledge (and beliefs) about environmental education...

Young People's Conceptions of Environment: A phenomenographic analysis

Abstract: Environmental education in schools is an important strategy in achieving environmental improvement. However, it needs to be based on children's understandings of environment rather than on assumptions of what children know and believe. This paper reports on a research project where school children's answers to a question 'I think the term/word environment means …' were analysed using the qualitative research method of phenomenography. Six distinct conceptions were isolated, ranging from the least sophisticated--environment as a place--to the most inclusive and expansive--environment and people in a relationship of mutual sustainability. An important qualitative difference was found between conceptions that treat the environment as an object and relational conceptions. The implications of these findings for environmental education are discussed.

The Effects of an Environmental Education Program on Responsible Environmental Behavior and Associated Environmental Literacy Variables in Taiwanese College Students.

Abstract: This study assessed the effects of an environmental education (EE) course on college students' responsible environmental behavior and associated environmental literacy variables. This undergraduate course emphasized issue investigating-evaluation and action training. A nonequivalent control group design was used. The results of this study showed that the course significantly promoted the students' responsible environmental behavior, locus of control, environmental responsibility, intention to act, perceived knowledge of environmental issues, and perceived knowledge of and skills in using environmental action strategies. These effects were still maintained 2 months after the conclusion of the course. Implications for program development and instructional practice are presented, and recommendations for further research are provided.

A Foucauldian Analysis of Environmental Education: Toward the Socioecological Challenge of the Earth Charter

Abstract: This article examines recent trends in environmental education (EE) and argues that its institutionalization within general education works against its own socially and ecologically transformative goals. EE emerged as a cultural response to international awareness that human beings were negatively impacting their environments and causing ecological and social crises. Yet the institutionalization of EE within general education has diluted it of its political purpose of acknowledging and transforming these crises. A Foucauldian lens is employed to explore how EE, seeking legitimacy within general education, constitutes itself as “disciplinary practice.” Disciplinary practices discussed include the EE trends of claiming contentarea integration, supporting academic standards and testing, and developing disciplinary standards specific to EE. As disciplinary practice, EE becomes absorbed by general education; consequently, its value as a political project is undermined. The absorption of EE as disciplin...