The 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…

This paper describes a study of sixth grade children's conceptions of nature and the environment. In so doing, it asks that environmental educators pay more attention to children's preconceived notions of environment and nature. Should this occur the theory-practice gap in environmental education may be diminished. Learners' concept…

Teacher education is widely recognized as a key strategy that is yet to be effectively utilized to embed environmental education and/or education for sustainability in schools. This paper reports on a research study that examined a range of pre-service teacher education initiatives, both in Australia and internationally, that were seeking to…

Implementing environmental activism at school can be socially risky business. This paper explores the narratives of three women who undertook award winning environmental projects in two regional Australian schools. Tara (student, age 15) and Andrea (principal, age 42) document the complex and courageous social negotiations they were forced to…

There is a paucity of research in Australia on the nature of young people's attitudes, knowledge and actions. This paper reports on the findings from one such study of Australian high school students. The research was based on a survey of 5,688 students form Melbourne and Brisbane. These young people identified protection of the environment…

Environmental education owes its very existence to a particular interpretation of reality. The author's purpose in this article is to examine critically the "selected fictions" on which that view of reality is based--to examine the ways in which perceptions of environmental problems and issues are "conditioned by our position…

One thing about which there is widespread consensus is that the earth and its inhabitants are in social and environmental peril. This is where the consensus ends, however, for there is equally widespread disagreement as to the nature and causes of the problems (more social or more environmental), the severity of the problems (for whom are they…

In 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…

This brief article reflects on progress on reorienting teacher education toward sustainability that has taken place since the publication of the authors' 2007 "Australian Journal of Environmental Education" article, "Planning for Success: Factors Influencing Change in Teacher Education" (EJ833282). It concludes that a key…

In this paper John Huckle reflects on the outlook of environmental education based on conferences in 1972 and 1992 regarding the lack of sustainable development being realized. Huckle points "education for sustainability" along a pathway provided by critical theory and pedagogy and uses theory to examine the nature of ecological crisis,…

In this article, I.M. Robottom directs the attention of the reader to key terms that describe "environmental education"--terms that seem to embrace the various facets that emerge in discourse about environment education. Robottom argues that the characteristics of "Education for the Environment" must distinguish environmental…

When considering a topic as broad as research in environmental education it seems worthwhile, at the onset, to make some basic distinctions: (1) establishing research priorities is not simply an empirical question; and (2) a much more challenging task is to more clearly understand the nature of the questions to which we seek answers. How do we go…

As one of the contributors to the first issue of the "Australian Journal of Environmental Education" (AJEE) in 1984 (and to a further seven issues between 1991 and 2009), and as a sometime member of its editorial board (1991-1994) and the editorial collective that edited four issues (1999-2002), Noel Gough has been privileged to witness…

In 1984, the "Australian Journal of Environmental Education" commenced. At that time, this author was 6 years old, in her first year of primary school at Tieri State School in Central-Western Queensland, and knew nothing of the "Australian Journal of Environmental Education" (AJEE), or environmental education for that matter.…

Despite the importance of teachers to the school garden movement, we still know very little about what drives particular teachers to incorporate a school garden into their pedagogy. In response, this article reports the findings of a study designed to investigate the internal processes and products involved in rationalising and sustaining…