In this study, engineers and educators worked together to adapt and apply the ecological footprint (EF) methodology to an early learning centre in Brisbane, Australia. Results were analysed to determine how environmental impact can be reduced at the study site and more generally across early childhood settings. It was found that food, transport…

This article addresses the reluctance of mainstream corporate and commercial media to critically address major environmental and conservation issues. The resulting public pedagogy largely reproduces the neoliberal ideology informing much conservation practice and discourse. Nonetheless, the media retains an unrealised critical educative potential…

Many animals are currently facing extinction. Conservation education which highlights the impacts of our behaviour on other species survival is crucial. This study provides evidence for the use of visual media to increase knowledge, attitudes and conservation behaviours regarding the highly endangered orangutan. University students (n = 126) were…

Focussing on the film "Sharkwater" directed by Rob Stewart (2006), this article discusses formal interpretive aspects of recent environmental documentaries which are intended to raise awareness about environmental issues. It is argued that contemporary environmental documentaries seek to persuade audiences to protect the shared physical…

This research examines the genre of conservation photography as a legitimate and highly relevant pedagogical enterprise well poised amid the proliferation of digital media and environmental crises. This small-scale qualitative study closely follows the work of four professional photojournalists. This research asserts that the professional…

This paper focuses on the implications of two emerging digital technologies on the act of field birding, and the implications of these objects for thinking about wild birds. While the adoption of new immaterial technologies promises to improve the ease with which birding is practiced, their use leads to new ethical considerations. Using the…

Modern zoological gardens have invested substantial resources in technology to deliver environmental education concepts to visitors. Investment in these media reflects a currently unsubstantiated belief that visitors will both use and learn from these media alongside more traditional and less costly displays. This paper proposes a model that…

This article describes the environmental education (EE) program developed in the neighboring community of Serra da Canastra National Park based on a research project focused on the maned wolf conservation. The article assesses three tools used to foster the community's participation in discussing local issues: (1) communal production of a book…

The environmental education through filmmaking project, a case study at an alternative US public high school, investigates environmental literacies of "at-risk" students who produced two short documentary films, one on recycling and one on water conservation. The filmmaking project sought to promote students' awareness of environmental issues and…

"Green families" in Australia were studied so as to shed light on how a more durable, everyday environmental ethic and ecopolitic might slowly be enacted in the intimacy of the home "place" over an extended period of time in rapidly changing socio-cultural-ecological conditions. Of particular interest to this study of the green household, or…

Place-based ecocritical pedagogy (PBEP) has been a key part of ecocriticism since the 1980s. In the last 10 years, the critical, theoretical, scientific and philosophical assumptions with which it has been associated have been subject to sustained critique, and yet PBEP remains the dominant model in pedagogical thinking within the field. In…

The northern Wet Tropics rainforest of Australia was declared a world heritage site in 1988 and now supports an extensive tourism industry that attracts an estimated 2.5 million local and international visits annually. As part of the visitor experience, many sites include both environmental and cultural interpretation experiences, which range from…

The use of drawings as representations of personal mental models or images is one method of analyzing personal beliefs. This article discusses the development of the Draw-An-Environment Test and Rubric (DAET-R) for assessing the mental models or images of the environment held by pre-service teachers. It also provides results of preliminary…

This article is an auto-ethnographic account of the development of a children's literature book critique assignment by a science teacher educator sharing instructional dilemmas and pedagogical responses. Prospective elementary teachers enrolled in an elementary school science teaching methods course in the US selected and evaluated children's…

This article explores the extent to which stories for young people encourage environmental engagement and a sense of agency. Our discussion is informed by the work of Paul Ricoeur (on hermeneutics and narrative), John Dewey (on primacy of experience) and John Macmurray (on personal agency in society). We understand fiction reading about place as…