In Australia there has been a rapid move to an acceptance of education for sustainability as mainstream environmental education. We argue that education for sustainability, with its platform of assisting individuals in making apparently informed decisions to create a more sustainable world, is at some distance from promoting more ethically-based…

The discourse of sustainability is promoted internationally, with the United Nations declaring 2005-2014 as a Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. There is discussion concerning the nature, status and significance of Education for Sustainability and its relationship with the somewhat established discourse of environmental education.…

The field of research in environmental education has experienced several changes in orientation in its first 25 or so years. In the period of the 70s and 80s, the most visible approach to environmental education research was clearly applied science in nature. From the late 80s/early 90s there has been a period of intense debate about research in…

Constructivism, as a set of theories about how learners learn, has been an important discourse in the educational research literature for a number of years. Interestingly, it has been far more visible in science education research than in environmental education research. This article considers conceptual change theory within constructivism as a…

We reflect on methodological issues arising in two of our own research projects as a form of practice, as a way of engaging in a praxis of project research. The projects chosen for this purpose are themselves concerned with teacher education and curriculum development in environmental education: they include participatory "reflective practice"…

In this decade of Education for Sustainable Development, it is timely to consider the methodological issues associated with researching this topic not only with adults but also with the young children who, as members of the next generation, will experience the success or otherwise of current environmental sustainability efforts. We argue that it…

Considers two international research projects in environmental education. Draws attention to the interplay of contextuality and universality and the role of participatory research in this tension. (Contains 18 references.) (DDR)

Proposes that a critical approach to evaluation in environmental education is needed to adequately address current epistemological, ethical, and procedural dilemmas. Offers perspectives on the scientific/analytic and critical evaluation schemes in respect to their epistemology, locus of control, and interests served. Emphasizes the socially…

Presents an account of developments in an environmental education course for practicing teachers in Australia. Reports on some of the changes that have taken place in the course and the cyclic revision patterns that have occurred between the course's theoretical rationale and its practical embodiment. (TW)

This article continues a dialogue about the nature of environmental education research by establishing the behaviorist nature of the dominant approach to environmental education research and exploring implications for environmentalism of one aspect of the politics of methods of this dominant behaviorist approach--the tendency to individualize the…

Argues that (1) the purposes of environmental education are socially transformative; (2) the dominant approach to research in the field is behaviorist and deterministic; and (3) the role the dominant behaviorist approach to research play in professional development needs to be critically examined. Outlines a current international project…