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…

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…

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…

This essay describes an educational initiative that used environmentally themed (green) hip-hop to stimulate learning in an environmental science classroom. Students were then challenged to compose their own green hip-hop and their lyrics demonstrated skills that have thematic consistency around what is called a Critical Ecological Literacy (CEL).…

This article reports the findings of a pilot Education for Sustainability (EfS) program implemented in 2011 for international students in a multi-campus distributed learning environment at an Australian university. It outlines the context of the pilot EfS program and reports survey findings of the environmental attitudes and sustainability…

The expectation is that higher education curricula which purports to incorporate education for sustainable development (ESD) supports university graduates in becoming more sustainable. It would then follow that if academics are to offer such curricula they need to be adequately equipped with the motivations, knowledge and skills to teach it.…

A philosophy of action consists of a theory about how and why we do things and what motivates us to act. By juxtaposing the theory of environmental action implied by the works and life of John Muir with the philosophy of action suggested by Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic, we will illuminate the importance of a philosophy of action in determining one's…

In environmental and ecological education, a rich literature builds on the premise that place, the local natural context in which one lives, can be an emotionally engaging context for learning and the source of life-long concern for nature. A theory of imaginative education can help uncover new tools and strategies for place-based educators.…

First Nations tricksters, Coyote and Raven, work to indigenize Environmental Education but run up against mainstream languages, technologies, and educational practices. They try to do an end-run around the cognitive backfield, then portage through marginal spaces, but find that working between Indigenous languages and mainstream ones can work best…

Indigenous worldviews and Western worldviews stand in stark contrast to each other in many ways, including their perspectives regarding the Earth and her resources. Typically the differences between these two philosophies of life are highlighted and placed into an antagonistic relationship that seems irreconcilable. This paper upholds that within…

This article discusses the development of a methodological metissage that combined Indigenous and interpretive traditions. This metissage was developed during a doctoral study conducted with Canadian environmental educators who incorporate Western and Indigenous knowledge and philosophy into their ecological identities and pedagogical praxis. It…

Recent visions for environmental education now include a foundational acknowledgement that the well-being of humans and the environment are inseparable. This vision of environmental education, with a focus on interconnectedness as well as concepts of transformation, holism, caring, and responsibility, rooted in experiences of nature, community,…

In the Western world, a paradigm exists that sees environment treated as one extreme of an adversarial binary, balanced in opposition to society. This paradigm, which I call the "environment/society disconnect," infiltrates the secondary school system, leading to serious deficiencies in how students understand the social dimensions of…

The Waste Wise Schools program has a longstanding history in Australia. It is an action-based program that encourages schools to move toward zero waste through their curriculum and operating practices. This article provides a review of the program, finding that it has had notable success in reducing schools' waste through a "reduce, reuse, and…