ERIC Number: EJ972636
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 2
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0840-8114
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Ontario's Policy Framework for Environmental Education: Indoctrination and Integration
Pardy, Bruce
Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education, v22 n2 p22-23 Win 2010
Outdoor educators should find little to like in the Ontario government's new policy framework for environmental education. Released in February 2009, the document, titled "Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow," relies heavily on the 2007 Report of the Working Group on Environmental Education in Ontario, "Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future," also known as "The Bondar Report." The policy framework has two main flaws: The first is its plan to program children to believe in a particular version of environmental stewardship, and the second is its intent to integrate environmental education into existing curriculum. The message of this policy framework is that schools will imbue children with conformist environmental beliefs and keep curriculum basically the same. Genuine environmental education, states this author, requires scepticism and hard questions. Instead of developing analytical skills to distinguish between genuine environmental problems and moralistic hand-wringing, the framework seeks to condition children to believe in the version of environmental stewardship that society currently endorses.
Descriptors: Outdoor Education, Environmental Education, Foreign Countries, Policy, Models, Environmental Influences
Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario. 1185 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario, M3C 3C6, Canada. e-mail: info@COEO.org; Web site: http://www.coeo.org/publication.htm
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A


