Environmental Citizenship in Secondary Formal Education: The Importance of Curriculum and Subject Teachers (original) (raw)
Related papers
Teacher training on environmental education (EE) is a key element of promoting the restoration of ecological systems and insuring inclusive and equitable human development. Science and biology teachers play a significant role in favoring EE at Brazilian schools. This study investigates the presence of EE in the curriculum and aims to interpret the meanings of EE expressed in the discourse of students who are training to be biology teachers at a Brazilian public university, considering recent, related education legislation. The theoretical and methodological framework of French Discourse Analysis was adopted to identify social, political, and cultural influences expressed in the students' discourse. The discourse data comprised responses from voluntary undergraduate students to a semi-structured questionnaire. Most of the study participants claimed to have had contact with EE in their tertiary education and revealed multiple perceptions regarding this theme. The majority of the discourses indicated that EE meanings are restricted to conservation or preservation, and some indicated confusion regarding the purposes of both EE and ecology disciplines. There was little data indicating an association between EE and socioeconomic issues, which would be expected in terms of the more encompassing and interdisciplinary approaches recommended by legislation. The curricular matrix of this undergraduate course showed a predominance of hours devoted to courses that discuss the environment from the biological perspective in contrast to a small number of courses that discuss and promote EE from other perspectives. In addition, undergraduate students claimed that they had little contact with recent EE legislation. This scenario, reinforced by the naturalistic foundation discourse of EE in Brazil, probably affects the constitution of the discursive memories of these students, their discourses, and their future pedagogical practice. Recommendations are made in order to foster the development of citizenship at schools and to prevent the silencing of issues such as the conflicts and risks associated with environmental problems.
Elements of Environmental Education, Curriculum and Teacher’s Perspective: A Review
Integrated Journal for Research in Arts and Humanities
Environmental Education is a process that allows individuals to explore environmental issues, engage in problem solving and take action to improve the environment. As a result, individuals develop a deeper understanding of environmental issues and have the skills to make informed and responsible decisions. Environmental Education does not advocate a particular view point or course of action. Rather, it teaches individuals how to weigh various sides of an issue through critical thinking; and it enhances their own problem-solving and decision-making skills. Environmental Education helps to recognize values and clarify concepts relating to environment. It develops skills and attitudes necessary to understand and appreciate the inter relatedness of man, his culture and his biophysical surroundings. It helps to provide practice in decision making and self formulation of a code of behavior about issues concerning quality environment. Environmental Education helps to develop in the people ...
Design of a Pedagogical Model of Education for Environmental Citizenship in Primary Education
Sustainability, 2021
Education for Environmental Citizenship plays an important role in social change toward sustainable development, achieving economic, social, and environmental balance through informed, cooperative, and participative citizens. There are several pedagogical models with the potential to involve students in environmental activities, but no specific model suitable for primary education is found. This article describes the preliminary investigation phase of a Design-Based Research that resulted in the development of the first prototype of a Pedagogical Model of Education for Environmental Citizenship in Primary Education (students aged 6 to 10 years), in Portugal. This preliminary investigation phase was based on a systematic analysis and literature review on the topic (thesis, articles, projects, and curricular guidelines for primary education), seeking to answer the following research questions: (1) According to the current world characteristics, which learning outcomes should an enviro...
Environmental Issues in Secondary Education
1994
This paper, one of a series of study on science and technology issues, discusses the status, issues and provides recommendations for improvement of secondary school environmental education, especially in relation to natural science teaching. Therefore, the common environmental problems are discussed in order to identify environmental education needs. Environmental secondary school curricula are analyzed, and suggestions for improvements are made. Two possible approaches to introduction of environmental education into school curricula are discussed-the integral and the infusion approaches-and examples are given of different possibilities for infusing environmental topics into teaching of science. Besides the environmental education contents, examples of methodological approaches are presented, which can improve the quality of teaching. Teacher training is a critical component in both introduction and improvement of environmental education. Status and strategies of pre-service and in-service environmental teacher training are summarized, followed by an analysis of environmental curricula in teacher training. Deficiencies are identified and suggestions are listed for supplementing and/or upgrading both, the environmental content and the methodology courses for secondary school science teachers. The World Bankc efforts in environmental education are summarized, with the proposal to introduce/strengthen the environmental components of the Bank educational projects in developing countries. Finally, examples of environmentally-related science curricula, teaching units and practical activities are given in 10 case studies together with a bibliography.
Conceptualizing Environmental Citizenship for 21st Century Education
Conceptualizing Environmental Citizenship for 21st Century Education, 2020
This open access book is about the development of a common understanding of environmental citizenship. It conceptualizes and frames environmental citizenship taking an educational perspective. Organized in four complementary parts, the book first explains the political, economic and societal dimensions of the concept. Next, it examines environmental citizenship as a psychological concept with a specific focus on knowledge, values, beliefs and attitudes. It then explores environmental citizenship within the context of environmental education and education for sustainability. It elaborates responsible environmental behaviour, youth activism and education for sustainability through the lens of environmental citizenship. Finally, it discusses the concept within the context of different educational levels, such as primary and secondary education in formal and non-formal settings. Environmental citizenship is a key factor in sustainability, green and cycle economy, and low-carbon society, and an important aspect in addressing global environmental problems. It has been an influential concept in many different arenas such as economy, policy, philosophy, and organizational marketing. In the field of education, the concept could be better exploited and established, however. Education and, especially, environmental discourses in science education have a great deal to contribute to the adoption and promotion of environmental citizenship.
Education for Environmental Citizenship and Responsible Environmental Behavior
Conceptualizing Environmental Citizenship for 21st Century Education, 2020
This series wrestles with the tensions situated between environmental and science education and addresses the scholarly efforts to bring confluence to these two projects with the help of ecojustice philosophy. As ecojustice is one of the fastest emerging trends for evaluating science education policy, the topics addressed in this series can help guide pedagogical trends such as critical media literacy, citizen science, and activism. The series emphasizes ideological analysis, curriculum studies and research in science educational policy, where there is a need for recognizing the tensions between cultural and natural systems, the way language is endorsed within communities and associated influence, and morals and ethics embedded in school science. Conversations and new perspectives on residual issues within science education are likely to be addressed in nuanced ways when considering the significance of ecojustice, defensible environmentalism, freechoice. Book proposals for this series may be submitted to the Publishing Editor:
Global environmental issues are increasing due to the rapid developments in science and technology. To address these environmental issues there is a need to create awareness about environmental education among the masses. This can only be possible through teachers and teacher educators. It is assumed that science teachers are teaching environmental concepts as scientific facts, without creating awareness about environmental education. The ultimate purpose of this study was to explore the beliefs of a secondary science teacher about environmental education and how his stated beliefs matched with his classroom practices. The study was conducted in one of the co-operative schools of the Aga Khan University-Institute for Educational Development, in Karachi Pakistan and the sample for this study included one secondary science teacher. The research design was qualitative, which included multi-methods. The methods included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, pre-post conferences, document analysis and the teacher's teaching/learning stories. The study employed different data collection tools such as interview guidelines, a classroom observation checklist, teaching/learning stories and pre-post conference guideline questions. The findings of the study suggest that the research participant believed in teaching environmental education in a science classroom. He also believed that students should be given free choice to get involved in environmental activities such as environmental management projects in the real environment. However his enacted teacher centred classroom practice was contrary to his stated beliefs. The factors that prevented him from enacting his beliefs were identified as his content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and support from the administration. The study thus suggests professional development programmes and workshops must employ reflective practices. Moreover, constructivist approaches should be designed to help teachers to enhance their content, pedagogical content knowledge about environmental education, and that should develop them professionally.
Educating for Environmental Citizenship in Non-formal Frameworks for Secondary Level Youth
Conceptualizing Environmental Citizenship for 21st Century Education, 2020
and Frans Van Dam 14.1 Characteristics of Non-formal Education Promoting the Attributes of an Environmental Citizen For the purpose of this chapter, it is valuable to briefly distinguish between nonformal and informal education-terms that are often used interchangeably. Nonformal and informal learning takes place in out-of-school environments and settings (e.g. libraries, exhibits, museums, science centres, zoos, aquaria, botanical gardens and wildlife-based environments, community centres and organisations, etc.).