bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Changes in Attitudes, Beliefs and Behaviour: A Critical Review of Research into the Impacts of Environmental Education Initiatives
Authors: Gralton Anna , Sinclair Mark , Purnell Ken 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThis paper reviews research literature on the impact of environmental education initiatives on learners' attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. The review focuses on initiatives involving learners of all ages and school-aged learners in particular. The review shows two things. There is some evidence that environmental education initiatives are associated with changed beliefs and attitudes, and this is mainly in the short-term. There is little evidence that environmental education initiatives lead to behavioural change, especially in the longer-term. The review concludes that there is a need for more and better research evidence that behavioural change in learners follows from involvement in environmental education.
How Research Helped Us To Move From Awareness to Action and Then to Systems Development
Authors: Armstrong Patricia , Grant Jim 
Published: July 2016

AbstractHow can an organisation move from awareness raising, in the form of natural history poster production, to the development of systems that change organisations? Through close integration of research and practice, the Gould League has achieved this transformation. It began with extensive research into best practice environmental education, going beyond the traditional boundaries of environmental education to areas that included the psychology of culture change, business management, systems thinking, governance, drug education, marketing and organisational psychology. This broad approach to research has led to the development of highly effective sustainability education programs, such as Waste Wise Schools and Sustainable Schools.The Waste Wise Schools Program, funded by EcoRecycle Victoria and managed in consultation with the Gould League, is an action-based waste education program. Originating in Victoria in 1998, it has been adopted by over a third of Victorian schools and has led to widespread outcomes, including waste reductions of up to 95%. There is strong evidence from surveys that this program is sustainable in schools over time and research confirms that the program is contributing to changes in the waste-wise thinking and behaviour of the families of the children at these schools.A model for culture change in schools, based on the experiences of the Waste Wise Schools Program, has also been developed. This model, a valuable tool in the continual improvement of Waste Wise Schools, has applications to sustainability education in general.
Is Sustainability a Breakfast Cereal? Public Program Based Research into Community Understandings of Sustainability
Authors: McLoughlin Lynette C. 
Published: July 2016

AbstractWhat meanings and values does the community (the general public) attach to the term “sustainability”? As this complex concept is widely used in academic, political and policy arenas and gradually becomes embedded at institutional level, it is possible that the community does not share the understandings of sustainability that are guiding developments in many spheres which affect their lives. Use of terminology at policy level which is unfamiliar to the community is not unusual, so does it matter in the case of “sustainability”? This paper reviews research, both qualitative and quantitative, undertaken between 2000 and 2004 for the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation in the context of development of a sustainability education program known as Our Environment: It's a Living Thing. This research both explored understanding and concepts of sustainability and developed a community segmentation on the basis of environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. The implications of this research for future research and for programs aimed at developing community understanding of, and commitment to, sustainability are also discussed.
Pre-school Environmental Education in Hong Kong: An Exploratory Study
Authors: Lee John Chi Kin 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThis paper reports on an investigation of the status of pre-school environmental education in Hong Kong through both a questionnaire survey and case studies. The study looked in particular at the environmental education activities organised, difficulties encountered in the implementation of environmental education and teachers' attitudes towards environmental education and teaching approaches. The findings indicated that pre-school environmental education tended to focus more on education about the environment than education in and for the environment. The results also revealed that the teachers' perceived barriers were mainly logistical, such as lack of time and resources, and educational in the sense that they felt that they lacked knowledge about environmental education. The implications for future development of environmental education are discussed.
Environment Discourse and the ‘Other’: Implications from a Study in Indonesian Language Education
Authors: Tamatea Laurence 
Published: July 2016

AbstractIn a study of student discourse in Indonesian language education the environment emerged as a significant topic of discussion. Analysis using the Postcolonial theory concepts of orientalism and ambivalence shows that environment discourse can function as a means of Othering. It can reflect the ambivalence and complexities of Orientalism and resist simple categorisation as positive or negative.
‘Not greenies’ at school: Investigating the Discourses of Environmental Activism in Regional Australia
Authors: Whitehouse Hilary 
Published: July 2016

AbstractImplementing environmental activism at school can be socially risky business. This paper explores the narratives of three women who undertook award winning environmental projects in two regional Australian schools. Tara (student, age 15), Anne (student, age 15) and Andrea (principal, age 42) document the complex and courageous social negotiations they were forced to undertake in response to being negatively constituted as “a greenie” at school. Tara and Anne met resistance from their peers and family and Andrea fielded complaints from members of the local school community. This micro-qualtitative analysis shows that, despite the heartfelt rhetoric of environmental education, assuming an environmental identity at school can be problematic and difficult to enact. Environmental action is still not seen as a “cool” social practice in some adolescent peer groups. Nor is environmental action positioned as central to the “legitimate” practices of schooling in some communities. Successful projects rely on students and staff who are willing to actively, and persitently, negotiate social opposition to their achieving an ecological vision for school practice.
Local Sustainability: Balancing Quality and Equality?
Authors: Agyeman Julian 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThis paper attempts to link four themes which are interrelated, but not often discussed together in local sustainability discourses. They are: the tension between achieving both environmental quality and human equality; the possibilities offered by Local Agenda 21 (LA21); what a sustainable community or society might look like and some good practice guidelines for local governments in their pivotal role as key facilitators of local sustainability.Environmentalists and environmental educators are good on notions of what they perceive as ‘environmental quality’, but are poor, or very poor on notions of ‘human equality’. Human equality has always been an implicit agreement as opposed to an explicit goal, safely tucked away in the notion of ‘quality of life’.One of the guiding principles of LA21 is that people normally excluded from the decision making process (women, indigenous people and young people) need to be integrally involved in decision making within a framework which stresses the importance of public participation. The reason for this inclusive form of participation is that these groups are seen as having had little impact on the production of local environments, although they are sometimes disproportionately affected by them, by virtue of their social role.Using a set of 13 themes that were developed by community consultations In Britain that would feature in a sustainable community or society, the paper looks at the potential for integrating quality and equality concerns. The paper finishes by looking at some good practice guidelines or ways that local governments, as decision makers nearest local peoples, could be integrating quality and equality concerns into emerging local sustainability strategies.
Tracing Changes in Teacher Environmental Education Understanding
Authors: Lang Josephine R. 
Published: July 2016

AbstractAfter more than twenty years of contemporary environmental education, there is still an inferior representation of it in schools. By 1990, UNESCO recognised that to improve the effectiveness of teacher implementation of environmental education in schools, teachers needed training. To date, there is insufficient research into teacher training in environmental education that could provide insights into teacher understanding and how to positively change teacher understandings about environmental education. The aim of this research was to document and examine the changes in teacher understandings of environmental education during an in-service training program in environmental education.To examine teacher change in detail, this research used a qualitative and naturalistic inquiry methodology while using a case study approach. The case study showed that teacher understanding was complex and affected by many factors that contribute to personal and professional growth, development and learning.
Interrogating Silence: Environmental Education Research as Postcolonialist Textwork
Authors: Gough Noel 
Published: July 2016

In December 1997 I was privileged—and very pleasantly surprised—to receive the inaugural Allen Strom Eureka Prize for Environmental Education for ‘environmental education research of a substantive nature which contributes to professional thinking and practice’. According to the program for the prize-giving ceremony, I was awarded the prize ‘for research on recent cultural and philosophical movements, such as postmodernism, which has translated and applied complex social theories to theory and practice in environmental education’.I want to take this opportunity to repeat my thanks to the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority for their generous sponsorship of this prize. I offer these thanks not only as an individual recipient but also on behalf of the wider Australian environmental education community. I see particular significance in the Allen Strom Eureka Prize for Environmental Education being awarded in a suite that includes separate prizes for environmental research and environmental journalism. This helps to distinguish our field from other disciplines with which it is sometimes confused. My own research emphasises that environmental education is not just another type of environmental study but more a form of cultural and media literacy.
Science Ends Where Environmental Education Begins: Putting Science into Perspective
Authors: Galang Angelina 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThis paper starts with an account of some of my childhood experiences, ones provided by my father, the original environmentalist in my life and a practising scientist. I continue with a discussion of the need for environmental educators to view science from an informed perspective. It is essential that we help our students to understand the workings of nature and that science has inherent limitations in its ability to explain those workings.I indicate that what is needed if humans are to live in partnership with the Earth is sensitivity to and appreciation of the complexities and aesthetics of its environments from which a culture of nurturing and personal involvement should emerge.I conclude that it is equally important that environmental educators include in their lessons current scientific views, and direct experience in thought-provoking and valuing exercises.
Environmental Attitudes and Actions: People's Perceptions of the Effectiveness of their Actions and Chinese Cultural Context
Authors: Suk-lin Grace Lai Yau , Stimpson Philip 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThe paper reports a study within the Chinese cultural context of Hong Kong of the influence which people's perception of the probable effectiveness of their actions has on the relationship between attitudes and actions. As expected, respondents with pro-environmental attitudes and a perception that their actions would be effective indicated a likelihood to act in an environmentally responsible manner which was greater than those whose attitudes were not so pro-environmental and whose perceptions were that their actions would not be effective. However, amongst the group of respondents with little indication of pro-environmental attitudes and a perception that their actions would not be effective there were some who, nonetheless, said they would act in environmentally responsible ways. This observation is discussed in terms of a social ethic of conformity, obedience and suppression of personal beliefs.
Conceptual Analysis in Environmental Education: Why I Want My Children To Be Educated For Sustainable Development
Authors: van Rossen Judy 
Published: July 2016

In recent years, there has been a growing global movement towards sustainable development (defined in the Brundtland report Our Common Future as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED 1987)). Indeed, the Brundtland report, along with the revised World Conservation Strategy (IUCN 1990) and Agenda 21 (UNCED 1992) all place high expectations on environmental education as a key means of achieving sustainability. Changes for sustainability will affect individual lifestyles, and attitudes to, and relationships with nature, and education is a critical part of turning the idea of sustainable development into reality (Slocombe & van Bers 1991, p. 12). In arguing that our children should be educated for sustainable development, we must evaluate the arguments about sustainability and see what role environmental education has to play.Jickling (1992, pp. 6-7) claims that various attempts to analyse the meaning of the term sustainable development have resulted in a ‘conceptual muddle’ which precludes the possibility of accepting any educational prescription for it. However, in drawing this conclusion, he appears to have neglected the alternative conceptions of sustainable development that have been proposed (Fien & Trainer 1993a, p. 14) and the values basis underlying them and, thereby, has not provided a critical direction for a pathway to sustainability.
The Schools Water Project (SWAP): A Case Study of an Action Research and Community Problem Solving Approach to Curriculum Innovation
Authors: Schreuder Danie 
Published: July 2016

It seems ironic that the amazing breakthroughs and successes of scientific methods of enquiry of the past century that were supposed to enhance the quality of human life are currently looked on as being at the root of many of the pressing environmental and social problems of our time. Conventional approaches to science and technology that enabled humankind to manipulate and exploit natural resources led to a sense of authority and command which gave rise to a sometimes blind belief in ‘…the triumphs of natural science in seeking to develop the social understanding that would allow human beings successfully to harness the forces thus released to their own self-betterment’ (Giddens 1982, p.69).This extension of the apparent success of natural science as ‘… an ideology, a culturally produced and socially supported, unexamined way of seeing the world which shapes and guides social action’ (Carr and Kemmis 1986, p. 132) seemed very appropriate at the time. Inevitably, the trusted logical positivist and reductionist approaches permeated social sciences to such a degree that they dominated Western views on education for a long time. Popkewitz (1984, p.23) refers to the effect on education in which ‘…human engineers … act upon educational affairs as though there are no difficulties or uncertainties; …educators are to manipulate and control children as physical scientists manipulate objects of the physical world’.
Educating Ourselves to Think with a View to ‘Ecologically Inhabiting the Earth’ in the Light of the Thought of Hannah Arendt
Authors: Mortari Luigina 
Published: July 2016

Cognitive representations play a fundamental role in governing the relationship existing between the natural world and the human world. It is important, therefore, to analyse some ideas which, in our culture, condition in a non ecological way the relationship which have with the natural world. This is the premise for the development of an ecological education.In this perspective, the thought of Hannah Arendt revealed itself as fundamental. An interpretation of the arguments developed in her fundamental works (Arendt, 1987; 1989) permit the tracing of the genesis of some mental attitudes which have contributed to the development of a culture indifferent to the environment in which we live and, further, permit new categories of thought from which to begin to reform environmental education.
Reclaiming the Future: What Every Educator Needs to Know
Authors: Hicks David 
Published: July 2016

The children we teach in school now will spend most of their lives in the 21st century. Those leaving school in the 1990s will become the parents, voters, workers, business people and visionaries of tomorrow. If all education is for the future, where is the future in education? How are we preparing the students for those responsibilities? How are we helping them to think more critically and creatively about the future?My argument is that as educators, and particularly as environmental educators, we need to engage in the task of ‘reclaiming the future’. I will illustrate this with reference to: i) the approaching millenium; ii) the need to educate more explicitly for the future; iii) the importance of being able to envision more just and sustainable futures; and iv) some thoughts on moving forwards.
Fractal Computer Graphics as a Stimulus for the Enhancement of Perceptual Sensitivity to the Natural Environment
Authors: Geake John 
Published: July 2016

The beauty and freshness of fractal geometry suggests that once again we are at the start of science and mathematics… women and men will look back on this era much as we look back to the early Greeks. (Barnsley, 1989, p. 5)Such enthusiasm for a perceived new paradigm in the mathematical sciences is beginning to emerge within broader educational contexts (Devaney & Keen, 1989; Egnatoff, 1989; Geake, 1990a & 1990b). Much of the interest in fractal geometry has focussed on its ability to describe complex natural phenomena (Mandelbrot, 1983 & 1990; Pickover, 1987; Barnsley, 1988). Recent investigations into the visual perception of natural imagery have used fractal mathematics in describing the characteristics of such perception (Pentland, 1984; Field, 1987; Peli, 1990). This study examined human visual perception of the fractal form found in the natural environment. Specifically, this research project examined how exposure to a program of fractal computer graphics affected the perceptual sensitivity of primary school children to the natural visual environment. The underpinning rationale was to address a long standing challenge of Linke (1980) to develop a stronger theoretical basis for environmental education in Australia.
Exploring the Concept of ‘Education for a Sustainable World’: Report of Work in Progress
Authors: Cuthill Michael 
Published: July 2016

ABSTRACTThis paper reports the beginnings of an exploration of the effects of tertiary level environmental education, based on Ecologically Sustainable Development criteria, on the development of students' environmental attitudes and behaviours. Baseline data has been collected against which changes in attitudes and behaviours can be monitored. Important factors influencing students' current attitudes and behaviours include their personal experiences, books and magazines, schooling and newspapers. Significant differences in students’ responses were recorded against three socio-demographic variables—age, gender and the degree program enrolled in. Respondents' value systems have been recorded; their relationship to other study variables requires further research.
Between the Turnstiles: Zoos as Agents of Environmental Education
Authors: Mazur Nicole 
Published: July 2016

ABSTRACTSince the middle of the 20th century, zoological gardens have endeavoured to assist in the restoration of global, regional and national biodiversity. To help realise these conservation goals zoo professionals rely on formal and informal education schemes to enhance zoo visitors' awareness of environmental conservation issues. A questionnaire was administered at eight Australian zoos to elicit information regarding visitors' environmental knowledge and attitudes. Data from several open-ended questionnaire items were consistent with data from closed questions which intimated that zoo respondents appreciated zoos' conservation activities. However, a gap existed between visitors' endorsement of conservation and their level of conservation activism. This suggests that educational and interpretive materials used in zoos should include comprehensive and clearly intelligible information about a range of environmental values and means of involvement in action for conservation.
The Emerging Face of Environmental Education in South Africa's Formal Education: Curriculum 2005 and the Environmental Education Curriculum Initiative
Authors: van Rooyen Hugo 
Published: July 2016

ABSTRACTAn indication is given of how the Republic of South Africa's new school curriculum, Curriculum 2 005, provides significant opportunity for the inclusion of environmental education. Aspects of the important role played by the Environmental Education Curriculum Initiative in the infusion of environmental education into Curriculum 2 005 are outlined. The paper discusses several of the many challenges to be addressed in the implementation of Curriculum 2 005 and its environmental education potential, and concludes with reference to the particular place of teacher education in this process.
Helping to Protect the Earth—the Kosciusko National Park Education Program
Authors: Darlington Pat , Black Rosemary 
Published: July 2016

ABSTRACTAn exciting and successful environmental education program has been implemented at Kosciusko National Park in south-eastern NSW. It is based on programs developed by the Institute of Earth Education, a non-profit volunteer organisation made up of an international network of individuals and member organisations. The major work of the Institute is to design and develop educational programs.The two most popular programs offered at Kosciusko National Park are EarthkeepersTM and Earth CaretakersTM which are focused, sequential and cumulative nature education programs intended for upper primary children, that is, ten to twelve year olds. The aim of these programs is to help students enjoy, understand and live in harmony with the Earth. The activities integrate three components-understanding, feelings and processing—mirroring the interpretation philosophy of understanding, appreciation and protection. Evaluation has shown that the programs successfully enhance school curricula subjects and motivate students to change the way they and their families live.