Environmental Education in Canada: Contemporary Issues & Future Possibilities

Environmental education has become a major concern for many politicians, educators, and parents in Canada. The politics of resource scarcity, environmental deterioration, and failed economic theories have combined to force nations such as Canada to reassess their priorities. Environmentalism has matured to the degree that large numbers of environmentally related contradictions in Canadian society can be traced to patterns of western intellectual thought and debated in terms of differing ideologies relating to population, economic development, government policy making, the legal system, and to education. As we face the 21st century with growing uncertainty and threats to our understandings, our ideas, and our institutions, an environmental perspective may well come to dominate our consciousness and our education.This paper develops an argument for reform in current environmental education practices within Canada at a time when educational systems in this country are becoming serious about incorporating an environmental perspective. After setting the context within systems of Canadian education, the paper attempts to capture the essence of environmental education activities by means of some broadly based Canadian contributions to the field and by two specific examples. The purpose of these sections is to throw into relief a number of tensions and contradictions in the contemporary theory and practice of environmental education in Canada and to identify a number of issues for debate in light of this experience. Finally, a proposal consistent with authentic principles of socially critical environmental education is suggested as a means of reconceptualising future environmental education activities within Canadian contexts.