Sustaining Development of Environmental Education in National Political and Curriculum Priorities

1992 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 115-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Greenall Gough
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
World Conservation ◽  
Environmental Education Policy

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between national economic and political priorities and environmental education policy formulation and curriculum strategies. This relationship will be placed in the historical context of developments in environmental education in Australia from 1970 until the present and will be analysed in terms of the ideological and pedagogical stances implicit, and explicit, in the developments during this period. I will argue that the emphasis throughout the period has been to sustain the development of environmental education without any questioning of why, what and how this development should occur.‘Sustainable development’ has become a slogan for governments, industry and conservation groups in recent times. It was the subtitle for the World Conservation Strategy (IUCN 1980) and the National Conservation Strategy for Australia (DHAE 1984) - living resource conservation for sustainable development - and was popularised in the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, more commonly known as the Brundtland Report or Our Common Future (WCED 1987). The definition of sustainable development given in the World Conservation Strategy (IUCN 1980: section 1.3) and repeated in the National Conservation Strategy for Australia (DHAE 1984: 12) is as follows:Development is…the modification of the biosphere and the application of human, financial, living and non-living resources to satisfy human needs and improve the quality of human life. For development to be sustainable it must take account of social and ecological factors, as well as economic ones; of the living and nonliving resource base; and of the long term as well as the short term advantages and disadvantages of alternative actions.

Environmental Sustainability in Nigeria: The “Awareness” Imperative

2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Foluke Ogunleye
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
World Conservation ◽  
The World ◽  
Education And Awareness ◽  
Stockholm Conference ◽  
Nations Environment

The practice of treating the environment with disdain has gradually become unfashionable. Yet in many developing nations, Nigeria among them, environmental education and awareness campaigns remain something regarded as unnecessary. According to Berry (1993: 158):The term “sustainable development” has become a shibboleth of governments and industries, to present a respectful image to a society that is becoming even more strident in its concern for the environment. It is a concept that was projected onto the world by the Stockholm Conference of 1972, and has been carried ever since by the United Nations Environment Programs (UNEP), the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and the World Wildlife Fund for nature (WWF) in their world conservation strategy. It has the ring of truth and worldwide acceptance, but it is poorly understood by those who use it.

The Denaturation of Environmental Education: Exploring the Role of Ecotechnologies

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Gough ◽  
Noel Gough
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Global Citizenship ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Natural Resource Base

AbstractThis article explores the changing ways ‘environment’ has been represented in the discourses of environmental education and education for sustainable development (ESD) in United Nations (and related) publications since the 1970s. It draws on the writings of Jean-Luc Nancy and discusses the increasingly dominant view of the environment as a ‘natural resource base for economic and social development’ (United Nations, 2002, p. 2) and how this instrumentalisation of nature is produced by discourses and ‘ecotechnologies’ that ‘identify and define the natural realm in our relationship with it’ (Boetzkes, 2010, p. 29). This denaturation of nature is reflected in the priorities for sustainable development discussed at Rio+20 and proposed successor UNESCO projects. The article argues for the need to reassert the intrinsic value of ‘environment’ in education discourses and discusses strategies for so doing. The article is intended as a wake-up call to the changing context of the ‘environment’ in ESD discourses. In particular, we need to respond to the recent UNESCO (2013a, 2013b) direction of global citizenship education as the successor to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005–2014 that continues to reinforce an instrumentalist view of the environment as part of contributing to ‘a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable world’ (UNESCO, 2013a, p. 3).

Australian Tertiary Environmental Courses: A Status Report

1993 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 135-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Steering Committee ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Status Report ◽  
Tertiary Institutions ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable Development

During the 1970s and 1980s there has been a growing awareness of the environment. This has been particularly evident in the general community through:• passing of environmental legislation;• growth in status of environment groups;• media coverage of environmental issues.As a result the direction of formal education has been influenced. For example, through the Victorian State Conservation Strategy, the community has indicated the direction for tertiary institutions, where one of the objectives of this strategy is to:promote and strengthen inter-disciplinary environmental education programs in schools and tertiary institutions. (Victorian Government, 1987, p.89)Similarly, the Australian Government's Ecologically Sustainable Development process (ESD) has proposed the incorporation of ESD, in tertiary curricular (Ecologically Sustainable Development Steering Committee, 1992).Linke (1979) has described the development of environmental education curricula during the 1970s whereby consideration of aspects of the environment became more common. Most activity was noted to be in primary and secondary sectors, however, at tertiary level a range of subjects focussing on the environment were apparent, as were several courses which were specifically designed to provide training in environmental understanding.

Research on Low Carbonization of Tourism and its Sustainable Development in Qinhuangdao City

2014 ◽  
Vol 926-930 ◽  
pp. 4302-4305
Author(s):  
Lian Long Wang
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Energy Utilization ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
City Tourism

Low carbon tourism is necessary and feasible by analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of low-carbon tourism in Qinhuangdao city. Tourism traffic and building energy consumption should be the key point of carbon emissions in the future tourism. Some suggestions have been raised up such as optimize the tourism energy utilization, construct and promote low-carbon tourism demonstration areas, make environmental education to the tourists through various means and low carbon tourism professional knowledge training to the employees, arouse the enthusiasm of residents to participate in low carbon travel, improve the system of norms and strengthen management, and so on.

scholarly journals The political initiative of Taiwan’s education for sustainable development: Looking through the lens of Chinese legalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 147821032199565
Author(s):  
Ying-Syuan Huang ◽  
Anila Asghar
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Education Act ◽  
Environmental Education Policy

This article examines the development of Taiwan’s Environmental Education Act and how Education for Sustainable Development was mainstreamed into the national policy framework within the country. The goal is to understand the policy tools and governing strategies that were used by the Taiwan government to develop and implement a nationwide environmental education policy for integrating environmental sustainability into all areas and levels of teaching and learning. Official documents related to national plans for ESD and environmental education policies were analyzed and examined. In particular, Chinese Legalism was used as a lens to interpret the government’s philosophy, assumptions, unspoken norms, legislative practices, and deliberate strategies. Several principles and techniques proposed by Chinese Legalists were used to examine the negotiation and formulation of Taiwan’s Environmental Education Act. This analysis contributes to our understanding of the ways in which UNESCO’s framework of ESD can be transferred into a national policy. A discussion of the Chinese Legalist philosophy also offers a cultural frame of reference to think about ESD politics and governance in other East Asian contexts.

scholarly journals HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND CULTURE DEVELOPMENT

2020 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 268-276
Author(s):  
Л. А. Чистякова ◽  
Є. В. Доможирський
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Ecological Education ◽  
Responsible Attitude ◽  
Nature Awareness ◽  
Ecological Culture ◽  
Culture Development

The main stages of development of ecological education in Ukraine are considered in the article. It is noted that the formation of a responsible attitude to the environment in humans should be a priority for continuing education of all higher education institutions that train professionals in various specialties, not just environmentalists. Ecological consciousness and culture must develop in a person from an early age and at last become a part of the general culture. Determinants in the modern conditions of human life are the values and level of culture, which form new forms of thinking and behavior aimed at preserving the environment and sustainable development. The social development of society and its economic growth should occur with an awareness of the value of the environment, its protection and preservation, with increasing levels of socio-cultural sphere. It is necessary to form the need for people to live in accordance with the laws of nature, awareness of certain requirements and prohibitions provided by these laws. All it will be possible, when a new type of ecological culture is formed. Modern environmental education has been formed over a long period of time and has gone through several stages: natural-historical, naturalistic, and nature-transforming. Today, society is focused on sustainable development, where the environmental education is crucial, has several concepts and develops in accordance with the goals, objectives and models of practical implementation. In practical world, there are different approaches to the implementation of environmental education, the main of which is the greening of existing subjects, in accordance with the specifics of their content and the introduction into the curriculum of a special subject of environmental content. Such approaches are still interconnected and complementary. The implementation of the tasks of environmental education, which is focused on universal values, ideas of humanism, harmonization of human relations with nature, improvement of the inner world of man by himself, requires the training of specialists in pedagogical educational institutions. Therefore, the improvement and development of the ecological culture of the future pedagogical worker is an urgent problem of research of modern scientists.

Conceptual Analysis in Environmental Education: Why I Want My Children To Be Educated For Sustainable Development

1995 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 73-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy van Rossen
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Alternative Conceptions ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Agenda 21 ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Global Movement ◽  
Common Future ◽  
Critical Direction ◽  
Brundtland Report

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.

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