Urban Environmental Education Review

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Healthy Environment ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
Environmental Educators ◽  
Integrate Research ◽  
Education Review

This book explores how environmental education can contribute to urban sustainability. Urban environmental education includes any practices that create learning opportunities to foster individual and community well-being and environmental quality in cities. It fosters novel educational approaches and helps debunk common assumptions that cities are ecologically barren and that city people don't care for, or need, urban nature or a healthy environment. Topics within the book range from the urban context to theoretical underpinnings, educational settings, participants, and educational approaches in urban environmental education. Chapters integrate research and practice to help aspiring and practicing environmental educators, urban planners, and other environmental leaders achieve their goals in terms of education, youth and community development, and environmental quality in cities.

Sense of Place

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer D. Adams ◽  
David A. Greenwood ◽  
Mitchell Thomashow ◽  
Alex Russ
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Experiential Knowledge ◽  
Ecological Identity ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
Construction Of Place ◽  
Urban Places

This chapter considers the concept of sense of place, focusing on how urban environmental education can help residents to strengthen their attachment to urban communities or entire cities and to view urban places as ecologically valuable. Sense of place—the way we perceive places such as streets, communities, cities, or ecoregions—influences our well-being, how we describe and interact with a place, what we value in a place, our respect for ecosystems and other species, how we perceive the affordances of a place, our desire to build more sustainable and just urban communities, and how we choose to improve cities. Our sense of place also reflects our historical and experiential knowledge of a place and helps us imagine its more sustainable future. The chapter offers examples of activities to help readers construct field explorations that evoke, leverage, or influence sense of place, including social construction of place meanings and developing an ecological identity.

Lookout for learning: Exploring the links between drama and environmental education pedagogies

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-245
Author(s):  
Susan J. Wake ◽  
Sally Birdsall
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Point Analysis ◽  
Environmental Educators ◽  
The City

AbstractEnvironmental educators remain challenged by how to encourage people to make connections between environmental quality and human development in a way that is socially just and equitable for all living things. This article explores links between performance-based learning and environmental education pedagogy as one way to address this challenge. Sixteen children (8–10 years) from an Auckland primary school worked with a performance artist to present Lookout, an intimate performance by a child for an adult. Its intent was to juxtapose people’s different backgrounds, experiences and ages in a two-way communication of their view of Auckland City through an environmental lens encompassing past, present and future, while surveying the city from a vantage point. Analysis of data from focus groups with the children and interviews with their parents (also participants) showed that the Lookout process led to children developing a deeper understanding of Auckland City’s issues, a stronger sense of connection to their city, an understanding of the future, and feelings of empowerment. However, their parents’ learning was more tenuous. Three key elements to the success of Lookout for learning are identified, and it is proposed that these could be used when developing performance-based environmental education programs.

Afterword

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole M. Ardoin ◽  
Alan Reid ◽  
Heila Lotz-Sisitka ◽  
Édgar J. González Gaudian
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Suburban Sprawl ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Urban Decay ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Environmental Educators

This book has discussed academic debates and practices in urban environmental education. It has highlighted challenges and opportunities facing the field of environmental education in general and educators working in urban areas in particular. It has examined how the unique features of cities—as places facing major environmental and justice issues yet also as hubs of innovation—influence environmental education goals and implementation. Urban planning, social justice, climate change, and social-ecological systems resilience are areas environmental education has addressed in the past, but which are becoming increasingly salient for environmental education in cities. This afterword urges environmental educators to: First, challenge the urban/rural binary by recognizing and critiquing processes such as urban decay, suburban sprawl, migration, and gentrification. Second, spend time in the field—or, more accurately, in the streets— in order to understand urban settings in a deeper, more embodied way.

Adventure Education

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Mitten ◽  
Lewis Ting On Cheung ◽  
Wanglin Yan ◽  
Robert Withrow-Clark
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Adventure Education ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Environmental Behaviors ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
Group Experiences

This chapter examines the benefits of adventure education and of pairing adventure and environmental education in urban environments. By participating in outdoor activities, people learn about their surroundings and places they might not otherwise visit. These group experiences enhance social ties and may promote pro-environmental behaviors, which contribute to ecosystem health and human well-being as well as urban sustainability. Benefits of adventure education include positive relationships with self, other people, places, and the natural world. After explaining what adventure education is, the chapter considers adventure education in urban areas such as metropolitan Hong Kong, Minneapolis (Minnesota), and Japan. It shows that adventure education can be used by educators as a catalyst for urban environmental education.

Inclusive Education

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia M. Aguilar ◽  
Elizabeth P. McCann ◽  
Kendra Liddicoat
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Water Quality Monitoring ◽  
The United States ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Urban Water Quality ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
Systemic Nature

This chapter explores the dynamics of exclusion and marginalization in environmental education, the opportunities for inclusivity and accessibility in the urban context, and a reflective process necessary for equitable and just environmental education. It considers how urban environmental education can address issues of inclusivity and access and shows that recognizing the complexity of cultural diversity and the systemic nature of power and privilege serves as the foundation for cultural competency in urban environmental education. It also explains the importance of inclusivity in terms of dealing with issues of equity and allowing sharing of multiple perspectives, which can lead to innovation in addressing sustainability issues. The chapter also looks at three cases that illustrate how some urban environmental education programs are incorporating inclusive practices: an urban water-quality monitoring program in Austin, Texas; an urban nature center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and studies of neighborhoods in Cuba, Spain, and the United States.

Community Assets

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne E. Krasny ◽  
Simon Beames ◽  
Shorna B. Allred
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Assets ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
The Common

This chapter examines how urban environmental education can strengthen communities and enhance environmental quality in cities by focusing on three community assets—social capital, sense of community, and collective efficacy—that have been used to understand why some communities fare better than others and why people sometimes act not in their narrow self-interest, but for the common good. In order to better understand pathways toward urban sustainability that highlight collective action rather than changing individual behaviors, the chapter connects social capital, sense of community, and collective efficacy to urban environmental education. It shows that all three community assets are desirable outcomes for urban environmental education because they contribute to a community's well-being and its ability to act collectively for the common good. The chapter concludes by explaining how to build these community assets.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Russ ◽  
Marianne E. Krasny
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Adventure Education ◽  
Climate Change Education ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
Novel Approaches ◽  
Environmental Educators

This book explains how urban environmental education can promote urban sustainability, and more specifically how environmental educators can achieve educational, youth and community development as well as environmental quality goals in cities. Building on research and practice, it outlines novel approaches to educating about the urban environment and to participatory urban planning, stewardship, and governance. The book features contributions from an international community of eighty-two scholars from environmental education and related fields who share their insights about a variety of topics ranging from urbanization and the characteristics of sustainable cities to environmental justice, sense of place, climate change education, intergenerational education, inclusive education, and educator professional development. The book also explores methods and tools used in urban environmental education such as cities as classrooms, environmental arts, adventure education, urban agriculture, ecological restoration, green infrastructure, urban digital storytelling, and participatory urban planning.

Educator Professional Development

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Franzen ◽  
Cynthia Thomashow ◽  
Mary Leou ◽  
Nonyameko Zintle Songqwaru
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Field Experiences ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Local Resources ◽  
Urban Environmental Education ◽  
Professional Development Model ◽  
Environmental Educators

This chapter describes a conceptual framework for professional development in urban environmental education. Urban environmental education includes the use of urban environments as a learning context that leads to collective action—that is, working with stakeholders within a community to establish a common agenda, learn about the forces that impact environmental conditions, and find venues to influence change from within the community. Learning about local resources through active participation and immersion in field experiences may help educators, as well as youths, see connections within their communities. The chapter outlines professional development strategies for environmental educators working with urban audiences and in urban settings, in both schools and nonformal programs. Six elements of a professional development model for urban environmental education are discussed: interdisciplinary and integrated content, context, pedagogy, resources, field experiences, and professional learning communities.

Thinking with a landscape: the Australian Alps, horses and pedagogical considerations

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Scott Jukes
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Specific Problem ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Outdoor Environmental Education ◽  
Australian Alps ◽  
Environmental Educators ◽  
Multiple Species ◽  
Constructing Knowledge

Abstract This paper proposes some possibilities for thinking with a landscape as a pedagogical concept, inspired by posthuman theory. The idea of thinking with a landscape is enacted in the Australian Alps (AA), concentrating on the contentious environmental dilemma involving introduced horses and their management in this bio-geographical location. The topic of horses is of pedagogical relevance for place-responsive outdoor environmental educators as both a location-specific problem and an example of a troubling issue. The paper has two objectives for employing posthuman thinking. Firstly, it experiments with the alternative methodological possibilities that posthuman theory affords for outdoor environmental education, including new ways of conducting educational research. Secondly, it explores how thinking with a landscape as a pedagogical concept may help open ways of considering the dilemma that horses pose. The pedagogical concept is enacted through some empirical events which sketch human–horse encounters from the AA. These sketches depict some of the pedagogical conversations and discursive pathways that encounters can provoke. Such encounters and conversations are ways of constructing knowledge of the landscape, covering multiple species, perspectives and discursive opportunities. For these reasons, this paper may be of relevance for outdoor environmental educators, those interested in the AA or posthuman theorists.

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