Search

This paper contextualizes the 5th World Environmental Education Congress, discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the Congress theme "Earth Our Common Home," and relates this theorizing to the research project that was woven through the Congress. We provide a rationale for engaging in this research project, as an invitation for Congress participants to have a say in co-constructing an image of environmental education and a vision for its shared future. The results describe an ever changing, and increasingly complex field. They are also presented as converging and diverging pluralities that can provide critical traction for practitioners who wish to critically reflect on ongoing developments in environmental education. (Contains 3 figures.)

I propose that for ethics to become a normal activity, practiced by citizens on a daily basis, we begin by identifying barriers to this activity. Once things that get in the way have been identified, I examine ways that environmental educators can create conditions for ethics to become part of mainstream practices and processes of inquiry--to become a serious educational endeavor. Some practical examples and suggestions are provided. (Contains 3 notes.)

Employs a dialogical style to explore the interface between Arne Naess's views about deep ecology and education. Themes examined include the educational implications of the 'deep' questioning process and other formulations of environmental thought. (DDR)

Argues that defining environmental education not only entails more than just critiquing definitions of this field, but more fundamentally, critiquing the process by which education is defined. Concludes that definitions should be thought of as processes in which teachers, administrators, and scholars are all participants. Contains 40 references. (JRH)

Processes of normalizing assumptions and values have been the subjects of theoretical framing and critique for several decades now. Critique has often been tied to issues of environmental sustainability and social justice. Now, in an era of global warming, there is a rising concern that the results of normalizing of present values could be catastrophic. Often, when such concerns arise, education is invoked as a remedial tool, a solution to a crisis and a way of imposing change. However, education is a much-used, yet complicated and sometimes paradoxical, term. Appropriate educational responses to "catastrophes" are contentious, messy and inherently interdisciplinary. This paper will explore intersections of educational philosophy, environmental ethics and social theory to provide some considerations for framing educational responses to the "normalizing of catastrophe". (Contains 7 figures and 4 notes.)

In this dialogue between two friends and colleagues with different takes on education for sustainability, Canadian environmental education scholar Bob Jickling argues that education "for" any cause is not true education, which should strive to prepare minds to create new ideas, not follow a doctrine. Since we don't have solutions to sustainability, we should prepare students to create them. Wageningen University professor and UNESCO's global report coordinator for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, Arjen Wals, argues that education is only useful when we reflect on what kind of education and for what purpose. Otherwise, as David Orr pointed out, more education will only "equip people to become more effective vandals of the Earth". (Contains 2 notes.)

In Canada education for sustainable development is not flourishing. This may seem curious as The Decade of Education For Sustainable Development is now well underway. But this isn't a bad news story. There are interesting dynamics at play and many great initiatives are emerging. This assessment is a story too. There are many ways of interpreting events and the analysis presented here is one; there will be others. In telling this story, especially for a brief article, I've made no attempt to provide a comprehensive survey of Canadian activities. Rather, I have taken a closer look at some key events and trends and discussed ways that they might be understood.

This paper shares our experiences using pinhole photography with adolescents as both a pedagogical tool to support and deepen adolescent experiences in wild nature, and as a visual methodological tool to elucidate their experiences. Reflecting on a journey that explored the nature-based experiences of two adolescents on a family canoe trip in Northern Canada, examples of findings are presented that contextualize study participants within the literature to illustrate pinhole photography's viability for the study of adolescent experiences in wild nature. Pinhole photography proved to be a medium to intensify the adolescents' embodied presence and sense of place, and helped them to anchor their experiences in wild nature for ensuing reflection and focused discussion. Pinhole photography's inherent strengths and challenges are discussed and recommendations presented for its future use as a methodological and "slow" pedagogical tool in the study of outdoor education and/or environmental education.

Preamble: Singers gathering on stage This is a paper for three voices. An attempt at a philosophic experience in the symphonic form. The first voice carries the tune and holds the shape of the paper as it focuses on Baudrillard and proposes that public education in Canada today is in fact a simulacra. The second voice has more room to roam, tracing some of the Western philosophical underpinnings of Baudrillard's stages of the simulacra from Aristotle to Saussure's centralization of human language and out to the disappearance of the signified altogether. And the third voice, plays a parallel tune to the first two but focuses on the evolution of education for sustainable development. Eventually all three voices find harmonies around the challenges of their respective simulacrum (i.e. public education, human language, and education for sustainable development) and will, as a dramatic conclusion, seek to offer some important educational implications. We have employed, as seen above, different fonts for each voice and divided the paper along symphonic lines (i.e. sonata, adagio, scherzo, and rondo) with each movement being accompanied by one stage of Baudrillard's development of the simulacra. We encourage the reader to think of this paper as a philosophical score choosing to read each voice separately or all three together seeking resonances along the way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Environmental Education is the property of Canadian Journal of Environmental Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Canada education for sustainable development is not flourishing. This may seem curious as The Decade of Education For Sustainable Development is now well underway. But this isn't a bad news story. There are interesting dynamics at play and many great initiatives are emerging. This assessment is a story too. There are many ways of interpreting events and the analysis presented here is one; there will be others. In telling this story, especially for a brief article, I've made no attempt to provide a comprehensive survey of Canadian activities. Rather, I have taken a closer look at some key events and trends and discussed ways that they might be understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]