Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T08:23:03.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Empowering Students to Act: Learning About, Through and From the Nature of Action

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Sally Birdsall
Sally Birdsall*
Affiliation:
The University of Auckland
*
†The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92601, Symonds Street, Auckland 1150, New Zealand. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Empowering students to act in an environmentally responsible manner is being increasingly touted as a central goal of formal environmental education. Acting in a responsible manner requires the development of environmental knowledge as well as positive attitudes and values towards the environment along with other attributes. While some guidance about how to plan and teach environmental education is available in curriculum and policy documents, teachers are often either unfamiliar with such documents and/or unaware of the theories and pedagogy of environmental education (Cutter-Mackenzie & Smith, 2003; Eames, Cowie, & Bolstad, 2008). This paper offers a definition of environmentally responsible behaviour and identifies the role that knowledge could play when environmentally responsible action is taken by students that could be useful for teachers.

Three different lenses are used to examine the knowledge developed by 11-12 year old students and their subsequent actions during engagement in an environmental education programme (n=22). The lenses consist of a cluster of types of knowledge developed by Jensen (2002), a framework for analysing understandings of sustainability and the type of actions taken (Jensen & Schnack, 1997; Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002).

The results suggest that these students developed different types of knowledge that informed the actions taken and that their actions can be categorised as action competence. It is also suggested that these types of knowledge need to be taught explicitly. A three part model is then proposed that could assist students to learn about the nature of action, enabling them to work towards potential solutions for complex environmental issues.

Keywords

action competenceenvironmental educationenvironmental knowledgepro-environmental behavioursustainability.
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 26 , 2010 , pp. 65 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Australian Government (2009). Living sustainably: The Australian Government's national action plan for education for sustainability. Canberra: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.Google Scholar
Bolstad, R., Cowie, B., & Eames, C. (2004). Environmental education in New Zealand schools: Research into current practice and future possibilities. Vol. 1: Summary of the research findings. Wellington: Ministry of Education.Google Scholar
Chawla, L. (2008). Participation and the ecology of environmental awareness and action. In Reid, A., Jensen, B., Nikel, J. & Simovska, V. (Eds.), Participation and learning: Perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability (pp. 98–110). SpringerLink (e-book).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Courtenay-Hall, P., & Rogers, L. (2002). Gaps in mind: Problems in environmental knowledge-behaviour modeling research. Environmental Education Research, 8(3), 283–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutter-Mackenzie, A., & Smith, R. (2003). Ecological literacy: The “missing paradigm” in environmental education (part one). Environmental Education Research, 9(4), 497–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eames, C., Cowie, B., & Bolstad, R. (2008). An evaluation of characteristics of environmental education practice in New Zealand schools. Environmental Education Research, 14(1), 35–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fien, J. (1997). Stand up, stand up and be counted: Undermining myths of environmental education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 13, 21–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fien, J. (2000). ‘Education for the environment: A critique’ — an analysis. Environmental Education Research, 6(2), 179–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gough, A. (1997). Education and the environment: Policy, trends and the problems of marginalisation. Melbourne: The Australian Council for Educational Research.Google Scholar
Gough, S. (2002). Whose gap? Plural rationalities and disappearing academics. Environmental Education Research, 8(3), 273–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Government of South Australia. (n.d.). Department for Environment and Heritage – Threatened Fauna Fact Sheet – Northern and Yorke Region – Common Brushtailed Possum Trichosurus Vulpecula. Retrieved April 26, 2010, from http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/biodiversity/bcp/pdfs/brushtail_possum_info_sheet.pdf Google Scholar
Hart, P. (2007). Environmental education. In Abell, S. & N., , Lederman, (Eds.), Handbook of research on science education (pp. 689–726). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Hart, R. (2008). Stepping back from ‘the ladder’: Reflections on a model of participatory work with children. In Reid, A., Jensen, B., Nikel, J. & Simovska, V. (Eds.), Participation and learning: Perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability (pp. 19–31). SpringerLink (e-book).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heimlich, J., & Ardoin, N. (2008). Understanding behaviour to understand behaviour change: A literature review. Environmental Education Research, 14(3), 215–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huckle, J. (1991). Education for sustainability: Assessing pathways to the future. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 7, 43–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutching, G. (2009). Possums. Te Ara – the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Retrieved April 26, 2010, from http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/possums/1/1 Google Scholar
Jensen, B. (2002). Knowledge, action and pro-environmental behaviour. Environmental Education Research, 8(3), 325–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, B., & Schnack, K. (1997). The action competence approach in environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 3(2), 163–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jickling, B., & Spork, H. (1998). Education for the environment: A critique. Environmental Education Research, 4(3), 309–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jickling, B., & Wals, A. (2008). Globalization and environmental education: Looking beyond sustainable development. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 40(1), 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kollmuss, A., & Agyeman, J. (2002). Mind the gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behaviour? Environmental Education Research, 8(3), 239–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, D., & Wallace, J. (2004). Imaging the future of science education: The case for making future studies explicit in student learning. Studies in Science Education, 40, 139–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucas, A. (1979,). Environment and environmental education: Conceptual issues and curriculum implications. Kew, Australia: Australia International Press.Google Scholar
McClaren, M., & Hammond, B. (2005). Integrating education and action in environmental education. In Johnson, E. & Mappin, M. (Eds.), Environmental education and advocacy: Changing perspectives of ecology and education (pp. 267–291). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ministry of Education (1999). Guidelines for environmental education in New Zealand schools. Wellington: Learning Media.Google Scholar
Reid, A., Jensen, B., Nikel, J., & Simovska, V. (2008). Participation and learning: Developing perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability. In Reid, A., Jensen, B., Nikel, J. & Simovska, V. (Eds.), Participation and learning: Perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability (pp. 1–18). SpringerLink (e-book).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, R. (2006). Tensions and transitions in policy discourse: Recontextualising a decontextualised EE/ESD debate. Environmental Education Research, 12(3-4), 277–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, R. (2007a). Schooling and environmental education: Contradictions in purpose and practice. Environmental Education Research, 13(2), 139–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, R. (2007b). Schooling and environmental/sustainability education: From discourses of policy and practice to discourses of professional learning. Environmental Education Research, 13(2), 265–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Summers, M., & Kruger, C. (2003). Teaching sustainable development in primary schools: Theory into practice. The Curriculum Journal, 14(2), 157–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilbury, D. (1995). Environmental education for sustainability: Defining the new focus of environmental education in the 1990s. Environmental Education Research, 1(2), 195–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilbury, D. (2007). Learning based change for sustainability: Perspectives and pathways. In Wals, A. (Ed.). Social learning towards a sustainable world:Principles, perspectives and praxis (pp. 117–131). The Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Tilbury, D., & Cooke, K. (2005). A National Review of Environmental Education and its Contribution to Sustainability in Australia: Frameworks for Sustainability. Canberra: Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage and Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability.Google Scholar
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) (1978). The Tbilisi declaration. UNESCO-UNEP Environmental Education Newsletter, 3(1), 1–8.Google Scholar