Fathoming the fathers in environmental education : a feminist poststructuralist analysis

The purpose of this study is to provide a feminist poststructuralist analysis of the dominant international discourses in environmental education, and how these have been realised in Australian national statements and in state policies over the past two decades, in terms of their implicit views about science, the environment, epistemology and education. The methodology of the study presents an argument for a 'politics of method' in the form of a research approach which reflects the ideology and intent of the study, i.e. an argument toward feminist poststructuralism as a methodology, but with elements of critical feminist research. Part of this methodology involves consideration of the gendered nature of language and discourses, particularly in the sciences. The argument is for the reconstituting of knowledge through feminist standpoint theory and the adoption of standards of 'strong objectivity'. In the spirit of its poststructuralist methodology the study presents three different stories (archaeologies) about environmental education: one told in terms of people, events and their outcomes; one told in terms of the changing views of education and how these were interpreted in environmental education; and the third told in terms of the emergence of ecofeminism as a parallel movement to environmental education and the emerging relationship between these two movements. These stories serve two purposes: to review the relevant literature in these three areas, and to provide the 'data' for later chapters. The discourses of environmental education, particularly those of the 'founders' and UNESCO documents, are then analysed from a poststructuralist perspective, followed by a feminist reconstruction of environmental education which argues for thinking from women's and other marginalized lives as a preferred strategy for environmental education, and develops research principles to explore this possibility. The conclusion reflects on the philosophical and theoretical issues engaged, and the methodological issues addressed, in the study.

Contestation and continuity in educational reform : a critical study of innovations in environmental education

This study explores the notion of contestation in environmental education. Contestation is a process in which self-interested individuals and groups in a social organisation cooperate, compete and negotiate in a complex interaction aimed at solving social problems. A "framework for critique" is developed, comprising technicist, liberaleducational innovation, educational research and education itself. This framework forms the basis from which a critique is mounted of contesting perspectives in environmental education at international, national and local levels. The thesis argues, firstly, that contestation takes place in the domains of (a) language or "policy in environmental education; (b) organisational strategies aimed at initiating or improving environmental education; (c) educational practices conducted in the name of environmental education; and (d) within perspectives between these domains. The thesis argues, secondly, that the presently dominant techniqist models of innovation expressed in the organisation of environmental education are part of an hegemonic relationship which acts to "technologise" the innovation: they provide an organisational strategy for establishing environmental and educational progress without offering a theory for self-reflection and ideology-critique. The incompatibility of certain contesting perspectives and practices is masked, thus contributing to continuity, rather than reform. The thesis characterises this "educational problem of environmental education" as a series of theory-practice gaps at all levels, where "theory" is the set of beliefs and assumptions held by individual practitioners, and in. terms of which they understand their educational practices. An educational problem exists because these theory-practice gaps exist; the educational problem continues because these theory-practice gaps exist unacknowledged within the infrastructure of environmental education due to the effects of false consciousness and hegemony. The thesis addresses the issue of which of several contesting forms of educational research offers the most coherent response to the educational problem of environmental education, and argues that, for the time being, approaches grounded in the critical social sciences are both the best justified and most promising approaches . to educational research for environmental education.

Community-based environmental education : government and community, economics and environment

This thesis contends that government focus on policy implicitly defines community education as a means of overcoming barriers to government-initiated change, rather than as an input to governmental decision-making. The role of education is thus viewed as instrumentalist rather than as dialectical in nature. I argue that this role has been reinforced and driven by economic rationalism, as a mechanism related to scientific theory and practice. The thesis addresses the role of government in non-institutional community-based environmental education. Of interest is environmental education under the dominance of economic rationalism and as expressed in government-derived policy, in its own right, and as enacted in two government funded animal management projects. The main body of data, then, includes a review of some contemporary environmental policies and two case studies of 'policy in practice'. Chapter One provides an overview of environmentalism as it has emerged as part of the discourse of Western political systems. Recognised as part of this change is a move to environmentalism embued with the rhetoric of economic theory. The manifestation of this change can be seen in an emphasis on management for the natural environment's use as a resource for humans. Education under this arrangement is valued in terms of its ability to support initiatives that are perceived as economically viable and economically advantageous, maintaining centralised control of decision-making and serving the interests of those who profit from this arrangement. Government-derived environmental policies are presented in Chapter Two. They provide evidence of the conjoining of environment with economic rationalism and the adoption of a particular stance which is both utilitarian and instrumentalist. Emerging from this is an understanding of the limitations placed on environmental debates that do not respond to complex understandings of context and instead support and legitimate centralisation of decision-making and control. Chapter Three presents an argument for an historical approach to environmental education research to accommodate contextual dimensions, as well as scientific, economic and technical dimensions, of the subject under study. An historical approach to research, inclusive of biographical, intergenerational and geographical histories, goes some way to providing an understanding of current individual and collective responses to policy enactment within the two study sites. It also responds to the concealing of history which results from the reduction of environmental debates to economic terms. With this in mind, Chapters Four and Five provide two historical case studies of 'policy in practice'. Chapter Four traces the workings of a rabbit control project in the Sutton Grange district of Victoria and Chapter Five provides an account of a mouse plague project in the Wimmera and Mallee regions of Victoria. The Sutton Grange rabbit project is organised and controlled by district landholders while the Wimmera and Mallee mouse project is organised and controlled by representatives from a scientific organisation and a government agency. Considered in juxtaposition, the two case studies enable an analysis of two somewhat different expressions of the 'role of government'. Chapter Six investigates the competing processes of community participation in governmental decision-making and Australia's system of representative democracy, Despite a call for increased community participation, the majority of policies remain dominated by governmental rhetoric and ideology underpinned by a belief in impartiality. The primacy of economics is considered in terms of government and community interaction, with specific reference to the emergence of particular conceptual constructions, such as cost-benefit analysis, that support this dominance. Of specific importance to this thesis is the argument that economic theory is essentially anthropocentric and individualist and, thus, necessarily marginalises particular conceptions of environment that are non-anthropocentric and non-individualistic. Finally, Chapter Six examines two major interrelated tensions; those of central interests and community interests, and economic rationalism and environmentalist. Chapter Seven looks at examples of theories and practices that fall outside the rationality determined by scientistic knowledge. It is clear from the examination of environmental policy within this thesis that the role ascribed to environmental education is instrumentalist. The function of education is often to support, promote and implement policy and its advocated practices. It is also clear from the examination of policy and advocated processes that policy defines community education as a means of manifesting change as determined by policy, rather than as an input to governmental decision-making. The domination of scientific, economic and technocratic processes (and legitimation of processes) allows only for an instrumentalist approach to education from government. What is encouraged by government through the process of change is continuity rather than reform. It promotes change that will not disrupt the governing hegemony. Particular perspectives and practices, such as a critical approach to education, are omitted or considered only within the unquestioned rationale of the dominant worldview. Chapter Seven focuses on the consequence of government attention to policy which implicitly defines community education as a means of overcoming barriers to change, rather than as an input to governmental decision-making. Finally a list of recommendations is put forward as a starting point to reconstruct community-based environmental education. The role considered is one that responds to, and encourages engagement in, debates which expose disparate views, assumptions and positions. Community ideology must be challenged through the public practices of communication and understanding, decision-making, and action. Intervention is not on a level that encourages a preordinate outcome but, rather, what is encouraged is elaborate consideration of disparate views and rational opinions, and the exposure of assumptions and interests behind ideological positions.

Environmental education : from policy to practice

The field of environmental education faces a process of continuous conceptual reconstruction that is underpinned by the complexity of the social and political changes occurring throughout the world as consequences of environmental crises and the different perspectives through which they are understood in different contexts. Thus there is a need to review and reflect on the meanings of environmental education, its theory and its practice. To address such issues the seminar, 'Environmental Education: from policy to practice', was held at King's College London in March 2001, under the sponsorship of the British Council and directed by Justin Dillon. The seminar brought together environmental educators from a broad spectrum--policy developers, researchers and practitioners--from Belize, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, India, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Swaziland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. During a thought-provoking six days the seminar discussed a diverse range of ideas about the current trends and future practices in environmental education. In this report we present our 'reading' and reflection on two major aspects of the discussion: the meanings of environmental education and education for sustainable development in different cultures and contexts. This we do from our own positions as academics working on environmental education in Latin American contexts.

Evaluating the impact of an environmental education programme; an empirical study in Mexico.

This study draws on information from 11 in-depth interviews, two focus groups and 72 written questionnaires to evaluate an extra-curricular environmental education programme on forestry designed for preparatory school students from a small rural community in Mexico. Specifically, the study assessed the impact of the programme on the ecological knowledge of 72 students. Qualitative feedback suggests that students learnt about forestry, acquired greater awareness of the importance of conservation for the local environment and enjoyed the participatory teaching methods used in the programme. Quantitative results show a positive and significant association between the number of times a student participated in the programme and the student’s ecological knowledge. Students who participated in the programme once had a 16.3% higher knowledge on ecological concepts and knew, on average, 1.5 more local forest plants than students who never attended it (p<.001). Findings suggest that the inclusion of participatory environmental education programmes in preparatory schools would improve the acquisition of ecological knowledge. Further research could consider the consistency of the findings by replicating participatory methods presented here and by using an experimental research design.

Environmental education in Thailand : reproduction and reformation

This study was conducted to improve the pedagogy of a particular teacher education course and its teaching and learning activities. It was based on the principles of action research. Results indicate that through group process workshops and the action research projects the research and participants acquired skills in problem-solving and collaborative work.

De(con)struction of feminist solidarity and the question of environmental education reform

This thesis critically examines the implications of normative models of science, gender and feminism for environmental education. It examines issues relating to unequal power relations between the masculine and the feminine ways of knowing, the power relations between women - in particular between feminist educators. Pivotal to the analysis is an exploration of self empowerment and the identification of the author's own subjectivity.

Research paradigms in environmental education : post war reconciliation?

Methodological self-reflection is an aspect of research rigour. Yet the "politics of method" perspective has been slow to take hold in North American environmental education. While arguments have been made concerning the need for deliberation about and congruence among the political theories of substance and method, polarisation of quantitative and qualitative researchers has tended to persist. This presentation provides an outline of the issues arising at a recent forum which aimed to transcend this polarisation of research in environmental education.

School and community partnerships in socially critical environmental education : research as environmental activism

Through a critical ethnography of a school and community, this study identifies and describes-in-action an approach to environmental education that supports the socially critical aspirations of many contemporary environmental education activists and examines its fate in the policy context of educational restructuring.  The study provides a critical analysis and exploration of environmental education and environmental activism within the context of social change.

Contextualising learning through the participatory construction of an environmental education programme

Strengthening links between school and community is critical for improving people's participation in environmental issues. However, Mexican education programmes are generally unrelated to rural students' life experience and are planned without considering either teachers' or students' opinions. This article describes the participatory construction of a preparatory school environmental education (EE) programme in Ixtlan de Juarez, a Mexican indigenous community internationally recognised for sustainable forest management. The qualitative research methods used are based on the action research methodology. Results from interviews conducted with the preparatory school's headmaster, the coordinator, and nine teachers provided the needed documentation of the school site for contextualising learning activities. Feedback during focus groups with six students, three teachers, five local communal authorities, and two researchers highlighted that all participants perceived the need for creating an educational programme focused on local forest management. The contents and activities of the programme were designed by the focus group's participants. The programme has been continuously taught by teachers and forest workers since 2005 and was officially integrated with the preparatory school science curriculum in 2006. This participative educational experience has thus transformed the mandatory school curriculum in Ixtlan.

Values in science, environmental education and teacher education

The aim of this chapter is to establish values as a key component of science and environmental education, consistent with the troika framework, and to explore the implications of this for teacher education. In the chapter, we review research that has increasingly placed values at the centre of the process of learning science, and central also in framing students' responses to school science. We then present findings from three projects that explore the relationship of values to teaching and learning science: first, an exploration of the pedagogies of effective teachers of science; second,an environmental education project in which students explore science and sustainability ideas in the context of a community exchange program in Mexico and Alaska; and, third, a teachcr education initiative focused on place-based education. In the chapter, we argue that learning science and engaging with the environment entails pedagogies that link conceptual learning, values and community.

A life in environmental education : an autobiographical case study

This thesis reveals that context can be used as a tool to explore the connections, interpretations and meanings individuals assign to their existence and unique constructions of reality. Effective and transformative environmental education is dependent on a deeper understanding and examination of these unique existential and contextual forces.