What do you hear in ’Learning to care’? : understandings and practices of environmental education

Abstract

This research investigated how environmental educators in Canterbury, New Zealand, conceptualise their work in relation to the description of environmental education provided by the Ministry for the Environment in Learning to Care For Our Environment: Perspectives on Environmental Education (1996). Twelve environmental educators, who work with groups from the compulsory schooling sector, were interviewed between 26 November, 1997 and 14 December, 1997. Thematic analysis was conducted on the transcription of each interview.

The literature suggests an urgent need for humans to change the way in which they interact with the environment, altering the dominant social paradigm (DSP), through environmental education. Confusion regarding definitions of environmental education has diverted attention from the mission of achieving such change. Beyond fragmented efforts, little has been done in New Zealand towards environmental education. Environmental education lacks government support in the form of coordination, training, guidance or networking. There is no environmental education policy, yet the Ministry (1996 & 1997a) has proposed a national strategy for environmental education. The Ministry's (1996 & 1997a) pilot documents reflect New Zealand's problem-based DSP, which generally stems from an anthropocentric, Judeo-Christian ethic of stewardship of the Earth. Ecocentric philosophies are described throughout the literature as more appropriate for the foundation of proactive, vision-based approaches to environmental education, with the objective of an environmentally literate society living an ecologically sustainable lifestyle.

Results of this study indicate that environmental education is conceptualised and practiced in a wide range of ways and in less comprehensive terms than the Ministry's (1996) definition. Most descriptions were anthropocentric and problem-based. While no descriptions were completely ecocentric, several demonstrated transitional perspectives. Proactive, transitional responses were the closest to the Ministry's (1996) definition, in terms of comprehensiveness. The research traversed the related issues of relationships between environmental educators' backgrounds and practice; cohesion and support in the environmental education endeavour; and politics of environmental education in schools.