Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T19:52:23.220Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Learning for a Sustainable Environment Project: A Case Study of an Action Network for Teacher Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

John Fien
John Fien*
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Brisbane
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Education has an enormously important role to play in motivating and empowering citizens to participate in environmental improvement and protection. Nearly three decades ago, Schumacher (1973) described education as our ‘greatest resource’ in his endeavour. In the last decade, major international reports have stressed this also. The theme of the Brundtland Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living (prepared as the World Conservation Strategy for the 1990s) (1991), and Agenda 21 (the Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro) (1992) is that it is possible to sustain ways of living that can redress environmental decline without jeopardising the ecosystem or resources base for the future. Each report speaks to the imperative of education to engender this ethic (see Fien 1995).

In the Asia-Pacific region also, education has been identified as a critical factor and countries have adopted a range of strategies for implementing programs in environmental education. Many workshops and training programs have been organised since 1986 Regional Meeting of Experts in Bangkok at which an action plan was developed for environmental education from primary through post graduate levels. Significant work is taking place in redefining environmental education in a Pacific context, particularly to incorporate concepts of sustainable development. Much exploration of how teacher education can rise to the occasion of the great need for environmental education and for teacher education in environmental education is on-going in the region (see Fien & Corcoran 1996).

Type
Feature 1: The Learning for a Sustainable Environment Project
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 17 , 2001 , pp. 77 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

References

Fien, J. 1995, ‘Teaching for a sustainable world: The environmental and development education project for teacher education’, Environmental Education Research, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 21–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fien, J. and Corcoran, P.B. 1996, ‘Learning for a sustainable environment: Professional development and teacher education in environmental education in the Asia-Pacific region’, Environmental Education Research, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 227–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, P. 1990, ‘Rethinking teacher education environmentally’, Monographs in Environmental Education and Environmental Studies, vol. VI, North American Association for Environmental Education, Troy, Ohio.Google Scholar
IUCN, UNEP and WWF 1991, Caring for the Earth, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Gland.Google Scholar
Robottom, I. 1987, ‘The dual challenge for professional development in environmental education, in Greenall, A. ed, Environmental Education: Past, Present and Future, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Robottom, I. 1989, ‘Social critique or social control: Some problems for evaluation in environmental education’, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 435–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schon, D. 1983, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action, Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Schumacher, F. 1973, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Really Mattered, Abacus Books, London.Google Scholar
UNESCO-ACEID 1994, Final Report of the Planning Group meeting for the UNESCO-ACEID Project Learning for a Sustainable Environment: Innovations in Teacher Education, Griffith University, Brisbane.Google Scholar
World Commission on Environment and Development 1987, Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar