Love, actually

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Love, actually

• An exploration of the philosophical foundations
  of Environmental Education
• Karla Bradley, PhD Student
• Dr. Steve Hollenhorst, Major Professor

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IN WHICH we explore the foundational philosophies
at work in Environmental Education and tensions
are revealed.

• WHAT Overview of education philosophies and
  some key philosophers
• SO WHAT Place Environmental Education within
  the context of these philosophies
• NOW WHAT Discuss current tensions and where we
  go from here

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Disclaimer

• Tug on anything at all and you'll find it
  connected to everything else in the universe
• John Muir

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Eeyores wisdom

• if, every time I want to sit down I have to
  brush away half a dozen of Rabbits smaller
  friends-and-relations first, then this isnt an
  Expo whatever it is at all, its simply a
  Confused Noise.
• Eeyore,
• IN WHICH Christopher Robin leads an Expotition to
  the North Pole

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Philosophies of Education
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Technocratic Education
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Purpose of Education

• Factory Model, Traditional Learn to earn
• To help students develop the knowledge, skills
  and values they will need to get productive jobs
  and succeed in a competitive marketplace
• It is what we go back to when we go back to
  basics (No Child Left Behind)
• (Hutchinson, 1998)

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Methods

• Pre-determined goals and objectives
• Teacher-centered Learning mainly occurs through
  a one-way dissemination of knowledge from teacher
  to student
• Uses outcome-based assessments of learning
  standardized testing
• (Hutchinson, 1998)

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BF Skinner (1904 - 1990)

• Anti-philosophical
• Purpose of education is behavioral conditioning
• Humans are controlled by their environment, the
  conditions of which can be studied, specified and
  manipulated.
• Mistrusts self-consciousness

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Progressive Education
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Purpose of Education

• Reaction to Traditional education
• To promote social change
• To give learners practical knowledge and
  problem-solving skills
• (Hutchinson, 1998 Elias Merriam, )

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Methods

• Problem-based approach using the scientific
  method of inquiry
• Teacher is facilitator, guides learning through
  experience stimulates, instigates, evaluates
  learning process
• Student-centered learners needs, interests and
  experiences are key elements
• (Elias Merriam, 1995)

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John Dewey (1859 - 1952)

• Education should prepare students to be active
  participants in a democratic society
• School and society should be integrated
• Experience is central to learning
• Educators have the responsibility of using their
  surroundings to foster good educational
  experiences
• (Experience and Education, 1938
• The School and Society, 1909
• Democracy and Education, 1916)

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Holism
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Purpose of Education

• To help students develop intellectually,
  spiritually and emotionally to prepare them to be
  lifelong learners and caring members of society
• Montessori, Waldorf Schools
• (Hutchinson, 1998)

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Methods

• World is seen as interconnected, studies are
  interdisciplinary (extra-discplinary)
• Teacher is a facilitator of the discovery process
  
• Learner participates emotionally, spiritually and
  intellectually in learning

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Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858 - 1954)

• We are a part of the creation
• We have not treated the earth well
• We have a moral obligation to act rightly towards
  the earth
• Contact with the natural world puts humans in
  right relationship with earth
• (The Holy Earth, 1915
• Outlook to Nature, 1911)

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Critical Pedagogy
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Purpose of Education

• To bring about structural, social, political and
  economic changes in society through education
• Also known as radical or reconstructionist
• (Elias Merriam, 1995)

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Methods

• Teacher helps to raise awareness, bring students
  to critical consciousness empowers learners to
  become more autonomous
• Learners create social change as they become
  aware of the cultural hegemony and through
  awareness achieve autonomy

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Paolo Freire (1921 - 1997)

• Banking education creates passive students
• Conscientization raises consciousness to
  transform reality
• (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970)

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Humanism
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Purpose of Education
Humanism

• To enhance personal growth and development
• To help students reach self-actualization

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Methods
Humanism

• Student-centered learner assumes responsibility
  for own learning
• Teacher is facilitator, helps to promote a
  positive learning environment
• Affective as well as cognitive processes are
  emphasized

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Kurt Hahn (1886 - 1974)Outward Bound School

• Ultimate goal is compassion
• Building up the physical body for the sake of the
  soul
• Overcoming innate weakness

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• Transformation of society
• ?Context is more important than subject
• ?Process is more important than outcome

• Transmission of knowledge
• ?Subject is more important than context
• ?Outcome is more important than process

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So, where does EE fit?
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Commonly Referenced Foundations
Using experiential methods outdoors
Outdoor Education
Experiential Education
Studying nature using experiential methods in the
outdoors
Kurt Hahn
John Dewey
Humanist
Progressive
Studying nature in the outdoors
Studying nature using experiential methods
Nature Study
Liberty Hyde Bailey
Holist
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Tension in EE

• Purpose of Environmental Education
• For improvement of the environment? For
  improvement of education? For the improvement of
  human beings?
• Methods of Environmental Education
• In the environment? Through the environment?
  About the environment? Is it a subject or a
  process of education?

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• Transformation of society
• ?Context is more important than subject
• ?Process is more important than outcome

• Transmission of knowledge
• ?Subject is more important than context
• ?Outcome is more important than process

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• Transformation of society
• ?Context is more important than subject
• ?Process is more important than outcome

• Transmission of knowledge
• ?Subject is more important than context
• ?Outcome is more important than process

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Benefit to Humans
Lieberman Hoody

• Transformation of society
• ?Context is more important than subject
• ?Process is more important than outcome

• Transmission of knowledge
• ?Subject is more important than context
• ?Outcome is more important than process

David Sobel
David Orr
Harold Hungerford
Benefit to the Environment
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The problem

• those approaching environmental education from
  its several dramatically different perspectives
  are likely to say the same words when they mean
  different things
• (Disinger, 1997)

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Emergence of EE

• The term Environmental Education was first used
  in the late 1960s
• Growing awareness that the world is not
  indestructible
• Related strands of education had advocated
  education IN the environment or ABOUT the
  environment education FOR the environment was new

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UNESCO

• Environmental education, properly understood,
  should constitute a comprehensive lifelong
  education, one responsive to changes in a rapidly
  changing world. It should prepare the individual
  for life through an understanding of the major
  problems of the contemporary world, and the
  provision of skills and attributes needed to play
  a productive role towards improving life and
  protecting the environment with due regard given
  to ethical values (UNESCO, 1977)

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Harold Hungerford
The main goal of Environmental Education
is ...to aid citizens in becoming
environmentally knowledgeable and, above all,
skilled and dedicated citizens who are willing to
work, individually and collectively, toward
achieving and/or maintaining a dynamic
equilibrium between quality of life and quality
of the environment (Goals for Curriculum
Development in Environmental Education, 1980)
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Harold Hungerford

• Based on imparting knowledge, skills and
  attitudes that lead to responsible environmental
  citizenship
• Traditional environmental education
• aphilosophical

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Benefit to Humans

• Transformation of society
• ?Context is more important than subject
• ?Process is more important than outcome

• Transmission of knowledge
• ?Subject is more important than context
• ?Outcome is more important than process

Harold Hungerford
Benefit to the Environment
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In the context of Technocratic Education,
Traditional EE

• Tends to be based on fear
• Values the idea that we can produce a citizenry
  that has the capacity to solve world
  environmental problems through technology and
  critical thinking
• Is focused on outcomes, not the process of
  education

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What are the alternatives?
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A holistic approach
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David Sobel (1949 - )

• Politically correct EE may be backfiring
• Love, not fear
• Place-based education
• (Beyond Ecophobia Reclaiming the
• heart in nature education, 1996)

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Benefit to Humans

• Transformation of society
• ?Context is more important than subject
• ?Process is more important than outcome

• Transmission of knowledge
• ?Subject is more important than context
• ?Outcome is more important than process

David Sobel
Harold Hungerford
Benefit to the Environment
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A critical pedagogy approach
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David Orr (1944 - )

• The crisis is not one of technology, but one of
  mind, will and spirit
• We need know-why more than know-how, wisdom more
  than cleverness
• Promote love, not fear the Biophilia revolution
• Rethink the purpose of education
• Preserve childhood
• Recover our sense of place
• (Earth in Mind, 1994)

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Benefit to Humans

• Transformation of society
• ?Context is more important than subject
• ?Process is more important than outcome

• Transmission of knowledge
• ?Subject is more important than context
• ?Outcome is more important than process

David Sobel
David Orr
Harold Hungerford
Benefit to the Environment
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A progressive approach
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Lieberman Hoody

• Education THROUGH the environment
• Interdisciplinary, collaborative, community-based
• Learner-centered, Constructivist
• Uses local natural and community surroundings as
  the context for instruction, learning and service
• Reported outcomes include
• Better performance on standardized tests
• Greater pride and ownership of learning
• Reduced discipline problems
• (Closing the Achievement Gap Using the
• Environment as an Integrating Context for
  Learning)

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Benefit to Humans
Lieberman Hoody

• Transformation of society
• ?Context is more important than subject
• ?Process is more important than outcome

• Transmission of knowledge
• ?Subject is more important than context
• ?Outcome is more important than process

David Sobel
David Orr
Harold Hungerford
Benefit to the Environment
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A humanist approach
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Outdoor Education

• Focuses on the development of human potential
• Uses the outdoors as a classroom for teaching
  outdoor leadership skills (hard and soft)

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Benefit to Humans
Kurt Hahn
Lieberman Hoody

• Transformation of society
• ?Context is more important than subject
• ?Process is more important than outcome

• Transmission of knowledge
• ?Subject is more important than context
• ?Outcome is more important than process

David Sobel
David Orr
Harold Hungerford
Benefit to the Environment
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So, what?
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In the context of Technocratic Education,
Place-based education

• Requires a philosophical shift to Holism and / or
  Critical Pedagogy and a radical change in our
  conception of the purpose of schooling
• Becomes an educational methods reform movement
  without the goal of benefiting the environment

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• Oh, help! said Pooh. Id better go back.
• Oh, bother! said Pooh. I shall have to go
  on.
• I cant do either! said Pooh. Oh, help and
  bother!

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Stuck

• Hungerfords model works well with current ideas
  in schooling but does it just turn into
  catastrophe education?
• Sobel Orrs ideas require a radical shift in
  the dominant educational philosophy. Seen as
  touchy feely or weak
• Lieberman Hoody take a pragmatic approach that
  does not address environmental concerns

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• Theres only one thing to be done, he said.
  We shall have to wait for you to get thin
  again.
• How long does getting thin take? asked Pooh
  anxiously.
• About a week, I should think.
• But I cant stay here a week!
• You can stay here all right, silly old Bear.
  Its getting you out which is so difficult.

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• Then would you read a Sustaining Book, such as
  would help and comfort a Wedged Bear in Great
  Tightness?
• So, for a week Christopher Robin read that sort
  of book at the North end of Pooh, and Rabbit hung
  his washing on the South end.

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Now what?

• Where do we go from here?

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Benefit to Humans
MOSS
Lieberman Hoody
Kurt Hahn
MOSS
MOSS

• Transformation of society
• ?Context is more important than subject
• ?Process is more important than outcome

• Transmission of knowledge
• ?Subject is more important than context
• ?Outcome is more important than process

David Sobel
MOSS
David Orr
MOSS
MOSS
Harold Hungerford
Benefit to the Environment
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Questions?
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Holistic
Technocratic
Critical Pedagogy
Progressive
Child Centered
Subject Centered
Cognitive
Affective
Anthropocentric
Biocentric
Atomistic worldview
Organic worldview
Individual
Social
Transmission of knowledge
Transformation of society
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Harold Hungerford
Entry
Ownership
Empowerment

• Environmental Sensitivity

In-depth knowledge about issues
Knowledge skill in using action strategies
Personal investment in issues and the environment
Knowledge of Ecology
Locus of control
Intention to act
Attitudes towards pollution, etc.
Knowledge of consequences of behavior
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Harold Hungerford
Entry
Ownership
Empowerment
Citizenship Behavior
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Characteristics of Place-based Education

• It emerges from the particular attributes of a
  place. The content is specific to the geography,
  ecology, sociology, politics, and other dynamics
  of that place. This fundamental characteristic
  established the foundation of the concept
  (Woodhouse Knapp)
• ? It is inherently multi-disciplinary
• ? It is inherently experiential
• ? Its purpose is broader than learn to earn it
  is education that fosters care for community and
  all its constituent parts
• ? It connects place with self and community web
  of connections.