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A publication of Environmental Education and Training Partnership, funded by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and managedby the North American Association for Environmental Education.

EETAPResource Library Advancing Educat ion & Environment al Literacy

April, 1997 Number 15

Environmental Education: As Defined By The PractitionersEnvironmental education carries different

images for the practitioners in the field. For some,

environmental education is a dimension of the

environmental movement that gained momentum in

the 70s. However, it has been acknowledged that the

primary antecedents of environmental education were

nature study, outdoor education, and conservation

education. The field of environmental education

continues to evolve, and the definition of

environmental education remains individuallygrounded. Some educators have identified several other

educational movements as forerunners and/or

concurrent companions of environmental education.

These include resource-use education, progressive

education, and resource management education.

Following are some of the early and evolving

definition of environmental education as described by

John F. Disinger in his article Environmental

Educations Definitional Problems published in

Information Bulletin No. 2 of ERIC/SMEAC in 1983.

An early concise definition which served asthe basis of subsequent efforts emerged from a

graduate seminar in the Department of Resource

conservation and Planning of the University of

Michigans School of Natural Resources under the

leadership of William Stapp in 1969 and declares

that:

Environmental education is aimed at producing

a citizenry that is knowledgeable concerning

the biophysical environment and its

associated problems, aware of how to solve

these problems, and motivated to work towards

their solution.

This statement was modified by R. Roth in

1970 by referencing both biophysical and socio-

cultural environments and by stressing the

management dimension, as follows:

Environmental management education is the

process of developing a citizenry that is:

* knowledgeable of the interrelated biophysical

and socio-cultural of which [man] is a part;

* aware of the associated environmental

problems and management alternatives of

use in solving these problems; and

* motivated to work towards the maintenance

and development of diverse environments

that are optimum for living.

Brennan (1970) furnished the following

definition of environmental education, based upon

earlier definitional discussions of conservation

education supplied by Brandwein and himself:

(Environmental education is) that education

which develops in [man] a recognition of

[his] interdependence with all of life and a

recognition of [his] responsibility to

maintain the environment in a manner fit for

life and fit for living - an environment of

beauty and bounty, in which [man] lives in

harmony. The first part of environmental

education involves development of under-standing; the second, development of attitudes

- a conservation ethics.

In a 1975 editorial of Journal of

Environmental Education, Schoenfeld expressed

concerns with respect to the ways environmental

education was being approached by the U.S. Office of

Education. In 1980, he called for the initiation of

integrated environmental management education as the

proper touchstone for environmental education.

The U.S. Office of Education, through the

Environmental Quality Education Act, commonly called

the Environmental Education Act (U.S. Public Law 91-516, 1970) offered this definition

For the purpose of this act, the term

environmental education means the educational

process dealing with [mans] relationship

with [his] natural and manmade surroundings,

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A publication of Environmental Education and Training Partnership, funded by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and managedby the North American Association for Environmental Education.

EETAP Resource Library is a project of Environmental Education and

Training Partnership effort. The goal of the Resource Library is to increase

educators access to and use of databases such as ENC and ERIC. This

information sheet may be freely reproduced for educational purposes.

and includes the relationship of population, and practical skills to participate in a responsible

conservation, transportation, technology, and and effective way in anticipating and

urban and regional planning to the total solving environmental problems, and in

human environment. the management of the quality of the

In Tanners (1974) opinion:

Ultimately, we believe, environmental education

must focus on the Spaceship Earth concept.

It must deal with [man-man]or [man-]society relationships only as they affect,

or are affected by, [man-]earth relationships. implies efforts to change behavior. As Schmeider

Other endeavors, worthwhile though they (1977) wrote:

may be, are not environmental education. Environmental education calls for participation

To be useful, a concept must be both inclusive and in real world activities and for modification

exclusive. and changes- sometimes radical ones- in the

On the global/international scene, approach is very central to education the

recommendation 96 of the 1972 Stockholm

Conference on the Human Environment called for

the development of environmental education as one of

the most critical elements of an all-out attack on the

worlds environmental crisis. A need identified at thatConference (United Nations, 1972) was:

Creating citizenries not merely aware of the

crisis of overpopulation, mismanagement of

natural resources, pollution, and degradation

of the quality of human life, but also able to

focus intelligently on the means of coping

with them.

The Belgrade Charter highlighted this goal

statement at the October 1975 International

Environmental Education Workshop:

The goal of environmental education is to

develop a world population that is awareof, and concerned about, the environment

and its associated problems and which has

the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations,

and commitment to work individually and

collectively toward solutions of current

problems and the prevention of new ones.

The basic aim of environmental education as

defined by the participants of the 1977 UNESCO-

UNEP Intergovernmental Conference on

Environmental Education (held in Tbilisi, Georgia,

USSR), also known as the Tbilisi Declaration, is:

. . . to succeed in making individuals and

communities understand the complex nature

of the natural and built environments resulting

from the interactions of their physical, biological,

social, economic, and cultural aspects, and

acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes,

environment.

At the same time, in most of the world, the

goal of survival and human welfare is considered

superordinate. This causes environmental education tobe different from other forms of education, because it

attitudes and behavior of people, yet neither

way it is commonly practiced throughout

the world.

The above statements clearly indicate that

efforts to define environmental education continue. Atthe same time, it also appears that groundwork has been

laid for dialogue, early agreement, and further inquest.

If you are interested in conducting further

research into the opinions of other practitioners of

environmental education, please refer to resources found

in the Educational Resources Information Center

(ERIC) and Eisenhower National Clearinghouse (ENC)

collections, and search the ERIC or ENC collections on

line or at a local library or university. On line, the

databases can be accessed by typing

http://eelink.umich.edu

Page down to EDUCATION AND INFORMATION

directory, EDUCATION directory, ASKERIC or ENC,and click on either home page. You will then be able to

search ERIC and ENC databases by following the

appropriate pointers.

Acknowledgment: We are grateful to Dr. John F. Disinger,Professor Emeritus, School of Natural Resources, The Ohio State

University for sharing his article entitled Environmental Educations

Definitional Problem, published by ERIC/SMEAC as Information

Bulletin No. 2, 1983.

For citations in this information sheet, please refer to the article

mentioned above which is available at ERIC Clearinghouse located at

1929, Kinnear Road, Columbus, OH 43210-1080.

This information sheet was prepared by Joe E. Heimlich, Ph. D., and

Sabiha S. Daudi, GRA, EETAP Resource Library.