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Study Unit 1

Learning objectives
− Describe and analyze the concept and the history of environmental education internationally
− Explain the inclusion of environmental education in formal education in South Africa
− Explain, in a practical way, the meaning of the principles of the Tbilisi conference and their
implications internationally and nationally
− Analyze and evaluate the UN decade of education for sustainable development and the global
action programme

Introduction
Environmental education (EE)
− EE enables learners to develop a structure of knowledge about the world and seek knowledge
that they can use and develop throughout their lives
− EE empowers learners by enabling them to participate in a sustainable future.
− Thus the foundation for a lifelong learning is laid by environmental education.

So what is the meaning of (EE)?

− Environment is derived from the French word “Environner”, which means encircle or
surrounding.
− Environments denote a complex of many variables, which surrounds “Man” as well as the living
organisms.
− Environmental education describes the interrelationships among organisms, the environment
and all the factors, which influence life on earth, including atmospheric conditions, food chains,
the water cycle, et
− Environmental education can be defined as education FOR the environment.
− Environmental education deals with education that aims to share new knowledge that will make
humankind aware of environmental problems so as to bring influence values and positive
attitudes towards the environment.
− It is also concerned with acquiring new skills that will find solutions to environmental problems
by means of participative active learning.
− Environmental education is aimed at producing a citizenry that is knowledgeable concerning the
biophysical environment and its associated problems, aware of how to help solve these
problems, and motivated to work toward their solution.
− Environmental education is a process during which values are discovered and concepts
explained in order to develop skills and attitudes pertaining to an appreciation of the
relationship between man, his culture and his biophysical environment.
− Environmental education also includes the practice of decision making and the formulation of a
personal code of conduct on matters affecting the quality of the environment.

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 − Environmental Education is an on-going process leading to the development of a Southern
African population that is aware of, and concerned about the total human environment and its
associated problems, and that has the knowledge, attitudes, motivations, commitment and skills
to work both individually and together towards the solution of current problems and the
prevention of new ones.

Importance of environmental education

− World population is increasing at an alarming rate especially in developing countries
− The resources are over-exploited and there is no foresight of leaving the resources to the future
generations
− The pollution and degraded environment seriously affect the health of all living things on earth,
including man
− Education and training are needed to save the biodiversity and species extinction.
− Conclusively environmental education deals with every issue that affects an organism
− A refocusing and maturing of environment and development education through a “message”
and practical “experiences” …
− The idea of communities interacting within socio-ecological frames of reference (eg catchment,
biosphere, globe) is likely to be more useful than the categorisations in terms of race and
language that have characterised social life in South Africa.
− A focus on Community, Learning, Environment, Active awareness and Resources [CLEAR] …
clarifies, broadens and enhances existing [by 1993] approaches to Environmental Education in
both formal education and community development contexts.
− An ‘ACTION’ framework for fieldwork is a valuable part of a governmental initiative that
developed as part of a global initiative to monitor water quality [the Global Rivers
Environmental Education Network – GREEN) and that is inclusive of a solving process in which
community and school action groups can participate.

Guiding principles of environmental education

− Consider the environment in its totality, natural and built technological and social structures
(economic, political, technological, cultural, historical, moral and aesthetic)

Evolution of EE
− The concept of EE was facilitated by series of international meetings and conferences
− The first discussion occurred at the 1968 UNESCO biosphere reserve conference in Paris
− Creation of the office of EE to award grants for the development of EE curricula and to provide
professional development for teachers.
− The goal of EE is to develop a world population that is aware of, 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 Tbilisi goals of awareness, knowledge, and ability to take action are often collectively
referred to as “environmental literacy.”

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Objectives of environmental education
Awareness
− To help social groups and individuals acquire an awareness of and sensitivity to the total
environment and its allied problems

Knowledge
− To help social groups and individuals gain a variety of experiences and acquire a basic
understanding of the environment and its associated problems.

Attitudes
− To help social groups and individuals acquire a set of values and feeling of concern for the
environment and the motivation for actively participating in environmental improvement and
protection.

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Skills
− To help social groups and individuals acquire the skills for identifying and solving environmental
problems.

Participation
− To provide social groups and individuals with an opportunity to be actively involved at all levels
working towards the resolution of environmental problems

The scope of EE
− The scope of environment education is also called the content or subject matter of environment
education.
− There are different aspects and components in the environment.
− Among them, the biological, physical, social and cultural aspects are important.
− The scope of environmental education can be divided into

Biological aspect
− biological aspects are one of the most important aspects of environmental education.
− Human being, animals, birds, insects, microorganism, plants are some of the examples of
biological aspects

Physical aspect
− it can be further divided into natural aspects and humanmade aspects.
− Air, water, land, climate etc are included in natural physical aspects.
− Likewise, human made physical aspects cover all human made things such as roads, buildings,
bridges, houses etc.

Socio-cultural aspect
− Socio- cultural aspects are man-made social practices, rules and laws, and other religious places
etc.
− Human beings have created them with their effort

Formats and venue for EE

− EE activities are often broadly categorized as formal, nonformal and informal.

The Formal EE
− refers to activities where the educational goals and strategies are developed in compliance with
standardized school curricula incorporated in all sphere e.g. Primary, Secondary and Tertiary
(Wild life learning design)

The non-formal EE
− the learner can participate in long-term educational opportunities with objectives that are often
tailored to their learning needs or desires.
− This includes extracurricular enrichment programs like those run by parks, museums, and nature
centres.

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Ways in which EE can be taught
− Environment education can be implemented through formal and non-formal educational means

Conclusion
− Environment is a complex but the need of environmental education is compulsory
− A wonderful and quality environment mush be achieved by continuous planning, governmental
polices efforts with public participation especially with knowledge of environmental education

Questions for discussion and reflection

− Describe the need of environmental education.
− Explain the term education through environmental education.
− Discuss about the goals and objectives of environmental education.
− Explain briefly about the core themes of environmental education.

Extra info
− To connect “environment” and environmental matters to a specific discipline or context implies
that a dimension is added to the basic concept “environment” that is of importance in another
context and debated from another angle.
− If the main focus of Environmental Education programmes in the last three decades has
therefore been to change humans’ environmental behaviour through increasing environmental
knowledge, then its seems obvious that environmental knowledge as concept (in a package of
environmental knowledge that relates to a multidisciplinary form of environmental knowledge),
as well as conveying this knowledge through theory and practical applications should change
humans’ approach to the environment.
− The most important reason for wanting to do so, very simplistically put, is because humans have
only one place to live, and if the care factor is ignorance then the outcome will be detrimental to
life sustainability for present and future generations.
− Studies regarding the environment through the lenses of all subjects as Environmental
Education look at South Africa’s environment in a new way.
− The intellectual and political isolation of South Africa under Apartheid impacted on the global
‘green’ revolution visible elsewhere
− Democracy in 1994 allowed for a growing research diversity to issues pertaining to the
environment.
− A concentration on the human interface with nature became more prominent.
The history of Environmental Education
− To be able to contribute meaningfully in Environmental Education, past and contemporary
historical contexts of environments are inevitable parts of the theoretical and the practical
knowledge side.
− Environmental history as a sub-discipline of “history proper” adopts as its theme the effect of
humankind on nature and nature on humankind over time
− Writings on the history/histories of the environment appeared in the United States and Europe
simultaneously with socio-political movements of the 1960s and the 1970s responding to
ecology and animal rights lobbies.
− A growing sense of global environmental crises and the subsequent green revolution impacted
on the research of many disciplines internationally

Important information
− Events contributing to Environmental Education: International to national
− Environmental Education goes back a long way.
− It is said that a pharaoh in Ancient Egypt sent extension workers to educate farmers along the
Nile to protect the river.
− In the 1950s, an African church leader led community education programmes to slow down soil
erosion in the Transkei region.
− By the 1970s, the Wildlife Society of South Africa was taking groups of children to wilderness
areas for educational camps.
− In 1984, parties who were involved in Environmental Education in the Southern African region,
mostly informally, met in Swaziland and formed the Environmental Education Association of
Southern Africa (EEASA).
− This body was to become an important force in supporting networking between environmental
educators and growing the field of Environmental Education.
− EEASA adopted a set of goals and guiding principles for Environmental Education that were
developed at the first ever international Environmental Education conference, hosted by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1977 in Tbilisi (see
the Tbilisi Declaration, www.gdrc.org/uem/ee/tbilisi.html for guidelines that are still useful
today).
− In particular, the Tbilisi Declaration noted that Environmental Education had to be inter-
disciplinary so that learners could develop a holistic understanding of environmental problems.
− During the 1970s and 1980s, a popular form of conservation education focused mostly on the
need to protect Africa’s dwindling wildlife and wildernesses.
− Over time, educators became more conscious of the need to further explore the interactions
between the ecological, social, economic and cultural aspects of the environment, the need to
protect the environment as the basis for human well-being and sustainable livelihoods, and the
complex relations between social and economic development and the improvement of the
environment.
− To add to Rosenberg’s historical contribution, the following remarks of researchers in
Environmental Education also apply:
 ✓ O’Donoghue and Russo (2004:331-351) are of the opinion that by the 1970s
Environmental Education practices introduced the actual start of active years in creating
awareness of environmental issues in South Africa. Most of these practices took place
outside formal schooling. To confirm their thinking, Motshegoa (2006) states that:
− Environmental Education was confined to centres in natural reserves, which were also
regionalised.
− Poverty levels in black communities meant that some schools were unable to visit such centres,
however.
− A programme was established in order to address the environmental issues in the Southern
African Region, known as the Southern African Development Community Regional
Environmental Programme (SADC REEP).
− The Centre for Conservation Education is an environmentally focused conservation initiative in
South Africa.
− It is a unique educational institution in the services of the Western Cape Education Department
(WCED) that has been operating for 17 years (1989-2006), providing Environmental Education to
primary and secondary school learners.
− Educators book a date and a topic, and bring their learners to the Centre or one of the WCED’s
off-campus sites
− Howes exchanges interesting historical facts about the WCED in a broader context:
− When the ‘green movement’ began to sweep the world, the Education Museum too was
affected.
− From an early curriculum that focused initially on history and the conservation of the built
environment, a progression to include the bio-physical environment was inevitable.
− It was felt that the name Education Museum no longer adequately described the range of our
work, so in 1995 the name was changed to the Centre for Conservation Education.
− This was also a prudent political move.
− In 1992, when the new government took over, there were three museums dedicated to the
history of education in South Africa; ours is the only one that was not closed.
− This is the pattern of education.
− In the environment, things change all the time.
− As teachers, we find that we have to make sure we are up to date with environmental
knowledge and issues, as well as current methodologies.
− We can never sit down and think: Now we know it all, we have the experience.
− In 2005, the launch of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable* Development took place
and focused mainly on three areas:
✓ Environmental Protection [The ecological sphere].
✓ Economic Development [The economic sphere].
✓ Social and Cultural Development [as part of the socio-political sphere].
− In a country like South Africa, which is developing very quickly, we have to be extra vigilant of
the pressure that development puts on our natural and cultural heritage.
− So our work will never be done. Luckily, we love it and believe in it, and while there are
dedicated educators who believe passionately in protecting our environment, we can continue
with our calling: to teach others to care for the earth today and protect what we had yesterday
for tomorrow.
− The year 1992 saw the landmark United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED) taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
− Also known as the Earth Summit, it produced principles for education for just and
environmentally sustainable societies, which noted that Environmental Education was not
value-free; it promoted a particular ethical approach to a world that was ecologically protected
and socially just. UNCED also produced Agenda 21 - guidelines for sustainable development that
emphasised the need for education and public participation.
− EEASA used the opportunity to encourage both educators and politicians to look beyond the
narrow view of Environmental Education as learning about wildlife and to link environment,
development, social justice and political transformation in Environmental Education
− The 1990s arrived as a time of tremendous change in South Africa – a time of transformation to
a democracy.
− EEASA and other environmental groups joined government to formulate new environmental and
educational policies.
− The new Constitution safeguarded a healthy environment for all, and the 1995 White Paper on
Education and Training stated that Environmental Education and Training was necessary for all
sectors and levels of society.
− EEASA and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism convened two initiatives, the
Environmental Education Policy Initiative (EEPI) and later the Environmental Education
Curriculum Initiative (EECI), which lobbied policy makers to give attention to Environmental
Education.
− In 1996, Nelson Mandela, the Chairman of the Southern African Development Community
(SADC), which is made up of 15 countries, initiated the SADC Regional Environmental Education
Project (SADC-REEP) to support ESD.
− The project is research-based and includes hundreds of partnerships.
− The purpose of the REEP is to enable environmental education practitioners in the SADC to
strengthen environmental education processes.
− This is approached through enhanced and strengthened environmental education policy,
networking, resource materials, training capacity, research and evaluation.
− The programme also focuses its work on how to adapt ESD in regional contexts.
− The programme developed a training and capacity building model that brought together
environmental educators working in diverse contexts and in different countries to develop their
own practices on sustainability.
− The programme fosters an understanding of what ESD can achieve, taking into account regions’
particular contexts and challenges, such as poverty, food security, social justice, environmental
issues and educational quality.
− The SADC-REEP has taken action against climate change, sought to change consumption
patterns, developed social entrepreneurship and sustainable livelihoods and generally
supported those struggling against poverty. Ultimately, the programme seeks to strengthen
socio-ecological resilience and sustainable development in the Southern African region.
− When the then Minister of Education, Sibusiso Bengu, launched Curriculum 2005 in 1995, the
environment therefore featured prominently as one of six phase organisers that all teachers had
to integrate into their teaching.
− Despite many strong intentions, Curriculum 2005 had some limitations, and when Professor
Kader Asmal took over as Minister of Education he called for a revision, to both streamline over-
complicated aspects and strengthen weaker aspects.
− The curriculum working groups were instructed to integrate environmental and human rights
concerns across the curriculum.
− This process was supported by an environmental advisor to the Minister, funded by WWF
− When the revision of Curriculum 2005 was published in 2000 as the National Curriculum
Statement (NCS) for Grades R-9 (www.education.gov.za), the environment featured across all
learning areas and grades, both as the principle of a healthy environment (along with human
rights, social justice and inclusivity) and as specific learning outcomes and content.
− The NCS for Grades 10-12, published in 2003, has the same strong environmental emphasis in
the form of a cross-curricular principle of environmental justice (along with social justice) and
specific learning outcomes and content in most subjects.
− By 2010, the nation was at work to implement the new policies.
− The Minister of Education, Mrs Naledi Pandor, presided over the implementation of a National
Environmental Education Programme (NEEP), a Danish-funded project (2000-2005) for
strengthening the capacity of the provincial education departments to help teachers give
expression to the environmental content of the curriculum.
− Today, WESSA’s Eco-Schools programme, which started in 2003, is perhaps the most prominent
of a number of service provider initiatives supporting curriculum-based Environmental
Education in schools.
− Various government agencies, such as SANBI, DWA, DEAT and its provincial agencies, SANParks
and provincial conservation bodies, and even local authorities, such as the City of Cape Town
and Nelson Mandela Metro, support schools’ Environmental Education through resource
materials, learner excursions and teachers’ workshops.
− A range of teacher education programmes is addressing the challenge of helping to strengthen
teachers’ capacity with the new curriculum, including their ability to interpret the environmental
principles and outcomes of the policy, and teach towards them.
− The 2002 Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development gave further emphasis to the need
for sustainable development and called on the UN to convene a Decade of Education for
Sustainable Development, emphasising the key role education has to play in environmental
protection and social development.
− Environmental Education programmes and approaches in South Africa are very closely aligned
with (some would say, are no different from) sustainability education, and emphasise the need
 for environmental care and protection, along with the need to transform out-dated
development models that help neither poor people, nor the environment.
− Even in programmes where the term conservation education is used, as in the C.A.P.E.
Conservation Education Programme, the emphasis on conserving endangered plants is in the
context of the role of biodiversity in economic development and livelihoods.
− In 2004, the South African National Environmental Education Project, amongst others, produced
an Air quality kit, a health and sanitation pack with the intention to develop lessons that
educators can use across all subject curricula.
− Environmental Education in South Africa is also compulsory and in this regard therefore differs
from that of other countries where Environmental Education is non-statuary and not applied in
all subjects
− Furthermore, international conservation and education bodies, such as the Worldwide Fund for
Nature (WWF), International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the United
Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) also uphold and support
advocacy for the need to respect and consider indigenous peoples and their diverse knowledge
systems in both conservation and environmental education processes
− On the other hand, Price has warned that IK systems should be used with sensitivity and care.
− A useful relationship between Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable
Development is reflected in the Ahmedabad Declaration, drawn up at the United Nation’s
Fourth International Conference on Environmental Education, held in India in 2007.
− The Fundisa for Change teacher education programme was established in 2011, and operated
under the name Teacher Development Network, until the official launch of the programme in
2013.
− Fundisa for Change is a collaborative programme formed specifically to enhance transformative
environmental learning through teacher education.
− It was established as a partnership programme involving many of South Africa's major
environmental organisations, including state, parastatal, NGO and private companies, which
have an interest in teacher education.
− Fundisa’s core objective is to strengthen the teaching of environmental concepts in schools

Research in Environmental Education

− In South Africa, global environmental trends awakened the South African community to do
environmentally related research as from 1972, especially through the input of the Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
− Various other interdisciplinary cooperative environmental research inputs were also made with
funds from government departments, funded by the Department of Environmental Affairs up to
1989
− After international and national debates, contemplation of and suggestions on Environmental
Education since the 1990s, the first decade of the 21st century marked continuous maturity
towards dealing with the vision for sustainable environments by means of participatory action
research in place-based
− In South Africa, Environmental Education at the University of Rhodes was given a green
handshake in 1990 by big companies, such as Murray and Roberts, as well as Gold Fields Gold
Mines.
− With a sufficient budget the Environmental Education Sustainability Unit (EESU) and Africa’s
only Chair of Environmental Education at Rhodes University were able to contribute to several
post-graduate studies and extensive research in the field of Environmental Education, and took
the lead among South African universities to fill a need in the broader environmental field of
South Africa.
− Rob O’Donoghue and Heila Sisitska became leading environmental educators in the country,
focusing, amongst others, on the importance of context in Environmental Education
− Research on Environmental Education continued from the late 20th century through the first
decade of the 21st century to be able to apply environmental issues in education across all
curricula, to meet the demands of Environmental Education as a principle in the South African
constitution
− The importance of teaching context in Environmental Education was accentuated actively after
2005
− In many ways, Environmental Education research also deals with knowledge on environmental
crises.
− In practical awareness applications of Environmental Education it appears to be this aspect of
the present-day environment that receives tremendous attention.
− Environmental historian, Ladurie gives the concept “crisis” and history some thought, though
mainly in an economic and demographic sense.
− Some aspects of his explanation of the concept crisis must be acknowledged when educators
deal with a local/regional environmental crisis, namely:
✓ A negative … long-term trend or tendency. It may refer to … phenomena … slowdown,
stagnation or collapse … The crisis … may be set in motion in several ways … it
represents, in the most classic fashion, the outward and momentarily visible sign of the
clash between mighty and invisible forces.
− Ladurie suggests an extension between the following different scales of “crises” in history:
✓ Crises over several centuries, such as epidemics spreading worldwide.
✓ Century-long crises, with Ladurie referring mainly to epidemics as examples.
✓ Medium-term crises.
✓ The “shortage” crisis after 1973.
− Perhaps the next scale of crisis to be historically recorded from a present, early 21st century
human perspective should be called “How humans lived sustainably in unsustainable
environments”
− By 2010, the key focus in research for the University of Rhodes’ EESU was sustainability.
− To be able to understand the road to provide sustainable environments in theory and in
practical hands-on activities indeed requires sufficient context and a clear conceptual
understanding.
 − With this in mind for Environmental Education, the environmental educator and learner will be
more equipped to deal proactively with local and national environmental crises.
− One could refer to this way of thinking and doing as “positive Environmental Education”.
− Among business communities the environmental proactive focus in the past three decades or so
has revolved more around the very positively perceived “re” factor of offering technology to
“revamp” the environment through the means of rehabilitation, remediation, recycling, re-
using, recovering and re-development models, etc.

The meaning and principles of Environmental Education: Theory and practice

− Firstly, ‘environment’ has been neglected; there is a gap in our curricula. Since 1994 many
South African policies (National Environmental Management Act, Act 107 of 1998,
www.environment.gov.za; the National Water Act, Act 36 of 1998, www.dwaf.gov.za and the
National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, Act 10 of 2004,
www.environment.gov.za) have indicated that all sectors of society must give attention to the
environment and to the sustainability of the country’s development. Specialists and members
of the public alike are increasingly concerned about environmental issues, such as water
pollution, food security and climate change. The United Nations calls for schools and
universities to re-orientate their curricula towards sustainability
(www.unesco.org/education/desd/). A special label, such as Environmental or Sustainability
Education serves to draw attention to the new focus required in educational programmes.
− Secondly, good education is not always common in schools and universities. Environmental
Education reminds educators of learning objectives to strive for, and generates ideas, methods
and resources for achieving them. Through Environmental Education we expose students not
only to environmental concerns and sustainability practices, but also to sound general learning
opportunities.
− Different terms are used for educational activities that address environmental concerns. Here
the term Environmental Education is used because Southern Africa has a 25-year history of
Environmental Education, and the term has come to include conservation education and
education for sustainability or sustainable development.
− The educator’s focus is to provide students with the opportunities to learn about their world, to
form their values and to build the skills needed to engage well with that world. This is especially
important in Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development (see, for
example, the article “Why I don’t want my children to be educated for sustainable
development”, by Canadian Professor Bob Jickling in the Journal of Environmental Education,
1999, 23(4):5-8). Often, we do not know exactly how to tackle environment and development
problems, and some of our ‘solutions’ create more problems. As teachers, our advocacy is best
directed at ourselves and as we make changes to our own lifestyle and practices (eg reducing
waste at home and school), we will have less need to ‘get others’ to ‘change their behaviour’.
Through open-ended educational processes rather than social marketing (advertising our ideas
for the greater good) and social engineering (trying to get others to change) we can join our
students on a journey towards sustainability and respect for the Earth – a journey with
destinations we can only glimpse.
− Among the developments in educational thinking that have made useful contributions to
Environmental Education is socially critical education (Gough and Robottom, 1993:301-316).
Australian Professor John Fien (1993) summarised it well as education in, about and for the
environment. Teachers provide learners with experiences in nature, or at a rubbish dump or
recycling centre. They also provide information about the environment, how it works, its
marvels and problems. Socially critical environmental education encourages teachers to also
provide learners with opportunities to do something for the environment, as this helps to build
not only a critical understanding of these issues, but also commitment and values, as well as
skills (environmental issues are ethical, as well as technical issues). Borrowing a term from the
work of Danish Professor Bjarne Jenssen, we sometimes refer to this set of skills, values and
understandings as ‘action competence’.
− Other educational ideas that have influenced Environmental Education include constructivism
and socio-constructivism (Van Rensburg and Du Toit, 2000:24-40). Constructivism describes
meaningful learning as an active process in which the learner makes connections with what is
already in his/her mind, as opposed to the educator stamping facts onto a blank page (passive
mind). Educators mediate (help along) active learning by giving students activities in which they
must think in order to make meaning. Socio-constructivism emphasises that learning is not
simply a one-to-one process (educator to student), but that we can learn in groups and as a
social process. In fact, we learn from the moment of birth, without even knowing it, just by
being part of a society. Some of this learning has resulted in values, views and practices that we
are starting to see as problematic, and Environmental Education is also about becoming
conscious of how we have formed these views and values. We may need to un-learn practices
that are harming the planet and its residents (Wals and Heyman, 2004:123-145).
− O’Donoghue and Opie also point out that the younger the students, the more the teacher’s
attention is on introducing them to the world and what is already known (induction into
society). Environmental Education should therefore already start in the Foundation Phase. As
students get older, we start to put more emphasis on helping them to think critically about
common, deep-seated social practices, and to reflect on how we could do things differently. We
could call this latter process change-oriented learning.