ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how overwhelmingly popular animals are in educational environments and curricula. It describes an emerging field in which evidence is accumulating on the topic of the efficacy of including and involving animals in classrooms. The intersection of human-animal interaction (HAI) and education prompts a number of fundamental and intriguing questions, the broadest of which is the overarching question of whether animals have an educationally relevant impact in classroom settings. It falls to researchers and practitioners to approach this broad issue of applying HAI in various school settings by choosing testable questions that can both examine the efficacy of specific practices and, if they are found to be efficacious, to ultimately investigate why that might be so – that is, the mechanisms that underlie those effects. To ensure that schools remain receptive to integrating animals into education settings, attention will need to be given to supporting public policy changes.
