ABSTRACT
The publication of the first ever International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education (Stevenson, Brody, Dillon, & Wals, 2013) is recognition that the field has matured and should now be seen as separate from, albeit inextricably linked to, science education. Scholars can choose to submit their work to a number of journals exclusively devoted to publishing research in environmental education at both international and national levels, whereas for many years there was only one (the Journal of Environmental Education—first published in 1969). The major science education journals increasingly publish research in environmental education (mainly as individual studies but sometimes as special issues; see, for example, Russell & Dillon, 2010), and the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) and the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) both recognize the field through their special interest groups and their conference strands. In the first edition of this Handbook, Paul Hart suggested that among the reasons for this expansion in the field were “increasingly more pervasive and global environmental issues, changing societal expectations, and educational reform” (2007, p. 689). This chapter builds on some of the ideas developed by Hart as well as developing the line of thinking William Scott and I began in the editorial for a special issue of the International Journal of Science Education (IJSE; Dillon & Scott, 2002) that focused on “perspectives on environmental education-related research in science education.”
