ABSTRACT

The environment and contested notions of sustainability are increasingly topics of public interest, political debate, and legislation across the world. Environmental education journals now publish research from a wide variety of methodological traditions that show linkages between the environment, health, development, and education. The growth in scholarship makes this an opportune time to review and synthesize the knowledge base of the environmental education (EE) field.

The purpose of this 51-chapter handbook is not only to illuminate the most important concepts, findings and theories that have been developed by EE research, but also to critically examine the historical progression of the field, its current debates and controversies, what is still missing from the EE research agenda, and where that agenda might be headed.

Published for the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

An Orientation to Environmental Education and the Handbook

part |182 pages

Part A Conceptualizing Environmental Education as a Field of Inquiry

part |60 pages

Section I Historical, Contextual, and Theoretical Orientations That Have Shaped Environmental Education Research

chapter |10 pages

The Emergence of Environmental Education Research

A “History” of the Field

chapter |10 pages

Socioecological Approaches to Environmental Education and Research

A Paradigmatic Response to Behavioral Change Orientations

chapter |12 pages

Thinking Globally in Environmental Education

A Critical History

chapter |6 pages

Transformation, Empowerment, and the Governing of Environmental Conduct

Insights to be Gained From a “History of the Present” Approach

part |53 pages

Section II Normative Dimensions of Environmental Education Research

part |66 pages

Section III Analyses of Environmental Education Discourses and Policies

chapter |9 pages

Researching Tensions and Pretensions in Environmental/Sustainability Education Policies

From Critical to Civically Engaged Policy Scholarship

chapter |7 pages

Changing Discourses in EE/ESD

A Role for Professional Self-Development

chapter |11 pages

EE Policies in Three Chinese Communities

Challenges and Prospects for Future Development

part |178 pages

Part B Research on Environmental Education Curriculum, Learning, and Assessment

part |47 pages

Section IV Curriculum Research in Environmental Education

chapter |12 pages

Traditions and New Niches

An Overview of Environmental Education Curriculum and Learning Research

chapter |8 pages

Place-Based Education

Practice and Impacts

chapter |10 pages

Getting the Picture

From the Old Reflection—Hearing Pictures and Telling Tales, to the New Reflection—Seeing Voices and Painting Scenes

chapter |7 pages

Moinho D'Água

Environmental Education, Participation, and Autonomy in Rural Areas

part |45 pages

Section V Research on Learning Processes in Environmental Education

chapter |10 pages

Environmental Learning

Insights From Research Into the Student Experience

chapter |9 pages

Conventional and Emerging Learning Theories

Implications and Choices for Educational Researchers With a Planetary Consciousness

chapter |13 pages

Belief to Behavior

A Vital Link

part |82 pages

Section VI Evaluation and Analysis of Environmental Education Programs, Materials, and Technologies and the Assessment of Learners and Learning

chapter |12 pages

Advancing Environmental Education Program Evaluation

Insights From a Review of Behavioral Outcome Evaluations

chapter |18 pages

Geospatial Technologies

The Present and Future Roles of Emerging Technologies in Environmental Education

chapter |10 pages

Sustainability Education

Theory and Practice

chapter |8 pages

Learning From Neighboring Fields

Conceptualizing Outcomes of Environmental Education Within the Framework of Free-Choice Learning Experiences

part |181 pages

Part C Issues of Framing, Doing, and Assessing in Environmental Education Research

part |49 pages

Section VII Moving Margins in Environmental Education Research

chapter |9 pages

Researching Differently

Generating a Gender Agenda for Research in Environmental Education

chapter |9 pages

Three Degrees of Separation

Accounting for Naturecultures in Environmental Education Research

part |92 pages

Section VIII Philosophical and Methodological Perspectives

chapter |21 pages

Children as Active Researchers

The Potential of Environmental Education Research Involving Children

chapter |10 pages

Collaborative Ecological Inquiry

Where Action Research Meets Sustainable Development

chapter |11 pages

Critical Action Research and Environmental Education

Conceptual Congruencies and Imperatives in Practice

chapter |11 pages

Suited

Relational Learning and Socioecological Pedagogies

chapter |9 pages

Greening the Knowledge Economy

Ecosophy, Ecology, and Economy

chapter |4 pages

Preconceptions and Positionings

Can We See Ourselves Within Our Own Terrain?