ABSTRACT
Despite the many crises that the world has witnessed and continues to witness, there are two predominating situations that need regular amelioration: these are environmental crises and educational crises. Incorporating and meeting the challenges of appropriately addressing environmental concerns and initiating educational reforms can lead to the shared goal of improving the quality of life. Efforts to improve these require a staunch commitment to an ongoing and interactive human-environment learning and education system. The decline of local communities and even education itself started at the end of the 19th century and has continued to the present time. Issues that focus on the deterioration of local communities and education are central to the philosophies of many pedagogues and social reformers. The vision and recommendations of one such reformer, John Dewey, for inclusive social reform, educational reform and democratic change triggered the evolution of the service learning movement. This movement is based on the belief that education must centre on resolving society’s most clamouring problems while at the same time encouraging the engagement of future professionals to prepare them for a lifelong commitment to civic involvement. Such a lifelong commitment to civic involvement should also be imparted to those involved in the education of environmentalists, environmental engineers, architects, urban planners and designers.
