ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
Education
§
Education has a crucial role to play in Society.
§
It is
this process that disseminates knowledge, imparts necessary skills, and helps in forming or changing attitudes
§
One of
the most basic areas about which we get educated is - an understanding of how
the system of life function and how we humans fit in to them.
Environment
— It
means the sum of living and non-living things that surround organisms. It
includes all the elements, factors and conditions that have some impacts on the
growth and development of certain organism.
Environmental education (EE)
— Refers
to organized efforts to teach about how natural environments function and,
particularly, how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in
order to live sustainably.
— Is
a learning process that increases people's knowledge and awareness about the
environment and associated challenges, develops the necessary skills and
expertise to address the challenges, and fosters attitudes, motivations, and
commitments to make informed decisions and take responsible action individually
and collectively.
Conservation
— It
means the wise process of maintaining, restoring, preserving or rehabilitating
resources so as to provide a continuous supply for a long time into the future.
— Conservation
is a broad concept which involves not only the scientific but ethical, moral,
economic and political aspects.
— Conservation
may also be defined as the achievement of the highest sustainable quality of
living for mankind by the rational utilization of the environment, protection
of nature to enrich the life of man and the control or elimination of
environmental pollution.
— Conservation
involves the collective responsibility of governments, private organizations,
industries and individuals and the setting aside of funds, finances for
ecological research and execution of conservation projects.
Why do we need ECE?
— World
population is increasing at an alarming rate which lead to the increasing use
of world resources.
— Pollutions
is increasing with the passage of time due to increased industrialization
following growing technologies.
— Damage
caused by human activities is sometimes irreversible (what devastated can’t
repeat to its pristine state).
Focus of environmental conservation education
— Environmental
conservation education focuses on:
— Awareness
and sensitivity about the environment and environmental challenges.
— Knowledge
and understanding about the environment and environmental challenges.
— Attitude
concern for the environment and help to maintain environmental quality.
— Skills
to mitigate environmental problems.
— Participation
for exercising existing knowledge and environmental related programs.
1.2 HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION
EDUCATION
•
1970’s saw a growing concern about the
deteriorating state of the environment, and the need to do something about
conservation and improvement of the situation.
•
The
concept of an environmentally oriented education system which would help to
prepare environmentally conscious citizens emerged in response of this.
•
Internationally, environmental conservation
education gained recognition when the UN Conference on the Human and
Environment held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, declared that environmental
conservation education must be used as a decisive tool to address global
environmental problems.
•
The United Nations Education Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP)
created three major declarations that have guided the course of environmental
education. These declarations are;
Stockholm Declaration
•
June 5–16, 1972 - The Declaration of the United
Nations conference on the Human Environment- 5-16, 1972. The document was made
up of 7 proclamations and 26 principles "to inspire and guide the peoples
of the world in the preservation and enhancement of the human
environment."
•
There were two major agenda for the conference,
namely, agenda for the industrialized countries which was merely a pollution
arisen from industrialization on the ecosystem.
•
Conversely, the agenda for the developing
countries was the problems of human settlement, clean water, and disposal of
human waste and elimination of poverty.
The Stockholm Conference…
• The
first United Conference on Human and Environment Which stated that;
“to defend and improve the environment for present and future generation has become
an imperative goal of mankind’
* Initiated an idea of observing
World Environment Day on
5th June every year.
The Belgrade Charter Declaration
The UNESCO-UNEP International Environmental Workshop,
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
— October
13–22, 1975 - The Belgrade Charter was the outcome of the International
Workshop on Environmental Education held in Belgrade, Serbia. The Belgrade
Charter was built upon the Stockholm Declaration and adds goals, objectives,
and guiding principles of environmental education programs. It defines an audience
for environmental education, which includes the general public.
The Belgrade workshop considered
the objectives of its International Environmental Education Programs as;
— To
help individuals and social groups to acquire awareness of, and
sensitivity to, the universal environment and its problems.
— To
enable individuals and social groups attain a basic understanding of the
universal environment, its attendant problems, and humanity’s vital
responsibility and stewardship in conserving it.
— To
help individuals and social groups develop positive attitudes towards
environment.
— To
help individuals and social groups attain necessary skills for dealing
with and solving environmental problems.
— To
help individuals and social groups to asses and evaluate
environmental-related measures and programs in their entirely.
— To
enable individuals and social groups to have a sense of responsibility and
concern for environmental issues.
The Tbilisi Declaration
— Intergovernmental
Conference on Environmental Education, Tbilisi, USSR, 1977
— October
14–26, 1977 - The Tbilisi Declaration "noted the unanimous accord in the
important role of environmental education in the preservation and improvement
of the world's environment, as well as in the sound and balanced development of
the world's communities.
— The
Tbilisi Declaration updated and clarified The Stockholm Declaration and The
Belgrade Charter by including new goals, objectives, characteristics, and
guiding principles of environmental education.
Tbilisi Principles of
environmental conservation
— Tbilisi
was the first intergovernmental meeting paved the way to environmental
education.
— It
was organized by UNESCO & UNEP.
— This
conference advocated for environmental education to be part of schools
curriculum and to be interdisciplinary.
— It
also laid down 5 principles for environmental education which have been
instrumental in devising all activities regarding environmental education
worldwide, these are;.
- EE must involve
everyone because everyone utilizes environmental resources therefore
everyone has the responsibility for conserving the environment.
— It
has to encompass all levels of social organization (individuals in the
households, local governments, central governments, and international
institutions).
2.
EE must
be life-long- as information about environment problems is always
dynamic.
— As
we develop and apply better environment technologies, the ability of society
and individuals to respond effectively also empowers hence education must be in
place.
3.
EE must be holistic (consider total
environment) and about connections in order to address environmental
challenges, people need to think broadly and understand systems, connections,
patterns and causes.
4. EE must be practical- this is the most fundamental
element of EE, which must lead to actions which results in better environment
outcome.
5. EE must be in harmony with social and economic
goals and accorded equal priority.
— EE should provide knowledge and pursuit
environmental goals in a way that acknowledge other powerful and legitimate
social and economic settings without compromising them.
Philosophy of environmental education
— Environmental
philosophy is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with the natural
environment and humans' place within it.
— Environmental philosophy includes
environmental ethics, environmental aesthetics, ecofeminism, and environmental
theology.
— Environmental
conservation education has crossover with outdoor education and indoor
education. Both fields of education complement environmental conservation
education yet have unique philosophies namely;
Outdoor education means
learning "in" and then "for" the outdoors.
— Environmental
conservation education is often taught or enhanced through outdoor experiences.
— The out of doors experience, while not
strictly environmental in nature, often contain elements of teaching about the
environment in the physical given area. Eg in the forest, to the river, in the
farm etc.
Roles of outdoor education
- Enhance
physical fitness of the participants
- Enhance
self-confidence and self-esteem of the participants
- Better
outputs
- Self-awareness
Costs
— Expensive
(money)
— Tiresome
(efforts)
— Time
consuming
— Exposure
to risks
Indoor education is a process through which a learner
constructs knowledge, skill, and value from direct experiences in the area of
study".
— Indoor
education can be viewed as both a process and method to deliver the ideas and
skills associated with environmental education in the given area.
1.3 APPROACHES IN ENVIRONMENTAL
CONSERVATION EDUCATION
- The
inquiry approach:
— This
is a method which offers the learners an opportunity to deal scientifically
with environmental issues.
— Under
this method, the learner define a problem, formulate a hypothesis, collect and
analyze data, and test the hypothesis, formulate conclusions and finally report
findings and attempt to solve the problem.
— A
learner often deal with one aspect/problem
2. The system approach:
— This
approach gives consideration to the broad environmental concepts. This may be
the study of ecological interrelationship in the total environment.
— Example
the study of the total value of a wetland involve the study of the wetland
system.
— The
approach differs from inquiry in view of the fact that it study more than one
aspect (multiple components)
Usefulness of system approach
- It avers
the relationship between components
- It
reveals the causes and outcomes of the problems in the environment
- It
stimulate researches
- Helps to
solve universal problems facing the world
3. The value clarification
approach:
— It
involve the dissemination of education about the connections between functions
of the environmental resources and their perceived value to the users.
1.4. ACQUISITION OF
ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE
This can be acquired by the
following ways; (read more on these ways)
— Workshops
— In
schools/college
— Posters
— Field
studies
— Environmental
conservation projects
— Environmental
movements
— Songs/dances
— Mass
media: Research papers, journals, magazines, newspapers, television,
radios, etc.
Constraints which impede acquisition of environmental
conservation education.
— Poor
implementation of environmental policies and acts pronouncements
— Inadequate
personnel's to effect the exercise
— Insufficient
environmental awareness
— human-Natural
resources conflicts
— Cultural
settings (elements)
— Human
population growth
— Poor
transport and communication
— Lack
of conservation motivation/ incentives
— Inadequate
fund
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