]]
Publications
A Curriculum Review of Environmental Education
Curriculum Corporation
for Environment Australia, 2003
The nature and extent of the references to Environmental Education varied widely across the States and Territories. In the compulsory years, Environmental Education learning outcomes are found predominantly in the Science and Studies of Society and the Environment (SOSE) Key Learning Areas, although some references can be found in Health and Physical Education, Technology and Mathematics. Subjects tend to emphasise those aspects of Environmental Education that interlink with the conceptual understandings pertaining to their area.
Two areas where environmental education was strong were Science and Society and Environment. In Science, all of the State and Territory documents examined contain learning outcomes based around learning about the environment (especially ecology, energy and resources). Many of the relevant learning outcomes emphasise exploring and investigating the local environment. A wide range of skills and competencies were found in each of the curriculum documents. All of the examined documents have included some outcomes that deal with ethics, values and viewpoints. The South Australian science document provides a strong Environmental Education framework. Learning outcomes dealing with personal action are rare.
In Society and Environment, all of the State and Territory documents examined provide an environmental education emphasis. Sustainability is a common theme. The conceptual foci of these courses are on broad ideas such as change over time, sustainability, land use planning, populations and resource usage. Most of the courses are strongly 'process' in approach.
Learning outcomes organised around ethics, values and viewpoints are to be found in all State and Territory documents. The Western Australian Society and Environment curriculum document provides a strong environmental education framework. A few learning outcomes featuring personal actions are to be found in each of the State and Territory documents except Victoria.
In the other Key Learning Areas a wide range of opportunities exist to include Environmental Education eg in English, Technology, Health and Physical Education, and the Arts. The Key Competencies (KCs) are an important feature of many of the State and Territory curriculum documents and they provide windows of opportunity for including Environmental Education.
In curriculum documents for Years 11 and 12 Environmental Education is a major feature in Environmental Science/Studies and most Geography subjects. Outside these subjects, however, there seems to be fewer opportunities than in the compulsory years. The Geography course outline in New South Wales and Queensland, and the Outdoor and Environmental Studies in Victoria provide strong Environmental Education frameworks.
The curriculum documents are accompanied by a variety of teaching materials and policy documents. These vary in nature and quality. For classroom teachers, the usefulness of the way in which they explain and exemplify Environmental Education principles varies. They may be more or less applicable to current curriculum documents. They may be written in such a way that they have a great or a much lesser chance that they will influence teaching and learning in a positive way because of their perceived relevance and ease of application to current classroom practice.
Two series of science textbooks were reviewed though Environmental Education is not a strong feature of either. Only a few chapters have a major Environmental Education focus. Environmental issues tend to be extensions or additions to the main thrust of most chapters. A survey of the subject associations indicated that most teachers do not use set textbooks for society and environment. Although teachers used a range of books for reference, no common list could be identified.
The mapping highlighted that while environmental education may have a focus, there are aspects of sustainability education that are under represented or overlooked in the curriculum documents. Examples of areas not covered or only briefly mentioned include biodiversity, sustainability, values and viewpoints, intergenerational equity, and personal actions.
Although biodiversity is featured in most science and biology programs, it is not a major theme, and it appears in only a few Key Learning Areas. The term 'sustainability' is mentioned in all SOSE, Environmental Science and most Geography subjects, however, it is used in different ways. Sometimes 'sustainability' refers to resources, and at other times in reference to human settlements, consumption and the environment. Although mentioned in some science documents, sustainability is generally not a feature of other Key Learning Areas. Few Key Learning Area documents make reference to other perspectives or points of views. Social justice issues particularly as they relate to the developing world such as poverty and the transfer of pollution from developed countries are not well represented. Ethics is not a strong feature of most documents. There were few outcomes that directly considered our responsibility to future generations. Personal actions are rarely mentioned in the curriculum documents.
Specific environmental issues (such as the greenhouse effect, air pollution and endangered species) are rarely featured in the student learning outcomes. They can occur as indicators or as part of the description of the outcomes, although such specific detail is exemplary only and not prescriptive. This is in contrast to the textbooks where environmental issues are raised and where these topics are major features of Environmental Education. This is a reflection of the different roles that textbooks and curriculum documents play (resources or planning documents respectively) in the development of programs in schools.
Other Sustainability Education concepts such as: carrying capacity, eco-efficiency, ecological footprint, ecospace, life-cycle analysis, natural resource accounting, precautionary principles, suggested by Yencken, Fien and Sykes (2000), were not identified in any of the State and Territory documents. Some feedback from state reviewers suggested some of these concepts are present in some way in a small number of the documents.
The following recommendations have been provided by the review and are not necessarily the views of the Council.
Because of the diverse nature of curriculum approaches across Australia, it would be useful to develop a National Environmental Education policy. This would be a general policy document to guide teaching and learning across all the years of schooling. The beginning point of its development could be current Commonwealth documents and the individual State and Territory documents where they exist. The development of such a policy will require consultation on a wide scale and over an extended timeline to ensure the support of all State and Territory jurisdictions, all relevant professional teacher organisations and all Environmental Education stakeholders.
It is recommended that materials be developed to support the uptake of Environmental Education by:
These materials may include units of work, readers, inter-active multimedia resources, guidance on how to use existing resources, links to existing Environmental Education initiative and data sources, assessment resources, teacher guides and case studies.
The establishment of a nationally accepted set of criteria for the evaluation of effective Environmental Education resources and programs would also assist teachers in their development of environmental education programs.
It may be useful to also review documents and materials outside the K-10 curriculum, including smaller subjects such as Year 11 and 12, VET courses and alternative programs to identify the nature and scope of environmental education.
A plan to include a national program of professional development to support these materials, programs and other initiatives would provide a coordinated approach. The plan could include national activities for parents, teachers, principals and academics by working through their national organisations. A website to support all aspects of the program may include provision of access to materials, programs, further research resources and information about teacher professional development opportunities.
The report also highlights that, as a community of learners, students and teachers do many things outside the formal curriculum that contributes to environmental education. It would be useful to find out to what extent teaching practices and external activities, such as excursions, community programs and competitions influence and support environmental education in schools.
The report findings also indicate that environmental education activities undertaken in schools should be holistic in nature and implemented school wide, as whole school initiatives have proved to be more successful in shaping student skills, values, actions and have measurable outcomes. These holistic approaches usually incorporate themes such as biodiversity, sustainability, values and viewpoints, and involve personal actions. It would also be useful to identify the current programs in place in the formal education sector, which attempt to encourage whole of school approaches.