Before taking this class, I thought environmental education (EE) would be more related to teaching students about the environment and about why it is important to preserve. My understanding and attitude towards EE has changed; I now see EE as a way to show my students the value of nature and inspire them to take action and act for its benefit. My own science education and early influences succeeded in fostering an intrinsic love for nature and a desire to protect it, or an ‘existence value’ (Ogar Eneji and Akpo, 2017), but failed in showing me how to create change and act upon ideas, and in showing me what that can look like. So now comes the hard part: changing this in my future classroom. If informing students about the environment is only part of EE, (Nnijhuis, 2011), then what is the rest of it? It is teaching students that they are capable of creating change, teaching them to be socially responsible and informed, to see a problem and take initiative to fix an issue of relevance to them, (Schusler and Krasny, 2010). Farrelly emphasizes that learning about the environment has not proven to be enough to incite change towards a more eco-conscious society, (2018). And of course to create change, students will need to develop eco-literacy, which Mitchell and Mueller describe as an understanding of the relationships between ecology, the economy, humans, and an understanding that all of our actions can affect the environment, (2011). 

I have tried to live this way in my personal life, and had a lot of help from a very eco-conscious stepmom to show me how to live in a personally, environmentally responsible manner. I also had a love for science as a kid and I found it fascinating that we could find an explanation for almost anything in our natural world. Pursuing science and biology in my university career was an easy and natural choice for me to make, and I can’t wait to pass that love on to my future high school students. As an adult, my love for science included a passion for nature documentaries such as BBC’s Planet Earth, which do an excellent job of showing just how delicate the balance of our natural world is; their later documentaries also emphasize just how much of this natural world is at risk due to human activity and a general lack of caring and proper action to preserve the natural world. Though one could argue that perhaps this is just a tactic to tug on our heartstrings, Lam would argue that this emotional aspect is what is missing from our current environmental science discourse, (2014). While I might find it easy to consider the health of the planet in my daily life, many others do not have that same connection. Lam explains that feelings and emotions are included in UNESCO’s definition of eco-literacy and are a strong basis for Indigenous ways of knowing around the world, and therefore emotions need to be emphasized in EE in order to foster change and action. 

While it is very important to present many different and generalized viewpoints on global issues to students (Ogar Eneji and Akpo, 2017), without an emotional aspect and personal connection students will not be inspired to take action or create change, (Barrett, 2006). To help develop a connection to nature with my students, I have to utilize Indigenous ways of knowing. Cajete describes that we are not separate from the natural world, and we shape and are shaped by it, (1999). As part of reconciliation, he suggests that we must heal our relationship with the natural world and bring value back to Indigenous ways of knowing. Through EE with my students, this will not only be done by helping them to develop eco-literacy, but also helping them to create an emotional connection and relationship with nature. An intuitive way to do this is to simply spend more time outside, (Farrelly, 2018). But it can also be done by teaching in a more cross-curricular way, appealing to different styles of learning, and continuing to allow more emotional connection into the classroom, (Cajete, 1999; Aikenhead, 2014; Lam, 2014). This can also be done by allowing students to work more collaboratively with each other, as environmental activism is not something that we can hope to do alone, (Aikenhead, 2014). Lastly, it will be important to show my students that they can make a difference. Nnijhuis explains that action must be demonstrated, not just talked about, so that we don’t fall prey to the same inaction that has plagued EE in the past, (2011). The action must also be something relevant and attainable for them, and often has the best results when it is student-directed, (2011). This will ultimately be the key way to teach my students EE, and have it grounded in reality instead of something we think about as being far away or not affecting us. 

This brings me to my eco-artifact. At first glance, this picture appears to be of an old truck which is no longer drivable left to sit next to a vast space of land whose natural plants and landscape has been converted to undiverse agricultural space. This could be interpreted as a picture of destruction to the environment. However, the gas tank on the side houses a busy hive of bees, and the vehicle acts as a shady place for small creatures to hide. So I actually view this picture as living with our natural environment despite the major changes we have forced it into. We can’t change the fact that we need farmland to support our human population, and we can’t change the fact that this truck is no longer of use to us, but surely it is better here where nature can make some use of it than it would be sitting in a junkyard. This represents the view I am learning to maintain moving forward. It is unrealistic to expect that we could all live off the land in perfectly sustainable harmony with nature, but it is reasonable to expect that we can coexist with nature and consider it of equal and utmost importance in the decisions we make moving forward. This is the reality I hope to share with my students: the future of the natural environment is not hopeless, and we can learn to work with what we have created and left behind and achieve a realistic and sustainable relationship with nature moving forward. 

Works Cited

Aikenhead, GS. (2014). Culturally Valid Assessment. Enhancing school science with Indigenous knowledge: what we know from teachers and research. (pp 73-81). Saskatoon Public School Division.

Barrett, M. J. (2006). Education for the environment: Action competence, becoming, and story. Environmental Education Research, 12(3-4), 503-511. doi:10.1080/13504620600799273

Cajete, G. (1999). “Look to the mountain” Reflections on Indigenous ecology. A people’s ecology: Explorations in sustainable living. (pp. 3-20). Santa Fe, N.M., Clear Light Publishers. 

Farrelly, M. R. (2018). The significance of myth for Environmental Education. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 53(1), 127-144.

Lam ME. (2014). Building Ecoliteracy with Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Do, listen, and Learn. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 12(4), 250-251.

Mitchell D, Mueller M. (2011). A Philosophical Analysis of David Orr’s Theory of Ecological Literacy: Biophilia, Ecojustice and Moral Education in School Learning Communities. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 6, 193–221.

Nnijhuis M. (2011). Green failure: What’s wrong with environmental education? Yale Environment 360. Retrieved from: https://e360.yale.edu/features/green_failure_whats_wrong_with_environmental_education

Ogar Eneji CV, Akpo D. (2017). Historical Groundwork of Environmental Education (Fundamentals and Foundation of Environmental Education). IJCEDS, 3(1), 110-123. 

Schusler TM, Krasny ME. (2010). Environmental Action as Context for Youth Development. The Journal of Environmental Education, 41(4), 208-223. DOI: 0.1080/00958960903479803.