Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T03:57:59.900Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Distinctive Characteristics of Environmental Education Research in Australia: An Historical and Comparative Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2012

Robert B. Stevenson  and
Neus (Snowy) Evans
Robert B. Stevenson*
Affiliation:
James Cook University
Neus (Snowy) Evans
Affiliation:
James Cook University
*
†Address for correspondence: Professor Bob Stevenson, The Cairns Institute and School of Education, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of how Australian environmental education (EE) research was conceptualised and contextualised in the decade of the 1990s. Sixty seven articles published by Australian authors in this journal from 1990–2000 were analysed to examine the conceptualisation of this research using an inductive emergent categorisation approach and a five frames model (Reid, in press) of key arguments and debates in the field. Contextualisation was explored in relation to specialist areas, scale and environmental dimensions of focus. A search for a coherent and distinct meaning of of this research was explored by making comparisons with international environmental education research during a similar time period that was the subject of two reviews. These analyses revealed that Australian environmental education research can be characterised as questioning and challenging prevailing (at the time) environmental education orthodoxies by critiquing and theorising the conceptual and curriculum framing of environmental education, most commonly from a socially critical and global perspective. Specialist areas and educational sectors that received little attention are also discussed.

Keywords

environmental education researchreviewing researchconceptualising researchcontextualising researchAustralian-international research comparisons
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 27 , Issue 1: Special Issue: The “ness” of Environmental Education , 2011 , pp. 24 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrew, J., & Malone, K. (1995). The first ten years: A review of the Australian Journal of Environmental Education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 11, 131–162.Google Scholar
Ajzen, I. (1988). Attitudes, personality, and behaviour. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Ferreira, J. (2009). Unsettling orthodoxies: education for the environment/for sustainability. Environmental Education Research, 15(5), 607–620.Google Scholar
Fien, J. (1993). Critical curriculum theorizing and environmental education. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press.Google Scholar
Fortini, C. (1997). Leaders in environmental education: The cascade of influence. Environmental Education Research, 3(2), 203–23.Google Scholar
Goodson, I., & Sikes, P. (2001). Life history research in educational settings: Learning from lives. Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Gough, A. (1999). Recognising women in environmental education pedagogy and research: Toward an ecofeminist poststructuralist perspective. Environmental Education Research, 5(2), 143–161.Google Scholar
Gough, A. (1997). Education and the environment: policy trends and the problem of marginalisation. Melbourne: Australian Council for Education Research.Google Scholar
Gough, N. (1999). Rethinking the subject: (De)constructing human agency in environmental education research. Environmental Education Research, 5(1), 35–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, P. (2003). Reflections on reviewing educational research: (Re)searching for value in environmental education research. Environmental Education Research, 9(2), 241–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, P., & Nolan, K. (1999). A critical analysis of research in environmental education. Studies in Science Education, 34, 1–69.Google Scholar
Lotz-Sisitka, H. (2003). Weaving clothes: research design in contexts for transformation. Paper presented at the First World Environmental Educational Conference, Espinho, Portugal, May 20–24, 2003.Google Scholar
Murphy, M., Watson, R. & Moore, S. (1991). Encouraging water saving: the role of knowledge, attitude and intention. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 7, 71–78.Google Scholar
Payne, P. (1999). Postmodern challenges and modern horizons: education ‘for being for the environment. Environmental Education Research, 5(1), 5–34.Google Scholar
Payne, P. (1995). Ontology and the critical discourse of environmental education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education,Google Scholar
Reid, A. (in press). In Robbins, Paul, Newman, Julie, and Golson, Geoffrey J. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Green Education. Sage Green Series.Google Scholar
Reid, A., & Scott, W. (2006). Researching education and the environment: Retrospect and prospect. Environmental Education Research, 12(3–4), 571–587.Google Scholar
Rickinson, M. (2001). Learners and learning in environmental education: a critical review of the evidence. Environmental Education Research, 7(3): 207–320.Google Scholar
Robottom, I. & Hart, P. (1993). Researching environmental education: Engaging the debate. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press.Google Scholar
Russell, C., & Fawcett, L. (forthcoming). Introduction: Moving margins in environmental education research. In Brody, M., Dillon, J., Stevenson, R. & Wals, A. (Eds.). International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education. Washington, DC: AERA/Routledge.Google Scholar
Sauve, L. (2005). Currents in environmental education: Mapping a complex and evolving pedagogical field. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 10, 11–37.Google Scholar
Sikes, P. (1985). The life cycle of the teacher. In Teachers' lives and careers. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Walker, K. (1997). Challenging critical theory in environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 3(2), 155–162.Google Scholar