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Exploring the Relationship Between Conservation Agencies and Schools

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Jonathon Leigh Howard
Jonathon Leigh Howard*
Affiliation:
Charles Sturt University, Albury
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Abstract

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This study's primary aim was to address the lack of accessible information about successful government sector programs in environmental education. In doing so it also explored the role of conservation agencies in schools by quantifying the environmental education resources used and preferred by teachers, and by determining the factors that influenced conservation agencies in the developing these preferred resources. Eighty seven percent of teachers stated they used resources from conservation agencies and sixty three percent of these were from government conservation agencies. Teachers were highly selective of the resources used. Interviews with people involved in developing and implementing the programs most often preferred showed a high level of expertise involved developing such programs. However responses also raised questions about the role of conservation agencies in agenda setting, whether conflicts occur between corporatisation and environmental education, and the degree of fragmentation and territoriality between agencies. It is concluded there are limits to the role conservation agencies can play in school environmental education and that there needs to be greater cooperation in providing school environmental education resources.

Type
Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 18 , 2002 , pp. 27 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

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