Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T22:28:32.820Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Families, Homes and Environmental Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Phillip G. Payne
Phillip G. Payne*
Affiliation:
Monash University
*
†Associate Professor Phillip Payne, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Peninsula, Victoria 3199, Australia
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The findings from a study of how Green families construct and practise versions of an environmental ethic and ecopolitic in the home are suggestive of how environmental education in schools might be revised. In this study, the green home proved to be a very different form of environmental education and practice of sustainability. Children's environmental learning was closely associated with their doing of practical things in the home in relation to the everyday environmental problematic. But this embodied, situated and practical doing as learning hinged upon their parents' environmental commitments and the family's functioning as they were respectively “structured”—materially, symbolically, geographically and historically by the social relations and conditions of the home, availability of resources, school and community networks, and prevailing cultural climate. Hence, this study of household ecologies, or postmodern oikos, provides evidence and insights for the further development of environmental education curricula and pedagogical strategies, understandings of a range of factors influencing learners' environmental engagement and action and, consequently, ecologically focussed research endeavours.

Keywords

household ecologyfamiliesintergenerationalenvironmental ethicsecopolitics
Type
Research Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 21 , 2005 , pp. 81 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

References

Alvesson, M. (2002). Postmodernism and social research. Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Archer, M. (2000). Being human: The problem of agency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002). Environmental issues: People's views and practices. Canberra: ABS.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Family Studies (2005). Growing up in Australia. Department of Family and Community Services, Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Ballantyne, R., Connell, S., & Fien, J. (1998a). Factors contributing to intergenerational communication regarding environmental programs: Preliminary research findings. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballantyne, R., Connell, S., & Fien, J. (1998b). Students as catalysts of environmental change: A framework for researching intergenerational influence through environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 4(3), 285–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballantyne, R., Fien, J., & Packer, J. (2001a). Intergenerational influence in environmental education: A quantitative analysis. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 17, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballantyne, R., Fien, J., & Packer, J. (2001b). School environmental education programme impacts upon student and family learning: A case study analysis. Environmental Education Research, 7(1), 23–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002). Reinventing the family: In search of new lifestyles. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Berger, B. (2002). The family in the modern age: More than a lifestyle choice. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Bennett, T., Emmison, M., & Frow, J. (1999). Accounting for tastes: Australian everyday culture. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bentley, M., Fien, J., & Neil, C. (2004). Sustainable consumption: Young Australians as agents of change. Canberra: National Youth Affairs Research Scheme.Google Scholar
Brofenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Chawla, L. (1998), Significant life experiences revisited: A review of research on sources of environmental sensitivity. Environmental Education Research, 4(4), 369–382.Google Scholar
Connell, S., Fien, J., Sykes, H., & Yencken, D. (1998). Young People and the environment in Australia: Beliefs, knowledge, commitment and educational implications. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 39–48.Google Scholar
da Silva, L., Sanson, A., Smart, D., & Toumbourou, J. (2004), Civic responsibility among Australian adolescents: Two competing models. Journal of Community Psychology, 32(3), 229–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eastman, M. (2003, 03 19). The power of positive parenting. Education: The Age.Google Scholar
Fien, J. (2000). Education for the environment: A critique—an analysis. Environmental Education Research, 6(2), 179–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flyvbjerg, B. (2001). Making social science matter: Why social inquiry fails and how it can succeed again. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gough, A. (1999). Kids don't like wearing the same jeans as their mums and dads: So whose “life” should be in Significant Life Experience research? Environmental Education Research, 5(4), 383–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gough, S. (1999). Significant Life Experiences (SLE) research: A view from somewhere. Environmental Education Research, 5(4), 353–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grbich, C. (2004). New approaches to social research. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hampel, B., Holdsworth, R., & Boldero, J. (1996). The impact of parental work experience and education on environmental knowledge, concern and behavior amongst adolescents. Environmental Education Research, 2(3), 287–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillcoat, J., & van Rensburg, E. (1998). Consuming passions: Educating the empty Self. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 57–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeynes, W. (2004). Parental involvement and secondary school student educational outcomes: A meta-analysis. Evaluation Exchange, X(4), 6.Google Scholar
Jickling, B., & Spork, H. (1998). Education for the environment: A critique. Environmental Education Research, 4(3), 309–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenway, J., & Bullen, E. (2001). Consuming children: Education-entertainment-advertising. Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Kollmuss, A., & Ageyman, J. (2002). Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behaviour. Environmental Education Research, 8(2), 239–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwan, T., & Miles, J. (1998). In the words of children and young people: The opinions and concerns about their environments of some Brisbane school students. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 11–18.Google Scholar
Law, J. (2004). After method: Mess in social science research. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopez, E., Kreider, H., & Caspe, M. (2004). Co-constructing family involvement. Evaluation Exchange, X(4), 2–3.Google Scholar
McKenzie, M. (2005), The “post-post period” and environmental education research. Environmental Education Research, 11(4), 401–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minichiello, V., Aroni, R., Timewell, E., & Alexander, L. (1995). In-depth interviewing: Principles, techniques, analysis (2 nd ed.). Sydney: Longman.Google Scholar
Odum, E. (1989). Ecology and our endangered life-support systems. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc. Publishers.Google Scholar
Palmer, J. (1998). Environmental education in the 21st century: Theory, practice, progress and promise. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Palmer, J., Suggate, J., Robottom, I., & Hart, P. (1999). Significant life experiences and formative influences on the development of adults' environmental awareness in the UK, Australia and Canada. Environmental Education Research, 5(2), 181–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patton, M. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods, (2 nd ed.). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Payne, P. (1997). Embodiment and environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 3(2), 133–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, P. (1998). Children's conceptions of nature. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 19–27.Google Scholar
Payne, P. (1999). Postmodern challenges and modern horizons: Education for being for the environment. Environmental Education Research, 5(1), 5–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, P. (2005). Lifeworld and textualism: Reassembling the researcher/ed and others. Environmental Education Research, 11(4), 413–431.Google Scholar
Payne, P. (in press). Growing up green; the household as oikos . Journal of the Home Economics Institute of Australia.Google Scholar
Prior, M., Sanson, A., Smart, D., & Oberklaid, F. (2000). Pathways from infancy to adolescence: Australian temperament project 1983–2000. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.Google Scholar
Robottom, I., & Hart, P. (1993). Research in environmental education. Geelong: Deakin University Press.Google Scholar
Stern, P. (2000). Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behaviour. The Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 407–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, A. (1987). Qualitative analysis for social scientists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanner, T. (1980). Significant life experiences: A new research area in environmental education. Journal of Environmental Education, 11(4), 20–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar