The process of intergenerational influence has important implications for environmental educators who wish to promote discussion about and action for the environment beyond the bounds of the school classroom. This paper examines the process of intergenerational influence in environmental education through a quantitative analysis of the factors influencing the frequency and nature of intergenerational discussion. The relationships among eight sets of variables are explored, including student and parent environmental orientation, the quality of family communication, program features, student enjoyment of the program, student learning through the program, and the frequency and nature of discussion of the program. The findings are discussed both in terms of their implications for environmental educators and for future research in the field.

Photographs of familiar and unfamiliar environments are used extensively in studies about areas around the world. The study reported here describes a pilot investigation of how 27 Australian secondary school adolescent students understood and interpreted a familiar environment (represented by Australia) and unfamiliar environments (represented by Singapore and Hong Kong) through 18 coloured photographs. Few of these adolescent students had visited Singapore or Hong Kong, but most of them have travelled in their home country, Australia. They have viewed more of the Australian environment than the Asian environments through media such as television.

The results from this pilot study revealed considerable variation in their understanding of Australian as opposed to Asian environments. The familiar Australian environments were described in physical and human terms whereas the less familiar Asian environments were described in human and cultural terms. Qualitatively different conceptions were also derived from the adolescent students' interpretation of land use and environment from these photographs.

Bill Stapp passed away in May 2001, thirty one years after his first influential visit to Australia. Although many among the current generation of younger environmental educators might not know his name they are very likely to be working within a framework for environmental education that he worked hard to establish. This paper discusses his contribution from a socially critical standpoint and within the context of the relationship between formal education and informal settings that underpinned his work. In writing this paper I draw on his writings, commentaries on his work, personal knowledge and an in-depth interview I conducted with him in 1991.

This paper reports on an investigation of the status of pre-school environmental education in Hong Kong through both a questionnaire survey and case studies. The study looked in particular at the environmental education activities organised, difficulties encountered in the implementation of environmental education and teachers' attitudes towards environmental education and teaching approaches. The findings indicated that pre-school environmental education tended to focus more on education about the environment than education in and for the environment. The results also revealed that the teachers' perceived barriers were mainly logistical, such as lack of time and resources, and educational in the sense that they felt that they lacked knowledge about environmental education. The implications for future development of environmental education are discussed.

This paper summarises a research project carried out by the author on the effectiveness of pre-service teacher education in environmental education in New Zealand. Secondary pre-service teacher education students who had opted for a 20 hour course in environmental education expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the course but this begged the question of what would happen to them once they hit the reality of the classroom in a country which then had no policy or curriculum guidelines on environmental education. The author followed up eleven graduates from the 1996 course and six from 1997 to see if they were teaching, if they were teaching environmental education and how they now felt about their teacher training. The results were mixed – but some were teaching environmental education. They all continued to speak highly of their College training in environmental education and all but one would encourage others to do the course. However classroom management problems, staff cynicism and a lack of status for environmental education had created difficulties for them. Several had already given up on teaching as a career and others were considering leaving. Strategies to counter these disturbing trends are outlined as recommendations to the College and the wider education community.

The purpose of the study was to compare demographic profiles, agents of socialisation on participation in outdoor activities and preferences for spending time in natural areas of New Zealand and Danish physical education students. The data were gathered by questionnaire from 270 Danish and 241 Mew Zealand students. New Zealand students expressed a stronger perception of being an outdoor person and may be linked to the fact that 12% of the Danish students have lived their lives in rural areas in contrast to 30% of the New Zealand students. Further, school and sport clubs were ranked higher by New Zealand students as factors of influence on outdoor life activities. Friends and parents/family were the most influential agencies of socialisation with no differences between nations. More than 92% of the Danish and New Zealand students had previous experiences of longer lasting outdoor trips. The study provide data for ongoing interpretation and create a basis for questions and reflections for the benefit of students in both institutions.

This paper provides data about how a people still in close contact with their natural physical environment, yet moving from nomadism to a sedentary (though still largely agricultural) lifestyle, perceive their environment. Drawings were obtained from children, and interviews undertaken with adults among the Gebaliya Bedouin in the Sinai desert. The drawings reveal an abundance of animal and plant life and a relative paucity of human artefacts. Wildlife and landscape evidently constitute a central component of these children's environments. The adult interviews reveal how the relationship of the Bedouin with their physical environment, though still an intimate one, has changed in the last two generations. The results are interpreted in the light of social and cultural changes among the Gebaliya Bedouin. The findings reported here may need to be heeded if attempts to preserve endangered wildlife in the Sinai desert, are to succeed.

In a study of student discourse in Indonesian language education the environment emerged as a significant topic of discussion. Analysis using the Postcolonial theory concepts of orientalism and ambivalence shows that environment discourse can function as a means of Othering. It can reflect the ambivalence and complexities of Orientalism and resist simple categorisation as positive or negative.

The aim of this study was to assess the environmental attitudes, knowledge and behaviours of young people aged 11 - 16 years, and evaluate which factors best predict ecological behaviour, through testing the Model of Responsible Environmental Behaviour' (Hines, Hungerford & Tomera 1986-1987). Results indicted that while young people are not negatively disposed toward the environment, they have limited knowledge about the issues. Perceived personal responsibility toward the environment was shown to be the strongest predictor of ecological behaviour, followed by ‘action skills’ for boys and knowledge levels for girls.

To what extent are young people committed to or apathetic about environmental conservation, and what do they see as the barriers with respect to taking environmental action? One aim of the study reported in this paper was to assess the environmental attitudes, knowledge and behaviours of young people aged 11 - 16, and to assess gender differences in these variables. A second aim was to evaluate which factors best predict ecological behaviour in young people, through testing a model which incorporates environmental knowledge, attitudes, perceived action skills, beliefs about personal responsibility, and other personal factors as potential predictors. This ‘Model of Responsible Environmental Behaviour’ (Hines, Hungerford & Tomera 1986-1987) has not been previously applied to the prediction of adolescent ecological behaviour, by which we mean ‘any action taken to ensure that ecological relationships among living things do not deteriorate’ (Caltabiano & Caltabiano 1995, p. 1080).

Young people's relationships to the environment are important developmentally, and because adolescents are the ‘next generation’ of potential activists for environmental concerns. The task of identity formation (or development of a ‘sense of self’) in adolescence has been conceptualised as including the shaping and maturing of a personal ideology, with its associated beliefs, values, and behaviours (Erikson 1971, Kroger 1989). Marcia (1966) using Erikson's framework, conceived of ideology as incorporating views about religion and politics. However as social concerns change, so might the importance of different content areas for the formulation of ideology (Bennion & Adams 1986). For young people today, thinking about environmental concerns and dilemmas may be part of their identity development in the sense that such thoughts may be part of forming an ideology about the world. In Australia, the National Union of Students surveyed 7,400 students in 1990 and found that ‘the environment was hottest election issue amongst university students in Australia’ (cited in Youth Research Centre 1991, p. 3). Similar findings of strong environmental concern have been found in a range of other Australian studies of adolescent populations (Clark 1996, Connell el al. 1998, Iiving Saulwick & Associates 2000, Sykes, Yencken. Fien & Choo 2000). Environmental concerns involve several aspects, including attitudes toward the environment, knowledge of issues, and participation in pro-environmental behaviour. It is to these topics that we now turn.

Implementing environmental activism at school can be socially risky business. This paper explores the narratives of three women who undertook award winning environmental projects in two regional Australian schools. Tara (student, age 15), Anne (student, age 15) and Andrea (principal, age 42) document the complex and courageous social negotiations they were forced to undertake in response to being negatively constituted as “a greenie” at school. Tara and Anne met resistance from their peers and family and Andrea fielded complaints from members of the local school community. This micro-qualtitative analysis shows that, despite the heartfelt rhetoric of environmental education, assuming an environmental identity at school can be problematic and difficult to enact. Environmental action is still not seen as a “cool” social practice in some adolescent peer groups. Nor is environmental action positioned as central to the “legitimate” practices of schooling in some communities. Successful projects rely on students and staff who are willing to actively, and persitently, negotiate social opposition to their achieving an ecological vision for school practice.

Education has an enormously important role to play in motivating and empowering citizens to participate in environmental improvement and protection. Nearly three decades ago, Schumacher (1973) described education as our ‘greatest resource’ in his endeavour. In the last decade, major international reports have stressed this also. The theme of the Brundtland Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living (prepared as the World Conservation Strategy for the 1990s) (1991), and Agenda 21 (the Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro) (1992) is that it is possible to sustain ways of living that can redress environmental decline without jeopardising the ecosystem or resources base for the future. Each report speaks to the imperative of education to engender this ethic (see Fien 1995).

In the Asia-Pacific region also, education has been identified as a critical factor and countries have adopted a range of strategies for implementing programs in environmental education. Many workshops and training programs have been organised since 1986 Regional Meeting of Experts in Bangkok at which an action plan was developed for environmental education from primary through post graduate levels. Significant work is taking place in redefining environmental education in a Pacific context, particularly to incorporate concepts of sustainable development. Much exploration of how teacher education can rise to the occasion of the great need for environmental education and for teacher education in environmental education is on-going in the region (see Fien & Corcoran 1996).

This paper provides a discussion about what education and development planners can learn about initiating and sustaining innovation at the teacher education level from the Learning for a Sustainable Environmentproject. It reflects upon how research processes can contribute to sustainable (long-term) developments within teacher education. Essentially, it seeks to address questions about how to make environmental education a permanent feature of teacher education practice and curricula.

The chapter begins with arguments why the issue of sustaining innovation has become an important one. It then identifies the principles and processes within the Learning for a Sustainable Environmentproject which support its innovative components on a long-term basis. The final section reflects upon the next stage of the project which is to involve the setting up of action research networks within different countries. It discusses how the principles and processes of sustainability identified, may be used to support the national process. The value of the Learning for a Sustainable Environmentmodel for developments in education at the practical level is also briefly considered. The chapter argues that the action research network model used in Learning for a Sustainable Environmentproject provides a democratic, culturally relevant and sustainable approach to development in education at the cross-cultural level.

Years later, when Rahel returned to the river, it greeted her with a ghastly skull's smile, with holes where teeth had been, and a limp hand raised from a hospital bed.

Both things had happened.

It had shrunk. And she had grown.

Downriver, a saltwater barrage had been built, in exchange for votes from the influential paddy-farmer lobby. The barrage regulated the inflow of saltwater from the backwaters that opened into the Arabian Sea. So now they had two harvests a year instead of one. More rice, for the price of a river.

Despite the fact that it was June, and raining, the river was no more than a swollen drain now. A thin ribbon of thick water that lapped wearily at the mud banks on either side, sequined with the occasional silver slant of a dead fish. It was choked with a succulent weed, whose furred brown roots waved like thin tentacles under water. Bronze-winged lily-trotters walked across it. Splay-footed, cautious.

Once it had had the power to evoke fear. To change lives. But now its teeth were drawn, its spirit spent. It was just a slow, sludging green ribbon lawn that ferried fetid garbage to the sea. Bright plastic bags blew across its viscous, weedy surface like subtropical flying-flowers (Roy 1997, p. 124).

Maurice Strong's UN environment conference in Stockholm, 1972, provided international legitimacy for environmental concerns. From that springboard a number of Australian universities established the nation's first environmental studies programs, all Masters degrees. Ten years later Monash University made its program's first and only substantial transformation, a formal obligatory (‘core’) introduction to transdisciplinary thinking. This special sectionof the AJEE offers six examples of student writings from that attempt. They are drawn from the work of the year 1999 students who undertook part 1 of the three part core subject Systems Thinking and Practice.

In 1979, seven years after its commencement, an Ad Hoc Committee to Review the Master of Environmental Science Program at Monash University proposed to ‘integrate the diversity of subjects that comprise the core’ and to minimise the ‘dangers of superficiality … and narrow specialisation’. No further guidance was given as to what this meant nor how it was to be done. Nevertheless, from this seed began the intellectual transformation the program. No additional funding was provided. The project was simply supported by the good will of staff from various faculties. To date a thousand students have wrestled with the new program in one form or another.

The primary function of legislation in Australia is that of an educative one rather than an enforcement role. An example of legislation the main function of which is to educate is the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1985 (O.H.&S. Act). The main aim of the Act is to legislate for a safe work place, breaches of the Act can induce human suffering, therefore the Act is designed to prevent workplace accidents, not to prosecute.

The O.H.&S. Act was introduced after a time of social change. The sixties and seventies were times of protest on matters concerning equality for women and for many underprivileged groups. As a result of this, a demand for the rights of safety within the workplace followed. With the advent of the Act in 1985 came a legitimation to the premises of workplace health and safety. The demands for workplace health and safety were recognised by the government and it accommodated by legislating for a safe workplace. The OH & S Act satisfies a need to educate the public on workplace safety and the right to workplace rehabilitation after a workplace illness, by using many social mechanisms. These mechanisms include the set up of a beaurocratic organisation—Workcover, to administer the Act. Workcover educates the public through the use of training schemes, graphic television commercials and standards as a guide to correct practice. Evolution of the Act to management of safety by employers and employees demonstrated that legislation is a self-referential system that has feedback loops which are the result of the education of society. The mechanisms used in the processes of education are socially constructed. Legislation is therefore used to guide society into acceptance of an ideal/framework.

How do we ‘know’ that environmental problems exist? For most of the general public it is because scientists and other experts tell us via the print and electronic media. In affluent, urban societies we rely on scientific interpretation because we are so far removed from intimate involvement with the environment by time, space, technology and social constructions that what we are told and what we experience (sense) do not correspond. Because we do not experience our adverse impact on the environment as a loss to ourselves, our family or identifiable community, we are not motivated to change the way we think and act.

The advertisement shown has obvious contradictions that are invisible to many people in our society. These contradictions arise through the social structures that have become part of our thinking and mindset toward waste management. In order to overcome the displacement of the waste problem that is produced by this device, we have to take a closer look at what we do with our waste and plan a more appropriate disposal mechanism. This would involve a new form of thinking with a sense of responsibility for our waste that we currently do not have as a community in general.

As Buchan (1998) so aptly puts it, money is incarnate desire; it is many things to many people. It has served to shape society through the advent of trade in ancient civilizations, or as the catalyst for military campaigns. The purpose of this paper is to examine the physical mechanisms that perpetuate society's reliance on money, and to uncover the social constructions that allow society to value money despite its various forms.

There is no all encompassing rule or set of standards governing the physical form of money. Certainly there are more established and accepted forms of money or currency that have been adopted by various nations, providing symbols of national identity. The most notable the US dollar, the most widely accepted and common benchmark for international currencies. Contrasted with the Indonesian rupiah, which holds little value in the international market, a value reflected in the country's relatively low international standing. Such differences are the result of a bigger system based on international trade and comparative advantage whose boundaries lie beyond the definition of this discussion.

Since the beginning of industrial revolution, growth and development of industries have brought new creations and changes to our life. This continuous progress has produced major environmental accidents and has influenced the human's health, climatic change, destruction of ozone layer, extinction of animal species and plants.

These global crises and environmental tragedies highlight areas of significant concerned. Environmental groups are promoting and educating the communities on environmental issues and induce awareness on environmental trends and regulatory policies to establish effective ways to curb pollution, reduce generation of wastes and to enforce stringent standards and regulations on industries.

In the five years since the NSW Environment Protection Authority sponsored the first $10,000 Allen Strom Eureka Prize for Environmental Education, there has been a perceptible climate change in the context for environmental education. Although the aim of the award—‘to encourage and reward excellence in the design, implementation and evaluation of environmental education programs’—remains relevant and has not been amended since 1997, many readers might be asking, ‘what, no mention of sustainability?’

Those who promote education for sustainability (EfS) see it as a powerful and embracing framework for environmental education and their efforts have gained momentum within a number of critical areas: in the professional and research literature (including, of course, the AJEE), within policies at international, national, state and local levels, and within professional discourses and practices. However, EfS has rolled out very much as a work in progress and there is, as yet, no orthodoxy (thankfully!) about exactly what the term encompasses.