education in Australia, with particular reference to schools, and outline some key .... a c1itical study of sewerage pollution of their nearby swimming and surfing ..... awareness of the interrelationships between the elements of the life support ...
This article has been translated into Japanese and published in
Tanomi Sajima & Kazuhiko Nakayama (Eds)
(1993) World E n vironmental Education ((pp. 201-219)) Tokyo: Kokudosha Pty Ltd.
Environmental education in Australia Noel Gough and Annette Greenall Gough
Introduction It is difficult in a b rief report to do j ustice to the broad range and diversity of environmental education activities in Australia. In part, this is because Australia is a federation in which most policy decisions about educational matters are m ade at the state or tenitory (rather than national) level and schools themselves have a great deal of autonomy in cuniculum decision-making, especially during the compulsory years of p1imary and secondary schooling. However, most state and tenitory education systems have been active in developing policies, implementation guidelines and other mate1ials and resources supporting environmental education. There is also a growing body of case study research on school and community programs. In addition, environmental education has been the focus of considerable activity at the national level during the past two decades. In this paper, we will desc1ibe some current approaches to environmental education in Australia, with particular reference to schools, and outline some key issues aiising from the relatively b1ief history of environmental education as a focus for national activities. Conceptions of environmental education in Australia The nature of environmental education has been the subject of much discussion and debate in Australia over the past two decades. Among the most c ommonly accepted goals, objectives and guiding p1inciples for environmental education are those recommended and endorsed at the 1 977 Unesco-UNEP Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education in Tbilisi (Unesco 1 978: 26-7) and subsequently confirmed at the 1987 Unesco-UNEP International Congress on Environmental Education and Training in Moscow (Unesco-UNEP 1 988): 1 . The goals o f environmental education are: (a) to foster clear awm·eness of, and concern about, economic, social, political m1d ecological interdependence in urbm1 mid rw·al areas; (b) to provide every person with opp01tunities to acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes, commitment and skills needed to protect and improve the environment; (c) to create new patterns of behaviour of individuals, groups and society as a whole towards the enviromnent.
2. The categories of environmental education objectives: Awareness: to help social groups ancl individuals acquire an awmeness of and sensitivity to the total environment and its allied problems.
Knowledge: to help social groups and individuals gain a vaiiety of experience in, and acquire a basic understanding of, the environment and its associate problems.
Attitudes: to help social groups and individuals acquire a set of values and feelings of concern for the enviromnent, ai1d the motivation for actively pai·ticipating in environmental improvement and protection.
Skills: to help social groups and individuals acquire tiie skills for identifying and solving environmental problems.
Participation: to provide social groups and individuals with an opportunity to be actively involved at all levels in working toward resolution of environmental problems.
A version of these objectives was contained in Environmental Education.for A ustralian Schools (Greenall 1 9 80) which was distributed to all schools in 1 980 as part of the national CmTiculum Development Centre's environmental education program.
Noel Gough is a senior lecturer in administration and curriculwn s tudies at Deakin University, Rusden Campus. He is Australasian Editor of ti1e Journal of Curriculum Studies, a former member of the Executive of ti1e Australian Association for Environmental Eclucat.ion and was for some yeai·s the Convenor of ti1e Victorian Ministry of Education's Environmental Education Curriculum Committee. His research interests include naiTative inquiry in cmTiculum studies, witi1 special reference to science and environmental education. A nnette
Greenall Gough is a lecturer in science ai1d environmental education at Deakin University, Geelong Cainpus. She is a former Director of EnvirmunentaJ Education in ti1e Australian Commonwealth Government's Depaitment of tile Enviromnent. and a former President (ancl now Honorary Fellow) of ti1e Australian Association for Envi.romnental Education. Her research interests inclucle the political history of environmental education and feminist ecopolitics.
Enviromnental education in Ausu·alia
More recently, the Australian Association for Environmental Education ( 1 989) has described environmental education as an approach to learning that is useful to individuals and groups in coming to a better understanding of the interrelationships between humans and enviromnents. Environmental education encow·ages people to develop caring and committed attitudes that will foster the desire and ability to act responsibly in their relationships with environments. Thus, environmental education is concerned with knowledge, feelings, attitudes, skills and social action.
To some extent, the development of environmental education in Australia can be characterised by a gradual shift in 01ientation away from 'knowledge' and 'skills' (which reflected its origins in science education) towards a greater emphasis on 'feelings, attitudes . . . and social action' (which reflects its increasi.ng compatibility with much social education). This shift is reflected in much of the recent writing and research by Australian scholars of environmental education who have critically examined the social, political and cultural determinants of environmental problems and issues and their implications for environmental education (see, for example, the essays collected in Robottom 1987 and Gough 1990b; see also Gough 1990a, 199 1 , Greenall G ough 1992). Environmental education in Australian schools: an overview The status, nature and extent of environmental education in Australian schools varies from state to state, from school to school and from teacher to teacher. The only extensive and systematic national evaluation of environmental education in Australia was conducted by Linke ( 1 9 80) i n the early 1 970s. However, recent research b y Gough ( 1 992) and Spork (1992) provides evidence of both the strength of environmental education in Australia' s schools and the difficulties experienced by teachers in developing and implementing environmental education programs. Most state and tenitory education systems have policies strongly supporting environmental education and have also provided (or are in the process of preparing) implementation guidelines and other support materials and resources (see Gough 1992). Most states and teITitories also have field study centres or similar services which assist teachers with out-of-school-grounds activities. In addition, many government and non-government environment agencies and organisations provide cuJTicular and other resources for teachers on request. Several education systems have created environmental education officer positions within their structures to assist teachers with developing and implementing environmental education programs and activities. Environmental education programs occur in many places in the school cuniculum. Its origins were in the scientific study of the environment through ecology. Subsequently, geography, social studies and outdoor education became involved, and nowadays it is possible to find programs which are called environmental education in language studies, music, media, history and many other areas. Programs have been introduced through • • •
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the incidental provision of infonnation in units organised around other topics; activities integrated into subject areas traditionally associated with environmental matters; using an environmental issue as an integrating theme for an interdisciplinary unit of work, drawing upon several subject areas; the introduction of a separate subject (such as Environmental Studies in the Victorian Certificate of Education).
One trend in the developing practice of environmental education in schools has been for teachers to begin by teaching about the environment (usually in a classroom setting). They may then progress to teaching both about and in the environment, for example, by going outdoors to investigate environments through such activities as data collection. They may also progress to teaching.far the environment, for example, by working with students on local environmental action projects (see Malcolm 1988). A more radical 'ecopolitical pedagogy' which seeks to encourage learning with environments has also been suggested (see G ough 1987, 1 989). However, teaching.for the environment still seems to be less common and much encouragement is needed if more schools are to adopt this approach. The timidity of many
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teachers and schools in these matters is to some extent understandable (because environmental problems are invariably 'politically sensitive' and may be controversial) but their fears are often groundless (as is demonstrated in Malcolm 1 988, Robottom 1987 and Gough 1992). The importance of the action component of environmental education programs is now well recognised and accepted. For example, the South Australian Education Department (19 87 : 18) states that: It is essential that the teaching approach selected leads the students to take action. Effective environmental education will not occur unless taking action happens as part of the learning process... This 'action' step is essential to the aims of environmental education since it seeks to generate the view that individuals and groups can change the course of events.
Many government sponsored programs-such as Salt Watch, Worm Watch, Frog Watch, Stream Watch, Save the Bush and Greening A ustr alia have encouraged students and teachers to move out of their schools and into their communities to help monitor environmental quality, revegetate degraded fann lands and campaign for better environmental legislation. -
Socially critical environmental education The concept of the socially c1itical school (Kemmis et al 1983) is particularly relevant to the development and implementation of an action component for environmental education which, by its very nature, has a socially critical 01ientation. A socially c1itical pedagogy engages students in social problems, tasks and issues and gives them expe1ience in working on them, i.e., experience in critical reflection, social negotiation and the organisation of action, both individually and collectively. Such expe1iences can and should be an integral p art of student learning, engaging students in social practices and social structures immediately rather than merely prepming students for later participation. For example, Queenscliff High School (Vict01ia) participates in a multi-school project currently coordinated by Deakin University School of Education . The project began in 1987 with five Victo1ian coastal schools engaging in water quality studies and linking their studies with each other and a number of overseas schools through an electronic mail computer conference. The studies were at first relatively narrowly focused and included monit01ing bacte1ia levels and physical vmiables and detennining topographical and demographic p atterns. The computer conference is accessed from the schools' microcomputers, which are linked by modems to the Deakin University mainframe computer system and, via this system, to a water quality conference program housed in the mainframe computer at the University of Michigan, USA. The project has three dimensions: •
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the teachers and students are engaged in scientific/geographical studies of nemby freshwater and mmine environments; the teachers and students are participating in an international computer conference that enables interactions with some 100 overseas schools, all of which are engaged in similar scientific/geographical studies; the teachers and students are engaged in a fonn of pm·ticipant resemch that focuses on educational issues that arise as efforts are made to develop the first two phases of the proj ect.
Each school approached its water quality studies differently. Queenscliff High School moved quickly into a c1itical study of sewerage pollution of their nearby swimming and surfing beaches. The school's initial involvement in the project was in p art a response to concerns expressed within the student body (by after-school surfers) and within the community at large about the obvious pollution of nearby beaches. Lorne's beaches are famous for their swimming, surfing and fishing ameni ties and there was increasing community concern about the amounts of disposable p lastics (e.g. , condoms and sy1inges) and sewage finding their way onto the beaches. Dming 1988 the school developed a program (nominally in Year 11 M aiine Studies and Year 1 2 B iology) which began with a study of the sand dunes along the foreshore and included tests of bacte1ia levels in the ocean. Coliform bacteria counts fm in excess of acceptable
Enviromnental education in Australia
Environment Protection Auth01ity (EPA) guidelines for safe body contact were found to be common in the seawater where thousands of people were swimming, surfing and fishing on a regular basis. The local Water Board was invited to participate in the school's study i n an advisory capacity (for example, to cont1ibute technical expertise via the computer conference) but declined. The Board controls a large new sewerage treatment plant which voids its effluent into the ocean via an outfall located offshore from the popular beaches. Attempts by the students and teachers to discuss the results of their investigations with the Water B oard were also rebuffed. The school invoked Vict01ia' s Freedom of Infonnation Act to gain access to the B oard's own records of bacteiia levels. In 1 989 the school published an account of its activities and the students' findings in the local newspaper which t1iggered several powerful responses from vaiious sections of the community: •
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local, state and national p1int and electronic media ran stories publicising the school's activities, the issue of water quality in the locality concerned, and the relationship of this local issue to other instances of m aiine pollution elsewhere in the country; the local surf1iders' association aligned themselves with the school in c1iticising the state of the local beaches, specifically in tem1s of sewerage pollution; the local health centre began to m aintain records of complaints about infections and illnesses possibly associated with the bacte1ia present in the seawater; Victoria's Ministry of Education, a regional education/industry collaborative, and Victoria's Rural Water Com mission provided funding to support further the school's p roject activities.
The school's activities were at least partly responsible for stimulating sustained local community interest in issues of water quality. As a result, the local Water B o ard has been required to j ustify its environmental actions and has been asked by the Victo1ian Minister for Environment and Planning to undertake substantial improvements to their sewerage treatment facility, at a likely cost of $5 million (for further details of this project see Muhlebach and Robottom 1 990, Greenall Gough and Robottom in press). Gough ( 1992) documents a number of other examples of schools undertaking similar socially c1itical (and environmentally constructive) programs. Environmental education and Australia's multicultural society
Australia is a multicultural society. In addition to an indiginous culture of Australian Ab01igines and a first wave of European settlement dominated by English and Irish cultural groups, Australia since the second world war has had its population and cultural diversity increased by many non-English speaking European groups (for example Polish, Yugoslavian, Italian and Greek), middle-eastern immigrants (Egyptian, Lebanese) and more recently southeast Asian groups (especially from Vietnam and Cambodia). Thus, a significant feature of many urban school com munities in Australia is the diversity in the ethnic background of fam ilies. For example, Gough ( 1992: 66-7) provides a case study of a school-typical of m any western and northern suburbs of Melbourne-in which approximately 45% of students' families speak languages other than English as the m ain language at home. This meant that many m ass media presentations concerning environmental issues and conservation practices were not effectively reaching much of the school community. Thus, environmental education of non-English speaking families was identified by students at the school as a high p1io1ity problem to be addressed. They developed strategies for community environmental education through the existing ethnic networks such as the Italian and Greek sub-committees of the Parents, Teachers and Community Association. This included preparing resources which targeted the ethnicity of the school population such as translations, displays, the provision of convenient procedures for collecting recyclables (with local council assistance) and other approp1iate mate1ials. Australian Ab01iginal culture em braces a different world view from that of the modem Western indust1ialised society that dominates urban Australia. In contrast with the Western world' s concern for control over nature, Aboriginal lifestyles are responsive to, and i n hannony with, natural environments. Ab01igines usually have a very detailed practical knowledge of the world around them and the natural cycles and processes that are taking place
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within it. However, dming the past 200 years, Ab01iginal societies have assimilated some of characteristics of Western culture and adopted some of its products for their own purposes, although they may use them in different ways from white people. For example, Aborigines now use rifles to hunt for food, but not to acquire trophies. They have vehicles to allow them to move about the land more easily, but do not acquire them as status symbols. Traditional Abmiginal culture represents some of the ideals to which much environmental education aspires. Abo1iginal societies have been living the philosophy that Westerners know as 'deep ecology' for many thousands of years. However, the impact of European settlement has led to conflicts of values which have implications for both school and community environmental education. For example, traditionally, Abo1igines calTied few possessions with them. Very little was discarded other than the bones and shells of animals, forming what we now call middens. B ut the rubbish generated by a throw-away society is rather differen t from animal bones and a conflict therefore mises when Abo1igines throw away such rubbish i n a traditional manner. This has become a specific target for environmental education programs in many Northern Tenitory schools and communities. Another area of cultural conflict involves perceptions of human influence on environments. For example, Aborigines have no difficulty in understanding the effect of damming a river and can predict the effects of many human interventions in nature. But they may have difficulty i n understanding the greenhouse effect and be unable to appreciate the Western scientific explanations of links between the production of carbon dioxide from wood fires and the predicted effects of global warming. Because most white Australians live in coastal cities, a lot of the publicity concerning the greenhouse effect has focused on rising sea levels. This prospect may be of less interest to Ab01igines (and, indeed, to many Australians who live inland) than other predicted consequences of global wanning, such as a possible doubling of central Australia's rainfall and the shifting of the wheat belt northward. In any case, such maj or changes i n climate or landscape are explained in Abmiginal societies by the activities of ancestral beings du1ing the Dream time. On the other hand, it is important for white Australians to realise that Abmiginal culture has great potential to assist Western society toward improved understandings of their intelTelationships with environments. The Abo1iginal seasonal calendar, their phannacopia and their use of fire as a management tool are all examples of the ways in which Abmiginal knowledge is being accommodated by Western science. Recent research on environmental education in Australian schools
One of the most recent studies of environmental education in schools was conducted by Spork ( 1 990, 1 992) who surveyed the experiences and practices of 3000 primary school teachers in an education dist1ict which had one of the best records of support for environmental education in Australia. This support included the establishment of a district environmental education committee, the provision of an environmental education consultant, a regular distiict environmental education newsletter, and several well-staffed and well-resourced environmental education centres which covered urban, forest and wetland ecosystems. However, Spork found that: •
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the implementation of environmental education programs was reported by the maj mity (79.8%) of teachers as being a matter for individual teacher initiative; only 1 3 .7% reported school coordination initiatives at one, some or all year levels. a maj01ity (85.8%) of teachers had received no fonnal training in environmental education at preservice, inservice or postgraduate levels. most teachers are implementing education in and about the environment and paying much less attention to education.fiJ7· the environment; for example, teachers are most commonly incorporating environmental information (98.2% ) studies of human/environment interaction (80.7%) and environmental investigative skills (68.9%) i nto classroom programs, with much smaller nu mbers incorporating environmental values (28.1%), problem solving (4 1.2%) and environmental action ( 1 9.7%). ,
Nevertheless, Spork's research also indicated a growing positive attitude to environmental education in schools. For example:
Enviromnental education in Australia
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although the implementation of environmental education was left largely to the initiative of individual teachers, only a very small proportion (3. 1 %) reported that environmental education was 'non-existent' in their schools. the vast majority of teachers (97.3%) had a very positive attitude towards environmental education and perceived it to be more important to include in classroom programs than many other learning areas. most teachers were willing to attend environmental education inservice programs regardless of whether it was dming normal school working hours (94.3%) or in their own time (70%).
According to Gough (1992: 20), some other common obstacles to the implementation of environmental education in Australian schools include: •
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teachers may be constrained by conventional patterns of cuniculum and timetable organisation which prevent them from working together as interdisciplinary teams and prevent their students from synthesising understandings of environmental problems and issues (learning isolated bits of infonnation hinders rather than helps the resolution of environmental problems); in particular, education in the natural sciences (a traditional 'home' of environmental education) does not often foster a synthesis of knowledge and values. school administrators m ay be reluctant or slow to accept and support the organisational changes that may be required to facilitate environmental education (for example, by placing bureaucratic restiictions on opportunities for learning to take place outside conventional classrooms and, in particular, outside the school buildings and grounds). assessment of student achievement in environmental education, which aims to develop changes in attitudes, values and behaviour, m ay be difficult to reconcile with conventional assessment methods.
In regard to the l ast point, G ough (1992: 95) noted two particular difficulties. Firstly, inquiry based and issues-oriented learning in environmental education does not lend itself to the prespecification of learning outcomes-inquiry by its very nature should be open-ended and the outcomes may well be a surp1ise to all participants in the learning expe1ience. Secondly, inquiry-based and issues-01iented learning in environmental education does not always lend itself to the demonstration of individual learning achievements-many of the most significant learning processes and products in environmental education are dependent on group cooperation and effort. Fortunately, some other trends in assessment policies and practices in Australian schools (see Johnston and Dowdy 1 988) are very complementary to inquiry-01iented and collaborative learning. These include growing tendencies to : •
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base assessment on a description of what students do and achieve-both individually and in groups. base assessment on contracts which are either goal-based (e.g. , l ists of products to be completed) or desc1ibe work required (e.g., lists of learning processes to be undertaken) develop classroom environments that encourage negotiation and participatory assessment practices, including group work, peer feedback systems and cooperative (rather than competitive) approaches to achievement.
On the whole, the, research evidence concerning the state of environmental education in Australian schools supports feelings of optimism, though not of complacency. National policies and priorities for environmental education i n Australia
Environmental education has grown in status as a high p1i01ity issue for the Australian federal government on three separate occasions dming the past two decades, but each time its populaiity has slumped after a relatively short pc1iocl (see Greenall Gough 1 992). Each of these three pe1iods of growth has been associated with a rational scientific approach to environmental
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problems and issues characte1ised by major planning, research, m anagement and educational strategies aimed chiefly at reconciling the conservation of natural resources with economic growth and development. Such strategies include the World Conservation S trategy (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources 1980), the National Conservation Strategy for Australia (Australia. Department of Horne Affairs and Environment 1 983), the Report of the World Comm ission on Environment and Development ( 19 87) and the Commonwealth discussion paper on ecologically sustainable development (Australia. Department of P1irne Minister and Cabinet 1990) . Environmental education in Australia first achieved high p1i01ity national status dming the early 1970s, mainly as a result of scientists' concerns. Its standing was reflected in the 1 973 (and subsequent) Australian Labor Party platform statement: 'This [environmental education] policy aims to facilitate public participation and awareness of the need to preserve the environment by One funding and expanding environment [sic] education and infonnation programs; Two, further developing the environmental education function in the cmTiculum development centre' (quoted in Langmore 1987: 7; the national Cuniculum Development Centre was established in 1973). Environmental education again rose in popu laiity during the early 1 980s following the release of the World Conservation Strategy in 19 80 and the subsequent development of the National Conservation Strategy for Australia (NCSA) in 19 83. One of the 'strategic p1inciples' of the NCSA was to 'educate the community about the interdependence of sustainable development and conservation' (Australia. Department of Home Affairs and Environment 1 984: 1 6) and the first pri01ity national action to achieve the objectives of the NCSA, under the heading of 'Improving the capacity to manage ' , was to 'develop and support infonnal education and infonnation programs ... which p romote throughout the community an awareness of the interrelationships between the elements of the life support systems and which encourage the practice of living resource conservation for sustainable development' (Australia. Department of Home Affairs and Environment 1984: 17). Such statements reflect the instrumental view of education which often characte1ises the perspective of environment ministries. A less instrumental, and m ore distinctively educative, view of environmental education was reflected in an environmental education bulletin (Fien undated, circa 1 987) published by the Commonwealth education ministry as part of its B icentennial Australian S tudies Schools Project). A third wave of a ttention to environmental education came in the late 1 9 80s and was stimulated in part by the World Commission on Environment and Development Report ( 1987) and the subsequent Commonwealth discussion paper on ecologically sustainable development (Australia. Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet 1990: 19) in which, again, education is seen in very instrumental terms: Public education crunpaigns can help in modifying behaviour to reduce demand for products with adverse environmental consequences and encourage the use of less damaging alternatives. The emergence of green consumerism attests to tile ability of public education to modify consumption patterns. School programs are ru1 important element of public education because tJ1ey help shape basic attitudes ru1d encourage responsible behaviour at an e
